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Sunday, August 19, 2007
A day when win bigger than history
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Notwithstanding the elbow surgeries, the shoulder inflammation and any other assorted aches that generally come pre-packaged with 40-year-old power pitchers, John Smoltz is quite aware that his biggest problems sometimes aren’t physical.
It happens. You pop a spring.
Maybe when a pitch isn’t working, you overthink, then overthrow. Maybe you forget you’re getting paid a lot of money to play a game. Maybe you let a visually challenged umpire get to you. Again.
Cleansing breaths, John. Pure thoughts.
“I want to enjoy what I’m doing, and lately I haven’t done that,” Smoltz said Sunday. “I’ve been hard on myself. I think I’ve had a fantastic year, with the quality starts and all. But sometimes I expect so much. Sometimes I lose perspective. I have to remember this is supposed to be fun and just relax. I haven’t done that in a while. There were times today I wanted to bite my glove.”
A run in the first. A run in the third. Smoltz battled thoughts of here-I-go-again. They’re to be expected, given the lack of run support he has received. Smoltz hadn’t been awful of late, he just hadn’t been dominant or lucky. He had just one victory in his last seven outings despite six “quality starts” (defined as three runs or fewer in six-plus innings).
Then came Sunday. After being slapped for two runs and three doubles in the first three innings, Smoltz, well, found his happy place. Fact is, he was Mr. Chuckles when he came to bat in the sixth inning. With the Braves leading 6-2, Smoltz cracked a joke to umpire Wally Bell as he stepped to the plate with one out and the bases empty.
“I think I told him that no matter where the pitches were, just call them strikes,” Smoltz said. “I wasn’t going to argue.”
Understand the desire to get back out to the mound. This was Smoltz’s best start since returning from the disabled list with a sore shoulder. He threw 118 pitches and felt like he could keep going. He went eight innings, allowing only one hit after the third, struck out 12 — becoming the franchise’s all-time strikeout leader in the process — and led the suddenly desperate Braves past Arizona, 6-2.
Smoltz briefly lobbied manager Bobby Cox to let him finish the game, but Cox didn’t want to take a chance.
“He knows me well enough that I’m not going to let him start an inning with 120 [sic] pitches,” Cox said.
So he turned it over to Bob Wickman, the man who ate Dan Kolb.
Wickman (who had blown two of his last five save opportunities) loaded the bases with two outs, before getting Orlando Hudson on a groundout. Nothing like a little drama to ruin the moment.
Smoltz downplayed the significance of the strikeout record (he now has 2,920, passing Phil Niekro at 2,912). He says he “had no clue” about it until somebody mentioned it afterward. But if ever circumstances overshadowed a career achievement, this was it. The Braves had lost three straight and four of six since trimming New York’s lead to 2 1/2 games.
Forget the team’s new sudden Sluggo lineup with Mark Teixeira. The bullpen was still a thrill ride. Starter Chuck James was looking more like a project every day. Buddy Carlyle had turned back into Buddy Carlyle.
The Braves didn’t just need Smoltz to win Sunday. They needed him to be a blowtorch. If he and Tim Hudson aren’t dominating, they’ve got no chance.
“I don’t think we can do it without me or Hudson,” Smoltz said. “We know what we can do if we get to the playoffs. But we have to get there. He and I have to win our games.”
The unspoken reality: There is no counting on starters 3, or 4, or 5 du jour. Maybe that’s why Smoltz has felt frustrated, trying to be too perfect.
It’s not about the shoulder any more. It’s about the head, which affect the arm and the mechanics.
He got angry at himself Sunday. He forced himself to take a walk around the mound in the third before throwing another pitch. But he recovered.
It was a day to enjoy the moment.
Next challenge in five days.
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