Diagnoses Change, but Pain Remains the Same : Only Constant in McCaskill’s Comeback Is Some Rest for His Right Hand

These days, with their team 16 games out of first place, Angel fans often can find more of interest in the medical reports than the box score.

Take the latest on pitcher Kirk McCaskill, for instance: At the end of almost three weeks, it’s nerve irritation 2, tendon inflammation 1.

Apparently this is not a final score, however.

McCaskill, who first felt a sharp pain in the back of his right hand while warming up in the bullpen in Oakland on Aug. 13 and was unable to make the start against the Athletics, has been through more tests than an astronaut and seen more doctors than a dedicated soap opera watcher.

Even Manager Cookie Rojas got into the diagnosis act last week, suggesting that McCaskill get an X-ray to determine if he had an abscessed tooth, which the Angel manager said “can cause arm problems sometimes.”

The last few days have been especially exasperating, though.

On Wednesday, he visited neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Levy, who thought the pain was being caused by an inflamed tendon, not the radial nerve irritation that team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum originally had diagnosed.

On Thursday, however, McCaskill was examined by hand specialist Dr. Norman Zemel, who agreed with Yocum, diagnosing an irritation of the dorsal branch of the radial nerve.

So what have the doctors prescribed? Some steroid medication, a little bit of physical therapy and rest. The key here, of course, is rest . . . as in how much.

Dr. Zemel said McCaskill, who was put on the disabled list Aug. 13, retroactive to Aug. 9, shouldn’t start throwing again for at least one week. Then he will be re-examined.

It has now been almost a month since McCaskill has thrown a baseball during a game. That was Aug. 8 against Seattle. He threw 145 pain-free pitches, but lost, 4-3.

McCaskill realizes he might not throw another pitch in 1988, but he still allows himself to hope.

“It would probably take me a week to 10 days to get ready again,” he said. “I don’t know . . . there would be a couple of weeks left in the season. I’m going to try though.”

Rojas was a bit less optimistic.

“They reversed what they said yesterday,” Rojas said, shrugging. “They say one week’s rest and they’ll look again. I think it might be difficult to get him back (this season), but who knows? They may change their minds again tomorrow.”

McCaskill, who is 8-6 with a 4.31 earned-run average, says he is not particularly worried about the injury because the doctors have told him it’s not career-threatening. But that has done little to ease the frustration of ending a second consecutive season sitting in the dugout watching instead of pitching.

“I don’t want to be known as a guy who gets hurt every year,” he said. “I’m paid to pitch and I’m still being paid but I’m not pitching and that bothers me. It bothers me a lot. I didn’t do anything--like punch a wall or something--to cause it, but I don’t relish the idea of getting a reputation as a guy who’s always hurt.”

Last season, McCaskill underwent surgery in April to have bone chips removed from his elbow and then, after a less-than-impressive comeback--he was 2-6 with a 6.88 ERA--he hurt his shoulder on Sept. 4 and did not pitch again.

McCaskill says the hand still bothers him when he does “ordinary things, pitching included.” Dr. Yocum told him that these types of nerve injuries usually take four to five weeks to heal.

“I think they’ve finally got the accurate diagnosis,” McCaskill said. “I hope so, anyway. No one’s sure how it happened. It may have been that line drive (Baltimore’s) Terry Kennedy hit off me (in early June) or maybe I just slept on it wrong. I don’t know. I just know it’s frustrating.”