Clark Discovers His Own Monster in Fenway

So, Terry Clark, 27-year-old Angel rookie pitcher, what did you think about your first visit to Fenway Park Monday night?

“You can’t write what I think,” Clark told reporters following his 6-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox. And that certainly seemed understandable. Hundreds of pitchers who have gone here before Clark have thought the same thing, which, in turn, has left hundreds of reporters with empty notebooks.

From a pitcher’s point of view, there are many things to hate about this beloved old park. The Green Monster in left field, for one. For another, there are the wide, open spaces in right-center field. And then there are the weird angles of the outfield fences, which often play ping-pong with baseballs driven off them . . . and havoc with a pitcher’s earned-run average.

Clark, however, claimed to pay no mind to such infamous locations during his first start at Fenway.

The location of his pitches, though, that’s another story.

“That was just a terrible outing,” said Clark, who walked six batters in 6 innings. “I did everything I cannot do as a pitcher--and that’s walk people. Walks killed me tonight.”

Two of them in the first inning led to three Boston runs. Clark got one quick out and then got into quick trouble by walking Marty Barrett and Dwight Evans in succession. A single to right field by Mike Greenwell followed.

Instant bases-loaded situation.

Clark responded to such a situation by immediately wild-pitching home a run. Then he gave up a fluke double to Ellis Burks, the baseball striking the side of the third-base bag and popping over third baseman Jack Howell’s head.

Two more runs scored and Boston led, 3-0, giving Red Sox starter Bruce Hurst all the runs he would need to win his sixth decision in a row.

Hurst (15-4) limited the Angels to just four hits before leaving the game after seven innings with discomfort in his left shoulder. Hurst is a rarity--a left-handed pitcher who can dominate in Fenway Park--and Angel Manager Cookie Rojas knew Clark wouldn’t be afforded much margin for error.

“You can’t give Hurst too many runs to work with,” Rojas said. “The first inning was the key.”

Clark (5-2) exhausted his mistake quota in that inning, rendering meaningless the fact that he held the Red Sox scoreless through the next five innings.

Clark wavered again in the seventh--surrendering three more runs--and, again, a walk was at the root of all the evil.

With one out and Wade Boggs on second base, Clark walked Evans. Walk No. 6 would soon lead to Boston run No. 6 as Greenwell hit what can best be described as a bad-hop triple to right. The ball touched down in front of Angel right fielder Chili Davis and then skidded erratically away from him, rolling all the way to the fence and enabling both Boggs and Evans to score.

Greenwell would later score on a double by Todd Benzinger, the hit that brought Clark’s Fenway debut to a close.

“Six walks,” said Clark, shaking his head. “I can’t ever remember walking six guys (in one game) in my life.”

In his first eight starts with the Angels, Clark had walked just 15 batters in 51 innings. Before that, he walked just 33 in 113 innings with triple-A Edmonton.

“The whole thing with Clark is his control,” Rojas said. “He’s going to give up a lot of hits, no question about that. The key for him is that he usually throws strikes.

“You don’t expect him to pitch a shutout every time he goes out there. He may give up a run or two here and there. But, because he doesn’t walk many people, he doesn’t give up many big innings. He keeps you in the game until the seventh or eighth inning, all the time.”

Except for Monday, when the Angels were essentially out of it by the end of the first inning.

Clark insisted that he wasn’t intimidated by Fenway Park and that big, tall green wall that has unnerved so many first-time visitors to the mound here.

“The wall? I really didn’t know it was out there until somebody hit a ball off it,” Clark said. “I was too worried about throwing strikes.

“The wall didn’t bother me. To hit one over that wall, it’s going to be a home run in most parks anyway. I still have to throw my game. Tonight, I just didn’t have it. I couldn’t get into a rhythm and all the walks ended up costing me.”

If you’re looking for complaints about the layout of Fenway Park, run, don’t walk, to Chili Davis’ locker.

“There are spots in the outfield here where the grass doesn’t grow,” Davis said. “I don’t know about left or center field, but right field is really chopped up. There are a lot of hard spots out there.”

Davis was asked if he thought Greenwell’s triple had hit one of those hard spots.

“I don’t think, I know it did,” Davis said. “That ball hit something and just took off. If I tried to catch that ball, I would’ve dislocated my back.”

A career National Leaguer before this season, Davis was making only his second visit to Fenway Park. He says he’s glad this will be his last until 1989.

“This place is weird,” he said. “Some people say they see beauty here. I don’t see much beauty in any stadium. If I want to look for beauty, I’ll look at a . . . flower garden.”

Fenway certainly doesn’t fit that description. For Clark and the Angels, anyway, this park was no bed of roses Monday night.