When Ishii’s on Mound, You’ll Never Walk Alone

When Kazuhisa Ishii pitches, Jim Tracy should grab the microphone and address the crowd like a pilot’s voice coming from the cockpit.

“Don’t mind all of those walks, folks. Just a little turbulence. We’ll be reaching our cruising altitude of six innings in just a little while.

“Oh, and because Ishii is on the mound ... keep those seat belts fastened.”

Seriously, is there any other pitcher who can violate so many of the cardinal rules of baseball and yet still help his team?

Wednesday night Ishii walked six batters and allowed the leadoff man to reach base in five of his six innings.

And he was the winning pitcher in an 8-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants that moved the Dodgers into a tie for first place and improved Ishii’s record to 7-2.

After apologizing to writers for putting them up against deadline (his high walk total contributed to a 3-hour 16-minute game), Ishii said through an interpreter, “I wish that I could relieve the manager and the crowd by throwing less walks. I want to gradually set higher goals.”

It would be so much easier if we knew exactly what to expect from Ishii. Is he the rookie sensation with the nasty curveball who started 10-1 last season, or the guy who couldn’t find the strike zone and lost nine of his last 13 decisions?

He was one of the biggest mysteries heading into spring training. How would he respond when he took the mound for the first time since a line drive by Houston’s Brian Hunter smacked him in the forehead?

For opposing batters, the book on Ishii is patience. Don’t go up there hacking away. Sit back and wait.

Against Ishii, a walk isn’t just as good as a hit, it’s as common as a hit. In his 14 starts he has allowed 57 hits and a major league-high 57 walks.

The Dodgers can’t afford to be so patient. Ishii is even more important now that Darren Dreifort is done for the year, with a dead man’s ligament in his surgically reconstructed knee. And Ishii might have to take another step forward if Kevin Brown’s groin muscle injury doesn’t heal quickly.

Brown believes he injured the muscle while leaving the batter’s box in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday night. He came out after pitching to one batter in the top of the seventh, with Tracy making it sound as if it were a major accomplishment to get the ball out of Brown’s hand while “not allowing him to even try [the groin], test it, do any of that. That’s it.”

On Wednesday Brown said he felt much better and predicted he would make his scheduled start Sunday. He said the injury didn’t affect his pitching delivery, but it could be a problem if he has to leave the mound to make a play.

Brown said the pain was more a sensation of locking rather than burning.

The groin area can be dangerous to an athlete. Dodger first baseman Fred McGriff has missed four games with a groin muscle injury, and Houston pitcher Roy Oswalt has gone to the disabled list twice with a similar injury.

So what if Ishii has to step to the forefront? Can he handle it? Can we handle watching it?

“It’s the same guy with the same very good stuff that he had a year ago,” Tracy said. “He’s capable -- just like any of the other guys that we send out there -- he’s capable of dominating a game. The base on balls is something that he deals with. But I do know this: If he’s able to avoid putting himself in position to have the base on balls really get into a situation where he has to make pitch after pitch to get himself out of jams, if he doesn’t paint pictures for the opposition and set innings up for the other team and makes them get hits off of him, he can dominate a game.”

Ishii has walked six batters four times this year. But he hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of those starts, and the Dodgers won three of the four.

Tracy says Ishii gets away with so many walks because he keeps hits so scarce (he allowed only two Wednesday night) and because he averages a strikeout per inning to keep those baserunners frozen.

“That’s why he’s able to wiggle out of a lot of situations that, to a certain extent, he puts himself into via the base on balls,” Tracy said.

And one of the reasons the Dodgers have posted a winning record despite the committing second-most errors in the league is because they rarely make mistakes at costly times.

That model fell through in the first inning Wednesday, when Ishii got off to a typical start by walking leadoff hitter Marquis Grissom, who advanced to third on a couple of groundouts. Ishii was about to pull his magical escape act, inducing a ground ball from Benito Santiago, but shortstop Jolbert Cabrera let it roll between his legs and Grissom scored. The unearned run was the only one Ishii allowed.

Of course, every pitcher’s walk total balloons when he faces the Giants because of the Bonds factor. Barry Bonds has walked a major-league leading 65 times. It’s the walks to everyone else that create problems.

In the fifth inning Ishii walked Grissom and Ray Durham and had to face Bonds with two on and one out.

On a 1-1 pitch, Bonds ripped a hard ground ball toward right field, but Alex Cora dived to his left, nabbed it and whipped a throw to Cabrera covering second base for the force play.

Just another adventurous outing for Kazuhisa Ishii -- and his 10th quality start.

Still, take it from someone who has flown half a million miles: It’s never completely safe until the wheels touch down.

Or, in the Dodgers’ case, until Eric Gagne takes the mound.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com