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Spring classic Schilling-Brown matchup was just an old-fashioned duel
Updated: Friday April 13, 2001 7:37 AM
Growing up as the son of a famous broadcaster has its perks. Joe Garagiola Jr. vividly remembers being in Yankee Stadium the day Sandy Koufax set a record with 15 strikeouts in the opening game of the 1963 World Series. Back in St. Louis he watched Bob Gibson chew up hitters later that decade at the height of his run. For the past two seasons, Garagiola, the Diamondbacks' general manager, had a ringside seat for Randy Johnson's run to back-to-back Cy Young awards. Yet when it comes to great pitching, Garagiola isn't sure he's ever seen anything quite like what happened at Bank One Ballpark Tuesday night. Curt Schilling and Kevin Brown hooked up in a classic duel that took less than two hours to complete but could linger in the memory banks for decades. Arizona's Schilling beat the Dodgers' ace 2-0, with both right-handers going the distance, but that doesn't begin to tell the story. Check out these combined numbers: 17 innings, 18 strikeouts, no walks, five hits allowed (four singles), one earned run, 181 pitches, 138 strikes. Garagiola told me he could sense something memorable was brewing right from the beginning. "Schilling comes out fly ball, strikeout, strikeout," he said. "It's like, 'OK.' Brown goes groundout, groundout, groundout. Seven pitches. 'OK.' You couldn't go out and get popcorn or you'd miss four innings." And on and on it went like that the whole night. It wasn't Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn going at it for 16 innings, but in these offense-obsessed times, it was just as impressive. It also helps that, when they're on the mound, both Schilling and Brown assume the personae of serial killers. "Both guys have such great mound presence," said Garagiola, who traded for Schilling last July. "The great ones all do, but these two guys look the part. ... It was, 'Our guy goes out there. Their guy goes out there. Our guy goes out there. Their guy goes out there.' " Schilling didn't have a single three-ball count all night. Nor did he allow a Dodger past first base. Somehow Luis Gonzalez managed a solo homer and a run-scoring double play groundout off Brown. Otherwise, the two teams might still be playing. "After the game," Garagiola said, "I went down in the clubhouse and our guys were saying, 'You've got to understand, this guy [Brown] had unhittable stuff.' ... Our fans were into it, too. You hear so much talk about how people like offense. Well, people were into this thing, right from the start. "It was just a great game to watch, two of the best pitchers in this era at the top of their game, locking up. I don't care what your job is in this game, the part of you that's still a fan just sat back and looked around and said, 'Man, how good is this?' " Phils no longer futileMeanwhile, Philadelphia seems to be adjusting to life after Schilling. Even without their longtime ace, the Phillies -- along with the Expos -- are the biggest surprise in the upside-down NL East. It's early, but under new manager Larry Bowa, they're showing signs they might be able to make a run at just their second winning record in the past 15 seasons. Bowa's hard-driving ways have forced the young Phillies to confront their deficiencies across the board. The makeover started with marathon drilling on fundamentals during spring training, and that attention to detail has paid off with a 4-1 mark in one-run games. The Phillies went 25-35 in one-run decisions last year. "I think Bo established in spring training that there is a sense of urgency and that you play the game the right way," Phillies GM Ed Wade told me. "He did that from the very first day. If he saw something positive, he'd point it out to them. If he saw something he didn't like, he'd point it out as well. Guys understood what the expectations were." The Phillies went looking for a Bad Cop personality after languishing under the gentle reign of nice-guy Terry Francona. So far, Bowa's way seems to be working. At last, relief in sightWade endured a firestorm of criticism this winter for throwing a combined $17.05 million at a trio of mediocre relief pitchers, Ricky Bottalico, Rheal Cormier and Jose Mesa. So you'd better believe Wade is proud of the way his bullpen has performed so far. New pitching coach Vern Ruhle has done a nice job coaxing competency out of a previously shell-shocked staff. After leading the league with 37 bullpen losses and posting the league's highest bullpen ERA (5.66) last season, Philadelphia's relievers had improved to fifth in ERA (2.65) along with a 5-1 record. "Our bullpen has done a good job, which is a difference from a year ago, when a lot of games got away from us late," Wade said. "I understand the questioning, but the fact is we thought we got the best available guys. The reality is, until the Roberto Hernandez trade, there was no current-day closer that had moved at all anywhere. "Mesa was a year removed from 33 saves in Seattle and lost his job to a guy who was Rookie of the Year [Kazuhiro Sasaki]. It's funny to hear the criticism, because usually it's the other way." That's true. The Phillies have been blasted for years for their penurious ways. Then they go out and actually spend some money on players, and Wade gets blasted anyway ... for buying the wrong guys. "When you lose 97 games, I'm not sure you're the most attractive landing spot [for free agents]," Wade said. "We had to be very aggressive to try to pull those moves. We feel very fortunate to be able to get Mesa, Cormier and Bottalico." Mike Berardino covers the baseball beat for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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