Wetteland Is Taught Lesson, 4-1 : Dodger Rookie, Back From Bullpen, Hit Early by Mets

The Dodgers’ resident wordsmith, starting pitcher John Wetteland, returned from a 10-day stay on the bullpen bench Saturday to offer a national television audience the following essay:

What I Didn’t Do on My Vacation.

He didn’t work on his curveball. He didn’t work on his pitching mechanics.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the Mets worked on Wetteland.

He gave up three runs in four innings as the Mets scored a 4-1 victory before a crowd of 38,453 at Shea Stadium.

The schooling of a rookie pitcher continues. This kid who read a flowery poem aloud at a team meeting this spring has been reduced to simple sentences.

“This stuff I’m throwing,” Wetteland said emphatically, “has got to stop.”

It was Wetteland’s second consecutive loss, giving him three defeats in his last four starts. During those four appearances he has survived past the fifth inning only once. He has given up 11 runs in 20 innings, increasing his earned-run average from 2.20 to 3.05.

“I’ve got to start kicking myself in the butt,”’ said Wetteland (3-5). “Today, I was terrible. I was completely lost.”

That was the reason the former reliever was moved back to the bullpen in the first place. With several recent days off, the Dodgers were able to juggle things so that the best four members of their five-man rotation were given extra starts. Wetteland was listed as the No. 5 starter and sent to the bullpen, where he was told to help out until they would need a fifth starter again.

However, he didn’t pitch in relief. For the last 10 days, all of his energy went into warmup pitches. He said he didn’t have the time to work on anything else.

“If I knew I wasn’t going to pitch, I could have taken 10-15 minutes every couple of days to work on things, to keep my edge,” Wetteland said.

“Throwing to stay sharp is completely different than warming up to come into a game.

“But in the bullpen, you never know when you are going to pitch, so you can’t afford to work on things. You can’t blow yourself out one day on the side in case you get called into a game the next day.”

So he did nothing to improve himself between starts, not a good habit in the major leagues.

“On days like today, it is highly evident the difference between this and minor leagues,” Wetteland said.

In the second inning, he had to throw fastballs because his curveball was nowhere near home plate. Kevin McReynolds singled to left. Dave Magadan singled to center, moving McReynolds to third. One out later, Kevin Elster’s fly ball to right field scored McReynolds with the game’s first run.

“They were spitting at my curveball (ignoring it) and sitting on my fastball,” Wetteland said. “It was bad.”

It got worse in the fourth inning, when Darryl Strawberry led off with a line-drive double to right. After McReynolds walked, Magadan looped another double to right to score two runs.

“We kept trying to find his curve, but it was never there,” said catcher Rick Dempsey, who doubled in the seventh inning off Met starter Bob Ojeda and scored the only Dodger run on Alfredo Griffin’s single. “This was a big learning process for him today.”

Exactly what he learned was subject to debate.

Tim Belcher, a starter again after being relegated to the bullpen earlier this season, said: “He learned you can’t expect too much when you start after being in the bullpen. It’s a hard adjustment.”

But pitching coach Ron Perranoski said that he doesn’t agree with Wetteland’s bullpen theory.

“As a starter, he throws every two days. He probably did that in the bullpen. What’s the difference?” Perranoski said.

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said Wetteland caused his own problems.

“You have to make adjustments, as when he saw his curve wasn’t working, he didn’t make adjustments,” Lasorda said. “I saw three or four curveballs in a row in the same place, in the dirt. You can’t keep doing that.”

“Next time in the bullpen,” Wetteland said, “I’m just going to do my normal work and if they need me to pitch the next day, I’ll gut it out. But I’m not going to let this happen again.”

He could be back in the bullpen sooner than he thinks.

Ojeda, on the other hand, gave up one run on four hits in seven innings to improve his record against the Dodgers to 4-0. Since Frank Viola joined the Mets from the Minnesota Twins Aug. 1, Met starters have gone 12-2 with a 2.04 ERA. The two losses have belonged to Viola.

After Randy Myers retired six of the final nine Dodgers to pick up his 21st save, the Shea Stadium loudspeaker appropriately blared the song, “Glory Days.”

For the Mets, who have won 30 of their last 40 games, those days could be coming soon. For Wetteland, they have never seemed farther away.

Dodger Notes

Rick Dempsey, besides hitting a double and scoring the Dodgers’ only run Saturday, was also walked twice. “Are those pitchers crazy, why wouldn’t they give me a pitch?” Dempsey said. “Do they think I’m Babe Ruth? Maybe they got my average backward. Maybe instead of me hitting .153, they think I’m hitting .351.” Dempsey improved his average to .164. . . . Reliever Mike Morgan gave up one run in two innings. In what is becoming an unhappy bullpen stay, he has given up three runs in his last 2 2/3 innings. Earlier this year, he gave up as many as three runs in only two of his first 16 starts.

Rookie outfielder Mike Huff made his sixth start after being recalled from triple-A Albuquerque Aug. 7. He went 0 for 3, making him four for 19 (.211) in those starts. . . . Dr. Frank Jobe, Dodger medical director, examined Franklin Stubbs’ sprained left knee. Stubbs was not placed on the disabled list but will be examined next week in Montreal. At that time, Mickey Hatcher will be eligible to come off the disabled list. . . . The Dodgers will get their first look at new Expo pitcher Mark Langston Monday in Montreal, when he is the scheduled starter against Tim Belcher.