Staying ahead of the curve
Protocol for no-hit bids shows team has its act together
CINCINNATI — When it looked in about the sixth inning Thursday night as if Jake Arrieta’s no-hitter might be threatened more by his pitch count than by Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips combined, Cubs manager Joe Maddon was the picture of groovy in the dugout.
Already this season, the Dodgers’ Ross Stripling was pulled with a no-hitter intact at the 100-pitch mark, in the eighth inning of his big-league debut, igniting more debate between the nurture-the-arm and the game’s-too-soft crowds.
Less than four years earlier, Mets manager Terry Collins let veteran ace Johan Santana — recently back from shoulder problems — grind through a 134-pitch, five-walk game to complete the first no-hitter in franchise history. Santana made 10 more starts that season, was hit hard in most of them, and hasn’t pitched since. Maddon? “I was a lot more comfortable standing in that corner,” he said of watching Arrieta head into the final three innings at 85 pitches. “Because we had this conversation with all our starters.
“He knew, and I knew, without having to say anything, that he was good to go.”
That’s because the Cubs spelled out a no-hitter, pitch-count protocol through a series of meetings with front-office staff, Maddon, coaches and eventually the starting pitchers before last season ever started.
If it’s not unique in the majors, it’s close [the same front office didn’t have a protocol as specific in Bos- ton]. And it offers at least a glimpse into how this overhauled and vast fifth-year front office operates under team president Theo Epstein.
“There’s not too many stones left unturned,” said pitching coach Chris Bosio, who’s on his third manager since joining the organization under the new regime. “We’ve got an open line of communication with these guys. We want to make sure that any situation that comes up we’re prepared for.”
Inspired in part by Arrieta’s 120-pitch workload during a no-hit bid in Boston that ended with one out in the eighth, Epstein brought general manager Jed Hoyer, Maddon and coaches together to agree on a protocol that respects the achievement as much as the pitcher’s health.
Then all five members of the rotation were brought into the process.
“We kind of had it ballparked at, going into the seventh or eighth inning, if we’re approaching 110, there’s probably a good chance they shut it down, especially early in the season when all of our goals is playing deep in October,” said Arrieta, whose count never needed a discussion during his 116-pitch no-hitter at Dodger Stadium last August.
“That’s a smart thing to do,“he said.
There’s room for discretion near the end of the game.
“You don’t want to be obscene,” Maddon said. “Obviously, like 130-something would really start giving me like the hives if we did something like that. The other thing was I knew Jake had an extra day coming open on the backside [because of Monday’s off day], so that was comforting, too.”
Arrieta, who cut down on some of his warmup pitches between innings Thursday to conserve, made it a non-issue with nine-pitch innings in the seventh and eighth.
“It’s something that’s in place, and it should be in the manual,” Bosio said of the protocol. “Everybody knows about it, and when that time comes up you know you’re going to get your shot, but there’s guys that are going to be probably eight or 10 pitches away just in case.
“That’s what makes our front office our front office,” Bosio added. “We’re constantly trying to stay one step ahead of the game, and in this case, with the guys that we have, t was a great call.”
Because he wasn’t signed until December, the only starter not involved in the protocol discussion was John Lackey, who retired the first nine he faced Saturday night. So what about him late in a game with a climbing count?
“There’s no way I’m taking John out,” Maddon said. “I’m not going to wrestle Johnny.”
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