NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS 3, DODGERS 2 : NOT HALFWAY : Belcher, Once Caught in Middle, Adds Finishing Touch to His Game

Tim Belcher, made to feel like a not-ready-for-prime-time starting pitcher, wanted to be relieved of, not by, the bullpen. He was tired of watching from the dugout as his games were turned over to Dodger relief pitchers in the late innings.

He was angry. He was confused.

But he was also a rookie.

So what could he do?

Well, said Rick Dempsey, Belcher’s buddy and a veteran of 20 major league seasons, your choices are two--brood, or do something about it.

Belcher chose to do something. He requested, and was granted, a closed-door discussion with Manager Tom Lasorda and pitching coach Ron Perranoski.

That was 3 weeks ago. Belcher used the opportunity to express self-confidence and also to ask a pointed question: “When do I get a chance to win or lose my own games?”

The response was equally blunt: “When you start getting batters out in the middle innings,” Lasorda said.

“What could I say to that?” Belcher said. “I mean, you can’t get everyone out.”

But, he has since learned, getting almost everyone is good enough. In his 30 innings since the meeting, Belcher has allowed only 18 hits, 5 walks and 2 earned runs. As tonight’s Dodger starter, he will take a 12-6 record and a 2.91 earned-run average into Game 2 of the National League playoffs against the New York Mets.

Belcher has started four times since airing his grievances. His string of three complete games was snapped last Saturday when he was lifted in favor of Fernando Valenzuela after allowing only 2 hits in 5 shutout innings against the San Francisco Giants.

When he left that game, there were no hard feelings. It was understood that the outing was merely a tuneup for the playoffs.

There was a time, however, when the Dodgers figured that Belcher’s effectiveness ended about halfway through a game.

Midway through this season, Executive Vice President Fred Claire asked Dempsey his opinion on Belcher’s future as a starting pitcher.

“Right now, he’s good for 5 or 6 innings at best,” Dempsey said.

It was a candid reply, one comparable to a review saying a comedian was funny until the punch line.

Dempsey and Belcher are neighbors in Agoura Hills and car-pool mates.

“He was honest about it,” Belcher said of Dempsey. “And he was right.”

Dempsey contended that Belcher needed to develop at least two more pitches to complement his slider and 90-m.p.h. fastball.

“Before, when the game was on the line, I could count on my fastball and, most days, my slider,” Belcher said. “Now I’m also using a split-finger for a changeup and I’ve been working on my curveball.”

By using a larger repertoire, Belcher saves pitches. “When he gets his split-finger over and his breaking pitch over consistently, they don’t foul off the fastball,” Perranoski said. “He used to throw 25, 30 pitches an inning sometimes, and he’d run out of gas late in the game.”

Dempsey also detected a flaw in Belcher’s delivery that was sapping a little sizzle from his pitches.

During his windup, Belcher wasn’t making a full pivot, thereby limiting the drive from his legs and upper body. “I quit turning,” he said. “I wasn’t coiling up and consequently I was losing velocity and my location was coming up.”

Dempsey noticed the defect during a game Aug. 26 at Philadelphia. Belcher hasn’t had a bad outing since.

For Belcher, development has been a long process.

He was twice a first-round draft choice before signing a professional contract. Then, before he ever reported, he switched organizations.

Belcher, who will be 27 in 2 weeks, grew up in the small farming community of Sparta, Ohio. He was a catcher and infielder but wasn’t good enough to attract major college scouts.

So he went to nearby Mt. Vernon Nazarene College, a small school. He didn’t become a full-time pitcher until his sophomore season. At the end of the year, the Minnesota Twins made him the No. 1 pick in the June draft of 1983.

Belcher and the Twins never came close on terms of a contract, though, and in January of the next year he was a No. 1 choice again, this time by the Yankees in the secondary phase of the draft.

He signed almost immediately, and for a big bonus. But his tenure as a Yankee, through no fault of his own, lasted only 6 days.

The Yankees lost Belcher to the Oakland Athletics in a compensation draft. Oakland was granted the choice after the Baltimore Orioles had signed free-agent Tom Underwood, a former A’s pitcher.

At the time, baseball rules required teams to circulate lists of their protected players by mid-January. Belcher had signed the first week in February, though, and therefore had not been listed by the Yankees.

Belcher’s four minor league seasons in the Oakland organization were marked by strikeout numbers matched only by the number of walks he allowed.

In 1985, pitching at double-A Huntsville, Ala., he struck out 90 in 149 innings--and walked 99.

He also had recurring problems with a strained right shoulder. And even when that problem left him, his wildness did not.

Before his trade to the Dodgers--he was the player to be named later in the deal that sent pitcher Rick Honeycutt to the A’s--Belcher struck out 136 and walked 133 in 163 innings at triple-A Tacoma, Wash.

His control problem, fortunately for him, got lost in transit.

Since coming to the Dodgers, Belcher has allowed only 58 walks in 213 innings. This season, he has allowed fewer hits, 143, than he has strikeouts, 149.

Belcher says his control problems stemmed from trying to be too perfect with his pitches.

“It was a matter of getting a chance in the big leagues and finding out my stuff was good enough to get people out,” he said. “I’ve found out you don’t have to be Cy Young. You have to be consistent.

That kind of talk makes coaches and, uh, more experienced teammates smile.

“A guy with a fastball like his can get on an ego trip, think he can blow everybody away, and never make it,” Dempsey said. “Tim’s not like that. He has shown great maturity in accepting constructive criticism and learning from his mistakes.”

And if Claire again inquired about Belcher’s progress?

“He talked to me a couple of weeks ago,” Dempsey said. “I told him Tim had made so much progress it’s unbelievable. He’s gone from a 5- or 6-inning pitcher to a guy who can give you a solid 8 or 9 almost every time out. If he keeps improving, I see him becoming one of the top five or so pitchers in baseball.”

Belcher didn’t have a response to those comments, however.

“I didn’t tell him,” Dempsey said.