 09/05/2002 02:58 am ET
Neagle showing signs of former self
By Chris Shuttlesworth / MLB.com
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SAN FRANCISCO -- With Atlanta in 1997, Denny Neagle won a league-best 20 games, but after a winless June this season, the left-hander found himself banished to the bullpen and became perhaps the least-wanted man in Denver, along with teammate Mike Hampton.
But the one person who most believed Neagle could regain his Atlanta form was Neagle himself, who, after a 2-1 victory over the Giants on Wednesday, lowered his ERA since returning to the rotation to 1.93.
"I heard a lot of different things," said Neagle, who raised his record to 8-9. "'Maybe he's just already starting to go downhill.' 'He's losing it.' 'He's beyond his prime.' 'He wasn't worth the money.' All that kind of stuff.
"Look, physically, mentally, I knew it was all still there. I'm in the best shape of my life. I'm throwing as hard as I've ever thrown. My velocity is way up. But there was obviously a couple of things I needed to do, and one of them was I needed to just get back to being more aggressive in the strike zone, challenge in the strike zone."
The 33-year-old Neagle allowed a leadoff single to Kenny Lofton but then didn't surrender another hit until a pair of singles in the fourth, the last hits he would allow in his seven innings.
An aggressive Jeff Kent scored the Giants' lone run on a shallow flyout to right, with Kent leaping over catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. then crawling back to the plate to score.
Two walks loaded the bases, but Neagle struck out David Bell to end the threat. The Rockies got single runs in the fifth and sixth inning to bolster Neagle's cause.
"He's set a great tempo since he's come out of the bullpen," said manager Clint Hurdle. "He's quick, made pitches, keeping everybody in the game, stayed ahead in counts pretty well. Tonight, he had one stretch where he got out of sync a little bit, but he had some damage control and only gave up the one run."
Denny Neagle
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Since returning from a month-long stint in the bullpen, Neagle has allowed two earned runs or fewer and lasted at least six innings in six of his seven starts. Twice, he's blanked the opposition over seven innings, and in his previous start in San Diego, he tossed the Rockies' first complete game of the season, albeit in a losing effort.
So what's changed for Neagle, who joined Hampton as one of two marquee free-agent pitchers lured to Colorado before the 2001 season?
"A lot of it had to do with pitching in Coors Field, and I fell under that trap of thinking I had to invent pitches, do something different and try different things to try to succeed there," said Neagle. "In the process, I just forgot about being aggressive and throwing strikes and staying within myself."
Neagle looked at former teammate Tom Glavine, who's tallied an impressive 3.23 ERA in nine career starts at the mile-high stadium, and noticed the Atlanta hurler doesn't change his pitching style for the ballpark.
"I guess it was one of those things where it was easier said than done," said Neagle. "I just still would go out there and try to throw too hard, try to make my changeup dive too much, try to make my breaking ball break too much. So many different things, and it just got so much harder to get back on track."
Now it appears Neagle is indeed back on track, and not just in overcoming the demons of pitching in the rarefied air of Denver. Winless in six career starts at Pacific Bell Park and battered by the Giants this season (giving up 11 earned runs in eight innings), Neagle took advantage of the wind blowing in at Pacific Bell Park and thwarted San Francisco's chance to gain a game in the NL Wild Card chase.
"It's fun, obviously, just when you're pitching well and you're in a nice rhythm," said Neagle, "but to go out there and pitch well against a team like this that's in the playoff race [is even better]."
Said Hurdle: "We're a club that has struggled; we're a club that collectively we've been 'hard-triers' for too long. To take the next step, we've got to beat good clubs, we've got to win on the road. Tonight, we beat a good club and we beat them on the road, but we've got to find some consistency to that."
And Neagle wants to find consistency of his own, much like he's shown since Aug. 3.
"Myself, I've got a lot to prove still," he said. "I don't want to go through this two good starts, three bad ones, one good start, two bad ones. I knew I could get myself back on track and pitch like I did in Atlanta.
"That's what I've got to prove now. I've got four more starts, so I want to finish strong and keep showing them that I'm back, I'm the old me."
Chris Shuttlesworth is an editorial producer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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