Phils’ ailing pitchers throw well

PHILADELPHIA – The progress of ailing pitchers Nino Espinosa and Warren Brusstar took a dramatic turn for the better yesterday, at a time when the Phillies are considering trading for another pitcher.

Espinosa, who won 14 games before falling prey to tendinitis of the right shoulder last September, has been on the disabled list since spring training. And as recently as last week Manager Dallas Green was not encouraged by the progress Espinosa had been making.

Brusstar has not effectively been part of the Phillies since 1978, missing much of last season with a shoulder ailment.

"I made mention last week that this week we'd have to get off our duffs," Green said last night. "They took it to heart and worked hard all week. Today, both of them threw as well as we've seen them, throw, including spring training.

"Brew has had no pain. Nino has had some stiffness, but no pain. We put them on a daily routine of throwing and they've been throwing hard. It's mainly because I've paid attention to them. Every time they've thrown, I've been there, (trainer Don) Seger's been there and (pitching coach Herm) Starrette's been there. We've pushed them to their tolerance because they've felt no pain."

Phils’ bullpen has been coming around of late

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – With all the trade talk swirling around the Phillies, with all the attention that has gone to the superb pitching of Steve Carlton, little – if any – notice has been taken of the club's bullpen.

The Phillies' bullpen was perhaps the biggest question mark of spring training. No one could anticipate then that injuries to starters Nino Espinosa and Larry Christenson would have General Manager Paul Owens negotiating seriously with other teams for another starter in June.

Indeed, a spring training summation of the Phillies would have labeled them a good hitting club, with capable starting pitching and a suspect bullpen.

But during the last few weeks, Phillie relievers have been quietly getting people out. Last night's 4-3 victory over San Francisco was an excellent example of the kind of work the team has gotten from its relievers lately.

Lefthander Kevin Saucier, who has been known primarily as the guy who touched off a bench-clearing brawl between the Phils and Pirates, entered the game in the sixth with runners on first and second, none out, and the Phillies trailing, 3-2.

Darrell Evans was the hitter and, on Saucier's second pitch, catcher Bob Boone picked Terry Whitfield off second. One out. Evans then hit into a force. Two out. Saucier got the final out himself fanning Milt May. Three away, rally crushed.

"That's all anybody wants to talk about – the fight," said Saucier. "All I want to do is get people out. Right now, everybody's doing his own thing, everybody's contributing in his own way. I'm doing my thing, Ron (Reed) is doing his, Tug (McGraw) is doing his... It's not any one guy down there.

"The biggest thing during spring training was everybody said we had no bullpen. I think that's a bunch of crap."

Saucier got the win when Garry Maddox slammed a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth. All that remained was for righthander Reed to hurl hitless ball over the final three innings to nail down his third save of the year.

The performances are nothing new. In his last eight appearances, Saucier has allowed just three hits and no runs over 7⅓ innings. Reed has given up three runs In his last 24⅓ Innings, covering 13 appearances. In that time span, Reed has three saves, two wins and lowered his earned run average from 5.73 to 2.57.

Reed is not quite as talkative as Saucier. "I just try to do the best job I can every time I go out there," he growled as reporters gathered around his locker stall. "Go talk to Mr. Maddox, he won the game. Go talk to Mr. Green, he's giving out quotes."

Mr. Green, who also answers to the name Dallas, was offering his bullpen bouquets last night:

"They've done a helluva job the last three, four weeks. Kevin has been super. Ronnie has been doing a great job for us lately.

"Reed is throwing the baseball now. A month ago, he wasn't. I don't know why. He knew it. I knew it. The hitters knew it. I kept asking him why. We had two or three talks. It was like with (Dick) Ruthven (who struggled early). Why? He (Reed) couldn't tell us and we really couldn't tell him."

Maddox Lifts Low Ball for Philadelphia Win

Philadelphia 4, San Francisco 3

By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA — Someone asked Garry Maddox if he was a notorious low ball hitter after he golfed a Bob Knepper pitch over the leftfield barrier in the sixth inning to give the Phillies a 4-3 victory over San Francisco Tuesday night at the Vet. 

“When you have a .265 average you are not really notorious for any kind of hitting,” was the quiet centerfielders matter-of-fact reply. 

Maddox not only provided the major part of the Phils offense with his two-run blow, number four of the season, but also helped relief pitcher Ron Reed pick up his third save with one of his usual defensive gems in the ninth inning. 

With the visitors needing a run to tie, Jack Clark opened the ninth by reaching first on Mike Schmidt’s throwing error. Darrell Evans then lined a high, deep drive towards the left centerfield wall. Maddox was in superglide the moment the ball left the bat and tracked it down one step before he bounced into the barrier. 

"I got a pretty good jump on the ball, but mainly I was in the right place before it hit,” Maddox said. “You can't really worry about hitting the wall on a play like that. But when you’ve been out there as long as I have, you are aware when the impact is going to incur.” 

After Monday night's rain-delayed 7:36 marathon, which ended with the Giants on top 3-1, the Phils looked as though they were going to be done in a lot quicker last night. The Giants massaged rookie righthander Bob Walk for three runs in the top of the first inning. Larry Herndon walked and scurried to third on Terry Whitfield’s single. Clark singled Herndon home and sent Whitfield to third. After Walk retired the next two hitters on pop flies, rookie first baseman Rich Murray picked up his first two major league RBI on a double to right centerfield. 

