Fear strikes out

Pitchers can't rely on intimidation in All-Star Games

Isn't it ironic? Eric Gagne entered the All-Star break having converted 39 consecutive save opportunities. AP

By John Donovan, SI.com

CHICAGO -- A closer, like Billy Wagner or John Smoltz or Eric Gagne, lives on intimidation. The only thing better than a fastball that approaches warp speed, or a nasty split-finger, is a fastball that approaches warp speed while it's running in on a batter. Or one that singes a little chin hair.

Fear has to be a part of a closer's palette or he's just another hack with a pitch.

And that's just what Gagne and Wagner turned into Tuesday night.

Two of the most feared closers in the game were anything but on Tuesday night at the 74th All-Star Game. And they had no one to blame but themselves. And, of course, their situation.

Neither Gagne or Wagner did what they do best -- instill fear. Neither could set up the hitters they faced the way they wanted to set them up.

Why? Because it's the All-Star Game.

What were they supposed to do, throw at somebody?

"It's the whole mental situation," said Los Angeles' Gagne, who gave up a game-winning, two-run home run to Texas' Hank Blalock in the bottom of the eighth. "It's the All-Star Game. You don't come in on somebody in the All-Star Game."

The All-Star Game, these guys say, is about challenging people, not intimidating. No pitcher wants to be responsible for breaking a player's hand, or hitting him in the head, just in the name of an exhibition win.

So when Houston's Wagner came in to face the Yankees' Jason Giambi in the seventh, it was Fastball City, right over the plate. Giambi smacked it for a home run.

"Here, see what you can do with it," says Wagner of his pitch to Giambi. "You're just not as aggressive. It's not a live-and-die feeling like it is in the regular season. You're not going to throw in on somebody like you would in the regular season. I was not going to come in on Jason Giambi."

Wagner and Gagne took the brunt of blame for the National League's 7-6 loss, but the fact is, every pitcher on both sides pitched differently than they would have in a normal game. Seven starting pitchers were used as relievers in the game. That's just not normal.

"As a starting pitcher," said the Phillies' Randy Wolf, "this is completely out of my element."

The Cubs' Kerry Wood, a starter, came in to relieve NL starter Jason Schmidt in the third inning.

"It's different," he said. "We all warm up differently, and knowing when to get up and how to get loose is important."

Wood is an intimidating, strikeout pitcher, too. He went one inning, faced four batters and struck out two. He didn't brush anyone back, either.

"But I didn't get into my second inning," he joked.

During last year's All-Star Game in Milwaukee, Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling challenged Texas' Alex Rodriguez, even telling him beforehand what he was going to throw. It was fastballs, all fastballs, all the time.

Schilling won that matchup. But that was unusual. When a hitter knows a pitcher won't come inside, when a guy can sit on a pitch and wait for something over the plate, it can make even the best, most intimidating pitcher look like just another guy with a fastball.

That's the All-Star Game. That's what Gagne and Wagner found out Tuesday.

 

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