Blowing Smoke

“Welcome to the Jungle?” A more fitting soundtrack for closer Eric Gagne’s high-energy Dodger Stadium entrances might be that old Eagles hit, “Take It Easy.”

Because while Guns N’ Roses blares on the loudspeakers, and fans rise to clap and groove to the heavy metal beat, and pandemonium breaks out in a stadium that used to have the late-inning feel of a Montreal Expo home game, Gagne seems more like a guy headed to Lamaze class.

“I’m trying to relax my face muscles,” Gagne said, when asked what he’s thinking as he ambles toward the mound in the ninth inning. “If you relax the muscles in your face, your brain will be relaxed. If you relax your jaw, you’ll relax your brain.”

And all this time, you thought Gagne used the noise to whip himself into a frenzy, to fire himself up so he could throw his high-octane fastball through the backstop?

Not quite. Gagne appreciates the fan reaction, and he does gain an edge from the ninth-inning ritual that evolved as he developed into one of baseball’s dominant closers last season.

“When I see the fans getting on their feet, getting loud, it’s unbelievable -- I get goose bumps,” said Gagne, who takes a 1-3 record, 1.70 earned-run average and 35 saves into tonight’s game against the Cincinnati Reds in Dodger Stadium.

“I feed off their positive energy. It gives me an extra mile per hour on my fastball. It helps me a lot more on those nights you may not have your focus. You think, ‘These fans are really into it; I’ve got to give them their money’s worth.’ ”

But Gagne is careful not to get too wrapped up in the moment, lest those goggles of his steam up. He might get so pumped he’d lose concentration, as he did when he forgot to back up home plate on July 2, a brain cramp that allowed the San Diego Padres to score the eventual winning run in the 10th inning of a 4-3 victory.

Those kinds of mistakes are rare for Gagne, the starter-turned-closer who has converted all 35 of his save opportunities this season -- that blown save and loss in the All-Star game don’t count against his record -- and has a streak of 43 saves dating to last Aug. 28.

“He’s pretty mellow, low-key, even-keeled,” reliever Paul Quantrill said. “He’s intense when he gets in there but what has made him excel is, he has his head about him. He knows how to get the job done. He likes the hype, the buildup, but he’s not going to come out there doing cartwheels just because the music is blaring.”

Gagne would probably do a few cartwheels and back flips to get a few more save opportunities. The Dodgers have lost eight of their last 11 games, falling out of the National League wild-card race, and Gagne has had only one save opportunity since July 22. When he pitched the eighth inning of a 7-3 loss Thursday in Philadelphia, the closer came in only because he needed the work.

“I’ve got to get out there,” Gagne said, acknowledging the frustration that comes with a lack of meaningful work. “It [stinks] that we’re losing, but we’ve just got to start playing better. We have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to figure out a way to win and get me in the game. It’s hard to sit on the bench and try not to get [mad] because we’re so much better.

“That’s what [ticks] me off. If we were a bad team, I wouldn’t even care. I would just go through the motions and say, ‘All right, we’re not good, we [stink].’ But we don’t. We’re better than that. We’ve just got to find a way to win.”

When the Dodgers find a way to win, Gagne is usually part of it.

The right-hander’s fastball hits 98 mph regularly, his late-moving changeup has been devastating and his slow curve has frozen many hitters.

Gagne has struck out 88 and walked 13 in 53 innings and has limited opponents to a .137 average (25 for 183), by far the lowest among major league relievers.

But as Quantrill noted, “Every year you come to camp and see five guys with as good an arm as him.”

What has Gagne in baseball’s upper crust of closers is a combination of confidence and comfort, the former generated by his record-setting success as a first-year closer in 2002, the latter the result of the routine he developed during his breakthrough season and carried into 2003.

“It’s a do-or-die situation, but I don’t see it that way,” Gagne, 27, said. “A lot of people around baseball see it that way because that’s the thing you remember, the ninth inning. But I don’t think about that. I think about making all of my pitches, clearing my mind, and if I do all my stuff before [a game], that’s how I feel comfortable, how I feel positive, how I feel in my zone. It’s kind of weird.”

Not really. Baseball players are creatures of habit, relying on routine and ritual to cope with the stress and daily grind of the game. Closers, though, seem to take it to another level.

“That’s because we have nothing to do for eight innings,” Gagne joked. “When things are going good, you try to repeat yourself, do the same things over and over, put yourself in a comfort zone. If you do it right, you know you’ve been there, done that, and you take all the negative out of your mind.”

