After getting a vote of confidence from his general manager on Tuesday, Dusty Baker decided to do likewise with Ryan Dempster, sticking him back in his closer’s role Wednesday after considering a bullpen shake-up the night before.
Dempster responded with a scoreless ninth inning in a 6-3 victory over Milwaukee to collect his 12th save.
“I think he just wanted to make sure I was all right,” Dempster said. “Obviously I was pretty frustrated [after Tuesday’s blown save]. He wanted to make sure that if he gave the ball to me I wasn’t going to crumble.”
It was apparent before the game that Dempster was back to his old self, after what he called an “embarrassing” performance in Tuesday’s ninth-inning collapse.
With Scott Eyre, Roberto Novoa and Angel Guzman surrounding him for cover, Dempster pulled his pants down on the field to show Brewers third baseman Corey Koskie the giant purple bruise on his behind from Koskie’s line drive single that started Tuesday’s downfall.
“See what you did?” Dempster said to Koskie, baring his backside in broad daylight as oblivious Cubs fans filed in during Milwaukee’s batting practice.
“Uh, sorry,” Koskie said with a smile as he continued taking grounders at third.
After Tuesday’s meltdown, Baker said he might go with the best matchup in the ninth inning instead of automatically giving the ball to Dempster. But after a meeting with Dempster and pitching coach Larry Rothschild Wednesday morning, he changed his mind.
“I’m going to give him the ball again,” Baker said. “You can’t break up the whole bullpen. It’s been pretty good until recently, so we’ve just to get it back together.”
Baker told Dempster to go back to being his “old, happy-go-lucky self.” Dempster, who was booed off the mound Tuesday, was appreciative of the support.
“It means a lot, obviously,” Dempster said. “It has been a struggle for everybody, and it has been a struggle for me lately, just getting in a groove and getting ahead of guys. Today I did what I haven’t done in a while, and that’s get the leadoff guy.
“When you’re coming in at the end of a ballgame, walks and base hits are going to happen, but if you can get the leadoff guy, get the first out, it’s going to make things a lot easier. I’m still wondering why I didn’t do that [Tuesday] night.”
