Reliever Has Yet To Reach A Plateau

Ask Jose Mesa a question and he’ll say, “I tell you, no doubt about it.”

This year, have there been any doubts?

Not when Mesa comes to the mound. Not after he broke a major-league record with his 37th consecutive save this season in Sunday’s 8-5 Cleveland victory.

No doubt about it, all right - unless you happen to be Mesa’s catcher.

Remember that third strike to Jose Valentin, the one that went past Sandy Alomar and allowed Valentin to reach first base?

“It was supposed to be a sinker, low and away, but it went high and inside,” Alomar said.

Alomar ran to the mound and yelled in Spanish, “Jose, what are you throwing?”

Mesa said, “Man, I don’t know.”

Later, Mesa said he was just trying to throw hard.

“I got too excited,” he said. “I grabbed the ball the wrong way, over the wrong seams. Then she just took off on me.”

“That’s right,” Alomar said. “And it hit the umpire right in the chest.”

Not exactly a way to win friends with the man behind the plate. That was why Alomar started to worry.

“If I could have caught that pitch, the game would have been over,” the former Spokane Indians reliever said. “But it was going 98 miles an hour.”

Instead, the botched strikeout gave the Brewers two baserunners - and Alomar had a pitcher who wasn’t sure what he was throwing. A pitcher who was becoming confused by one finger for a fastball, two for a curve, etc.

Suddenly, the Indians’ 8-5 lead didn’t look so secure - especially with an angry umpire back there.

But then Alomar thought, “If Jose’s ball is moving so much and so fast that I can’t catch it, how are those guys supposed to hit it?”

Then pinch hitter Matt Mieske grounded meekly to second base.

Game over, no doubt about it.

Mesa seems completely unflustered by his sudden fame. Thirty-seven saves in a row … as pitching coach Mark Wiley said, “Jose is now in uncharted territory.”

Mesa didn’t see it that way. During the early innings of Sunday’s game, Mesa leaned back in his bullpen chair. He was chewing on some sunflower seeds, his cap low on his eyes to create some shade.

“Jose told me that he might take a nap,” Julian Tavarez said. “He told me to wake him up by the eighth inning.”

Mesa didn’t quite fall asleep, but he was very relaxed for a man destined to make baseball history.

Remember, until this season, Mesa had a grand total of two career saves. He had a 34-45 record in the big leagues and had never made an All-Star team - not in Little League or any league.

All he had was a great arm.

As his 29th birthday approached, many wonder if he’d ever learn to do anything with it, especially after his experience in the bullpen last year made some Tribe fans think he should be fitted with a choke collar.

“When I went home to the Dominican after the strike, my friends asked me if I was going to be a starter again,” Mesa said. “I told them that I was going to be the closer.”

Most of them shrugged and said, “So what?”

In Latin American baseball, relief pitchers are what they used to be in this country during the 1950s - guys not good enough to start.

Now Mesa has broken a record held by Dennis Eckersley, whom many consider a future Hall of Famer. He has saved more games in a row than Lee Smith, who Mesa says is his hero.

“Being mentioned with those guys …” Mesa said, his voice trailing off. “I mean, man …”

Mesa said that he has been keeping the baseballs since his 27th save. He says he plans to keep setting them aside until the saves stop.

The balls are just rolling around his house. Sometimes, one of his five children plays with them.

“I liked breaking the record today,” he said. “It’s family day.”

Mesa’s children and his wife were at the game. Afterward, three of his boys were in the dressing room, near his locker, hugging his legs as Mesa was surrounded by writers and TV cameras.

Mesa talked about the standing ovation by fans as he ran to the mound to open the ninth inning. “No doubt about it, I hear the fans. You have to be deaf not to hear those people.”

He talked about how Tony Pena taught him to warm up quickly. The Indians catcher would have one ball and Mesa another. Mesa would throw a pitch to Pena, who would quickly throw the other ball back at Mesa. Often, it seemed that both balls were in the air at the same time.

He talked and talked.

Then he looked down at Jose Jr., who turned 2 last week. His son’s diaper was wet.

“Too late,” Mesa said, ending the press conference.

As he led his son to the bathroom, you realized that Little Jose’s diaper was the only thing Mesa hasn’t saved this year.