Whitson Brushes Off Flu and Expos for Career-High 15th Victory

Ed Whitson awoke at 4:40 Sunday morning feeling awful. His head hurt. His body ached. He was burning with fever.

He tried to go back to sleep, but it was useless. So he simply stayed in bed, hoping, praying that this flu bug he caught would not prevent him from pitching.

“Maybe ordinarily I wouldn’t have gone out there to pitch,” Whitson said, “but I wanted this one so bad. I was going to give it everything I had, for as long as I had.”

There were times when Whitson wondered if he was going to make it. He even had to come into the clubhouse after the fourth inning because he thought he was going to be sick. In the seventh inning, he simply was too fatigued to continue, but yet stubborn enough to curse when pitching coach Pat Dobson came to the mound to replace him.

When the game ended, Whitson was still lying on the trainer’s table, but the scoreboard said it all: Padres 5, Montreal Expos 2.

Eddie Lee Whitson, the man who was given up for dead by the New York Yankees, established a career high with his 15th victory of the season.

“I’ll always remember this game for as long as I live,” said Whitson (15-9). “This game and the third game in the (1984) playoffs are probably the biggest wins I’ve gotten in my career.

“You know, there were a lot of people who wrote me off when I was in New York. I worked my butt off because I wanted to prove them all wrong.

“And now, as far as I’m concerned, I’m just getting started.”

Whitson, who last won in Montreal on Aug. 27, 1980, when he was with the San Francisco Giants, established his previous career high in 1984 with the Padres. But after 14 victories that season, he posted a 39-41 record over the next four seasons, going to New York as a $4-million free agent, returning as a pitcher whose confidence was shattered, and revitalizing his career this season.

He has emerged as the ace of the Padre pitching staff, and with probably eight starts remaining this season, has a shot at becoming only the 35th pitcher this decade to get 20 victories.

That, of course, remains a dream, Whitson said. He never envisioned that he’d be fortunate enough to come back this far.

“We know he’s 34 and everything,” catcher Mark Parent said, “but even if he doesn’t win 20 this year, there’s no reason why he can’t win 20 next year, or the year after. I mean, look at him. He’s got one of the best bodies in here. I wish I could look like that when I’m 34. Shoot, I didn’t even look like that when I was 18.

“He’s just got God-given talent. He can throw as hard as any pitcher around, or as soft as any pitcher around. Hitters never know what to expect.”

There was a time in Whitson’s younger days when that just did not hold true. His temper ate him alive. And the madder he got on the mound, the worse he pitched.

If it were the old Ed Whitson pitching Sunday, he said, he would have been knocked out of the game by the second inning. Third innings, tops.

His last start ended in an excruciating 3-2 loss when the New York Mets scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth. In the past, that would have left him infuriated for weeks.

“That’s the big difference between me now and five years ago,” he said. “I really couldn’t accept defeat before. I was a bad loser. I guess I still am, but the difference now is that I can handle it.

“Just like my last start, the guys in the clubhouse knew that it really got to me. It hurt. It hurt bad. But they got on me, just like nothing had ever happened.”

Whitson was brilliant from the outset. He retired the first seven batters he faced, 12 of the first 13, and 18 of the first 22. Just four fly balls left the infield through the first six innings, and not a single baserunner had reached third.

He allowed just four hits in 6 2/3 innings and cruised into the seventh with a 2-0 lead, and even after allowing a leadoff single to cleanup hitter Tim Raines, got two outs with Raines advancing only as far as second.

But Mike Fitzgerald hit a double into the right-center gap, prompting Manager Jack McKeon to send Mark Davis scurrying to the bullpen. He fell behind three balls to No. 8 hitter Spike Owen, and Dobson came to the mound, trying to stall for time. His next pitch was ball four.

Expo Manager Buck Rodgers sent switch-hitting Wallace Johnson to the plate. Whitson started to toe the rubber when Dobson stepped out of the dugout.

Davis took the mound and Whitson took the table in the training room. Two pitches later, Johnson was hitting a ground ball to second baseman Roberto Alomar, who flipped to shortstop Bip Roberts for the force. End of rally. End of hitting. Subsequently, end of game.

Jack Clark, who had been one for 19 on the trip, assured Whitson of his victory by blasting a three-run homer into the right-center field seats for a 5-1 lead.

“He pitched so great in his last outing and didn’t get it,” Clark said. “I wanted to make sure of it this time.”

Davis made it a little interesting before recording his 31st save, beginning the eighth with a walk to Otis Nixon and a single to Damaso Garcia. Dobson quickly trotted to the mound, and asked: “What are you trying to do, set a record for the least amount of time between pitches? Throw your breaking ball. Why do you do this to me?”

Davis promptly retired the next three batters, allowing a run to score on Andres Galarraga’s groundout and breezed through the ninth, tying Cub pitcher Mitch Williams for the league lead. It was Davis’ second-longest save situation of the season.

“This was a big game for Ed, and I think it’s been on everybody’s mind each time he’s been out there,” Davis said. “Now he can relax more, and not have it so much on his mind. Maybe now he can go out there and win 20.

“That’s when I want to be out there, I’d love to save his 20th.”

Padre Notes

There’s a marked difference in a team’s attitude when it’s contending for the playoffs or playing out the string. Just 2 1/2 hours before game time, third baseman Mike Pagliarulo was the only player in the Padre clubhouse. Two hours before the game, only catcher Mark Parent had joined him. “Where is everybody?” Pagliarulo asked. Well, since there was no batting practice scheduled Sunday, the team bus didn’t leave the hotel until noon. Most chose to ride it. . . . The Padres open their 1990 season in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, according to the preliminary National League schedule.