Neal Cotts could not have seemed more relaxed in the hours leading up to his major-league debut.
He sat quietly on a clubhouse couch, watching TV, not bothering a soul.
White Sox manager Jerry Manuel noticed Cotts’ easy demeanor, but he vowed not to get fooled. That had happened once before, during his first year with the Sox in 1998.
Manuel observed lefty reliever Todd Rizzo showing some bravado in the lobby of the team hotel in Texas before the team’s second game of the season.
Rizzo kissed his left biceps and said: “Oh, this is it. I can’t wait to get out there and show this lightning bolt.”
Rizzo promptly got lit up, allowing six runs on four hits and two walks. He didn’t record an out.
“He couldn’t breathe,” Manuel recalled. “How are you going to get an out if you can’t breathe?”
So much for Rizzo having nerves of steel.
“They have a way of hiding it, so I don’t even look at that,” Manuel said. “I wait until they go out there. Todd Rizzo has taught me.”
Cotts was given a tough assignment in his first debut.
The Angels were hitting .341 in their previous 10 games against the Sox. And Anaheim was 9-1 at home against the Sox over the last three seasons.
Add the fact that the Sox are in a pennant race, and Cotts could be excused for overdosing on adrenaline.
“It definitely gets your emotions going,” Cotts said Monday. “When you’re put in a situation when the team’s winning, you want to give the team some quality innings.”
Cotts’ first inning went smoothly. After allowing a single to shortstop Alfredo Amezaga, Cotts induced an inning-ending double-play grounder from Garret Anderson.
But then Cotts showed his weakness, losing sight of the strike zone.
He walked Tim Salmon and Scott Spiezio to start the second. Bengie Molina blooped an RBI single to left, but Cotts got a double play and a strikeout to end the inning.
Things went from bad to worse in the third.
Cotts walked leadoff hitter Adam Kennedy on a 3-2 high fastball, then threw four balls to Chone Figgins.
After a sacrifice bunt, Cotts walked Anderson on a 3-1 slider in the dirt to load the bases.
He jumped ahead of Salmon with two fastballs but walked him on a pitch at the ankles.
That was the final pitch Cotts threw. He departed after having retired seven batters, walking six and giving up two hits. Exactly half of his 66 pitches were balls.
But Dan Wright bailed him out.
Wright, who had lost his spot in the rotation to Cotts, retired Spiezio and Molina to kill the threat and preserve the Sox’s 3-2 lead.
Perhaps Cotts’ performance should not have come as a surprise.
Although the 23-year-old lefty had posted superior numbers at Double-A Birmingham (his 2.12 earned-run average was lowest in the Southern League), he had issued 56 walks in 106 1/3 innings.
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The outcome of the Angels/White Sox game was unavailable until later editions due to its late start.
