Terry Adams had thrown just five pitches in relief Thursday when pitching coach Phil Regan saw that something was wrong.
Ellis Burks had led off the sixth inning with a single on Adams’ second pitch. J.T. Snow watched three pitches miss the strike zone. So Regan, a reliever in the Cubs’ bullpen in 1969, ambled to the mound.
It was time for Regan to earn his salary. He delivered the brief advice that helped Adams get on track. Thus began four scoreless innings by four Cubs relievers in their 7-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
After Regan returned to the dugout, Adams retired the side on four pitches. He threw ball four to Snow, putting runners on first and second with the Cubs ahead 6-3. Ex-Cub Rey Sanchez helped the home team by popping up an attempted sacrifice bunt. Brent Mayne grounded into a double play.
Adams, Felix Heredia and Matt Karchner successively delivered as setup men. Rod Beck closed the Giants in the ninth. The four of them combined to blank their wild-card rivals on three hits over the last four innings.
Regan “told me I was flying open,” Adams said. “So I closed my feet a little, and that was it. I didn’t know what was wrong. My fastball was not real good. Maybe I was trying to overthrow. He can see that from the side view in the dugout.”
A mechanical thing. A little thing. Yet it started the Cubs’ bullpen on a performance that preserved starter Kevin Tapani’s 15th victory. It also differed sharply from the relief work in Wednesday’s 8-6 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in 10 innings.
“This was especially satisfying after yesterday,” Adams said. “I had a bad performance. We lost a 6-2 lead. The four of us today had four shutout innings.
“We got critical outs. We showed (manager Jim Riggleman) what we can do. That should leave us in a more positive frame of mind.”
Beck didn’t think his setup men have to apologize for their performances.
“They’re quality pitchers,” Beck said. “They close the gap between the starters and the closer. It’s a team thing. They hand (off) the baton.”
Heredia pitched only one-third of an inning, getting Bill Mueller, who had previously homered, on a seventh-inning fly to right. Then Heredia threw two wide ones to Barry Bonds, who had stroked the 399th homer of his career in his last at-bat.
Again Regan went to the mound. Again he offered advice. Something like, “Don’t give him anything he can whack for No. 400.”
After walking Bonds, Heredia was replaced by Karchner, who had yielded one of Mark McGwire’s two homers Wednesday.
Like Adams, Karchner pitched 1 1/3 innings and gave up one hit.
“It was great to see the bullpen do that,” Riggleman said. “It was very hot. The starters had to labor.”
“They are quality people in our bullpen, and they’re experienced,” Tapani said. “They’ve been in the big leagues long enough not to lose their confidence if they have a bad day.”
