Two Young Pitchers Compose a Symphony

By Diane Pucin

Oct. 13, 2002 12 AM PT

John Lackey, a 23-year-old Texan of uncommon composure and unlimited competitiveness, handed off the baseball to 20-year-old Francisco Rodriguez, a stone-faced youngster from Venezuela who, said Ben Weber, “is way more composed than I am,” and who hasn’t been in the big leagues a month.

As Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said, a casual fan might have thought this was a triple-A baseball game.

It wasn’t.

This was Game 4 of the American League championship series, a pivotal game because the Minnesota Twins had their ace, their go-to guy, their sure thing, their Angel killer, Brad Radke, up to pitch. And the Angels had Lackey, who joined the big league rotation June 30.

All he’s done since is post a 9-4 record. His first start at home, against Dodger ace Odalis Perez, he won, 5-1. He was the winning pitcher in the Angels’ AL wild-card clincher, beating Texas Sept. 26 after Anaheim had squandered four other chances to earn its first playoff spot since 1986.

And Saturday night, in front of red mayhem, with the “experts” predicting that this was the Twins’ game, that Radke was going to even the series, that the 29-year-old veteran and his 11-4 lifetime record and 1.72 ERA against the Angels, his 6-1 record and 1.38 ERA at Edison Field, were going to bury the excitable Lackey, Lackey was an equal to Radke.

“John’s a competitor,” Angel pitching coach Bud Black said. “Yeah, John probably heard some of that stuff. It didn’t bother him. It just made him compete harder.”

Pitch for pitch, Lackey matched Radke for six innings.

Right away, Lackey was sharp. He threw 10 pitches in the first inning, got a fly out to left, a ground out to short and got Corey Koskie to strike out for the sixth straight time.

“That was big for me,” Lackey said, “getting out of the first inning so easily. It set a tone.”

Or maybe the tone was set in New York eight days ago when, as Black said, “John got his feet wet in the playoffs and learned he could do it.”

It was Game 3 of the division series against the Yankees and Ramon Ortiz was getting hammered. Lackey came in, the Angels were already losing, 4-1, and Lackey gave up two quick singles to Nick Johnson and Juan Rivera. Two more runs scored, Ortiz’s responsibility, but Lackey still felt culpable. “That made me mad,” he said, and he retired nine of the next 10 Yankees he faced over three innings.

Lackey didn’t let another run score and he gave his hot-hitting teammates a chance to chip away at the lead. The Angels came back to win, 9-6. “And I learned a lot,” Lackey said. “I learned in the playoffs that every single pitch counts. I came into a situation where I couldn’t give up any more runs. It was that way tonight. The way Brad was throwing, it was pretty clear that every single pitch counted.”

Behind every pitch Lackey threw Saturday, there was a purpose. He wanted to establish his fastball first. Then he worked in his curve. “He even threw a couple of great changeups to left-handers,” Black said. “We’ve been working on that and trying to get him to do that.”

In seven innings Lackey never let a runner get past first base. He gave up three hits, no walks, had seven strikeouts, gave up no runs. And that was good because for six innings Radke was equally good.

“That was fun,” Lackey said. “Going pitch-for-pitch against a guy like Radke. This is where I want to be. Going against the best. You can measure yourself. You can see where you’re at.”

And where that? “I think I’ve got a shot to help this ball club.”

There’s an attitude to love. Lackey was grinning, a devilish little smile. Yes, he knows he’s good. It’s fun to be good.

After the Angels finally scored, in the bottom of the seventh, Lackey stepped aside for Rodriguez. By now the Edison Field crowd is all in a lather when the young folk hero comes in from the bullpen. Rodriguez stares straight ahead, takes the ball and fires.

He gave up a leadoff bloop double to Doug Mientkiewicz, then sandwiched a ground out to second between two strikeouts. Perfect again, creating a playoff legend pitch by pitch. When might reality, and some batters, hit Rodriguez?

“Never, I think,” bullpen coach Bobby Ramos said. “Really, I believe that right now. Never.”

Scioscia, a child of the Dodger organization, a former catcher who appreciates the talent, both physical and mental, of great pitchers, spoke with deep feeling about his rookie throwers, Lackey and Rodriguez.

“I was fortunate enough to have always worked with a great pitching staff,” Scioscia said. “In the Dodger organization, everything was pitching. You see a young guy like I experienced, Bobby Welch or Fernando Valenzuela or Orel Hershiser, these guys had the same ice water in their veins that Lackey does and Rodriguez does.”

“I’m not going to compare myself to any of those guys,” Lackey said. “It’s way too early for that.” The perfect attitude again. Humility.

Earlier this year Ramos christened his bullpen the No-Name Defense. “I went to high school in Miami when the Dolphins had the No-Name Defense,” Ramos said. “I told Bud at the start of the season that our bullpen was as good as the No-Name Defense. We were going to be unstoppable.”

A touch of bravado, a dash of humbleness, a whole lot of talent. That’s pitching the Angel way, a good way that’s taking a team a long way.

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Looking for Relief

The Twins’ bullpen has fallen apart the last two games, while the Angel bullpen has remained solid. A look at how the relievers have fared in the four games:

*--* GAME 1

*--*

*--* Team IP H ER BB SO ERA Twins 1 0 0 1 2 0.00 Angels 3 0 0 0 4 0.00

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*--* GAME 2

*--*

*--* Twins 3 2/3 2 0 1 6 0.00 Angels 3 2/3 1 0 1 7 0.00

*--*

*--* GAME 3

*--*

*--* Twins 2 2 1 2 2 4.50 Angels 2 0 0 0 2 0.00

*--*