Fast hook costs Slowey chance for no-hitter
By John Gilbert
So you’re the manager of the Minnesota Twins, and you’ve earned consistent praise for operating a winning ballclub, always contending for the pennant. You’ve got some concerns, such as the absence of Justin Morneau with lingering effects of a concussion, and the sore-shoulder layoff of catcher Joe Mauer. But your biggest concern has been pitching.
As has been discussed here, the problem early was the starting pitching, but that was mainly because the relief staff often seemed to function as though they were throwing gasoline on opposing fires, rather than putting them out. But now, as we head into the stretch drive for another pennant, the starting pitching has come around right well. Brian Duensing, elevated from a relief role to spot starter, threw a complete-game shutout the other day, and it was positively masterful.
That was the last remaining concern on the starting rotation. Well, that, and the fact that Kevin Slowey had to miss a turn with a minor elbow problem.
As manager, you send Slowey out to the mound to face the Oakland A’s in a midsummer assignment at Target Field. Slowey, in his first start in almost two weeks, couldn’t have been better. He got through inning after inning, and the TV guys waited until about the sixth inning to inform the audience that Slowey had not given up a hit. It’s bad luck to mention it, of course, but announcers have to bend to their primary role, which is informing the populace of what the heck is happening.
The Twins had staked Slowey to an early 1-0 lead. Joe Mauer — who is on such a roll that he is surging toward yet another batting title (you read it here first) — drilled another couple of hits and helped account for the run. That lasted until late in the game, when the drama of a 1-0 no-hitter was suddenly ballooned to 4-0 when Jim Thome smacked a 3-run home run.
But now you, as manager, are watching closely. You have a general rule that you don’t like pitchers to go over 100 pitchers in a start. It’s an arbitrary rule, but it’s your rule. Slowey used to have a history of going through four innings well, then getting bombed in the fifth or sixth. He became better and more consistent as the season progressed, but this day — Sunday — he might be more delicate than ever, just coming off the nonstart and sore arm. So you watch him closely. In the seventh, he walks one, and hits another, but gets out of trouble by inducing a hard-hit shot that becomes a double play.
Lucky? Yes, but that’s what it takes to throw a no-hitter. Slowey also was lucky a couple times when his outfielders made sensational catches, over their heads. But because the walk, hit batsman, and hard-hit double play had just occurred, you, as manager, are faced with a tough choice.
Do you let Slowey go out to pitch the eighth, having already thrown 106 pitches? Or do you follow your trusty “book” to bring in a reliever and chalk it up to a great night’s work?
Lat’s make an aside here. Pitchers used to start in a rotation of four, and they would pitch with no pitch count, always attempting to go the distance. A complete game was the measure of a pitcher’s worth, really, right after number of wins. Often, although counts weren’t kept, I’d bet that starting pitchers 25 years ago or so often pitched over 125, maybe 150 pitches. They’d be sore the next day, maybe a little joint stiffness, although icing down the arm did wonders to rellieve the problems. Three days later, they were ready to throw again, and four days later, they were back out on the mound, striving again for a complete game.
In the current method, pitchers throw on five-day rotations, and with the corps of rellievers set up by every team, starters go 5-6 innings, then turn the game over to a middle reliever, then a “set-up”man, and then, in the ninth, if it’s close enough, the closer gets to finish off the game. The Twins have used this style, and it has worked very well. Or has it?
When Johan Santana was the Twins ace, he would never be allowed to pitch over 100 pitches, and he never threw complete games. After he got traded, it took awhile, but in his first season, I heard a national TV announcer say that Santana was great, although “he’s not the sort of pitcher who can go nine innings.”
That offended me, because Santana certainly was the type, but he was never allowed to go nine innings. After some strong seasons, Santana now is capable of going the distance often.
It’s all a matter of conditioning. As someone who has pitched a fair amount in amateur baseball, I can tell you that if you go seven innings, or nine innings, it makes a difference in how sore you might be the next day. But sometimes you can throw only four or five innings and feel spent, and other times you can go all the way and feel like you might be able to go right on and pitch another couple of innings. Maybe that equates to a major leaguer throwing 140 pitches when he’s rolling, and getting the outs, while sometimes maybe he’s spent after 80 pitches, or six innings, when things aren’t going so well.
There are two points here. First, if you are conditioned to throw 130 pitches and go nine innings, you can still be 100 percent recovered after four days of rest. And the more you do it, the easier it is to do. On the other hand, if you are never allowed to go the distance, or to go over 100 pitches, then — guess what? — you will never be able to do it. The overriding thing about going longer and conditioning better is that it’s not as though turning the game over to the Twins relief corps is any sure thing. More often than not, it’s a disaster. You could look it up.
So Kevin Slowey looked tired in the sixth, and more weary in the seventh. Ron Gardenhire pulled him after seven innings, because he had thrown 106 pitches, and, no-hitter or not, he wasn’t going to let him throw more, for fear of reinjuring his arm. Turns out, Jim Thome’s 3-run homer made it 4-0, so the cushion was there. The relievers came striding in from the bullpen, yielding an immediate hit, then another, and giving up a run in the eighth. More rellievers came in for the ninth, gave up a couple more hits, and another run. Finally the Twins held on for a 4-2 victory.
Slowey got the victory, and the Twins won to stay hot. The media throng turned out in chorus to back Gardenhire’s cautious move, raving that Slowey obviously was finished, protecting his arm, and on and on…As second-guessers go, these guys are great. We can only wonder what they might have said had the relievers had more gasoline to throw on the fire and lost the game!
My feeling is a simple compromise. After seven innings, Gardenhire tells Slowey that he’s worried about him, but because he’s got a no-hitter going, and a chance for immortality, he can go back out for the eighth. Do your best, but if you falter, you’re immediately coming out.
Then if Slowey gives up a hit, give him the hook. If he continues with his incredible night-long run of good fortune, maybe he learns to pitch cleverly and slips by, inducing a pop fly here, a hard grounder there, and a long fly over there. Then he’s in the ninth, and we do it again, trusting that an extra dose of adrenaline might carry him. Maybe he can’t do it, and he gets pulled — but not until he gives up a hit.
Maybe, just maybe, he would have gotten through two more innings and completed a no-hitter. It would have been one of the most special moments in a very special season. And Kevin Slowey would have been a better pitcher — for having pushed himself to new levels of endurance, for having learned, maybe, how to out-duel a hitter here or there with fading stuff, and for having gutted out the greatest game he’s ever pitched.
Now we’ll never know. Except we do know that the Twins relief staff is still open to serious question — which makes my plan to stretch the starters farther and farther stand even taller.
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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