Dodger Pitchers to Piazza: Thank You, Masked Man

It hardly was a series that will enhance his chances of winning the most-valuable-player award.

It might have even cost him the batting title.

Simply, when you go to Coors Field, you can’t be satisfied going one for 10, hitting only three balls out of the infield, grounding into two double plays and coming away with one run batted in.

Certainly not when you’re Mike Piazza.

Yet, you ask the Dodgers, and they’ll say their all-star catcher played one of his finest series of the season and was instrumental in winning two of the three games against the Colorado Rockies.

While Hideo Nomo stepped into Dodger folklore with his no-hitter Tuesday night, and Ismael Valdes shut down the Rockies in the series opener, Piazza’s contributions were largely forgotten.

“People don’t realize just how good of a job Mike did,” said Dave Wallace, Dodger pitching coach. “He did a fantastic job. Mike has a lot of pride in his defense, and you saw what we did.

“Believe me, what we did here, we couldn’t have done without him.”

The pitching staff suffered its worst battering in franchise history during its last trip to Coors Field, yielding a .416 batting average and giving up 52 runs, 69 hits and 12 homers.

Piazza thrived offensively during that four-game series, batting .438 with four homers and eight RBIs, but all that mattered was that the Dodgers lost three of four.

This time?

The Dodger staff yielded a .188 batting average, giving up only 10 runs, 17 hits and two homers.

The Dodgers also won two of the three games, remaining in first place before their four-game series begins today against the Padres at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“People don’t realize what Mike means to this pitching staff,” backup catcher Tom Prince said. “You can tell how well he works with the pitchers. I mean, Nomo only shook him off once the entire time.

“Everybody talks about what Mike means to this team offensively, but he never gets the credit defensively. I mean, look, we lead the league in ERA. That’s not by accident.

“He studies the hitters. He studies charts. He’ll make adjustments. And the guy catches 150 games.

“What more could you ask?”

Nomo realizes he’ll be remembered for pitching one of the greatest games in the heat of a pennant race, but he’ll also tell you that Piazza helped make it all possible.

“He called a great game,” Nomo said. “He gave me the right signs. He makes me feel very comfortable, very confident when I pitch.”

Piazza and Wallace were the ones who talked to Nomo about pitching out of the stretch in the second inning for the rest of the game because of the slippery mound. Piazza and Wallace were the ones who decided to feature a large assortment of fastballs at the beginning of the games. They were the ones who decided to rely on mostly forkballs at the end of the game.

Nomo was the one whose name will go in the record book.

Piazza was merely an afterthought.

“I don’t want to say I’ve earned my money,” said Piazza, who’s batting .342 with 34 homers and 97 RBIs, “but I’ve come close to it.”

Piazza laughed, and said, “Nomo should get all of the attention. I don’t want to take any credit for those things. I’m not looking for any praise. But I take a lot of pride back there.

“I have a tremendous responsibility behind the plate, whether I’m hitting or not. Really, this whole year has been a tremendous challenge.”

Yet, for one evening Tuesday, nothing else seemed to matter. Piazza, realizing that Nomo’s forkball was moving more than ever before at Coors Field, started mixing up the pitches. He saw the Rockies’ confusion. He started thinking about the no-hitter in the eighth. And he wasn’t about to let it escape in the ninth.

Eric Young grounded out to second baseman Delino DeShields for the first out. Quinton McCracken also grounded out to DeShields for the second out. And Ellis Burks swung and missed at a forkball for the final strike.

“This has got to be one of the best pitching performances ever in baseball,” Piazza said. “It’s a night I’ll always remember. I remember seeing Ellis walking out to the car, and he couldn’t believe how much the forkball was moving.

“To me, the key was his velocity. When the fastball isn’t there, it’s really tough for him to just get people out with the forkball. It was unbelievable.”

So, considering Nomo’s success pitching out of the stretch, will Piazza advise Nomo to dump his famous windup?

“No, then he wouldn’t have his trademark,” Piazza said. “He wouldn’t be ‘the Tornado.’ He would just be ‘Tropical Storm.’

“You got to have your shtick.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

On the Defensive

Is Mike Piazza totally to blame for the amount of stolen bases given up by the Dodgers this year? A look at who was on the mound when the bases were stolen. Hideo Nomo accounts for 30% of the total.

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PITCHER SB CS Hideo Nomo 50 10 Ismael Valdes 22 4 Ramon Martinez 22 6 Tom Candiotti 17 2 Pedro Astacio 13 5 Todd Worrell 8 0 Antonio Osuna 8 2 Mark Guthrie 6 1 Joey Eischen 6 0 Chan Ho Park 4 5 Darren Hall 3 0 Scott Radinsky 2 1 Total 161 36 League Avg. 118 47

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