Cerutti Gets No Relief in the 11th : Angels Get to Henke, Leaving Starter Without a Decision

Three batters into Sunday’s Angel game and you wondered if Toronto Blue Jays starter John Cerutti would ever see the end of the first inning.

Nine innings later, you wondered if he would ever leave.

So did the Angels, who couldn’t have been happier to see Cerutti stuck on the bench as the Blue Jays began the 11th and, as it turns out, final inning of the game. In came reliever Tom Henke and out went the ball: first a double by Johnny Ray and later, a double by Lance Parrish to give the Angels a 1-0 victory and Cerutti a frustrating no-decision.

Go figure this:

Cerutti began the Blue Jay afternoon by allowing consecutive singles to Brian Downing, Ray and Devon White. Bases loaded and not an out in easy sight, what with Parrish, Wally Joyner and Chili Davis lying in wait.

Then Parrish grounded into a double play, Joyner walked to load the bases again and Davis flied to center. End of inning and end of almost all Angel scoring threats until the 11th, when Cerutti was confined to the bench after throwing 118 pitches.

“He got his act together and only allowed two hits (after that),” said Mike Witt, the Angel starter who also pitched 10 innings Sunday. “More than likely, that picked him up. He didn’t allow us anything else.”

Henke wasn’t as fortunate. An out into the 11th, Henke gave up those two doubles and the Blue Jays lost, thus ending a day that saw popular Toronto outfielder Jesse Barfield get traded to the New York Yankees and Cerutti pitch 10 shutout innings--and have nothing to show for it except a weary arm.

“You can’t pitch much better than John’s pitched all year,” said Blue Jay Manager Jimy Williams. “It’s amazing.”

What’s amazing is that Cerutti survived three consecutive hits without seeing a run score. Or that after those three singles, Cerutti didn’t allow another hit--an infield single by Kent Anderson--until the eighth. Or that Williams decided to take Cerutti out after those 10 innings and 118 pitches, in the first place.

“I’m sure Jimy Williams is thinking, ‘If I keep Cerutti in there, we’d still be playing,’ ” said Angel Manager Doug Rader. “There are 50 different angles or ways you could have gone with it. But you do what you think is best at the time.”

Williams chose Henke and paid for the decision with a loss. Meanwhile, Cerutti, choosing his words carefully, said he would have been willing to try throwing pitch No. 119.

“That’s approaching my limit late in the game like that,” he said. “But it was a nice day, a warm day. I was pretty much the same in the 10th inning as I was in the third and fourth.”

So could he have made another appearance in the 11th?

“Perhaps, but I don’t want to second-guess Jimy,” Cerutti said. “I think (I could have), but you get up over that many pitches, you don’t want to overthrow or stretch it out too much. I probably could (have), but I was tired a little bit.”

If Cerutti was upset with the no-decision, he didn’t show it. More upsetting, he said, was the Blue Jay loss itself, the sixth in the last seven games.

“We have too much talent here to play like we’ve been playing,” he said. “We’ll turn it around.”

While the Blue Jays, picked by many to win the AL East, continue to struggle, Cerutti continues to shine. He has allowed just two earned runs in his last three starts. He may be 0-1, but his earned-run average has dipped below 2.00.

“I’m pleased with the way I’m pitching,” he said. “If I pitch like that, I’ll win a lot of games.

“It just didn’t work out today.”