Speed bump
Tewksbury slows down McGwire with 44 mph lobs
Posted: Sunday June 28, 1998 07:21 PM
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McGwire may not have hit a homer Sunday, but he did have fun trying to smash Bob Tewksbury's lobs (AP) |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Griffin Tewksbury calls it his dad's "Dominator
Pitch." Tom Kelly calls it the "Entertainment Pitch."
Bob
Tewksbury doesn't know what to call the 44 mph lob he twice used to
turn Mark
McGwire's swing from menacing to meek in the Minnesota Twins' 3-2 win
over the St. Louis
Cardinals on Sunday.
No matter what the pitch is called, Tewksbury used it to provide a few
light moments -- and three important outs -- in an otherwise tense game the
Twins won on Otis
Nixon's squeeze bunt in the seventh inning.
"I can't throw the ball by him, but I can throw it slower," said
Tewksbury, whose best fastball tops out at a mild 83 mph. "I was excited to
face McGwire. I couldn't wait to face him. It was a thrill. He's one of the
best ever to play the game."
Even McGwire, who hit his 36th homer on Saturday night, enjoyed
Tewksbury's surprising pitch selection, even though he didn't hit either
one past first base.
"It was awesome," McGwire said. "I loved it. I tell you what, I'll swing
at it every time if it's in the strike zone."
Tewksbury had promised some teammates Saturday night that he would throw
two lobs to McGwire, the Cardinals' No. 3 hitter, if he retired the first
two hitters in the first inning Sunday.
Tewksbury kept his word, floating the first pitch to McGwire for a ball
and then another that McGwire hit off the end of the bat for a weak
grounder. After he was retired, McGwire had a laugh with first base coach
Dave McKay.
"The first time it was funny," said St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa. "He
kept getting outs with it, and then it wasn't funny."
McGwire came up with two outs in the fourth and Minnesota leading 2-0. He
fell behind 0-2, and Tewksbury came in with another lob that would have
been called a ball outside, but McGwire reached out to hit a soft popup to
first.
"I was hoping he kept on throwing it the whole game," McGwire said.
Tewksbury only used the lob once more, and got Ray Lankford to
hit an easy grounder down the first-base line to end the sixth inning with
the tying run at third and the Twins ahead 2-1.
A gutsy move to use such a seemingly fat pitch in tough situations? Not
according to St. Louis starter Kent
Bottenfield (2-5).
"If you can control it, I don't think it's so much a matter of guts,"
Bottenfield said. "It's a great pitch. That thing just catches you off
guard. I don't think there's too many guys who are going to hit that
pitch."
Sunday's attendance of 29,110 pushed the series total to 93,201, the
largest for a three-game series at the Metrodome since May 23-25, 1997.
That's when McGwire came to town with Oakland for a weekend series set
aside to honor Kirby Puckett.
McGwire finished 1-for-4 with a single off a slow curveball from
Tewksbury in the sixth. McGwire also grounded into an inning-ending force
out against reliever Hector
Carrasco (1-1) with the bases loaded in the seventh and the scored tied
2-2.
Trying to break Roger Maris' record of 61 homers, McGwire finished the
three-game series 2-for-11 with one homer.
The Cardinals tied the game 2-2 in the seventh on Willie McGee's
sacrifice fly. But after McGwire couldn't come through later in the inning,
the Twins manufactured the go-ahead run in the bottom half with help from
sloppy St. Louis defense.
Jon Shave led off the Twins' seventh with a bloop double down the
right-field line. Second baseman Delino
DeShields, who pinch-hit for David Howard in
the top half, and right fielder McGee converged on the ball. DeShields
pulled his glove away at the last instant, allowing it to fall inches
inside the line.
"That ball's got to be caught," DeShields said.
Javier Valentin moved Shave to third with a sacrifice bunt and Nixon, who
had a bunt single in the second inning, executed a perfect squeeze to push
across the go-ahead run.
The sacrifice and squeeze play were two rare calls by Kelly, especially
coming back-to-back.
"I know I've done back-to-back bunts before, but don't ask me when,"
Kelly said. "Maybe in the minors -- maybe in a dream. It was just the right
situation."
Notes: With 68 homers between them, McGwire and Sammy Sosa
combined to go 4-for-23 with one homer apiece in six total games at the
Metrodome this month. The Twins won four of those games. ... Tewksbury
started at the Metrodome for only the second time in his last seven starts.
... Tewksbury has a decision in 14 of his 15 starts this season. ... St.
Louis is 2-6 in interleague games. The Twins are 6-7.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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