Cummings Hopes for Second Tour of Duty with Mariners

John Cummings isn’t about to hang his head in shame. Sure, he went winless in Seattle, but he’s not going to lose any sleep over it.

Cummings went from Class A last year to the majors with the Mariners this season. His stay was short.

Now, back in double A, Cummings is readying himself for a second chance. He is 2-1 with a 2.50 earned-run average for Jacksonville. He views each outing as a step back to the big leagues.

“I want to get back there,” said Cummings, a Canyon High School graduate. “I know I can pitch there. I know I can win a few games.”

He couldn’t the first time around.

Cummings rocketed to the majors. Last season, he went 16-6 with a 2.57 ERA for Peninsula, the Mariners’ Class-A team. He expected to be promoted, but not to the top.

But Cummings was a left-hander with a lively fastball, something every team craves. He was 3-0 during spring training for the Mariners, increasing his chances considerably.

Manager Lou Piniella was so impressed he stuck Cummings in the starting rotation. He pitched five scoreless innings against Baltimore his first time out, but gave up five in the sixth and lost, 5-3.

It went downhill from there. Cummings was 0-6 with a 5.61 ERA when he was demoted May 23. His last outing was a relief stint, where he gave up two runs and four hits in two-thirds of an inning.

“It wasn’t that I was in the major leagues,” Cummings said. “I didn’t let that affect me too much. I didn’t have real good control sometimes and I had some bad tough luck. Really, I’m pitching the same right now. I’m just controlling my off-speed stuff a little better and I’m getting a few runs.”

Cummings is right about his support. He did pitch some good games, but he didn’t have the offense behind him.

He went eight innings against Toronto, but lost, 3-1. His one mistake was a 2-2 changeup to Joe Carter, who hit a two-run homer. But that could happen to anyone.

Cummings also lost to New York, 3-0, and to Cleveland, 3-2. He went into the eighth trailing Boston, 2-1, then gave up a two-run homer to Mike Greenwell and lost, 5-2.

“I deserved a few wins,” he said. “There were days when we were scratching for runs.”

And there were days when it wouldn’t have mattered how many runs the Mariners scored.

The Yankees roughed Cummings up, scoring five runs in 3 1/3 innings. Chicago then clubbed him for five runs in 2 2/3 innings in his last start. Robin Ventura and Ellis Burks hit home runs off him.

“I didn’t know the hitters,” Cummings said. “I’d seen them on TV, but you don’t learn their weaknesses that way. But I learned.”

Cummings wants to take those lessons and apply them, maybe even this season.

“Lou went out on a limb for me,” Cummings said. “I feel I let him down a little. I want to prove he was right. I think I can win 10 games this season, if I get back there.”

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Bouncing back: Kyle Abbott can sympathize with Cummings’ plight. He struggled through his first major league season with the Philadelphia Phillies a year ago.

It wasn’t pretty. He finished 1-14 with a 5.13 ERA.

And, like Cummings, Abbott is back in the minors where he is again successful.

Abbott is 8-5 with a 3.45 ERA for Scranton, the Phillies’ triple-A team. He is demonstrating the same ability that made him the Angels’ first-round draft pick in 1989.

According to Abbott, ability was never the problem.

“I didn’t handle the situation well mentally,” said Abbott, a graduate of Mission Viejo High. “I’d go out on the field and wonder what was going to happen today. I’d give up a run and think, ‘I’m not going to win this one.’ I never got back to making it one pitch at a time.”

To get back to that, he went back to Ken Ravizza, a professor at Cal State Fullerton.

Ravizza is the sports psychologist for the Angels. Abbott had worked with him in the past and credits Ravizza for the success of 1991. Abbott was 14-10 for Edmonton that season, tying him for the most victories in the Pacific Coast League.

But when Abbott was traded with Ruben Amaro Jr. to the Phillies for Von Hayes, he left Ravizza behind.

“I took it for granted that I had the mental part solid,” Abbott said.

He didn’t.

Abbott started the season at Scranton and went 4-1. He was called up and proceeded to lose 11 consecutive games, one shy of the National League record to start a season. He finally snapped the streak with a 14-3 victory over the Dodgers.

“I didn’t keep things to one pitch at a time,” Abbott said. “I know that seems like a simple concept, but when you’re out there, it’s easy to let things get speeded up. You start worrying who’s on deck and what the count is, instead of just throwing the ball.”

A little fine-tuning by Ravizza changed that.

“I’ve put everything behind me,” Abbott said. “I’m concentrating on throwing each pitch to the best of my ability.”

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Eating them up: There was nothing wrong with Greg Pirkl’s mental outlook. He was just fat.

Pirkl, a first baseman with Calgary, has spent most of the year dropping the weight he had gained during the off-season. He has dropped 25 pounds, from 260 to 235.

“I feel so much better now and I’m playing better,” said Pirkl, a graduate of Los Alamitos High. “I’m actually hitting the ball a lot further.”

And a lot more often.

Pirkl is hitting .278 for the Seattle Mariners’ triple-A team. He has 10 home runs and 49 runs batted in.

During a recent home stand, he hit .417 with four doubles, a home run and seven RBIs. He’s been hot at the plate because he has stayed away from the hot plate.

“I do aerobics and ride a stationary bike every day for an hour,” Pirkl said. “Then I lift weights. Then I go to the park for our regular workout.”

Pirkl became a fitness fanatic after ballooning over the winter. He had surgery on his leg and couldn’t work out, so he gained weight.