Out of Their Control : Dodger Starters Were Victimized Last Season by Defense, Bullpen and Injuries

Like a general surveying his troops, Tom Lasorda drives his blue and white golf cart around the diamonds of Dodgertown, jumping out often to instruct players, pausing to joke with them.

“How many games are you going to win for me this season Candi, 15?” Lasorda asks Tom Candiotti, who is playing catch next to Ramon Martinez.

“Fifteen?” Candiotti mocks, “I could have won 15 last season. Count me in for at least 17.”

“How about you, Ramon?”

“Nineteen,” Ramon says.

“Good, that’s 36 wins I can count on,” Lasorda says, driving off.

This is one of those times Lasorda isn’t joking.

*

Lost in the mire of last season was a Dodger pitching rotation that was basically solid. None of the starters had a winning record or an earned-run average under 3.00, but they could not be blamed for the numbers that define the club’s season: 99 defeats and 174 errors.

When you are pitching for a team whose power is benched with injuries, a defense that should have been benched, and a bullpen without an ace closer, what can anyone expect?

Try misery.

“When you would go out there, you would just want to strike everybody out,” Martinez said.

The pitching staff ranked sixth in the National League in ERA, the offense ninth and the defense last. Even Kevin Gross’ 2-0 no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants got a little lost in the maze.

“As a pitcher, we knew we were dealing with one or two runs to work with, so it was like we were always pitching in the ninth inning,” Candiotti said. “It probably made us better pitchers because we had to bear down so hard.”

Not that the pitchers expected bad defense, but there were few rewards for getting opponents to hit ground balls. Even Gross’ strikeout style didn’t always work.

In one game, he struck out 12, gave up one earned run in seven innings and still lost, 3-0. He ended the season with 158 strikeouts, ninth in the league, and averaged nearly seven strikeouts every nine innings. He had three shutouts and still finished with an 8-13 record. He has not had a winning record since 1985.

‘The pitchers stuck together to do our job,” Gross said. “It was no secret what was happening, but you can’t dwell on the defense or the injuries. Everybody tried. All the great pitchers seem to win their games. I know I pitched better than my record, but to win big, you have to be in the right place at the right time.”

All things being equal, pitching coach Ron Perranoski says this season could be the right time.

“We have potentially four 20-game winners,” Perranoski said. “And the fifth starter is going to be either Pedro Astacio or Pedro Martinez, younger brother of Ramon, who are both young and not established, so you don’t know what is going to happen.

“But a healthy Orel Hershiser and Ramon, who wasn’t healthy all of last year, and Candiotti and Kevin Gross, these guys are going to pitch over 200 innings, so we have a chance to do something.”

Those six, all right-handers, have been impressive in exhibitions. The lack of a left-handed starter might hurt, but Gross says the staff will be equal to the task.

“I think we have equalizers,” he said.

In eight games this spring, the four returning starters have given up five earned runs and have a 1.86 ERA. So far, there is no ace. Instead, as Candiotti says, it’s more like “pitching by committee.”

“All four of us have been opening-day pitchers,” Candiotti said. “They could throw any one of us out there this year.”

Hershiser, who had major shoulder surgery in 1990, is pitching with the intensity and precision of old.

“The dean of the staff and leader of the ballclub is Orel, who would have been the ace had he been healthy his whole career,” Perranoski said. “But this season an ace could emerge if one of them becomes steady and dominant.”

Hershiser says that he feels more natural and consistent with each game, and no longer has to concentrate on how his arm feels. In his latest stint, he struck out six in four scoreless innings. And he has yet to throw a changeup, his most effective pitch last season.

“All of the pitchers are varied in style, but if Orel pitches, then he’s the ace because that’s just the way you think,” relief pitcher Roger McDowell said.

Martinez, who struggled through last season before sitting out the final month because of elbow pain, has come back strong, married and happy. He has a new, more compact delivery that keeps his fastball consistent and lets him throw a curveball without tipping off the hitter.

Candiotti and Gross were the most effective starters last season and seemingly haven’t lost a step. Candiotti is still delivering a pitch that operates on scientific principles that few understand, or care to, as long as it continues to dance as it has this spring.

“I need every inch of this glove to catch his knuckleball,” catcher Mike Piazza said, displaying a mitt almost as big as a beach ball. “I swear that ball rises at the end.”

Last season was Candiotti’s first with the Dodgers, so there was much to adjust to, such as being yanked by Lasorda.

“I wouldn’t say Tommy had a quick hook, but you have to earn Tommy’s respect,” Candiotti said. “Tommy is a fighter. It’s like he wishes he could be in your body, pitching your game.

“So we had a couple of run-ins and I stood up to him a few times, and he respects that. I thought it was important for him to learn more about me and I needed to learn more about him and the National League. In the American League, you are out there until you die.”

Gross looked ready to pitch by the second week of spring training, when he was blowing the ball past hitters in batting practice. It is quite a turnaround from last spring, when he made the team as the fifth starter and then was sent to the bullpen after a winless April.

“Kevin proved he can win last season,” McDowell said. “He’s a workhorse.”

Astacio, 23, has impressed the organization with his maturity. But even more impressive are the four shutouts he threw last season, clearly giving him the edge for the fifth spot. He had a 5-5 record but a 1.98 ERA in 11 starts last season.

Pedro Martinez, 21, has also looked good, pitching six scoreless innings while facing a minimum of batters. He is one of four right-handed pitchers in the National League under 6 feet in height, a fact that might support either the difficulty smaller-framed pitchers have with stamina or the problem they have getting the chance to pitch. Either way, it’s a subject the normally happy Martinez reacts strongly to, even though the club says it has no concerns about his stature.

“I don’t have to be a model to be a pitcher,” said Martinez, who is 5-11 and weighs 164 pounds. “I’m normal. I’m a man. I’m just skinny. I prefer that to being fat.”

Martinez says that brothers Ramon and younger brother Jesus, who is also a pitcher, are the tallest in his family at 6-4 and 6-2, respectively.

“Everybody else (in the family) is smaller, so I am the normal one,” Pedro said.

Martinez’s candor fits well with the pitchers. Candiotti says they can say anything to each other.

“I think a season like last year brings you closer together,” Gross said.

And what will Gross do if this season he finally posts a winning record?

“I might have a party.” he said.