The New York Yankees sent minor-league pitcher Jeff Pries to the Sox to complete the Aug. 26 deal in which the Sox traded Jerry Royster to the Yankees for left-handed pitcher Ken Patterson. Pries, 24, a right-hander, was the Yankees` top pick in the 1984 draft out of UCLA.
It wasn`t long after last Tuesday`s impressive outing that White Sox rookie pitcher Jack McDowell sought out fellow rookie hurler Adam Peterson, who made his major-league debut Saturday. McDowell, drafted in June out of Stanford and signed in August, made the jump from Double-A Birmingham and went seven strong innings in leading the Sox to a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins. He blanked the Twins on four hits and struck out three.
”I went to him and offered some advice,” McDowell said of his chat. ”I told him to relax and throw strikes, that basically it wasn`t much different from when we were at Birmingham.”
Both are power pitchers, consistently throwing around 90 miles an hour. McDowell said he stuck with his fastball against the Twins, and Peterson said he was going to follow a similar strategy against the Seattle Mariners.
”I`ll go with my fastball and slider a lot,” Peterson said Friday night. ”Jack will go with a slow curve and a forkball along with the fastball. When Jack joined us in August, we became pretty good friends. We`re the same type of people and we enjoy the same things.”
Both expressed hope that they would form the nucleus of the next generation of Sox pitchers. McDowell, however, cautioned fans not to go overboard after just one outing. ”There have been a lot of stories, and the press jumped all over it,” said McDowell, who pitches again Sunday. ”I didn`t have any expectations, but I know I have the tools to pitch. It had a lot to do with my location. Big leaguers can hit guys who throw 90 miles an hour. But, I moved it around. I`ve always had good control.”
McDowell traditionally has been a slow starter. He was rocked for nine runs, including a pair of home runs in his four-inning debut at Birmingham. He got off to a 1-2 start as a freshman at Stanford.
”With the Sox, I was more at ease,” he said. ”I didn`t put as much pressure on myself. I didn`t feel I had to dominate the game, unlike my first starts for Stanford and Birmingham. When you press, you tend to overthrow, and that`s bad for a power pitcher. It was a bit of an advantage the Twins not seeing me before. I threw a lot of fastballs, and the thing that made me happy was they weren`t catching up with the fastball.”
Gary Matthews made his first appearance in Chicago since being traded by the Cubs and was 0-for-3 Friday night against Floyd Bannister.
”It was kind of anticlimactic, since I`m in the American League now,”
said Matthews. ”Still, it`s good to be back. I have a lot of friends here and I live here in the winter. Cub fans never forget you. They remember when you did something for them.”
The stars were out at Comiskey Park Saturday night. Actors Jim Belushi and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who are starring in the upcoming movie, ”Red Heat,”
took turns threw out the ceremonial first pitch. A scene from the film was shot during Saturday night`s contest, and it`s believed to be the first time a movie sequence has been shot in a major-league ballpark while a game was in progress. Neither Schwarzenegger nor Belushi was in the ballpark scene, but Peter Boyle was. Boyle portrays a Chicago police commander who learns that a Soviet drug dealer is at the ballpark. Schwarzenegger plays a Russian cop sent to the U.S. to pick up the drug dealer, who has expanded his operations to Chicago. Belushi portrays a wise-cracking Chicago police detective assigned to help.
