CLEVELAND – Mike Hargrove says his 18-game winner Bartolo Colon is an unfinished product as a No. 1 starter.
In fact, the Indians have never had a No. 1 in five consecutive Octobers in which they have not quite become World Champions.
But if Colon doesn’t match the best righthander in baseball, Boston’s Pedro Martinez, pitch for pitch in at least two matchups during the Division Series, it is the Indians and their thousand RBIs who likely will be finished.
“Right now, Bartolo Colon is as close as we come to a No. 1,” Hargrove said. “I can’t sit here today and tell you he is a number one because I think that has to be established and Bartolo is in the process of doing that, but it’s still work unfinished.”
It seems as if the Indians have gone through a thousand starters since becoming a perennial playoff team and by now are tired of practically having to bat 1.000 to get through all three series.
So it sure would help if Colon would become what the Indians hoped Jaret Wright would become, or Dennis Martinez and Orel Hershiser had once been before becoming Indians. And for a guy not yet on Martinez’s level, Colon spent the second half coming pretty close to ace status.
In his last 19 starts, the 24-year-old righthander went 12-2 with a 2.98 ERA, lowering his season ERA from 5.64 to 3.95. He held batters to a .212 average, which makes it no stretch that the Indians can get Martinez’s two starts to the bullpens, where they have a chance.
“Bartolo has been awfully good for us the second half of this year,” Hargrove said. “He’s been very consistent with what he has thrown and has kept our ball club in the games he started.
“I can’t put my finger on any one outing that turned Bartolo’s season around. I think that if you go back and look, he has been much more consistent in getting his breaking ball and his change up over for strikes than he was in the first half.
“I don’t think he is missing anything to be a No. 1. I think that to finally get the label of a No. 1 pitcher is something that is bestowed on you over the course of time.
“There are a lot of guys out there with the stuff to be No. 1, but it’s more than just stuff. It has to just all fall into place.”
Going into Game 1 last night, Colon already had matched up against Martinez three times this season. He had given up 19 hits in 20 innings and allowed seven runs. Martinez is 4-0, with a 1.83 ERA for his career against the Indians and seems to relish being a little bit better than his Dominican brother every time.
“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” Martinez said of the matchup. “That’s what the fans deserve and pay for. I’ll just go out there like I do every day.
“I’m sure Colon is doing that and looks up to me and he respects me a lot. Even though he is not on my team, I try to teach him, you know, the right things and tell him how to do it.
“I would like him to learn the same way and he seems to be doing it because he makes it tough for me every time I face him. I hate to face him again and again and again but if we have to, it’s part of the game.”
The best part of the game might be the classic pitching matchup between two guys who come in looking unhittable. “This is a great opportunity,” Colon said. “I feel very happy.”
The Indians finally want to be happy after the last out of the season.