PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Sunday, April 20, 1997

Pavlik walks into baseball record books

By JAIME ARON

AP Sports Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - When Roger Pavlik starts a game, there's no telling what will happen. If his funky cross-body delivery is perfectly in synch, he can be dominant. If not, he can be a disaster.

Pavlik crashed and burned Friday night against Toronto like no American League pitcher has ever done. The Texas right-hander set a new AL standard for wildness by walking the first four batters in what ended up being a 6-5 Blue Jays win.

If that sounds bad, it was actually worse. The guy wasn't even coming close.

Leadoff batter Otis Nixon took four straight balls for the first walk. Carlos Garcia did Pavlik a favor by fouling off two pitches while trying to bunt Nixon over. Garcia finally caught on, and he too walked.

After Orlando Merced took a 2-0 count, Rangers pitching coach Dick Bosman decided to visit the mound. Pavlik responded with another ball, then his first called strike of the night.

Pavlik didn't give himself much time to savor the strike zone. He walked Merced on the next pitch, then never even came close on four pitches to Joe Carter, sending him to first and scoring Nixon from third.

"You usually don't see innings like that in the big leagues," Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. "When you do, you hope it's on their side and not yours."

The only major league game with a wilder beginning was on June 16, 1941, when Cincinnati's Johnny Vander Meer walked four New York Giants, then Gene Thompson came in and walked one more. Dozens of pitchers shared the AL record of three walks.

Pavlik went 2-0 to Toronto's sixth batter, Ed Sprague. He ended up hitting a two-run double. Carlos Delgado followed with an RBI groundout, then an RBI single by Charlie O'Brien ended Pavlik's night.

In just one-third of an inning, Pavlik (1-2) gave up five runs on five walks and two hits, inflating his ERA from 7.71 to 12.10.

He threw 37 pitches and didn't get an out until the 34th one. He threw 21 balls and 16 strikes.

The outing wasn't the shortest of Pavlik's career. He was pulled from his third major-league start in 1992 after allowing two walks and a hit. In 1994, he had a similar line to Friday night: five runs, one out.

Pavlik, an All-Star last season who is making $2.85 million this year, didn't talk about his problems Friday night because he gave up speaking to reporters last season.

Even without his input, it's easy to trace his problem to the awkward motion, during which he steps toward third base then has to throw back across his body to get the ball toward the plate. It used to be called a cross-fire delivery.

Try it. It's not easy.

When he's on, the bizarre style messes with hitters because they aren't used to seeing anything like it. They have trouble picking the ball up and that makes his powerful fastball seem faster, his slider break even sharper.

But pitching coaches fear irreparable harm to Pavlik's arm. Just as much of a concern is that when things go wrong, they don't know what to tell him to do differently.

"I'm not sure if he's able to detect what's wrong and correct it, but I've seen him turn it all around," Texas manager Johnny Oates said. "Some pitchers are more adept than others at making those adjustments. It comes with experience." Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: