– Starting now: What is a ”quality start”?
Inning limits required by the short spring corrupted the standard statistical concept. So, using the brilliant criterion devised by a jurist who was asked to define pornography-”I know it when I see it”-the Sox had 13 quality starts in their first 24 games.
The breakdown: Melido Perez, 4 for 6; Eric King, 3 for 5; Jack McDowell, 2 for 5; Greg Hibbard, 3 for 5; Jerry Kutzler, 1 for 3.
So in terms of quality starts, Sox starting pitchers were 13-11 before Friday. At that moment, the team`s record was 14-10. Which is a longish way of supporting pitching coach Sammy Ellis` theory that everything starts with the starters.
”The key to this whole ballclub-I`ll say it to anybody who`ll listen-is the starting pitching,” Ellis said. ”We`ve got a nice little team here. Everybody`s got a good attitude, we`ve got much better defense, we`re going to score enough runs. The bullpen looks like it`s OK.
”But there`s no pitching staff that`s better than its starting pitching. Because if the starting pitching breaks down, then eventually the bullpen`s going to break down.”
And if the starting pitching and the relief pitching breaks down, what have you got? You`ve got the first half of last season.
”Seven, eight runs a game was just run of the mill,” Ellis said. ”We don`t want to live through that again. We went for how long where, in the fourth inning, we were six runs down every night?
”If that starts happening-and I`m not saying it`s gonna, because I like our starters. I`m not knocking them. . . . ”
But if that starts happening, all the enthusiasm over Sammy Sosa and the improved defense and the youthful aggressiveness goes out the window.
”That puts the onus on a few guys,” Ellis said, ”but that`s just the way this game is.”
– Set `em up: Scott Fletcher was talking about the time last winter when he and the Cubs` Mitch Williams, a former teammate at Texas, went bowling.
”He always told me, `You use a lot of muscles bowling.` I said, `Yeah, yeah, right.` ”
Williams was right.
”I was so sore that night when I got into bed, I couldn`t believe it,”
Fletcher said. ”My hamstrings were tight and everything-I couldn`t believe it.”
A factor: They bowled 23 games.
– Right in the gut: Jeff Torborg talks about having a ”gut feeling.” Other managers talk about ”hunches.” That isn`t always the whole truth. Gut feelings and hunches are, as often as not, created-or at least supported-by hard research.
”It`s both,” conceded Torborg, who, like any manager, is generally reluctant to reveal data from intelligence reports. ”You read, you see some of the stats and you get a feeling inside.”
– Rickey`s revenge: Interesting game Wednesday for Oakland`s Rickey Henderson. More interesting because he did it against the Yankees-the team that unloaded him last year, figuring he was about done. They figured wrong.
First, he scored from second base on a routine infield out, tying the game 1-1 in the eighth.
”I saw him (shortstop Alvaro Espinoza) field the ball and he hit his glove, like he always does,” said Henderson. ”Then he flipped the ball, like he always does. I put it in high gear when I went around third.”
Then Henderson walked with the bases loaded, on four pitches, to win it 2-1 in the 11th. The pitcher was Eric Plunk. Carney Lansford, the on-deck hitter, had told Henderson to wait him out.
”I remembered when Eric was starting for us and Rickey was playing for them, he could not throw Rickey a strike,” Lansford said. He didn`t.
Postscript: Rickey Henderson has been traded for Eric Plunk. Twice.
– Around the league: The Tigers` Cecil Fielder, with 13 home runs in 30 games through Thursday, was nine games ahead of Babe Ruth`s 1927 pace and 13 ahead of Roger Maris` pace in 1961. After 30 games in 1961, Maris had five. Fielder, who hit 38 homers in Japan last year, would still be there if another team hadn`t cut Larry Parrish after Parrish hit 42 homers last year. ”That`s when I realized I`d better look for some security,” Fielder said. . . . A little history: The Royals traded Fielder, then in Class A, to Toronto in 1983 for Leon Roberts. The Blue Jays sold him to the Hanshin Tigers after he hit .135 for the last two months of 1988. He`s still just 26. . . . Sparky Anderson`s raging blowup last week over an essentially harmless story by John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press had Sparky`s friends concerned. But he`s fine. . . . What kind of a year is Dennis Eckersley having? Through Friday, he`d pitched 13 innings in 11 games, given up five hits, no runs, no walks, 14 strikeouts. Nine saves, one win. He walked three batters in 57 2/3 innings last year. . . . The A`s, incidentally, are 6-0 against the Yankees this season. In those six games, the Yanks have averaged 0.67 runs a game. . . . A year later: The Orioles were 12-16 through their first 28 games, and everyone was concerned. Last year, they were 13-15 and everyone was celebrating. . . . In case you missed it, Mike Greenwell finally got a hit with a runner in scoring position Wednesday night. He was 0 for 29. Also in Boston, Bill Buckner might be on the way out. His average has dropped below .220 and, despite an injury to now-disabled Billy Jo Robidoux, hadn`t played in a week. . . . After a broken-bat home run Wednesday night, Luis Rivera of the Red Sox was asked if he`s really that strong. ”No,” he said, ”the wind was blowing out.” He hit it in the Kingdome. . . . The Blue Jays won their 1,000th game Wednesday night when they beat the White Sox. They also won their first against the Sox, on April 7, 1977. At home. In the snow. . . . The day Toronto won No. 1,000, the Mariners-who came into the league the same year-were at 873 and holding. . . . Seattle catcher Scott Bradley on Ken Griffey Jr.: ”The most amazing thing about him is I`ve never seen him overmatched. Not last year, when he was 19. Not this year.”. . . Cleveland expects to break ground on a new downtown sports complex in 1993. Voters there approved the $400 million package last week.
