350 Proving Elusive for Maddux

For the fourth straight start, Greg Maddux was denied the opportunity of becoming the ninth pitcher to ever win 350 games in a career, losing 10-3 to the Florida Marlins on Sunday afternoon. Since winning his 349th start on April 13, it’s been a long and bizarre ride for Maddux, who has made a 20-year career out of throwing the ball slow and picking apart hitters with his pinpoint location. In his first attempt at 350, Maddux voluntarily pitched 7 innings of a 9-0 blowout loss to Arizona because the Padres’ bullpen had been exhausted the previous day, a 2-1, 22 inning loss to Colorado. Maddux allowed seven runs in the first two innings, but insisted that he keep pitching to save the bullpen. In another, Maddux threw seven innings of shutout ball and left with the lead, but earned a no-decision when career saves leader, Trevor Hoffman, blew a save in the ninth.

The aging 42-year old Maddux has managed to stay successful at the twilight of his career through his impeccable preparation and unrivaled control. Unlike Clemens, Johnson, or Pedro, Maddux could never (italicize) rely on an overpowering fastball to blow the opposition away. Instead, he had to use his smarts from scouting, and his great movement and accuracy to get hitters out. Few could have imagined that those skills would lead him to be the first pitcher ever to win 15 games in 17 straight years, or earn him 17 Gold Gloves, and allow him to win more games in the 90’s than anyone else. Even more impressive has been his ability to stay around long enough to even approach 350. Once Maddux does reach that plateau, the achievement will become extinct, as pitchers will now struggle to even reach 300 career wins.

Maddux’s struggles at reaching this famed milestone have added insult to injury in what’s been a terribly disappointing start for San Diego. After last year’s heartbreaking loss to the Rockies in the one-game playoff, this team just wanted to get back onto the field and forget about their disastrous collapse to end the season where Hoffman blew two saves in the team’s final three games to lose the wildcard. Things definitely haven’t gone according to plan through the first month of the new season. At 12-20, San Diego is tied with the Reds as the worst team in baseball, and losers of 12 of their last 16 since that late night loss to the Rockies on April 17. The problem, as always, has been a lack of offensive firepower. San Diego has scored nine runs in Maddux’s four attempts at 350, and averages only 3.3 runs a game. For the year, the Padres are at the bottom of the league in batting average, slugging, and on-base percentage. They’ve also scored a major league worst 108 runs, and gotten outscored by 43, quickly losing sight of first place Arizona in the difficult NL West.

Abysmal offensive numbers like that have taken its toll on the pitching staff, the biggest strength of the team. Last season, the Padres had the best pitching in baseball, with Maddux a large part of that with 14 wins, joining Cy Young Jake Peavy as leaders of an emerging unit. This year, the pitching staff has dropped to 12th in the league. Despite a very respectable 3.96 team ERA, San Diego has slipped to the bottom of baseball when paired with their anemic offense.

An aging pitcher tied to an untimely offense and shaky bullpen will make victories hard to come by for Maddux. When that landmark does inevitably fall, however, it is an accomplishment that deserves to be celebrated, not just for its shock value, but because of the high character man achieving it. In a social climate where Maddux’s only legitimate contemporary, Roger Clemens, has seen his reputation take a nose dive in the same way our country’s economy has, it’s worth emphasizing that the four-time NL Cy Young has always conducted himself in a honorable manner.