Time is running out on Phillies’ pitching

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PITTSBURGH – There is a strong, persistent suspicion that the Phillies' pitching staff is living on borrowed time; that it is just a matter of time before the injuries and inconsistencies that turned last year into a nightmare will come back to haunt the club.

Whatever hopes Manager Dallas Green might have had of using the same five-man rotation all season vanished in the first two months.

True, Steve Carlton has performed beyond all expectations and Dick Ruthven has shown his recovery from offseason elbow surgery is complete.

But some of the questions that plagued the Phils in March are still around, waiting to be answered. Larry Christenson is gone, succumbing to bone chips in his right elbow. Nino Espinosa, if you recall, was supposed to be healthy enough to join the staff at the end of May.

Espinosa, however, is still throwing on the sidelines, still experiencing the pain in his shoulder that cut short his 1979 season.

And lefthander Randy Lerch, who possesses one of the few sound arms in a Phillies uniform, has been a major disappointment. After last night's 9-3 loss to the Pirates, Lerch's record dipped to 1-7. He will remain in the rotation only because Green has no other choice.

Green, in fact, has made no pitching plans past the upcoming home stand, a six-game Veterans Stadium stay that, fortunately for Green, includes a couple of days off.

"With the of f days," Green said, "I'll go with Carlton, Ruthven, (Bob) Walk and Lerch through the home stand. Walk is the key, if he can give me the consistency I need.

"If he can't," he said, "I'll look somewhere else – either my bullpen or back to Oklahoma City."

So far, Walk has pitched like the 22-year-old rookie he is. In two starts, he has allowed 10 walks and nine earned runs. Walk has shown potential, but not enough for the Phillies to be counting on him to win big ballgames.

Some people think the Phils could solve their dilemma by bringing Dickie Noles into the rotation. Noles started last year for the Phils after being called up from Oklahoma City and was a starter during his minor league career.

It was Green who decided to convert Noles into a short relief man. And Green does not want to switch Noles again.

"Dickie Noles," said Green, "is a very valuable commodity out there."

Perhaps a more likely candidate for starting would be righthander Ron Reed, who started when he was with Atlanta and has been used this year in all types of situations, once entering a game as early as the second inning.

A third alternative is a trade. General Manager Paul Owens has made it no secret he would like another starter. For a time, it seemed Owens might have been toying with the idea of dealing for Houston righthander Joaquin Andujar.

But that trade died almost before it was conceived, the Astros deciding to keep Andujar around as insurance.

"I would like another starter," said Owens. "I think we can slide by with our bullpen. If we can just get fairly consistent pitching we'll be all right. I've been thinking the last two, three weeks about what's available. There's really nothing unless you want to break your ballclub up.

"I'm making phone calls all the time. Everyone I talk to kind of laughs and says, 'that's (pitching) what I need too.' Sure, you can make a deal just to change a couple of faces. But if you get to that point, I'd rather see if a kid like Walk can come on.

"The key right now is Randy. If he can bounce back, well. We're not any more desperate than anybody else at that position."

With the June 15 trade deadline closing in fast and no blockbuster deal on the horizon, the Phils seem to have little choice but to go with what they have and hope Carlton does not begin to wilt with the hot weather... and nope Lerch finds his confidence... Walk his control... Ruthven remains healthy, and so on.

Time, indeed, is rapidly running out on the Phillies' pitching staff.

Dodgers lead Star balloting

NEW YORK – The Los Angeles Dodgers, who will host baseball's 51st annual All-Star Game on July 8, would have six players in the starting lineup if fan balloting for the National League All-Star team continues as it has, the baseball commissioner's office said yesterday.

Dodger first baseman Steve Garvey led St. Louis' Keith Hernandez 434,592 votes to 179,274. Second baseman Dave Lopes became the league's leading vote-getter, topping Phil Garner of Pittsburgh 522,729 to 123,720. Shortstop Bill Russell opened up a narrow 263,188-252,833 lead over St. Louis' Garry Templeton. Third baseman Ron Cey, with 334,871 votes, led Philadelphia's Mike Schmidt, who collected 273,482.

Los Angeles outfielders Reggie Smith and Dusty Baker ranked in the top three among all NL outfielders with 286,867 and 256,384 votes, respectively. Pittsburgh's Dave Parker led the outfielders with 353,308 votes.

At catcher, St. Louis Ted Simmons outpolled the Dodgers' Steve Yeager, 260,042 votes to 246,327.

The voting will continue until June 25.

Pirates Put Down Phillies

Pittsburgh 9, Philadelphia 3

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Rookie Vance Law, Dave Parker and winning pitcher Don Robinson drove in two runs each to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 9-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies Monday night. 

The Phillies, who dropped three games behind first-place Pittsburgh in the National League East, held a 3-2 lead through four innings. 

But the Pirates, capitalizing on two errors by Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt, erupted for five unearned runs in the fifth off losing pitcher Randy Lerch, 1-7. 

The Pirate fifth included RBI singles by Parker and Law, who also tripled in the Pirates’ two-run first inning. 

Schmidt muffed a grounder by Don Robinson as one run scored in the fifth. With two out, he made an errant throw past first base that allowed two runs to score. 

