Green optimistic as Phils lose

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – Cheer up. Things are not nearly as bad as they seem with the Phillies.

At least, that was the message Manager Dallas Green delivered last night after his club fell to the Dodgers, 8-4, in Veterans Stadium for the second straight time.

The loss, the Phils' fourth in their last five games and fifth on a nine-game home stand that concludes tonight, kept them 3 games behind the Pirates, who obligingly lost to Atlanta, in the National League East Division standings.

"THINGS AREN'T as bad as they seem to be," Green declared after the Dodgers abused starter Bob Walk for five runs in 2⅓ innings. "We're still only two down in the loss column (to the Pirates) and we're still hitting the ball decently.

"If we get somebody to get them out and play a little bit tighter baseball, we'll be in good shape, I think."

Getting somebody out was not the forte of Walk, who allowed four hits and four walks to the 14 batters he faced before being knocked out in the midst of a four-run Dodger third that broke the game open.

This latest of four-run Dodger innings was accomplished without anybody disrupting an intentional walk with a base hit, any pitchers hitting batters or any bench-clearing brawls. So the 35,358 Vet fans were forced to draw their excitement from the game itself.

THERE REALLY weren't a whole lot of thrills to it, though, after Davey Lopes opened the third with a walk. Walk – the pitcher, not the result – next ran his fifth of seven three-ball counts to former Phil Jay Johnstone, who tripled to left-center field to score Lopes and give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.

Walk would then relinquish – with only a Steve Garvey ground out to break the string – an RBI single to Dusty Baker on a 3-1 pitch and a six-pitch walk to Ron Cey.

Green, who has gone to his bullpen 13 times in the last week, called on lefthander Randy Lerch to prevent further damage. But it wasn't to be. Lerch gave up a couple of RBI singles before striking out Dodger starter Rick Sutcliffe to finally end the inning.

Indeed, the perils of Lerch continued in the fourth when he walked Johnstone and yielded a home run to Baker. It was Baker's 25th homer – third off Lerch – this season.

"HE (LERCH) got squeezed on one guy," said Green, referring to the size of home plate umpire Paul Pryor's strike zone. "There were some breaking balls that I thought could have been strikes. Keith (Moreland) said they were both over the plate.

"If you get those pitches, get the out, things start to come a little bit. If you don't, then you're just back into that old 'oh. here we go again' type thing.

"It's not fair to the kid. He's trying to pitch his butt off. I don't know why Randy Lerch can't get it (a marginal strike) and I don't know why the Phillies can't get it."

Faced with a 7-1 deficit in the bottom of the fourth, the Phillies managed to mount a modest "grind-it-out" challenge.

MIKE SCHMIDT started it with a double to center field. Moreland, starting at catcher for the first time since Aug. 11, followed with his first of two hits. But it failed to score Schmidt, who had to wait while Moreland's line drive cleared shortstop Bill Russell's glove.

With runners at the corners, Manny Trillo's broken-bat ground ball to the right side was good enough to score one run, then Larry Bowa, pinch hitter George Vukovich and Lonnie Smith all singled to produce the other two.

The Phils would get five more hits off two Dodger relievers, but none of the hits was in any way damaging to Los Angeles' pennant hopes.

Ever the optimist, Green insisted on looking at the glossy side of a flat defeat.

"I THINK," he said, "we're in good shape. Naturally, we'd like to be doing some things better and, naturally, we'd like to be winning. But I don't think it's a catastrophe because we are losing.

"I'm not about to panic and I don't think the ballplayers are anywhere near that. I think they feel they're in good shape. You know, a win here, a loss over there, turns things around pretty quick."

Which is something his team should give serious thought to doing.

PHIL UPS – Trillo had a hitting streak stopped at 12 games... Pete Rose passed Tris Speaker, moving into fourth place on the all-time hits list with a first-inning single... Rose now has 3,516 hits in his career... Dodger catcher Steve Yeager has a chipped bone on the middle finger of his right hand... The injury may keep him out for a week to 10 days... Homestand finale tonight features Steve Carlton against Bob Welch.

Phillies’ Walk currently out of step

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – Pitching is baseball's answer to the close-order drill. It is a one-man march that must be performed to a precise cadence. One misstep, one movement made out of turn, and the entire exercise falls out of synchronization.

When all the parts of pitching fit perfectly together, an unmistakable rhythm is created: rock, pivot, release, follow through. The pattern is repeated, usually well over 200 times, during the course of a ballgame. It is a pattern Bob Walk has been struggling to follow.

Walk has been a pitcher out of step with himself for much of the month of August. He has won just one of his last five starts for the Phillies and, in his last two, has been knocked out in the second inning.

