Jack McDowell didn`t have his best stuff. He battled. He won.
He has done it before.
”All the good ones are like that,” said Carlton Fisk. ”And Jack`s a good one. No doubt about that.”
No doubt Sunday after McDowell pitched the White Sox over the Kansas City Royals 3-1 in front of 37,112 on a rare muggy day in Comiskey Park.
There`s been no doubt for a while.
McDowell (17-7) had a four-hit shutout until George Brett homered leading off the ninth. The complete game was his 11th, the most in the big leagues. The 17 wins lead the American League.
For the Sox, it was the 18th victory in 25 games. They gained no ground on the leaders, and McDowell probably gained no ground in the Cy Young Award competition.
”I haven`t been the `big story guy` this year,” said McDowell. ”I`m not someone who`s having a great year for the first time and getting a lot of attention. I`m not someone who`s done anything outstanding.
”I`ve seen how that kind of stuff works, and hoopla wins out.”
While Dennis Eckersley gets the Sports Illustrated treatment and Kevin Brown wins more than 12 games for the first time, McDowell-start after start- just reinforces the reality that he is one of the game`s truly excellent pitchers.
He didn`t get much offensive support Sunday, but he made it work. In the fifth, Robin Ventura homered off Rick Reed (2-5), his 12th of the year. In the seventh, Dale Sveum drove in the other two runs with a two-out single off Juan Berenguer.
It was an interesting sequence. Ventura opened it with a double, Dan Pasqua walked and Lance Johnson ran for Pasqua. It was a bunt situation-but there was no bunt. For one thing, bunts and the Sox have not been friends lately. For another, the batter was Fisk, who was followed by Shawn Abner and Sveum.
”It depends on where you are in the order if you bunt guys or not,”
said manager Gene Lamont. ”I really wasn`t real comfortable where I was.”
Fisk hit a bullet to left that was caught. Abner flied deep enough to right that Ventura was able to reach third. Johnson stole second. Sveum worked Berenguer to 3-2, then stroked a single over second that scored both runners. ”That was a great at-bat,” said McDowell. ”Big spot.”
”He left it out over the plate,” Sveum said of the Berenguer splitter.
”I was just lucky enough that it found a hole.”
McDowell did the rest. He almost didn`t finish after Brett snapped his runless-inning streak at 17.
”At the end,” said Lamont, ”it looked like Jack was a little tired. If another guy had gotten on, I`d have taken him out.”
No one else got on. Yes, said McDowell, he was tired.
”I was struggling with my command early on,” said McDowell, ”and that makes you have to take the game mentally a step higher, where you have to focus on every pitch. By the end of the game, that kind of wears on you.”
And on the opposition.
”Each time we mounted a threat,” said Royals manager Hal McRae, ”he got a ground ball or a fly ball to get him out of the inning.”
Without overpowering stuff. The four strikeouts were the fewest he has had in a game since June 29, 10 starts earlier.
”All the good ones are like that,” Fisk said. ”They know what they have to do, and they know how they have to deal with it.
”Most importantly, they recognize it so they can deal with it.”
Fisk has been here for the whole McDowell story-the 3-0 splash at the end of 1987, 5-10 the next year, the lost 1989 season filled with confusion and pain and a demotion, the 14-9 comeback in 1990 and the two All-Star seasons that followed.
”Everybody has a nice time playing this game when things are going good,” Fisk said. ”It`s how they deal with failure, adversity; that`s where you can really tell how a guy is going to mature, progress.
”He could`ve packed it in, and he didn`t. Look at Robin Ventura-0 for 40-something, he could`ve packed it in. It could`ve killed him.
”There`s a couple of special guys right there. Real special guys.”
Lacking only hoopla.
Someday.
