Gagne Isn’t Up to Speed

It starts with deafening rock ‘n’ roll, Warhol-inspired video images and an adrenaline-charged highlight reel.

Then he trots to the mound, the man, the myth, the legend. Goggles up, it’s time for liftoff.

Eric Gagne menacingly looks in for the sign ... and throws nine consecutive changeups to Detroit Tiger batters.

Never mind that the pitches resulted in three called strikes, one swinging strike, one foul, two balls, a weak groundout and a pop-up.

Where’s the heat?

Gagne’s fastballs were clocked at 95 to 97 mph the last three years when he saved 152 games with freakish consistency, pitching 82 1/3 innings each season and blowing only six save opportunities.

This year the fastball has topped out at 94 mph and more often is 91 or 92. He frequently throws more changeups than fastballs, while mixing in an occasional slow curve.

Never mind that he is eight for eight in save opportunities and has given up only two runs in 13 innings while striking out 22 and walking three since giving up consecutive home runs to the first two batters he faced in his first appearance.

Where’s the heat?

Somewhere on the horizon, Gagne says, out there in the sweltering summer ahead.

“It’s still spring training for me because I got hurt,” he said. “It’s a building process.”

Gagne pitched only four innings in the spring because he sprained his left knee during a fielding drill Feb. 24. Then he sprained his right elbow in his last spring outing and spent the first 35 games on the disabled list.

He believes the missing velocity will gradually return and responds testily to any suggestion that it is gone for good.

“I was on the DL for seven weeks,” he said. “I wasn’t on a vacation. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.”

There isn’t a whiff of concern from Manager Jim Tracy either.

“If you ask me post-All-Star break or in August, and we don’t see 95 to 96, then we might have something to talk about,” Tracy said. “If you give him enough time, you’ll see it get back up to that.”

Meanwhile, there is Gagne’s guile -- and the tremendous movement on his other pitches. He has a slider, a sweeping, slow lollipop of a curve and a changeup that might be the most effective pitch in baseball. It comes in at 82 to 84 mph and drops about a foot just as it reaches the hitting zone.

“When he was throwing 97 to 98, he was unhittable,” said Angel outfielder Steve Finley, a Dodger last season. “But you don’t have to throw 97 to 98 to be a great closer. He locates his changeup and slider so well he can still be one of the best in the game.”

Gagne’s ability to make adjustments and stay one step ahead of hitters is as valuable as anything measured by a radar gun.

“He explores and exploits every hitter he faces,” Tracy said. “He’s not given enough credit for that.”

The impression that he is simply a power pitcher who rears back and blows hitters away chafes at Gagne. He’ll gladly walk through his thinking process, supplying questions and occasionally testy answers.

For starters there’s that June 6 game he saved by starting the Tigers with eight consecutive changeups.

“Who was our starting pitcher? Derek Lowe,” he said.

“What was his most effective pitch? A sinker.

“What does my changeup resemble? A sinker.

“There you go.”

Gagne was called upon in the ninth inning two days later. The Tigers saw a different pitcher, one who challenged them with a succession of 92- to 94-mph fastballs.

The results were identical: one inning, no hits, one strikeout, one save.

“It’s all about adjustments,” he said. “If they aren’t making adjustments off the adjustment I made, why change that?

“We see the hitters and how they react. It makes it simple for us. If anybody could make adjustments, everybody would be in the major leagues.”

So maybe he doesn’t need extreme heat to get the job done. He has 18 saves in a row, a streak that began Aug. 28, less than two months after his record streak of 84 consecutive saves was broken.

“My job is to save games, not throw 98 mph,” he said. “I’m happy to get batters out right now.”

Nobody does it better. Gagne, 29, has converted 160 of 166 save opportunities since becoming the closer in 2002. He won the National League Cy Young Award in 2003 with a club-record 55 saves and was given a two-year, $19-million contract after last season.

There is a lot of pressure on him to perform at the level promised by the Dodger marketing department. His grand entrance keeps fans from going home early. The “Game Over” slogan would come off as presumptuous if it weren’t so often true.

“He obviously has a physical presence, but there also is a fierce competitiveness, a huge overflowing desire to win every day,” Dodger owner Frank McCourt said. “If I were to point to one player in all of baseball that personifies the attitude of the team I own and operate, it is Eric Gagne.”

The buildup makes him seem invincible, and the pressure only makes him better. But late last season there were signs of trouble.

Tracy called upon him more often as the season progressed, and Gagne worked at least 17 innings in each of the final two months. He had a earned-run average of 4.24 in August but rebounded in September to help the Dodgers win the NL West.

General Manager Paul DePodesta said when Gagne went on the disabled list in April that it “might be a blessing in disguise,” implying that a shorter season could keep the closer strong down the stretch.

“August and September will be like June or July for me,” Gagne said.

He has worked through a problem in his delivery that he said cost him velocity and is putting less effort into each pitch. Early on, it seemed he was trying to throw the ball through a wall -- and was merely hitting one instead.

“I was rushing my legs and throwing with all upper body,” he said. “It’s like a golf swing. The harder you try, the less you trust your ability and the worse you perform.”

Gagne is aware of his velocity. He turns and peeks at the radar reading below the Dodger Stadium video board.

Where’s the heat?

He knows a batter who must respect a 97-mph fastball is that much easier to fool with a changeup or curve. But after getting his first victory of the season by mowing down the Minnesota Twins in the ninth and watching Hee-Seop Choi break a tie with a home run in the bottom of the inning, Gagne was buoyant.

“Hey, I hit 94,” he said. “I feel better and better. If I hadn’t been hurt a while I wouldn’t be as confident. No worries.”

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Times staff writer Mike DiGiovanna contributed to this report.

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In closing

Numbers per nine innings for Eric Gagne, right, since he became a closer:

*--* Season IP H/9IP BB/9IP SO/9IP ERA 2002 82.1 6.01 1.75 12.46 1.97 2003 82.1 4.04 2.19 14.98 1.20 2004 82.1 5.79 2.40 12.46 2.19 2005 13.1 6.75 2.03 14.85 2.70

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