Last night, the righthander stumbled against the Dodgers, retiring only half of the 14 batters he faced. He worked three-ball counts to seven bitters, and all of them reached base. He allowed four hits – one of them an RBI triple to Jay Johnstone – walked four and, by the time Manager Dallas Green went oat to the mound to get him, the Dodgers were well on their way to an 8-4 victory.

"The only thing I can do is try to forget it," Walk said, hours after showering and dressing. "I just thank God the Pirates lost tonight."

Bob Walk became a major-league pitcher under less than ideal circumstances. The Phillies brought him up from their Oklahoma City farm club on May 25 only because their starting rotation was in disarray because of injuries. His raw talent and considerable determination won him some early games, and later he pitched well enough to earn the right to remain in the big leagues.

But the truth is, Walk, who is only 23 years old, should not have to learn his pitching lessons in the crucible of a National League pennant race. Indeed, if he has been erratic lately, it may be because of the pressure he is putting on himself.

"The last couple times out, I get out into the game and I just can't seem to find the groove," be said. "I've been kind of hot and cold my last five starts. I don't know, against New York (an 11-6 victory on Aug. 16) I thought I threw the ball real well until toward the end of the game. Then my very next start, San Diego (last Thursday), I go out and get knocked out early. I can't explain it... I don't know what's wrong... It's just happening... I don't know why."

The why of Walk's worries can be explained in one word: control. He has been consistently behind hitters, which is like using your arm to bait a shark. Opposing teams are well aware of Walk's inconsistency and, as a result, batters have become as patient as chess masters. They're more than willing to take a few pitches and wait for Walk to throw four balls or groove a strike.

To a pitcher, there is a vast difference between knowing you can throw a strike and having to throw a strike. And more often than not, Walk has found himself in a have-to position.

"The feeling I have when I'm out there throwing is the same feeling I had when I first got called up from Oklahoma City," said Walk. "Like, no matter how hard I try... It seems like the harder I try out there, the wilder I get. I'm doing too much thinking or something.

"I think real positive when I'm going good. I don't have any doubts in my mind that I can pitch here. It's just that, right now, I'm having a hard time figuring out what's happened to me these last four or five ballgames; why one ballgame I'll go out and pitch well and why another ballgame I can't get out of the third inning and why I can't throw strikes.

"Maybe it's just something I have to learn, I don't know."

Trying too hard, thinking too much. Those elements can disrupt the delicate rhythm of pitching the way a gallery sneeze can shatter the concentration of a golfer.

Walk has worked himself into a no-win situation that is more than a matter of fine-tuning mechanics. The pattern of pitching must be as second-nature as a tennis player's backhand.

"I wasn't throwing the ball in the third inning tonight with looseness at all," Walk said. "I could feel myself tightening up, my arm, my wrist. There's a groove you get in when you're throwing strikes…”

And right now, Bob Walk is struggling to find the groove, the rhythm, that will put him back in step with himself.

Sept. Swoon Starts Early – Dodgers Defeat Phillies

Los Angeles 8, Philadelphia 4

By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA – Even though his baseball team seems to have started it's September Swoon a week early, Phillies' manager Dallas Green has not yet lost his sense of humor.

"Welcome to the Ralph Bernstein Fan Club" was his opening remark as the media people trooped into his cubicle Tuesday night after the Los Angeles Dodgers had laid it on the home team again, 8-4.

Green was referring to the previous night's escapade in the same locale. Bernstein, the number one AP sports man in Philly, had asked Green if he condoned his pitcher, Tug McGraw, throwing at and hitting Dodger Bill Russell.

Green blew his top in the midst of the answer and wound up waving all of the writers out of the room.

Last night Green had plenty to be unhappy about. For the second straight start his rookie pitching sensation Bob Walk had failed to last through three innings.

Walk allowed five runs and four hits in two plus innings while absorbing his third loss to go with nine victories.

"Bobby has been trying to get too fine with his pitches. I guess I'll have a talk with him," Green said. "He just has to get back to rearing back and throwing the ball. He has good enough stuff to get people out doing that. He doesn't have to nibble."

Walk did manage to escape the first inning unscathed. In the second inning singles by Ron Cey and Russell around a walk to Rick Monday produced the first Dodger run. All that did was get the visitors even.

The Phils had touched L.A. starter Rick Sutcliffe for a run in the first on singles by Pete Rose and Bake McBride, a walk and an infield out.

Walk came unglued in the third frame. He walked Dave Lopes. Then ex-Phil Jay Johnstone lashed a run-scoring triple e to left. He scored on a single by Dusty Baker. Walk did retire Steve Garvey on a ground ball. But he hurt himself again by walking Cey.

