FRANK VIOLA : First-Place Twins Turned Season Around When He Came Around

A 2-5 start didn’t worry Frank Viola like it might have a couple of years ago. He’s having too much fun.

“I feel like I’ve been throwing the ball well since the start of the season. I just didn’t get a break here and there,” Viola said.

Since May 22, the Minnesota Twins left-hander has turned his season around -- while helping the once-struggling Twins take the lead in the American League West -- by winning 11 of 13 decisions.

“This year I’m not letting anything bother me,” said the 27-year-old Viola, who has had a history of letting poor play behind him affect his pitching. “I’m having too much fun. This is what baseball is all about, being in the pennant race.”

Viola did pitch well early in the season. Four of his losses were by one run and came against some of the best pitchers in the game. He lost 1-0 to California’s John Candelaria, 3-2 to Detroit’s Jack Morris and 1-0 to California’s Mike Witt.

“I don’t know what the reason is,” Viola said of his turnaround. “It’s just that I’ve been one run better instead of one run behind.”

Viola is a big reason the Twins are the leaders in the AL West. He had a 2.90 earned-run average, 13-7 record and 141 strikeouts going into Saturday’s scheduled start against Seattle.

The last time the Twins did this well was 1984, when they were in the AL West race until the final week. That also happened to be the year Viola first earned national attention.

He was 18-12 with a 3.21 ERA that year and was named the top left-handed starter in the majors by The Associated Press. But, like the Twins, his numbers haven’t been too impressive the last two years. His ERA was 4.09 in 1985 and 4.51 last year.

When the Twins fell out of the race early last year, Viola began some experiments that helped make him the pitcher he is now.

“Since the All-Star break last year, I’ve been able to come up with the good, consistent changeup that I can throw any time in the count,” Viola said. “That makes my fastball that much more effective. That makes my fastball look that much more overpowering, which it really isn’t.”

Viola, who was selected by the Twins in the second round of the 1981 draft and was brought up to the big club for good midway through 1982, once depended mostly on a good fastball and an average curve and slider. The changeup, taught to him in 1983 by former Twins pitching coach Johnny Podres, was his fourth-best pitch at the time.

Now Viola has junked the slider and rarely throws the curve.

“I went through about 20 different grips on my changeup. The changeup I use now is the one I felt most comfortable with, but it took me two years to throw it over the plate,” said Viola. He said that being able to hit the corners with his fastball more consistently also has helped him become a better pitcher.

Viola credits an improved bullpen -- especially the addition of Jeff Reardon, who came to Minnesota in a Feb. 3 trade -- with giving him more confidence.

“Last year I tried pacing myself, and when you start pacing yourself, not only do you give up runs early, but you tire yourself out more. Then you have nothing left,” Viola said. “This year T.K. (Twins Manager Tom Kelly) just said go out and throw hard from the start. T.K. is not afraid to use the bullpen, even if you have something left.”

Twins pitching coach Dick Such agreed that Viola has pitched well all year and that the new-found changeup has made the difference.

Such, who took over as Minnesota’s pitching staff in September 1985, said the changeup “has turned him around from a total power pitcher to a pitcher. He and (Seattle’s Mark) Langston are the two best left-handed pitchers in the league right now.”

Viola said he considered this his best season -- better even than his award-winning year of 1984.

“I’ve become a pitcher,” he said, “instead of just a thrower.”