Torres must hang tough for Brewers
Posted: Friday, September 19, 2008 3:25 PM
Watching the highlights of Milwaukee’s meltdown loss at Wrigley Field Thursday brought back memories 15 years old. And I know that Dusty Baker, Will Clark, Robby Thompson, Dave Righetti and dozens more players and staff of the Giants as well as many San Francisco fans had a collective flashback to the final day of the 1993 season as they got word that the Cubs – down by four in the ninth and down to their last out – rallied to tie the Brewers (Chicago eventually won in 12 innings).
But back to that fateful day in 1993. With no viable options, a fault squarely caused by management, Baker, then the Giants’ skipper, gave the ball to 21-year-old Salomon Torres for the do-or-die game at Dodger Stadium. The Giants had 103 wins but knew they needed one more to force a playoff with Atlanta. It was baseball’s last great race -- winner-take-all -- before the introduction of the wild card.
Torres was the organization’s great hope, an arm of such promise that the Giants refused to trade him for Dennis Martinez in July, a poor decision that may well have cost them a postseason berth.
That day at Dodger Stadium, not surprisingly, Torres was not ready for the moment. He was knocked out in the third inning and although the Giants’ bullpen was horrid and allowed the game to spiral beyond reach, Torres became the symbol of the abrupt end to a fine season.
The hangover lingered with Torres. He could never again pitch in San Francisco without the cloud of that day hovering above. By 1995 he was in Seattle and in 1998 he returned to his native Dominican Republic where he entered the Jehovah’s Witness ministry.
There were three years where he didn’t throw a pitch as he worked for Montreal as a roving instructor in the Dominican Republic. In 2001 he gave pitching a second chance in Korea. And the following year, Dave Littlefield, a former Montreal executive who became the Pirates general manager, signed Torres to a minor-league deal.
After five years in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee grabbed him via free agency for bullpen depth. But the Brewers’ closer Eric Gagne failed in that role and by May Torres was Gagne’s replacement. Again he assumed a role only through poor judgment by management.
To his credit, Torres has performed well as the Brewers’ closer. He has 27 saves in 33 opportunities with a respectable 1.3 WHIP. Not Mariano Rivera numbers but as much as Torres could reasonably be expected to contribute. Then came Thursday. The Brewers are fighting for their lives in the playoff chase and a day after losing Ben Sheets to injury, they held a 6-2 lead with two outs in the ninth.
And then it all exploded for Milwaukee.
How do you explain Torres, a sinkerballer who had allowed only three homers in 75 innings, coughing up a game-tying blast to Geovany Soto?
How do you explain a potent Milwaukee offense forcing Cubs’ starter Rich Harden into 115 pitches in five innings, smashing rookie Jeff Samardzija and then going limp after the Soto homer?
How can the Brewers rebound, now 1.5 games behind the Mets in the wild card?
Fifteen years ago Torres could not return to the Dominican Republic after his start at Dodger Stadium. He felt embarrassed over letting down his team. He never recovered from the emotional jolt.
But now he must put Thursday out of his mind. The Brewers have no other closer. They need a lot of help, a dose of luck and the knowledge that at 36, Torres has outgrown and overcome what happened to him as the curtain came down on the Giants’ 1993 season.
FIVE MORE SWINGS
1. WHAT HAPPENED TO LONG RELIEF? Sheets was hurt Wednesday after two innings and the Brewers needed seven relievers to pitch the last seven frames. The Mets used seven pitchers to work the last four innings in Washington -- those relievers gave up four runs to make a one-sided game tense.
2. WHY JERRY MANUEL IS ADMIRED IN NEW YORK: After another wacky night from his bullpen, the Mets manager calmly told the media that all he needed Thursday was “(Johan) Santana for nine.” He said it with a laugh and that highlights his major difference from Willie Randolph, the man he replaced earlier this season. And you can’t help but wonder if that relaxed approach won’t seep into a team that was insanely uptight last September.
3. MINNESOTA STAYS ALIVE…with an unlikely win in Tampa Bay. Beating the game’s best home team is a must for the Twins to make their home showdown with the White Sox (this coming Tuesday through Thursday) meaningful. Urgency belongs to the Twins as Tampa Bay is assured of the postseason.
4. TOUGH POSTSEASON DECISIONS: Tim Wakefield was pounded Wednesday night and you have to think that just like last year he won’t be on Boston’s postseason roster. Wakefield is extremely popular and leaving him off the ALDS roster against the Angels last year was difficult on all parties. But it’s hard to see a role for him in this ALDS with the Red Sox set with starters Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka.
5. AN INTERESTING DEBATE IS BREWING…about today’s hitters and their propensity for strikeouts. Two players are vying for the title of this generation’s Dave Kingman: Adam Dunn and Jack Cust. Dunn had the two highest single-season strikeout totals until Ryan Howard’s 199 last year. This could be a fifth straight 40-homer season for Dunn but since going to Arizona and leaving the Cincinnati bandbox, his slugging percentage has dropped by 100 points (although his .865 OPS with Arizona is just a shade behind Howard).
Cust is harder to figure. The number crunchers will point to an OPS of .827, just a shade off the Howard-Dunn pace. But Cust does not have power numbers anywhere near the other two, his batting average is a woeful .228 and his strikeout rate is higher than both. How can Oakland, admittedly a powerless team, count on Cust in 2009?
BONUS SWINGS
6. LATE RUN BY…Florida, which has won eight straight and should finish with a winning record off of a $21 million payroll. Kansas City has won seven straight and is 12-5 in September. The Royals now have a better record than Baltimore and Seattle.
7. LATE FADE BY…Houston. The Astros’ recent run was blunted by Ike. (No blame here to MLB as it had to reschedule games). And has St. Louis run out of gas? A Thursday win snapped a seven-game losing streak by the Cardinals.
8. SPEAKING OF BALTIMORE…Melvin Mora joined Aubrey Huff as a 100-RBI man, giving the Orioles a surprisingly potent combo.
9. NICE TO SEE…a shutout by Aaron Harang Wednesday night. His season blew up after a four-inning relief outing on May 25 (ERA that night was 3.32, now is 4.70). The decision by Reds manager Dusty Baker to use Harang in relief was questioned. Harang’s performance deteriorated after he relieved and the Reds can’t have that hanging over their heads this winter.
10. BASEBALL CARDS DON’T LIE…Adam LaRoche is one of the game’s all-time worst early-season hitters. This year, he ended April with a .163 BA, 1 HR and 5 RBI. After the All-Star break, he has a .308 BA, 9 HR and 32 RBI in 143 at bats. To his credit, LaRoche has tried multiple methods to correct this problem. But games in April count as much as those in September.
Pittsburgh is finishing another horrid year, its 16th consecutive losing season and its fourth straight campaign with less than 70 wins. How can the Pirates continue to harbor a player who cannot perform early when this franchise so desperately needs a fast start?
