Eckersley and Thigpen Thrive in Closing Roles

When the game is on the line, Dennis Eckersley and Bobby Thigpen are on the mound.

No easy afternoons or evenings for these guys, no such thing as a large lead. Every pitch is crucial, each delivery critical, spinning toward home with the potential to blow the game.

They are the closers, the last line of defense. They are under constant pressure -- and loving it.

“Every day I’m stressed out,” Eckersley said, “because every day I’m prepared to pitch even if I don’t pitch.”

He began the weekend with a major-league leading 37 saves. Thigpen had 36 for Chicago, which is chasing Oakland and Eckersley in the American League West. Both are on pace to break Dave Righetti’s record of 46 saves in a season.

“Whichever one of us, or if anybody does it this year, I think possibly next year or the year after it will be broken again,” Thigpen said.

“I think if somebody gets 47, or whatever it is,” Eckersley said, “somebody is going to get 50 one of these days.’

The saves alone don’t show how extraordinarily effective these two relievers have been. Eckersley has blown just one save opportunity all year and Thigpen has blown only five. Eckersley has allowed just two of 24 inherited runners to score and Thigpen has allowed in four of 21.

They credit their success to the way they are used. Tony La Russa of Oakland and Jeff Torborg of Chicago seldom let their relief stars pitch more than an inning. Eckersley has pitched two or more innings just three times and Thigpen has done it four times.

“You can still blow a save here and there,” Eckersley said, “but if you had to go 2 2-3 or two innings here and two innings there, you would blow a lot more saves.”

Eckersley is helped by amazing control. For him, a walk is an event. He’s given up just three in 50 1-3 innings.

“I told him at the All-Star game, our lockers were next to each other, and I was hoping some of that stuff would rub off on my clothes,” Thigpen said.

“They know I’m going to throw strikes,” Eckersley said. “They have a good chance of guessing right, but it might be paint, too. If they take it, it might be a strike. If they swing, it might be high.”

Eckersley was a starter for 12 years before he was traded from the Cubs to Oakland in 1987.

“When they first wanted him to do this, he didn’t want to, because he thought it was a demotion,” Thigpen said. “Now, everybody wants to do it.”

Thigpen has been a closer since the 1987 All-Star break.

“I was a set-up man the first part of ‘87,” Thigpen said. “Then they tried to make me a starter and I left (Class AAA) Hawaii with a 6 ERA.”

When things go well, everything seems so easy for these guys. But the mistakes are impossible to forget. Eckersley will never be able to put out of his mind Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run in the opener of the 1988 World Series.

“It’s a glorious job, but it stinks when you give it up,” Eckersley said. “That’s when you have to appreciate those cheap saves. All it takes is one blown save and it’s devastating. I just can’t wait to get back out there. I just grind.”

Thigpen can’t let the mistakes out of his mind either.

‘You never do,” he said. “The biggest thing, like Dennis said, is to get out there as soon as possible. I remember one night this season, it looked like it was going to be a cheap save, 4-1 with one man on in the ninth. Nine pitches later the game was over -- two two-run homers with a five-pitch walk.

“The next night I came on with two on in the eighth, I get a double-play and a popup and strike out the side in the ninth. It helps you, but you never forget. I don’t think you should forget. I think you should remember those bad times. It helps you try a little harder.”

Thigpen says he’s tenser than Eckersley, that he feels the buildup watching the game from the bullpen.

“Dennis goes out there about the seventh inning,” Thigpen said. “I go out there the first pitch. I wish I could take the Dennis approach.”

Thigpen is trying to be on a winner for the first time. Even though Oakland won the World Series last year, Eckersley feels a tremendous urgency to do it again.

“We didn’t do it the right way,” he said. “The earthquake put a damper on everything out here. We want it bad.”

Now they are at the top of the stretch, two pitchers chasing a record on two teams chasing a pennant. The pressure keeps building and that’s what they like. As much pressure as they can take.

“I know Dennis probably wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Thigpen said. “The excitement.”