With southpaw Knepper, always tough on the Phillies, the Giants starter it appeared the three runs would be enough. Greg Luzinski retrieved one run with his 13th homer in the second. Then the home team cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fifth when Larry Bowa singled and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Pete Rose. 

In the meantime Walk had settled in a fairly good groove although manager Dallas Green admitted the rookie was keeping him a trifle jumpy. 

"With Knepper throwing for them, I didn’t want the situation to get out of hand early because I didn’t figure we’d be able to score too many runs,” Green said. “I didn't like those long counts from Walk. But with some help from his defense, he managed to make the pitches he needed after the first inning. Then we got some great work from the bullpen, which has been looking sensational.” 

After Whitfield doubled to start the sixth and Clark walked, Green brought young southpaw Kevin Saucier out of the bullpen. His catcher Bob Boone helped Sauce immediately by picking Whitfield off second. Then second basemen Manny Trillo made a fine play on Evans. Trillo not only went far to his left to grab Evans' grounder, but then whirled and cut down Clark at second. Saucier ended the inning by striking out Milt May. 

That was all the work Saucier needed to do to pick up his third victory in three decisions since his team grabbed the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Then Reed came on to protect the one-run margin. 

Luzinski, who walked three times after stroking his homer, was on in front of Maddox when Maddox went down and got Knepper's low breaking pitch for the game-winning hit. 

It will be Randy Lerch for the Phillies against Ed Whitson at 7:35 tonight in the series finale.

Early Morning Baseball Can Be Very Disheartening

Tales of Hoffman by Harry Hoffman

PHILADELPHIA — Sports writing eet’s been veery veery good to me! 

However, covering the fun and games can become heavy at times. Take Monday night… please.

It started out dramatically enough. Silent Steve Carlton was involved tn yet another Masterpiece Theater performance. For four innings he subtracted the bats from the hands of the overmatched San Francisco Giants. 

Swish, swish, swish. Ground ball, ground ball, ground ball. Four perfect half innings at a very rapid pace. Could it be the night when this remarkable pitcher would finally grab his first no-hitter and give me a chance to record it for posterity or at least the readers of The Press? 

It appeared as though Carlton was going to give me plenty of time to do an in depth story. When the Phils went to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning it was 8:15 A two-hour game seemed very likely since John “The Count" Montefusco was also grabbing the ball and throwing it back to the catcher quickly for the Giants. 

Then Mother Nature bounced out of one of those stale TV commercials and did a number on Carlton, Montefusco, 28,000 fans and sports writers, especially morning newspaper sports writers working on a midnight deadline. 

Before the bottom of the fourth inning began the skies erupted for the first time. It took one hour and 28 minutes before lead umpire Bob Engel and his crew waved to the ground keepers to take off the tarpaulin and get the action underway again. 

The fourth inning finally ended, yeah it ended, four hours later. Once play resumed Phillie catcher Bob Boone provided an immediate flourish when he deposited a Montefusco fast ball into the left field seats for his fourth homer and the one run Carlton needed to acquire his 11th victory.

Two batters later the skies started dripping again. But actually the rain didn't seem heavy enough at the time for Engel to cause another play stoppage. But he did. This time it was three hours and 32 minutes between pitches. It was 1:27 AM before Manny Trillo came to the plate to face Giant reliever Allen Ripley. By that time all editions of The Press had gone to bed. 

But I was still locked into Carlton’s perfect game extravaganza and Veterans Stadium looked like a reasonable substitute for Noah’s Ark. Besides it was too late to see Johnny Carson. In fact the Tom Snyder Show was almost over by then.

Carlton, who had warmed up four different times, refused to jump ship without taking his best shot at the no-hitter, or at least the victory which would bring his gaudy record to 11-2. This was further evidence of the competitive fire that burns deep within this moody southpaw. 

Larry Herndon quickly eliminated the no-hit suspense with a double inside the left field foul line with one Giant out in the fifth inning. However, instead of showing strain, Carlton valiantly pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam to retain his shout. 

Then in the top of the sixth he fanned three Giants to bring his whiff total for the night to 10, keeping the big guy atop both leagues with 105 strikeouts. That’s when both Carlton and manager Dallas Green agreed it was time to give his left arm a rest.

"Everyone knows how much we need a strong Steve Carlton. That’s not much of a secret,” Green said. "We certainly were not going to burn him out in one night. He also knew he had gone far enough. Fact is he must have pitched about 12 innings including all the warmups.” 

Green called upon his favorite young pitcher, Dickie Noles, to protect the 1-0 lead the final three innings. Noles had not surrendered a lead this season. But perhaps the youngster was past his bedtime. He walked pinch-hitter Terry Whitfield leading off the eighth inning. Then the only bona fide long ball threat on the struggling Giants, Jack Clark, laced his 10th homer into the left field seats. 

The Giants added another run in the ninth and slumbered out of the Vet with a 3-1 victory. By the time reliever Greg Minton recorded the final out it was 3:11 A.M. The game, in fact, had taken only 2:36 of elapsed time to play. But when you add in the five hours of rain delays then it turned out this particular Monday night was not veery veery good for sports writers.