Sutton’s Future Is Uncertain

The kid with the curly locks was in trouble. Pitching for the Class A Bakersfield Dodgers Thursday night in a California League game at Palm Springs, he had given up four runs in the first inning, and there were still two runners on base and only one out.

The kid pitching against the Palm Springs Angels on this muggy, 90-degree night wasn’t really a kid. His curls were gray, and his teammates were about half his age.

It was 43-year-old Dodger pitcher Don Sutton who was in the jam. Making his second rehabilitative start with Bakersfield after spraining his pitching elbow against the Houston Astros June 28, Sutton got out of the first inning with a double play and went on to pitch fairly well.

Sutton worked 4 innings, threw 83 pitches, gave up 4 runs (3 earned), allowed 6 hits, had 6 strikeouts, walked 1 and was the losing pitcher in Bakersfield’s 10-5 defeat. His teammates weren’t much help, committing three errors, two of them in that run-filled first inning.

Afterward, with his elbow dipped in a bucket of ice, Sutton said he felt ready to return to Los Angeles if his arm remained without pain.

Friday, he said the elbow had a little stiffness.

“If I respond well in the next day or two, then I think I should be all ready,” Sutton said.

But are the Dodgers ready for Sutton?

Sutton was assigned Friday to make another start with Bakersfield Tuesday night.

Suttton met Friday with Manager Tom Lasorda and pitching coach Ron Perranoski, who watched Sutton pitch at Palm Springs. Sutton said Perranoski expressed some concern over Sutton’s performance in the first inning and recommended another start with Bakersfield.

With Los Angeles leading the National League West and the Dodger pitching staff performing well, there may not be room for Sutton to return. Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president, said Sutton’s next California League start will probably be his last, but Claire wouldn’t elaborate on any decisions that may take place after that.

“We don’t have to make a decision right away,” Claire said. “We have time.”

Perranoski said there is no hurry to return Sutton to the rotation.

“We have a seven-game lead and the pitching staff is doing pretty well. It’s not an emergency situation.

“Right now the numbers say no (room). But when he’s ready, the decision is going to have to be made.”

Sutton would prefer that a decision be made.

“I would probably be more comfortable with everything cut and dry, because I normally am,” Sutton said.

Claire said the club has no intention of assigning Sutton, who was 3-5 with a 3.70 earned-run average before his injury, to the Dodgers’ triple-A club in Albuquerque, N.M.

Said Sutton: “The feeling I get from Fred (Claire) is that our primary concern right now is to get me well. Get well and then we’ll see whatever happens next.

“They’re looking to get people out and get to the World Series,” Sutton said. “One positive thing is that Tommy (Lasorda) has stated that no player on his team loses his job to an injury. He’s on record to saying that, and I’ve got to admit that makes you feel somewhat comfortable.”

Asked if no Dodger player loses his job to injury, Lasorda said, “I have no comment on that.”

Because he will be pitching Tuesday night for Bakersfield, Sutton will receive his $75,000 incentive bonus for being on the Dodgers’ roster through Aug. 1. This is in addition to his base salary of $350,000 and $125,000 in incentives that he has already accumulated.

Incidentally, Shawn Hillegas, who has pitched impressively in Sutton’s absence and is 3-3 with a 2.96 ERA, will earn a total of $78,000 this season.

w “Contracts are always a factor,” Claire said. “But it isn’t the determining factor. We wouldn’t make a decision based solely on finances. That’s not our No. 1 priority. The most important thing is to get the 10 best pitchers we can possibly have.”

After breezing through his first outing with Bakersfield last Saturday, pitching five innings and giving up three hits, one unearned run and striking out eight, Sutton wasn’t so sharp early in his second start. The two Bakersfield errors and another misplay by the center fielder that was scored a hit didn’t help, but Sutton’s control still wasn’t top-notch as he gave up four hits and needed 30 pitches to get out of the inning.

What happened?

“It was a struggle in the first inning, and I have really no logical reason why,” Sutton said. “It’s still that problem of never having been injured before. I’m still a little tentative.”

Sutton rebounded from the first-inning mishap at Palm Springs and looked steady in pitching three shutout innings, though he walked one batter on four straight pitches in the second inning and gave up two consecutive singles in the third.

“The last two or three innings I couldn’t have thrown the ball any better,” Sutton said.

Perranoski saw no signs of the injury in Sutton’s performance.

“I felt for the first two innings his location and his control weren’t as sharp as they could be, and that’s simply because this was only his second outing since his injury. In the third and fourth innings, he was a lot sharper. He made some good pitches, was ahead of the hitters, and set up his curveball.”

In his 23-year career that started with the Dodgers and continued with Houston, Milwaukee, Oakland and the Angels before returning to Chavez Ravine this season, Sutton only spent one year in minors, in 1965. Now, 324 victories later, the pitcher with 755 starts--second only to Cy Young--finds himself on rehabilitation at the Class-A level.

The question has surely been asked hundreds of times, but just how long can this 43-year-old future Hall of Fame candidate, now having to fuss with a bum elbow, keep doing what he’s doing?

“I don’t know,” Sutton said. “Only God knows that. I don’t. I’m only concerned with doing it as long as I can, as effectively as I can.”

He says has has come close to retiring a couple times, but felt it was the right decision to keep playing, given the opportunity.

If he’s released by the Dodgers, he says he would decide at that time whether or not to seek another club. “If tonight were my last night or I was going to play 10 more years, I wouldn’t change my approach at all,” Sutton said. “I’d still go out tomorrow and work out.”

Meanwhile, Sutton finds himself pitching at a level where his son Daron, 18, is old enough to play.

The Bakersfield pitching staff gathered behind Sutton, with eyes fairly wide, as he threw his warmup tosses Thursday night. Sutton is part-teacher, part-idol, part-teammate when he shows up in a Bakersfield uniform.

“In some regards, it’s a lot more fun (than the major leagues),” Sutton said. “It’s as simple as you can make it. Here, these kids are working their butts off to make it to the majors leagues. So they’re not worrying about a lot of outside factors except getting there on time and working hard.

” . . . I’m not enjoying the reason I have to be here, but I’m enjoying the fact that I’m here, if that makes any sense.”

Sutton is also giving some young major league hopefuls a shot of optimism, along with a dose of reality. Mike Anderson of the Palm Springs Angels lined a single his first time up against Sutton, then struck out twice.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a thrill,” Anderson said. “I knew it was Don Sutton. It was just a thrill to compete against a future hall of famer. . . . I was surprised by the movement on the ball. He didn’t throw that hard, but everything went this way or that way.”

Said Palm Springs outfielder Reed Peters, who opened the bottom of the first with a single: “I was kind of smiling all the way down the line to first.”