There wasn’t much negative for Gagne last season -- he went 4-1 with a 1.97 ERA and converted a franchise-record 52 of 56 save opportunities -- so the routine he developed in 2002 is the one he follows in 2003.

On a typical day at home, Gagne gets up at 10:30 a.m., eats breakfast and plays with his 2-year-old daughter, Faye. The objective, Gagne said, is “to relax, to not think about baseball at all.” After lunch at a Japanese restaurant, Gagne returns home for more relaxation before heading to the park at 2 p.m.

He gets dressed, reads the newspaper and then works out for two hours, focusing on his upper body one day and lower body the next, and mixing in 45 minutes of cardiovascular work each day. Once every five days, he skips the workout.

“I don’t work out as hard as I do in the off-season because you don’t want your muscles to get too tired,” Gagne said. “You need three or four hours to recover, and I’m done by 4 p.m. The game isn’t until 7 p.m., and it’s another two hours before I pitch. On days I’m tired, I take it easy.”

After batting practice, which runs from 4 p.m. till about 5:30, Gagne returns to the clubhouse, reads more of the newspaper and watches some baseball on television. At 6:25 p.m., he takes a short dip in the hot tub and gets a 15-minute massage. Then he watches the first five or six innings from the clubhouse.

“I like to watch where the strike zone is, because it can change, depending on the umpire,” Gagne said. “I also study the hitters on TV, because you see totally different angles than you see in the dugout or from the bullpen.”

He heads to the bullpen about the seventh inning and always gets an ovation. If it appears he’ll pitch, Gagne stretches his arms and legs for an inning and begins warming up in the eighth.

Chants of “Game Over!” and “Let’s Go Gagne!” accompany his arrival to the bullpen mound, and as his fastball cracks the catcher’s mitt, fans -- some are Gagne impersonators with glued-on goatees and goggles -- lean over the railing in the left-field pavilion and the box seats near the foul pole to take his picture.

That’s when Robert Cibrian’s job gets a little tougher. The 20-year-old Los Angeles resident is an usher in Aisle 57, the one closest to the Dodger bullpen.

“It gets a little crazy, and a lot of people start rushing the fence as soon as he starts warming up,” Cibrian said. “If they don’t have a ticket in this section, we have to move them out. He’s definitely raised the level of excitement in this corner. A lot of people stay here until the ninth inning, just to see him pitch.”

When he’s warmed up, Gagne retreats to what Dodger relievers call “the dog house,” a large storage shed with a few chairs, a television and a view of the field through a plexiglass window under the 360-foot sign in left field.

Television cameras usually focus on the window before going to commercial break after the eighth, and Gagne sits behind the glass, looking like a guy in a confessional.

“I’m nervous, real nervous,” Gagne said of the moments before entering a game. “I get sweaty. I’m anxious to get in the game because you want to win. There’s always a fear of failure.... I catch my breath, get a drink, and then get up and start running. Or jogging. It’s a sprint for me. I skate well, but I’m not a real good runner.”

Nor was he a very good starter. His numbers weren’t awful -- he was 11-14 with a 4.61 ERA in three seasons as a Dodger starter from 1999-2001 -- but he found the experience agonizing.

When he began closing in 2002, it was as if Gagne had found his true calling. From the adrenaline rush he got by throwing all out for just one inning to his signature fist pump to end the game, closing was a much better fit for Gagne’s personality.

“I go out, I throw as hard as I can, I don’t worry about mechanics or throwing six or seven innings,” he said. “I don’t wear myself out watching video over and over. [As a starter,] I got myself totally, mentally exhausted. And I had four days to think about that. Now, if I blow a save, what’s the best thing? I come back tomorrow with a clear mind....

“I’m myself now. I’m not trying to be different. I’m not trying to be someone I’m not. It’s just confidence, that’s it. This fits my personality a lot better than starting. This is who I am.”

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Now Hear This

Eric Gagne has converted 35 of 35 save opportunities this season. A look at some of his other numbers:

43 Consecutive saves dating to Aug. 28 last season, second-longest streak in major league history.

23 Saves at home.

12 Saves on the road.

0.52 ERA (two earned runs/34.1 innings pitched) in his 35 save situations.

88 Strikeouts to lead major league relievers in 52 2/3 innings.

33 Times he has struck out more than two batters in a game.

1.70 ERA, ranks fourth among National League relievers.

.137 Average opponents are hitting, the lowest mark among major league relievers.

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Times staff writer Jason Reid contributed to this report.