Tanana in a Long-Playing Groove With His Slow-Speed Pitches

Frank Tanana spent Sunday afternoon on the mound at Anaheim Stadium, and it brought back memories. Bad memories.

Sure, Tanana had 14 victories and 180 strikeouts as a rookie for the Angels in 1974. OK, he did lead the league with a 2.54 earned-run average and had seven shutouts as an Angel in ’77. And, yes, he did clinch the Angels’ first division title when he beat Kansas City in late September of 1979.

But, in those days, he got almost all of his victories the hard way . . . he earned them. Let’s just say the Angels weren’t exactly piling up the runs in the ‘70s.

Things didn’t improve when he wound up with Texas in 1982. He lost 18 games that year, and the Rangers scored two or fewer runs in 15 of his 30 starts.

But Tanana’s seasons of discontent and all that lack of support vanished when he was traded to Detroit on June 20, 1985. Since then, Tanana has a 48-31 record, and he certainly isn’t the flame-throwing southpaw who fired fastballs for the Angels.

These days, Tanana, 35, is what they call a finesse pitcher. Translation: His fastball is no longer very fast.

But he has learned enough tricks to fool most of the hitters most of the time, and when your teammates are scoring runs the way the Tigers have been--averaging 4.6 runs per game--even an over-the-hill mushballer can be 11-5 in July.

Tanana brought a less-than-impressive 4.40 ERA into Sunday’s game, but the Tigers were averaging more than five runs per game in his starts, including games in which they racked up 14, 12, 11 and 9 runs.

Sunday, however, against the Angels and rookie Terry Clark, they couldn’t push even one run across the plate, and Tanana ended up a 4-0 loser.

Ironically, Tanana didn’t allow an earned run, either, during what he called his best performance of the year. He threw 114 pitches in 7 innings, yielded only 3 hits and 3 walks and struck out 6.

The Angels scored four runs in the eighth, however, after Dick Schofield reached first base on second baseman Lou Whitaker’s throwing error. A sacrifice bunt, a walk and Devon White’s single loaded the bases. Tanana made a fine, diving barehanded grab-and-throw to force Schofield at the plate after Johnny Ray topped a roller toward first for the second out.

Manager Sparky Anderson then decided to go to relief ace Mike Henneman, and Henneman gave up a two-run single to Brian Downing and a two-run double to Chili Davis.

“It’s awfully tough to go get a guy who hasn’t given up a run,” Anderson said, “And that’s as well as he’s pitched all year. But I made the move I thought I had to.”

Tanana, who has 15 seasons of major league experience for perspective, didn’t feel slighted.

“Nothing was said. Nothing was asked. The decision was made,” he said. “Sure, you would like to get the opportunity to get the out yourself. If I’m the manager, I make those decisions, but I’m just a player and he’s doing what he thinks is best for the ballclub.

“Individually, you would like to stay out there. But you understand his reasoning.”

Downing understood the logic, but he wasn’t exactly unhappy to see his former teammate head for the showers.

“He’s as good a pitcher as there is,” Downing said. “He works the black part of the plate and never throws the same speed two times in a row. The name of the game is keeping guys off balance, and he does that as well as anyone.”

Sunday, Tanana was throwing his slow curves and slow sliders and slow sinkers and even-slower changeups right where he wanted them. And the Angels were flailing futilely away. Their first hit came in the fifth inning when Tony Armas grounded a single between third and short. Up to that point, Tanana had struck out six and walked one.

“It was a tough game, but a fun game, too,” Tanana said. “Any time you hook up into one of those, errors usually make the difference, and that’s what happened today.

“That’s as good as I’ve been this year. It’s the first time I’ve gone into the eighth with no runs, just a few hits and basically dominated.”

But don’t expect Tanana to even mention how many runs the Tigers didn’t score. He still remembers those days with the Angels.

“We weren’t the team this team is,” he said. “This is a fine offensive ballclub.

“Proper perspective, that makes it easier to take. Without that, you just moan and groan, and nobody likes a moaner and groaner. And besides, this team has picked me up by scoring a bunch of runs on nights when I’ve stunk.”

That hasn’t been often, though, and the combination of the Detroit bats and Tanana’s soft pitches has been a heady, first-place mix so far.