Valdes Puts the Cardinals in Focus

Ismael Valdes admittedly struggles to remain focused, and his problem has caused frustration in the Dodger organization.

His teammates have questioned his mental toughness, and perplexed team officials have waited for Valdes to mature.

Maybe that time has arrived.

The right-hander continued his recent improvement Thursday night in a 8-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before 35,324 at Busch Stadium.

On a humid night, Valdes (7-9) pitched seven impressive innings in making his seventh consecutive quality start.

The Dodgers staked Valdes to a 7-0 lead after four innings, highlighted by a solo home run by Gary Sheffield--his 16th--in the third and a three-run homer by Raul Mondesi--his team-leading 21st--in the Dodgers’ four-run fourth.

Darren Hall pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and Jeff Shaw did the same in the ninth as the Dodgers moved a game above .500 at 48-47. Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire went hitless in four at-bats and remained at 40 homers in his pursuit of Roger Maris’ single-season record of 61.

But the talk was of Valdes, who was on his game Thursday night.

“He was outstanding,” Manager Glenn Hoffman said. “He mixed his pitches, he had good movement and good velocity.

“He was really locked in, and you could see that. He’s been giving us that a lot lately, and that’s huge.”

Valdes gave up six hits and was only in trouble during the sixth inning, when he gave up two runs, one on a one-out double by Ray Lankford and the other on a two-out single by Brian Jordan. He struck out eight without a walk while throwing 102 pitches, 72 for strikes.

Valdes had a run-scoring single in the fourth against Cardinal starter Kent Mercker (5-7), who was charged with five runs in 3 1/3 innings. Valdes scored on Mondesi’s shot to left-center against reliever Bobby Witt.

His overall performance was especially impressive because the temperature was 91 degrees at game time.

“That’s what we needed,” Mondesi said. “We gave him some runs early, and that helped his confidence, and he pitched a good game.

“He’s been pitching [well], and that’s helps the whole team.”

Of course, that isn’t surprising with Valdes these days.

In his last seven starts, Valdes is 3-2 with a 2.37 earned-run average.

The Dodgers scored 11 runs in his losses and no-decisions during that span.

He has lowered his ERA to 4.12, and emerged as a leader among the starting staff since Ramon Martinez suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in June.

Valdes said the reason for his success is simple.

“I just have to always be focused,” said Valdes, who wore a jersey without his name on the back because his jerseys weren’t packed.

“I have to concentrate on every pitch, on every out in every inning. If I just do that and do my best, everything will take care of itself.”

Tom Prince was Valdes’ batterymate because Hoffman gave Charles Johnson the night off. Prince said Valdes was in command from the outset Thursday, which has been the pattern recently.

“His confidence is up and his concentration is better,” said Prince, who went two for four. “You get those two things going with his control, and you can do a lot.”

Prince said the key for Valdes is to pitch intelligently when he’s not working with his best stuff.

“There are going to be times when you’re not feeling good physically and mentally,” Prince said.

“I think he’s learning that he just has to go out there every fifth day and battle with what he has.”

Pitching coach Charlie Hough said that’s happening.

“I haven’t done anything different with him mechanically, he’s just getting more comfortable mentally,” Hough said.

“Mentally, he’s taking charge out there.

“He looks like he’s ready to go beat someone. I guess he’s just starting to mature on his own.”

The Dodgers can only hope.