Whitson Slows It Down Skillfully

Ed Whitson’s new game plan is tough on his 33-year-old right arm, but who can argue with the results?

With his 5-2 victory over the Dodgers Sunday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, the Padre veteran made it three in a row since he de-emphasized his fastball at the behest of pitching coach Pat Dobson. His reliance on breaking pitches had the Dodgers off balance most of the sunny afternoon.

So did Whitson care that he could barely lift his arm after seven strong innings? Not with a three-run lead and reliable Mark Davis available to save the game for him.

“My elbow was on fire,” Whitson said. “I’m not used to throwing that many breaking balls. I told Dobber (Dobson) after I got the side out in the seventh, and he just walked away. He evidently went straight to Jack (manager McKeon).

“I used to throw maybe 35% breaking balls. Today I threw about 75%, and that puts a lot more strain on a guy’s elbow. But it seems to be working, and I’ll be ready for my next start (against the Dodgers Friday at Los Angeles).”

In his three-game winning streak, which has boosted his record to 6-5, Whitson has held the opposition to 13 hits and 4 runs in 17 innings. The first of those three outings was a rare relief job, made feasible by an off-day and the fact that he had a sore right ankle.

“He has learned how to pitch,” McKeon said. “He has learned off-speed pitches, and that’s what has done it for him.”

Dobson noted that Whitson had been successful with off-speed pitches early in the season, then fell into a rut of depending too much on his fastball.

“He got so he was throwing everything hard,” Dobson said. “He was throwing hard, hard, hard, and they were hitting him just as hard. We finally sat down and decided to go back to what he did best.

“The funny thing about this game today is that he pitched well even though he didn’t have real good stuff. He knew it, and I knew it when he was warming up. I was just hoping we could get him through seven innings.

“Basically, he pitched the same way he did the last time (against the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday night). He threw his off-speed pitches and kept the ball low in the strike zone,” Dobson said.

Not only did Whitson pitch the same way, he wound up with the same numbers: Seven innings, six hits, two runs.

McKeon said that he and Dobson had imposed an 80-pitch limit on Whitson after Whitson had been knocked out in the sixth inning at Philadelphia, May 30.

Whitson threw 80 pitches Sunday, but didn’t need mathematics to tell him that he had had enough.

“I knew,” Whitson said. “Why kid yourself? The big thing is that I’ve become a more complete pitcher. I’ve always been a fastball and slider pitcher. Now I throw a curveball and a palm ball besides, and I’m getting people out with all four pitches.

“When I was struggling, I was throwing so much hard stuff that it was taking away from my curve and palm ball. They were sitting on my fastball.”

Of his performance Sunday, Whitson said, “I didn’t have a good fastball, and in the first couple innings they hit the ball hard. I realized then that I had to concentrate on my breaking stuff.”