It almost didn’t matter how well or how poorly Mike Harkey pitched. That he was there at all, that he was able to walk up to the top of the mound and throw a baseball pain-free in a big league was its own triumph.
“He went through hell to get to where he is right now,” said Jim Lefebvre.
That he was heavenly Wednesday night was a nice bonus.
In his first major-league appearance since wrecking his knee with a bush-league stunt last September, Harkey pitched 7 1/3 wondrous innings in a 6-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
Harkey gave up four hits, walked two and struck out five in winning for the first time since Aug. 20. When he walked Otis Nixon with one out in the eighth, it was with his 108th and final pitch of the night.
Heart pumping wildly at the beginning?
“I was pretty mellow, as a matter of fact,” Harkey said.
Most satisfying, he said, was winning this series after the Cubs went 2-10 against the Braves a year ago.
“It was something that the team needed,” he said. “To be able to come in here and win two out of three is the biggest thing. The team needed it more than I needed it.”
Harkey didn’t need much support, but the Cub offense took the pressure off by scoring single runs in each of the first three innings.
In the first inning, Rey Sanchez singled off Pete Smith (1-1 with his first loss since 1991) with one out, moved to second on a Mark Grace roller and scored on Derrick May’s single. May was back in the starting lineup after resting his shoulder for two games.
In the second, Steve Buechele-who seems to be getting his swing back-led off with a double, took third on Rick Wilkins’ ground ball and came home on a flyball by Jose Vizcaino.
In the third, Grace-debating whether to shave what’s passing for a beard-extended his streak to eight games with his third homer of the infant season, and it was 3-0.
“I’ve had good stretches like this before, but not in April,” said Grace, whose average actually dropped to .429 Wednesday. “I’m going to hopefully stay asleep, and nobody wake me up.”
A two-run double by Vizcaino in the sixth made it 5-0 Cubs, and there was nothing more to do than marvel over Harkey.
“The label that Harkey’s always had was that he was injury-prone,” said Lefebvre. “He’s never had a full season.
“He wants that monkey off his back.”
Since making his major-league debut in 1988, he is 17-11 in 44 career starts. A brief medical history:
– 1989: A sore right shoulder put him on the disabled list to start the year. In July, he hurt his right knee, required arthroscopic surgery and missed the rest of the year.
– 1990: Missed the final month with shoulder stiffness.
– 1991: Four starts into the season, he hurt the right shoulder. Surgery was performed May 2.
– 1992: He completed his long rehab and pitched July 20 against the Reds. After seven starts, he was 4-0-before wrecking the right knee again Sept. 6 on an outfield cartwheel. Surgery was performed the next day.
He is entitled to celebrate.
“Before we left spring training,” said Lefebvre, “we talked about the fact that we were going to keep him back and how he was going to start a game in Orlando, and he said a very good thing.
“He said, `I don’t want to be babied anymore. I don’t want to be the guy everybody’s worried about. It’s about time that I go out there and prove to people that I can go out there every five days.’
“This guy’s a battler, and he’s a winner.”
He won Wednesday night.
Then he beat the Braves.
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Next: Vs. Philadelphia, Friday 2:20 p.m., WGN-Ch. 9.