Robinson, 2-1, allowed a two-run double by Bob Boone in the first inning and a run-scoring single by Bake McBride in the second. Robinson finished with an eight-hitter and singled home two runs in the sixth. 

Bill Madlock, continuing to play while appealing his suspension for a run-in with an umpire, had a double in four appearances for the Pirates.

When Carlton’s Away, The Phils Just Will Not Play

Tales of Hoffman by Harry Hoffman

John Ryan has a theory. Maybe he ought to stick to perfecting his top spin backhand so he can catch up to Joe Mohr on a tennis court. Maybe he’s ready to admit he can’t make up Mohr’s 20-year lead so why not spend some time theorizing about the Phillies. 

“The way it looks to me the Phillies are only ready to play when Steve Carlton is on the mound," Ryan was saying Monday before his cannonading forehand and tireless legs helped put a couple of Press writers to rout. 

“They know when Steve’s on the mound they have a good shot to win so they respond to that both in the field and at bat. When any of the other humpty dumpties on the team are pitching then they know they are in trouble and they play like that.” 

Up to a point my favorite tennis partner is right. There is no doubt the Phils look like a different team when they are performing behind Lefty. Part of it is psychological, some of it physical. It is true when the big guy takes his long strides toward the mound the Phils immediately become favorites to win. 

Thus, from catcher Bob Boone to right fielder Bake McBride the Phils take the field behind Carlton realizing if they stay on the stick and on the glove their guy on the mound will take care of the pitching. 

That word crisply covers the physical aspect of playing behind Carlton. Steve doesn’t dilly dally on the mound. He receives the ball from Boone, takes one quick look for the sign then rears back and pitches. That no hesitation approach to pitching keeps the infielders on their toes and even keeps the outfielders from reaching down and trying to pick up blades of astroturf.

“There is no doubt it's a different game for all of us when Lefty’s out there," shortstop Larry Bowa said the other day. “Through the years he has rewarded our confidence in his pitching with consistent performance. I can't say if we try harder as a team when he’s pitching. But he does tend to keep us alive because we are always in the game.” 

It certainly is a lot tougher playing baseball behind rookie right hander Bob Walk, who struggled through his Wrigley Field debut Sunday afternoon. Walk has the physical tools to be a big league pitcher. He is big and strong. His fast ball is lively and his breaking pitch can be upsetting. 

However, Walk can also be upsetting to his team. He is a fidgety type pitcher who doesn’t like to give up the ball until he goes through a funky routine. Then when he finally decides to pitch he never seems to be certain just where the ball will end up.

A pitcher can only get behind in the count so many times without being bruised and Walk has been bruised considerably in his first two big league outings. However he’ll get more opportunities because his manager Dallas Green is suffering from the shorts. 

Green has one pitcher, Larry Christenson, on the long road to recovery from surgery. He has another, Nino Espinosa, still trying to discover who kidnapped his lively arm of 1979. The manager also needs some help from a resident psychiatrist each time Dick Ruthven or Ranay Lerch take the mound. 

All this evidence tends to back the Ryan theory on the Phils’ pitching staff. But the bottom line is the Phils, despite their troubled mound staff, still managed to post a better than average 17-9 record for May — which was good enough to swing them into a pitched battle with Pittsburgh for the lead in National League East. 

Carlton, who leads both leagues with his 9-2 record, accounted for six of the victories in the month of May. The other 11 were spread throughout the staff. Contrary to Ryan reason, the Phils’ hitters probably feel they better be hitting on the ball when Steve is not pitching because it will ordinarily take a lot of runs for them to win. 

They hit over 280 as a team for May with Mike Schmidt staying on a tear throughout the month. The wonderment is, how long can the club stay in the battle at the top of the division with Carlton the only dependable arm?

Green would like to deal for another consistent starter, so would general manager Paul Owens.

 “Where can we find one. You find the pitcher for us, we'll try to make an offer the other team can’t refuse,” Green said.  In addition to Walk, the team has called up Dan Larson from Oklahoma City. He too has failed to assume the role of even a part time messiah in his first two starts. 

The Phils have two other live arms down on the farm in southpaw (sic) Marty Bystrom and right hander Jim Hughes (sic - I believe he means Jim Wright). Bystrom fell behind in spring training when he suffered a muscle pull and he has hot yet caught up. Hughes has been the darling of the young pitchers ever since he signed his first contract three years ago. However, crippling injuries have knocked him out of action the last two seasons. 

Right now the big and strong youngster is throwing up to his potential down on the farm. However, neither Green, the former farm director for the Phils, nor Owens plan to throw him into the big league arena until they are certain he is ready. 

“We’ve waited this long for Jim and we can wait a bit longer no matter what our problems are” Green said “Hughes is the kind of pitcher who can be the big man on a staff. So we are not about to force feed him to big league hitters until we know he is ready.” 

 “Okay,” Ryan says “how about Dickie Noles?” 

Noles looked fairly sharp in a couple of starts late last season. However, this year he has been kept in the bullpen by Green. 

“I like Dickie as a short or long man out of the pen because he has the kind of approach to pitching a relief guy needs,” the manager explained. “He takes the ball out of your hand and goes after the hitter no matter whether there are three runners on base. The bullpen is a most important part of the game these days. That’s why I want to keep Dickie out there. But I do admit my thinking could change." 

It may soon be time. 

Ask John Ryan.