Everything About Him Says ‘Professional’

Third pitch, a hit.

Fourth pitch, another hit.

One minute into his first Dodger Stadium journey as a Dodgers pitcher Tuesday, Greg Maddux was lost in the Rockies, two guys on base, blank stare on his face, and you could feel a ripple across the Ravine.

Here he comes. The guy with the thinning record and wrinkled ERA. Cy Old.

Five days after a debut as the Maddux everyone revered -- six no-hit innings in Cincinnati -- he was on the verge of being the Maddux everyone feared.

Then he shrugged and showed why he is baseball’s greatest pitcher whose entire arsenal can be described in three words.

Not so fast.

He fooled Garrett Atkins into hammering into a double-play grounder, then struck out Matt Holliday on a curveball so wicked, the batter and the catcher swung and missed.

Maddux walked off the mound with a 328-watt wince -- he never smiles, he only winces -- and, well, dude, welcome to Los Angeles.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to pitch here,” he said later, and, well, the pleasure was all ours.

In front of 50,210 fans who watched Maddux’s quick and quiet work with a strangely appropriate reverence, the Dodgers newest Hall of Famer wasn’t spectacular, but he was good enough.

Good for six innings and two earned runs. Good enough to keep the Dodgers in the game. Good enough to be exactly what the Dodgers need him to be.

In their 4-2 comeback victory over the Rockies, their 11th straight win, give the old guy an assist.

“When you’re out of the race, you’re playing for yourself, but when you’re in the race, you’re playing for everybody,” he said. “It’s a different atmosphere. It’s a different game. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”

Maddux pitched like it, showing a consistent concentration that he lost while pitching for the Chicago Cubs this year.

Eighty-one pitches, only 27 balls, only six batters hit the ball into the outfield.

Maddux said he loves the Dodgers’ defense and, sure enough, it made no errors, helped him out of one inning with a double play, and ended another inning with a runner caught stealing.

He said he loves the Dodgers’ atmosphere and, certainly, by the time he left the game, the place was rocking and the Dodgers took the lead moments later.

“I went through a lot of emotional peaks and valleys out there,” he said.

The first peak being when he simply showed up for work.

Maddux took the mound as the first certain first-ballot Hall of Famer to pitch here in a Dodgers uniform since Sandy Koufax last worked the place 40 years ago. But even before that, since coming here last week in a trade for Cesar Izturis, he has become his own sort of interactive museum.

The Dodgers’ kids, as cool as they try to be, find themselves staring at him.

“They watch the way he walks into the clubhouse, they watch the way he puts on his socks,” Manager Grady Little said. “I hope they keep watching everything he does, and listening to everything he says.”

The Dodgers’ kid catcher, Russell Martin, finds himself working a Maddux game as if watching a movie.

“I call fastball, he throws change-up.... I call change-up, he throws a cutter,” Martin said with a smile. “He pretty much throws whatever he wants, I’m just back there enjoying it.”

And when Martin feels he needs to -- gulp -- walk to the mound to talk to his pitcher? Even in this, Martin just follows the rules.

“He tells me there are only two reasons I should come to the mound,” Martin said. “Either to give him a little break because he looks tired, or to talk to him about something other than baseball. You know, like, tell him a joke or something.”

The start of Tuesday’s game was not funny, and Martin actually took a couple of steps toward the mound after Maddux gave up the first two hits.

Nope. Sorry. Not necessary. Maddux met him halfway, winced a bunch, and Martin immediately returned to the plate.

A couple of minutes later Maddux was out of the inning.

In the second inning, Maddux gave up consecutive none-out hits again, a double to right field by Brad Hawpe and a run-scoring single up the middle by Yorvit Torrealba.

On the second hit, Kenny Lofton mistakenly threw the ball home, allowing Torrealba to take second base, where he stood with none out and another uprising at the door.

Yet the extraordinarily ordinary-looking pitcher stood taller.

Clint Barmes hit a shot up the middle that the 15-time Gold Glove winner -- 15 of them! -- speared for an out. Then he struck out Cory Sullivan. Then Byung-Hyun Kim grounded out to end the inning.

“He has an idea on every pitch, he has his own game plan, and he’s really calm in carrying it out,” said pitching coach Rick Honeycutt

Maddux was so calm in the third inning, it was as if it never happened. Eight pitches. Three outs. Three minutes.

In the fourth inning, he was burned by a stolen base and by a decision to play the infield in with a runner on third and one out. This allowed Torrealba’s grounder to skip past Holliday, who had earlier singled, stolen second, and taken third in a grounder.

Maddux upset? He was once known as “The Mad Dog.” But it was a moniker that sounded like his name, not his personality.

It took him five pitches to get the final two outs of the inning, on a fielder’s choice grounder by Barmes and pitchout that Martin used to gun down Barmes as he attempted to steal second.

The fifth and sixth innings lasted a total of eight minutes, with one hit, and more memories for the reported 5,000 fans who bought last-minute tickets on this most special of nights.

“It feels like a Sandy Koufax night,” said Vin Scully before the game, calling them as he saw them.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.