Angels Win With Finley, 7-1, Get Setback With McCaskill

NEW YORK —  Two Angel pitchers had stints prematurely interrupted at Yankee Stadium Thursday night, and neither was happy about it, but unlike Kirk McCaskill, Chuck Finley got some good news out of it.

Finley only had to deal with seeing his start against the New York Yankees end after 5 innings--a game Finley and the Angels would eventually win, 7-1.

McCaskill may have seen his 1988 season come to an end.

Having already missed one start because of an irritated radial nerve in his right arm, McCaskill tried testing the arm in the bullpen during a pregame workout. Less than a minute into it, McCaskill had to cancel the session.

The pain was back.

Minutes later, McCaskill found himself on the Angels’ 21-day disabled list, preparing for a weekend flight to Los Angeles, where he will undergo neurological testing at Centinela Hospital Medical Center.

“I have to go back and find out what’s causing it,” McCaskill said glumly. “We don’t know where (the pain) is coming from. The radial nerve goes all the way from the hand to the neck. Right now, they’re thinking it might be something to do with the neck.”

The neck?

Yes, McCaskill said. It could be the result of an old hockey injury.

“I’ve had a bad neck for a long time,” said McCaskill, who played hockey for the University of Vermont and the Winnipeg Jets’ organization. “I’ve had a couple of hockey injuries and I know I have a differential spacing between two vertebrae. I’ve known that for three years.

“I’ve been checked head-first into the boards a couple of times and had to have head X-rays. I had some headaches before, but I never felt anything in my arms.”

According Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ team physician, the nerve irritation could be caused by a spinal disk problem.

“The most common (nerve) irritation is a stretching injury to the nerve or minor disk involvement,” Yocum said. “If he tweeked the nerve, it’s just a minor injury. But if we find pressure on the nerve from a disk or something else, it might be longer.”

McCaskill (8-6) is the only winning pitcher in the Angels’ starting rotation. By being placed on the 21-day disabled list, retroactive to Aug. 9, McCaskill is all but through for the rest of the month.

Is he also through for the season?

“That’s a tough question,” McCaskill conceded. “I don’t know anybody who’s had one of these before. I have nothing to base it on, nothing to go by.”

Thinking wishfully aloud, McCaskill then added: “It might be a piece of cake. It might be that all I need is just a week of rest.”

Nothing, however, has been a piece of cake for the Angels this season.

Take Finley’s Thursday night start, for instance. Finley took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning. It was a most tentative lead and, with one monstrous swing of Dave Winfield’s bat, it quickly became a 2-1 lead.

With one out in the sixth, Winfield sent a misguided Finley fastball over the fence in left-center field . . . and over the Miller Huggins monument . . . and beyond the flag pole . . . and up against the green wall that barricades the Yankee plaque collection, better known as Monument Park.

The blast was estimated at 478 feet. Finley immediately christened it one of the two longest home runs he had ever surrendered.

“That ball was crushed,” Finley said, shaking his head. “That ranks with the one (Texas’ Pete) Incaviglia hit off me in Anaheim--and that ball just missed the upper deck.

“This one had everybody in the bullpen talking. I was hearing, ‘Hey Chuck, that one hit DiMaggio on the head.’ ‘Hey Chuck, you killed a tree.’ ”

Finley dealt better with his teammates’ needling than with what was to come four batters later.

Immediately after Winfield’s home run, Finley walked Jack Clark and yielded a one-hopper to Don Slaught that virtually exploded on Angel third baseman Jack Howell, resulting in runners on second and third.

Then came an intentional walk to Gary Ward and a line drive by Luis Aguayo that Howell snared with a leaping grab.

Then came Angel Manager Cookie Rojas to the mound.

Finley knew what that meant. He beat Rojas to the punch by angrily flipping the ball in the air before Rojas reached the mound.

Finley then began to head for the dugout before Rojas summoned him back to the pitching rubber. Rojas told him to wait until his replacement, Greg Minton, arrived from the bullpen.

“I told him, ‘You’re not out of the game yet ,’ ” Rojas said. “ ‘Stand here and wait for the guy from the bullpen. Give him some more time to make a couple of warmup pitches.’ ”

Finley waited, and fumed, staring out toward center field and refusing to look at Rojas.

“I kind of let the moment take over my emotions,” Finley admitted. “I’m used to going into the seventh inning, at least, and I was still getting ahead of the hitters (in the count). But he had an itch to bring in somebody else.”

A season-long victim of non-support, Finley feared the worst.

“It was the kind of game where I could wind up with no decision,” Finley said.

Instead, Minton came on, worked the last 3 innings and did not allow a hit. The Angel offense went on to score five more runs, including back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning by Mark McLemore and Brian Downing, and Finley went on to earn his seventh victory in 18 decisions.

“It worked out all right,” Finley said. “He’s the boss. I’ve got to do what he says.

“This sure makes the bus ride (to Baltimore) a whole lot better.”

And it’s also an improvement over McCaskill’s travel plans.

Finley goes to Baltimore, knowing full well when and where his next start is coming.

McCaskill has yet to find out whether there is indeed another 1988 start in his future.

Angel Notes

To take Kirk McCaskill’s place in the starting rotation, the Angels announced that they will purchase the contract of Jack Lazorko from triple-A Edmonton today. This will be Lazorko’s second stint with the Angels this season. His first lasted two starts and resulted in an 0-1 record and an 8.64 earned-run average. With Edmonton this year, Lazorko has compiled an 11-8 record and 3.87 ERA. He has three shutouts and nine complete games. Angel Manager Cookie Rojas is planning to start Lazorko Saturday night. . . . Angel team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum, on McCaskill’s injury: “It concerns you any time you’re dealing with the nerve, but, it’s not uncharacteristic for a nerve irritation to persist for 7 to 10 days. I’m not overly concerned that it’s still there, but the fact that it is still there makes me say, ‘Let’s take the investigation further.’ ” McCaskill underwent elbow surgery 15 months ago but, according to Yocum, “based on what I know now, there’s no correlation (between the two injuries).”

The Angels beat former teammate Tommy John (8-5), courtesy a pair of unearned runs in the third inning, a run-scoring double by Dick Schofield in the seventh, and then, with reliever Cecilio Guante pitching, a sacrifice fly and home run by Brian Downing, a run-scoring double by Chili Davis and a home run by Mark McLemore. Downing’s home run was his 20th of the season, his sixth against New York and his fifth in six games at Yankee Stadium. McLemore’s home run was his second of the season and his third hit in three at-bats since rejoining the club Tuesday. . . . Relief pitcher Greg Minton, who was still in the Angel bullpen when Dave Winfield uncorked his home run, was asked whether he got a good look at it. “You mean as it went over my head?” Minton replied. “I’m thinking about the bill Chuck (Finley) is going to get out of it. He cracked one of the monuments out there.” Added Finley: “Dave Winfield is a big man, and when he gets those long arms extended, he can hit a ball a long way. There are a lot of pitchers in this league who can attest to that--and now I’m one of them.”

The Quiet Bunch: First John Candelaria and now Rickey Henderson has stopped talking with the media. After collecting four hits in the Yankees’ 11-7 victory over the Angels Wednesday night, Henderson announced that he would have no more announcements until New York caught and passed the Detroit Tigers in the American League East standings. “I won’t talk to reporters until we get into first,” Henderson said as he signed off. “I decided about a week ago. It’s nothing personal. I just won’t talk until we get into first.”