It was almost a case of “here we go again” for Jon Garland before the White Sox’s No. 5 starter embarked on his stunning 7-0 start.
He was battling flu symptoms, blew a 3-0 lead and was on the verge of getting knocked out in the sixth inning of his first start April 9 at American League Central champion Minnesota.
But Garland got out of a bases-loaded jam when he induced Michael Cuddyer to hit into an inning-ending double play and the Sox went on to score four runs in the seventh en route to an 8-5 victory.
That sequence has mirrored Garland’s sudden turnaround from three consecutive seasons of largely unfulfilled potential.
The Sox nearly dealt Garland after the 2001 season with outfielder Chris Singleton and two pitching prospects for Anaheim first baseman Darin Erstad, only to have Disney Corp., which owned the Angels at the time, reject the deal.
Thursday night’s 3-2 victory over Baltimore made Garland the American League’s first seven-game winner. He has a nifty 2.39 ERA and has displayed the poise of a staff ace.
Here are some of the reasons for the transformation of a pitcher who yielded 34 home runs last season and possessed a 4.68 lifetime ERA entering the 2005 season.
Avoiding the big inning
The Minnesota game could have been an early disaster for Garland, who yielded three earned runs in an inning 13 times last season.
The 25-year-old has shown a knack for weaving out of trouble, with the rare exception of his start May 7 at Toronto, where he was pulled after giving up a home run to Russ Adams that cut his lead to 10-6.
“I think now he likes those one-on-one battles,” said a former major-league scout who always has liked Garland. “He always had good stuff but didn’t seem to show it in those situations.”
Garland held AL batting champion Ichiro Suzuki hitless in three at-bats while retiring the first 19 batters in a victory over Seattle on April 15. He set the tone when he struck out Suzuki on an off-speed pitch.
At Oakland 10 days later, Garland worked out of a third-inning jam when he got Eric Chavez to ground out. He then went the distance for the first of two consecutive shutouts.
Changing things up
Garland was known as a hard thrower when he came out of Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Calif., and signed a letter-of-intent with Southern California before the Cubs selected him with the 10th pick in the 1997 amateur draft.
But he has learned he can be effective without the machismo of his 94-m.p.h. fastball. He retired Chavez on a first-pitch changeup that he said was his best pitch in his 116-pitch masterpiece.
“He’s throwing all his pitches for strikes, dictating counts and trusting his catchers and himself,” the ex-scout said.
Concentration
“He was lacking command of the strike zone and a philosophy,” a veteran AL scout said. “And that’s where the wheels usually would fall off.”
Pitching coach Don Cooper has seen a noticeable improvement in Garland’s focus, especially in crucial situations. “He knows how to minimize damage,” Cooper said. “If there’s a first-and-third situation, he’s not consumed with stopping that guy at third from scoring. He’s concentrating on preventing that batter from reaching first and anyone else from trying to score.”
Garland also curbed his penchant for surrendering homers with a 39-inning streak that ended Saturday on Adams’ homer. He hardly is the first former first-round pick to struggle initially at the major-league level before blossoming.
“Roy Halladay (2003 AL Cy Young Award winner) had the same problems, and it got to the point where he had to go back to the minors [in 2000] to get refocused,” the AL scout said. “Garland always has had a good arm, and there are things they always hype up on you.”
World of difference
A look at Jon Garland’s numbers this season vs. his career averages through last season:
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2005 CATEGORY CAREER
2.39 ERA 4.68
1.50 ERA home 4.48
3.14 ERA road 4.86
1.80 ERA April 5.74
3.18 ERA May 3.91
3.68 ERA day 4.49
1.89 ERA night 4.90
1.10 ERA grass 4.90
6.94 ERA turf 3.52
2 Comp. Games 2
2 Shutouts 1
.797 Hit pct. 1.02
.221 Opp. avg. .265
7.2 IP per start 6.2
.152 Walks per IP .156
Source: STATS, Inc., White Sox
Garland’s game-by-game
DATE/OPP. IP H ER BB SO
4-9 at Minn 6.0 10 3 0 1
4-15 Sea. 7.0 2 2 2 3
4-20 at Det. 8.0 5 1 2 4
4-25 at Oak. 9.0 4 0 1 3
5-1 Det. 9.0 4 0 1 6
5-7 at Tor. 5.2 9 6 1 2
5-12 Balt. 8.0 8 2 1 4
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