Line Drive: The Bad and the Ugly

Dave Paisley

As I noted in my last column, sometimes the only thing you have to keep up with baseball around the country are the box scores. Sometimes the boxes speak for themselves (well, at least if you get the talking newspaper) but sometimes a little background helps.

Last time I brought you a sampling of The Good. Well, here's a sample of the bad and the ugly side to pitching lines.

The Truly Awful

Scott Erickson, Baltimore
Date	Result	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
5/30	L (1-7)	2.2	8	7	7	3	2	1	6.75

Well, this is bad and ugly. Five runs given up in the first, two in the second, and this puppy was over early. Ultimately, the Orioles lost the game to Oakland 11-5. One wild pitch, four doubles and a home run to Johhn Jaha and Scott Erickson was testing the water temperature in the clubhouse early again.

Mike Timlin, Baltimore
Date	Result	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
6/1	ND	0.1	4	5	5	1	0	2	6.52

Big money ($16M for 4 years) hasn't made a great pitcher out of Mike Timlin. This line came in an Orioles blowout of the Mariners. With a 14-5 lead, Timlin made things interesting before giving way to Arthur Rhodes, who did manage to shut the door.

The Orioles seem intent on trying to retread all the broken pieces of the Mariner bullpen of the last couple of years, and it's a miserable failure of an experiment. Norm Charlton last year -- awful. Heathcliff Slocumb -- no better and released (although doing OK so far in St. Louis).

Mike Timlin -- well, you be the judge...

The Headhunter ("No I'm not!")

Jaret Wright, Cleveland
Date	Result	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
5/28	L (4-3)	3.2	9	8	8	1	1	2	6.95

Only on a rampaging offensive club like this year's Indians could a team afford the luxury of a guy with an ERA like Wright's. Wright made sure the game was well out of reach early, with the Tribe eventually losing the game 12-5 to the Red Sox. Home runs to Nomar and Mike Stanley, as well as a double, ensured this was a rout. The Indians' cause wasn't helped by Rich DeLucia, who relieved Wright in the fourth and gave up two more homers. Tough day at the office all round.

The Hard Luck Boys

Here are two guys laboring in obscurity down in San Diego. What's ugly here isn't the pitching of these two Padres, it's the guys that swing the lumber in support of them. And I didn't have to consult Nancy Drew to figure that out.

Andy Ashby, San Diego
Date	Result	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
6/1	W (6-3)	5.0*	3	0	0	1	4	0	3.82

* Complete game

After a lousy start in Mexico to kick off the season, Ashby has returned to his usual reliable self. Prior to this game, he'd had a couple of poor outings, coughing up a lot of baserunners.

But here, he finally figures out what it takes to win a game with the lousy Padres offense behind him. Get one run in, hold the opposition scoreless, and pray for rain after five innings. It doesn't work very often, but it paid off here.

Woody Williams, San Diego
Date	Result	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
5/26	ND (2-2)	7.0	6	1	1	0	7	0	3.25

What does Williams have to do to get a win around here? This was the third time he'd gone six or more innings while giving up only one run, without a win to show for it. He's the poster boy victim of the inept San Diego offense. In a not-so-great (but hardly terrible) follow-up game, Williams gave up four runs on Monday and lost the game to drop his record to 2-3. What a shame.

The Goat Redeemed

Carlos Perez, Los Angeles
Date	Result	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
5/29	W, 2-6	5.0	3	0	0	2	3	0	5.73

Even being kind, it's hard to say much nice about Carlos Perez' performance this year. This outing wasn't exactly Cy Young caliber, but it was enough to get the poor guy a second win. Perhaps it was only fitting that this game should match him up with the equally maligned Tom Glavine. Even at that, it took two unearned runs in the fifth to get a lead. Obviously, Davey Johnson figured he'd stretched his luck as far as it would go, and yanked Perez for a veritable Dodger bullpen parade. Arnold, Borbon, Mills and Shaw held on, despite a solo homer given up in the eighth to Chipper Jones by Alan Mills.

about the author

Dave Paisley has always wondered how a team consisting of mid-70s Reds scrubs would do against Jesse Orosco and nine John Vander Wals. He is going to let the Reds scrubs' lawyer negotiate a royalty first at drdjp@strikethree.com.