Seattle Throttles the Angels by 2 TDs

SEATTLE —  Gene Mauch kept Wally Joyner out of the starting lineup Friday night for the purpose of giving the Angel first baseman’s sore rib cage a rest. But before the game, Mauch told reporters they’d be seeing Joyner somewhere around the eighth or ninth inning.

“He’ll be in there,” Mauch said, “helping us hold a lead.”

Nice try, Gene.

Wishful thinking has a way of washing out in the Kingdome, and this time, against the Seattle Mariners, the Angels never had a lead to hold. They didn’t even come close, surrendering more than 10 runs for the second time in as many nights and losing, 14-0, before a crowd of 12,464.

Thursday night, the final score was 15-4. Fourteen more Seattle runs made it 29 in two days, a Mariner franchise record.

Kirk McCaskill, continuing to struggle since his return from elbow surgery, gave up nine runs. In five-plus innings. McCaskill, who shut out the Mariners, 4-0, here in April, yielded three-run home runs to Ken Phelps and Phil Bradley and seven other hits.

Phelps, who was denied a home run Thursday night when his towering shot struck a hanging speaker inside the right-field foul pole and bounced foul, made amends with two home runs Friday night. The first, off McCaskill (2-4), was driven into the second deck, giving Seattle a 3-0 lead in the second inning. His second, coming off reliever Gary Lucas, went to straightaway center field in the seventh inning--far from the hanging speaker.

The Angels supported such pitching with 7 hits and 11 strikeouts against left-hander Mark Langston (12-9), plus some occasionally atrocious defense.

In the fourth inning, first baseman George Hendrick, starting in place of Joyner, dropped an easy throw from Gus Polidor on an infield grounder--opening the gates for a four-run inning, capped by Phil Bradley’s home run.

In the sixth, Lucas inherited a pair of baserunners from McCaskill and let both score on a single by Phil Bradley. But before that, Lucas had walked John Moses, which is important, because when Lucas cut off the outfield relay following Bradley’s two-run single, he tried to catch Moses off second base. Instead, Lucas threw the ball away, enabling Moses to score and Bradley to take second.

One out later, Bradley scored on a single by Alvin Davis.

Then, in the eighth, another error by third baseman Doug DeCinces contributed to another Seattle run.

“They’re hot,” Lucas said of the Mariners, “and we’ve made them hot.”

McCaskill entered the game with an 0-3 record and a 7.89 earned-run average since returning from the disabled list July 11. He was charged with five earned runs in his stint against the Mariners.

“Too many pitches up in the strike zone,” Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said. “He wasn’t getting the (strike) call on pitches down, so he had to go up with it. If the umpires aren’t giving you calls, you have to try and adjust.”

Angel catcher Bob Boone was ejected by plate umpire Tim Tschida for saying the same thing in somewhat harsher terms. After Tschida called ball four on Presley in the second inning--McCaskill’s second walk of the inning--Boone protested heatedly and was quickly thrown out of the game.

In from left field came Darrell Miller, who threw on his catcher’s gear and lowered into his crouch. On the third pitch Miller called, Phelps connected for his first home run.

McCaskill began the fourth inning in similar fashion. He walked the leadoff hitter, Phelps, and allowed a single to Mike Kingery.

He then got two outs and would have had the third, except that Hendrick dropped the throw from Polidor. That left Moses safe at first, allowed Kingery to score and set the stage for Phil Bradley’s three-run home run.

McCaskill was dressed and gone by the final out, so Lachemann was left to field the question: Did Hendrick’s error have an unsettling effect on the pitcher?

“It shouldn’t have,” Lachemann said. “A good pitcher pitches around errors. When your fielders make errors, you have to pick them up. It’s something a young pitcher has to learn how to do. There are going to be times when one of your outfielders runs down a hanging slider and makes a great play for you.

“Kirk made a bad pitch after the error. That compounded it.”

McCaskill retired the side in the fifth inning and took the mound for the sixth. He faced two batters, and both reached base. Kingery doubled; Quinones singled.

At that point, Lucas entered the game. He got Harold Reynolds on an infield out before walking Moses to load the bases. Then came Phil Bradley’s two-run single and Lucas’ wild throw to second. A four-run Seattle inning was underway.

Offensively, the Angels had six singles and one double (by Miller) against Langston. Only Miller advanced as far as third base.

What the Angels did best against Langston was strike out--11 times, with Jack Howell doing it three times. Brian Downing and Devon White each struck out twice.

For Langston, the league leader in strikeouts, it marked the eighth time he had struck out 10 or more this season.

This Angel loss was an avalanche, the team’s second in as many nights. The Angels also lost to Minnesota, 11-3, Monday. So, California pitching has allowed 10 or more runs three times in the last five days.

“We just got blown out,” Lucas said. “You take the good with the bad. I’ve been good lately, but tonight, I got my lunch.”

Angel Notes

The Seattle newspapers were having a good time with Angel Manager Gene Mauch’s summation of Thursday night’s 15-4 Angel defeat--”I’d have to say it’s the most forgettable game I can remember.” Mauch, though, wanted to know what was so funny about it. Said Mauch: “I read where they called that line a ‘Yogi Berra-ism.’ Hell, I think that’s as sensible as anything I’ve ever said. If it doesn’t make sense, I do have a problem. I really want to forget that game.” So, has Mauch succeeded? “What game?” Mauch deadpanned. “We had an off-day yesterday.” Friday must have made two.. . . Joe Niekro fallout: By the time the Minnesota Twins returned home Thursday following Niekro’s escapades in Anaheim, one Minneapolis bar was distributing souvenir emery boards bearing the inscription, “Say It Ain’t So, Joe, 8-3-87.” Printed on the other side: “The Niekro File.” Later Thursday night, rock singer Huey Lewis was asked by the Twins to sing the national anthem before Minnesota’s series opener with Oakland. As he stepped to the microphone, Lewis, an A’s fan, pulled a baseball and a large piece of sandpaper out of his pocket and gave the ball a good scuffing. The Metrodome crowd, good-humored after all these years, reportedly loved it. . . .

Injured catcher Butch Wynegar was sent home by the Angels to be examined by team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum. Wynegar’s big right toe, which was operated upon in May, is again inflamed.