There was once a pitcher named Billy Loes who flourished in the late 1950s and early ’60s. He almost always won in double figures and had an outstanding winning percentage, but insisted he would rather not be a 20-game winner.
Why not?
“Because once you win 20, they expect you to do it every year,” Loes replied.
Loes’ approach leaped to mind Monday at Wrigley Field when Greg Maddux checked in with the Atlanta Braves. A former Cub, Maddux has been hailed, rightly so, as the best pitcher of this generation. Last season, for the fourth consecutive year, he won the National League’s Cy Young Award.
Only Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles and Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox had won the Cy Young back-to-back.
And so, Greg Maddux, what have you done for us lately?
“He’s just as good as he has been,” insisted Leo Mazzone, the Braves’ pitching coach. “Everybody wants him to win five in row. All we want him to do is go to the post and make every start. If he does that, everything will take care of itself.”
Bobby Cox, the Atlanta manager, also claims there has been no change.
“He’s pitched like he’s always pitched,” Cox said. “But to win, you not only have to pitch good, you have to catch the breaks.”
Cox offered Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh as an example. Maddux departed in the seventh inning with a 3-1 lead. The Pirates tied it up, but lost in the 13th. Reliever Terrell Wade, not Maddux, got the victory.
“That’s what I mean,” Cox explained. “If Pittsburgh doesn’t rally, it would have been his game to win.”
Cox paused. It was obvious this was not the first time he has been confronted with these questions.
“He could very easily be 8-1 or 10-1,” Cox observed. “It’s just a combination of broken-bat base hits, things like that, something you have no control over. He’s exactly the same as he’s always been.”
The stats indicate otherwise.
Two months into the season, Maddux has a 5-3 record and a 2.93 earned-run average. This is one more loss than he absorbed last year when he was 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA. He also leads the league in hits allowed and has given up five home runs, only three fewer than last season. Opposing batters are hitting .245 against him; last season it was .197.
“It’s pretty early to count him out for a fifth Cy Young,” Cox said. “Greg is the whole package. Right now, all he needs is a run here and there.”
In the meantime, right-hander John Smoltz has stepped up. He has posted 10 consecutive victories after losing his first start.
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And Smoltz seems to be singing the same tune.
“I’m probably the same pitcher I’ve been the last few years,” he reported. “But things are working out. We’re scoring more runs when I’m pitching.”
Smoltz was 12-7 last season with a 3.18 ERA. This year, his ERA is 2.50.
“People look at my record this year and they say `You’re doing great. Why haven’t you done that before?’ But there isn’t that much difference in my ERA. And my ratio of hits given up per inning is about the same.”
But there has been one major difference, Smoltz conceded. He has cut his walks in half, from approximately four every nine innings to two.
The Braves continue to have a superior starting rotation–Maddux, Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery–and have a premier closer in Mark Wohlers.
Atlanta has excellent balance, and its 3-4-5 hitters–Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff and Ryan Klesko–are among the best.
The Braves beat Cleveland in last year’s World Series and, of course, are expected to repeat.
But turning that trick is nothing compared to Maddux’s burden. Four consecutive Cy Young awards is an achievement without compare. Five is an impossibility.