MILWAUKEE – Randy Johnson didn’t want to look, because he didn’t need to look. He’d already given up 314 home runs in his major league career right up to the point that Junior Spivey took a whack at his seventh-inning fastball. He knew he’d just served up No. 315.
Finally, he peeked, just in time to watch the ball settle into the left field loge level bleachers, just in time to hear 34,627 people jump to their feet in glee. Just in time to see the scoreboard click one last time: Brewers 4, Yankees 3.
“#$@#$%%!” he said.
It’s a sight we’d grown accustomed to this year after all 13 of the long balls he’d surrendered prior to Spivey’s blast: profane spasms of anger, frustration, agitation. What we hadn’t yet seen was the Johnson who stood tall in the Yankees clubhouse when it was over, who finally conceded that on this team, in these troubled times, he needs to do more than keep the Yankees close.
“I expect a lot from myself,” Johnson said. “I came here to win ballgames for this club and so far it hasn’t happened the way I wanted it to.”
The words were calm, measured, reasoned, but they packed plenty of consequence, and they provided a first glimpse behind the stoic mask that Johnson wore through most of his first two months as a Yankee.
“I’m not pitching as well as I thought I would at this part of the season,” he said.
If the Yankees do dig themselves out of this hole – and it’s starting to resemble a crater, now that they’ve fallen seven games behind the Orioles in the A.L. East and seven in the loss column behind the Twins in the wild-card chase – you may want to circle the date of June 7 in red ink. Just in case.
Because this was the day Randy Johnson finally publicly embraced what his job description really is, when he finally acknowledged that it never will be enough for him to just pitch OK. He pitched OK last week against the Royals. He pitched OK last night against the Brewers. The Yankees lost both nights.
They need more than OK from their ace, especially when he gets to take aim at a National League lineup, especially when that lineup belongs to the Brewers, against whom he was 18-6 lifetime coming in.
The fact is, the Yankees need Johnson to be what Pedro Martinez has been for the Mets all spring: a stopper, a horse, a dominant ace in the hole and on the mound. It is no mystery the Yankees are playing lousy baseball right now. They can’t hit. They don’t run the bases. They are stuck in quicksand, sinking quickly.
These are the times when they need to know Johnson can walk out to the mound and pitch them a three-hitter. They may have gotten Johnson primarily in the event that they play a Game 7 this year, but they also coveted him because having a guy like that at the top of the rotation is supposed to make a team slump-proof. Yet Johnson has now contributed two losses on this 1-6 road trip. That wasn’t part of the contract.
“I know he’s frustrated as hell,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said, moments before Johnson himself uttered the same exact words. It’s about time. Even Johnson had to understand that no one was ever going to buy his bit about being plucky and gritty, keeping his team close, because when he does that, the way the Yankees are going, it means he keeps them close enough to lose. Like last night.
“I feel good but we lost,” he said. “I’d rather feel bad and win. My job isn’t to please anyone with my velocity or with strikeouts. My job is trying to get the other team to score fewer runs than we do. And I’m not doing that right now.”
Saying he needs to be better and actually being better are two separate issues, of course. But it’s a step in the right direction. After two months and only five wins, Johnson needed to take that first step.
Sooner or later, the pay-off better follow. Or it will be an ugly, endless march between here and game No. 162 for the Yankees.
—
The ones who got away
There are plenty of fine Yankee pitchers – now hurling for other teams, that is. While the current crop of Pinstripers may be lacking, there is no shortage of quality former Bombers employed elsewhere. Here are some of them:
Pitcher — Team — W-L — ERA — BB — SO
Brad Halsey Diamondbacks 4-3 3.48 13 41
Javier Vazquez Diamondbacks 5-4 4.38 8 69
David Wells Red Sox 3-4 5.85 4 28
Jose Contreras White Sox 2-2 3.27 27 51
Orlando Hernandez White Sox 6-1 4.15 25 33
Brandon Claussen Reds 2-3 4.50 17 26
Roger Clemens Astros 4-3 1.67 21 80
Andy Pettitte Astros 3-6 3.47 14 47
Yhency Brazoban* Dodgers 2-1 3.91 9 24
Jeff Weaver Dodgers 5-5 5.65 19 48
Jon Lieber Phillies 7-4 4.54 18 42
Chris Hammond Padres 5-0 2.22 5 17
Kenny Rogers Rangers 8-2 1.62 25 33
Ted Lilly Blue Jays 3-6 7.41 25 40
Esteban Loaiza Nationals 1-4 3.56 23 61
* – 11 saves