Green quickly went to southpaw Randy Lerch. Lerch was unable to stop the uprising. First, Monday than catcher Mike Sciosia singled home runs to complete the four-run frame and make it a 5-1 game.

In the top of the fourth Lerch walked Johnstone and Baker followed with his 25th homer to make it 7-1.

The 35,358 fans received some hope in the bottom of the inning when the Phils routed Sutcliffe while scoring three runs.

Mike Schmidt hit the first of his two doubles. After Greg Luzinski took a third strike, Keith Moreland singled Schmidt to third. Trillo's infield out, scored one run. Larry Bowa singled Moreland to third and he scored on a single by pinch-hitter George Vukovich.

Manager Tom Lasorda switched to righthander Joe Beckwith. Lonnie Smith greeted him with a run-scoring single. However Pete Rose ended the inning by grounding out to second base.

Cey's 18th homer with no one on base in the seventh inning off Ron Reed completed the scoring. Right hander Bob Castillo blanked the Phils on three hits in the last four innings to pick up his fourth victory in 10 decisions.

"Things could be worse," Green said. "At least the other team (Pittsburgh) got knocked off again so we didn't lose any ground. This is a funny kind of division. If we can just hit another hot streak we could be on top."

The Dodgers complete their season's business here tonight and will try to keep Steve Carlton from reaching the 20-game win plateau. Bob Welch will work for the visitors.

Handling King’s English Trillo’s Only Weakness

Tales of Hoffman by Harry Hoffman

PHILADELPHIA – His name is Jesus Manuel Trillo. He responds to Manny. He was born in a little town called Caritito, Venezuela 29 years ago last Christmas Day.

He still resides in his native Venezuela in the off-season, and prefers speaking Spanish over English, which he fumbles far more than any ground ball hit his way at second base.

Maybe that's a major reason more people don't know right now he is a bonafide candidate for Most Valuable Player in the National League.

Manny is not an easy interview. He talks warmly and sincerely, but one must keep a sharp ear turned toward his lips to pick up what he has to say.

However, these days National League pitchers know what his bat is telling them. That story, is very precise - you pitch the ball. He'll try to hit it where you pitch it and hope to find an open space in the defense.

Trillo started Tuesday night's game against the Dodgers at the Vet with a solid .327 batting average that had him atop the National League, and has seemingly been hovering around .320 since opening day.

The personable infielder has been the most consistent stick wielder among the Phillies. He has not had a serious slump all season. Nor has he gone on a 30-game tear in which his average has jumped 50 points.

Going into Tuesday night's game, Trillo had hit in the Phillies' last 12 games, equaling a club high.

Manny likes to see his name at the top of the hitters' list, but he says he won't lose any sleep if he doesn't wind up with the batting crown.

"A lot of things can happen the next month. I worry most about this team making it to the playoffs and then the World Series," Trillo said. "For years I played on a team in Chicago that never won anything. Most of all I want to play on a winner.”

The .327 mark is by far the best average Trillo has ever displayed this late in the season. The best he could muster in five previous campaigns was a .280 at the end of 1977 for the Cubs.

Last season, his first in Philadelphia, Manny was hitting a solid .303 in May when Dodger Rick Sutcliffe hit him with a pitch and fractured Trillo's left forearm.

That kept him out of action for 40 games. When he returned much of the rip had gone out of his fluid swing and he struggled home with a .260 average.

"I really think the summer heat in Chicago where we played all day games was the reason my average went down July and August other seasons," Trillo explained. "This summer here I feel much stronger. I am eating better and holding my weight. I think there is no reason for me to slump. I better not. Then I won't be helping the team win the pennant."

Manny, for one, was glad to see Greg Luzinski back swinging a lively bat Sunday and Monday after coming off the disabled list with a bad knee.

"When he crushes one he helps to bring the entire bench alive," Trillo said. "With him we should score a lot more runs than when he is not around. It takes runs to win games.”

Trillo would not comment on the Monday night brawl which broke out between the Dodgers and Phils after Tug McGraw plunked Bill Russell on the back with a pitch in the top of the ninth inning.

"I think only about the game and how we can win. What happened then was not good for either team," was his only utterance on the subject.

Manny maybe had to worry a little bit about his own well being last night since the Dodgers had started his old flame-throwing buddy, Sutcliffe.

"I have to believe that was just a mistake by him or it would be hard to step into the batter's box," he said, "but I'll be there when it's my turn to hit."

When you are born on Christmas Day it has to be difficult to harbor animosity for a long time.