Smoltz Won’t Lose Sleep Over Mediocre Season At 8-8, 1996 Cy Young Winner Still Plays With E Wide Open

A year ago, with more than two months remaining in the season, John Smoltz had virtually clinched his first N.L. Cy Young Award.

Now, even though the Atlanta Braves have the best record in baseball, Smoltz is struggling to keep his record above .500.

Today against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Smoltz (8-8) will be trying to bounce back from his worst start of the season: an eight-inning, eight-run debacle against the woeful Philadelphia Phillies.

What’s happened to the pitcher who was 16-4 at this time in 1996?

“He doesn’t look any different to me,” manager Bobby Cox insisted. “You just have to have runs to win. It’s as simple as that. He’s pitching on the awesome side, really.”

Well, maybe awesome isn’t the appropriate word, but Smoltz certainly has pitched better than a cursory view of his record indicates. A year ago, his ERA wasn’t much lower than it is right now - 2.94 compared with 3.23 - and he entered this weekend ranked second in the N.L. with 150-2/3 innings. In his eight losses, the Braves have scored just 17 runs.

“I think people are too caught up in wins and losses and don’t look at the whole picture,” said teammate Tom Glavine. “To me, an indication of how you’re pitching is number of innings as much as the record. You can’t be having a bad year if you’re No. 1 or No. 2 in the league in innings pitched.”

Smoltz shrugs off his mediocre record, saying he’s not losing any sleep over the realization that he won’t be adding another Cy Young at the end of the season.

“This is hard for some people to believe, because everybody seems to think that every player is egotistical and has to have awards,” he said. “If that award had never come my way, there wouldn’t be one thing missing in my career.”

The one thing Smoltz does find disturbing is having allowed an average of more than one hit per inning pitched.

“The hits are not where I’d like them to be,” said Smoltz, who has allowed 151. “Right now, they’re higher than they’ve ever been. But it’s a lot of singles, a lot of stringed-together hits.”

Smoltz hasn’t given up so many hits since his rookie season in 1988; he surrendered just 199 in 253 innings last year. He’s always been a power pitcher, someone who had the potential to throw a three-hitter every time he went to the mound.

“I’m not a guy who should give up three, four, five hits in a row,” he conceded.

No one in the Braves clubhouse will admit it, but Smoltz’s fastball and slider don’t seem to be quite as sharp as last season. As significant as the rise in hits is the sharp decline in strikeouts - from a major league-leading 276 in ‘96 to the current pace that would leave him with 197. He hasn’t fanned less than 200 batters in a full season since 1991.

“It hasn’t been a physically freed-up year for me,” said Smoltz, adding that he’s had to pitch through several minor injuries, “but I don’t like talking about it because that just becomes an automatic excuse for whether I’m successful or not.”

Even with a .500 record, Smoltz remains a key member of the Atlanta rotation. He is averaging more than seven innings per start, vital to a team with shaky middle relief.

“I think the biggest thing I’ve done this year is kept us in the ballgame every start with the exception of my last one,” he said. “My main goal every year is to pitch innings, innings and innings.”

The soft-spoken Smoltz allows a bit of defiant braggadocio to creep into the conversation when discussing his intention to turn things around.

“There going to be many more 20-win seasons for me,” he said. “But to say that is the plateau of whether I’m having a successful season, it’s by no means a barometer that I use.”