Super-Saver Sutter Is Suddenly No Bargain

These are troubled times for the Atlanta Braves’ Bruce Sutter, the world’s richest relief pitcher, who can find no relief for himself from a world that is full of problems.

Chief among these is his bad luck, as he calls it. It used to be his good luck, his split-fingered fastball, like the one he threw Thursday to the Dodgers’ Terry Whitfield moments before Whitfield deposited the ball over the center-field fence at Dodger Stadium.

A grim Bruce Sutter finished his beer as he sat in his clubhouse cubicle after once again failing to hold a lead in the Dodgers’ 5-4 victory. He tried to explain what he was feeling, then decided he’d just rather not try, so he threw a beer can into the trash.

“I’m through,” he said.

With what? The beer?

“No, you.”

Light and happiness have taken a leave of absence from Sutter and his ballclub, the Braves, who had shelled out $10.125 million over six years to get Sutter to pitch them into first place. They’re closer to last place instead, and although Sutter is not the only guy responsible, he is the richest guy responsible.

The Braves are going down the tubes, and Sutter is traveling with them. The Braves are within touching distance of the last-place Giants, Manager Eddie Haas is feeling some heat, the Braves’ pitching is next to awful and Sutter is experiencing the first real trouble in his career.

Haas said there’s really nothing wrong with Sutter except the bad luck.

“You’re talking about a guy with 19 saves and 7 wins,” Haas noted. “Everybody’s talking about him as if he’s a disaster. He’s not.”

Sutter, 32, just isn’t having the type of season he had last year with the St. Louis Cardinals, when he blew only 8 saves in 53 opportunities. After losing Thursday’s game, Sutter had blown 9 of his last 19 opportunities.

Sutter’s earned-run average in his last 24 games is 4.12, and he is giving up a home run every nine innings compared to one every 21 innings previously in his career. His strikeouts are down, his walks are up and he just can’t seem to get a break when he needs it.

“The pitch Whitfield hit wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that great,” Haas said. “It wasn’t up, it just wasn’t down that good.”

At first, Sutter attempted diplomacy when he spoke of his troubles. He said he feels fine, his arm is good and that he’s getting caught by his mistakes.

“The sun doesn’t shine every day,” he said. “Sometimes, you get them, and sometimes they get you. I make one bad pitch, and it goes over the fence. There’s nothing I can work on or try to correct. Some things are just going to happen.”

When Sutter was asked if he ever got angry at himself, he decided he would not answer any more questions.

Bruce Benedict, the Braves’ catcher, answered for Sutter.

“It’s frustrating for all of us,” Benedict said. “It’s frustrating and it’s sometimes embarrassing. But you come to expect great things from Bruce all the time.

“There’s no doubt he has spoiled every club he’s been on because he’s always been so good. His subpar performance this year probably looks a little worse than it really is.”

Some believe that Sutter is hurt by not having Mike Roarke around anymore, as in each of Sutter’s previous nine seasons.

Roarke, a pitching coach for the Cardinals, was the Cubs’ pitching coach when Sutter broke in with Chicago in 1976. Sutter regularly sought Roarke’s advice, even though Roarke was out of baseball selling insurance at Pawtucket, R.I., for Sutter’s first three years at St. Louis.

Haas said it would be smart to wait until the end of the season before judging Sutter’s performance.

“He won’t have the worst numbers of the short relief men in the league,” he said.

For most of his career, Sutter is used to having the best. He saved 45 games last season to set a National League record and tie Dan Quisenberry’s major league record. Sutter is second to Rollie Fingers on the all-time save list with 279, and he has led the National League in saves every year except 1978, when he finished with 27.

The next season, Sutter won the Cy Young Award. Three years later, he was the Most Valuable Player in the Cardinals’ World Series victory over Milwaukee.

But as he sits in his clubhouse cubicle, Sutter has three packs of cigarettes beside him, a fresh beer in front of him and another loss in back of him.

Benedict thought about what he might say to Sutter, who could use a little cheering up.

“He’s such a good competitor, but when things go bad, they go all the way bad,” he said. “I don’t have a clue why they do. If I did, I’d sell it, and then I sure wouldn’t be a player in this game.”