Friday, July 23, 1999
Pulling Tomko a case of heat rash judgment
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
To hear Jack McKeon tell it, Brett Tomko was close to a near-death experience. “Gasping for breath,” was Tomko, McKeon said. “He's leaning against the (dugout) railing.”
Someone call 911.
“He's bending over and he can't get up,” said McKeon.
Tomko is ready to spontaneously combust.
And seconds earlier, he'd struck out two of the three batters he faced in the St.Louis eighth inning.
After the first, Tomko allowed no hits. He retired 16 in a row between the third and eighth, seven on strikes. Nobody hit the ball hard off him.
Naturally, McKeon pulled him after the eighth.
No. Check that. “I didn't pull him,” McKeon said. “He ran out of gas.”
Whatever. Tomko said he didn't have a big problem being yanked from a game he was dominating. He stood in front of his cubicle with a piece of gauze wedged in the crook of his arm, covering the spot where he'd just taken two liters of fluids. “I was gassed,” he said.
McKeon gets the "L'
It was 160 degrees on the field. On the radio, Joe Nuxhall thanked Kroger for sending the cabbage leaves players tucked beneath their hats. It was hot enough to light McKeon's cigar.
That's the truth. So is this: Tomko was pitching like it was 72 in the shade. “Those last couple innings, he did real well,” catcher Jason LaRue said. “I know he was tired. But in a game like that, you're going to be tired.”
In a game like this, any game like this, you don't pull a starting pitcher who has pitched like Cy Young for seven innings. You let him pitch until he shows you he can't.
The Reds are not a team that can afford to give away many games. They can't lose them to questionable moves from the dugout, the way they did Thursday.
Tomko left with a 5-3 lead. Danny Graves pitched the ninth, allowed two home runs, and the Reds lost 6-5. Put this one on the manager.
Look, I love Jack McKeon. If the season ended today, McKeon and Philly's Terry Francona are in a photo finish for manager of the year. One of the best things McKeon has done is be creative with his bullpen. He has not been married to conventional baseball thinking. McKeon has mostly ignored The Book.
Managers drive you crazy with The Book. It's as if a team isn't complete if it doesn't have a left-handed setup man who can get one out in the seventh inning of a one-run game on a Tuesday night in September.
On Thursday, McKeon went by the chapter in The Book that says, “Get us to the ninth, son, and we'll get our closer in there.”
Tomko deserved a shot
Here's what should have happened: Tomko starts the ninth. If he gets the first out, give him another. Give him a chance to finish what he started. Give him the chance to fail. If any Reds pitcher needs that sort of confidence jump, it's Tomko.
He is the team X-factor, the Reds' mystery man, their box of chocolates. After 24 wins in his first two seasons, Tomko has slipped to the edge of the starting rotation. He has argued with McKeon and pitching coach Don Gullett. He has been sent to the minors.
Tomko can be tough to talk sense to. He gives Gullett gray hair. He is Dr. Pitching's wayward child. “His stuff is as good as anybody's on our staff,” Gullett said. But ...
“You have to continue to work hard at it. It's not something you take for granted, that you're going to win 12 or 13,” Gullett said. “We talk about staying mentally focused.”
To this point, the Reds' starting pitching has been adequate, mainly because Steve Parris has been magic and Ron Villone fell from the sky. “Out of the clear blue,” as McKeon put it.
But without Tomko, the rotation is an empty suit. He was terrific Thursday. He deserved a chance at a better ending.
“Next time, I'll leave him out there and you call me when I ought to take him out,” McKeon offered.
Maybe next time, Jack, that won't be necessary.
Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.
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