May 16, 2002 4 min read

PITTTSBURGH (AP) – When Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Kip Wells was younger, his father and coaches gave him the same advice when he was in the jam or needed a big out. Step off the pitching rubber, catch your breath, decide on your plan of action, then throw the pitch you want.

Now that he is beginning to establish himself in the majors, Wells believes that isn’t always the best way to pitch.

“Sometimes if you do that, the position players get bored,” Wells said. “Now when I get the ball, I like to stay on the runner, go at the hitters aggressively and not them let settle in.

“If you’re attacking, attacking, attacking, the batter doesn’t have as much time to think about what you just threw him, a fastball or whatever, or what you’re going to throw next.”

Wells began changing his approach after talking to hitters on his own team who said they dislike pitchers who work fast and make them hit at their pace, rather than the hitter’s pace.

“I’m trying to stay on the offensive side of pitching, instead of just picking at the hitters,” Wells said.

So far, something is working this season. Wells limited Arizona to a run on five hits, striking out six in 6 1-3 innings Tuesday as the Pirates bounced back from an 11-0 loss Monday to win 2-1. Scott Sauerbeck and Mike Williams finished up after Wells was lifted.

Wells is 5-2 with a 4.33 ERA and has combined with former White Sox teammate Josh Fogg to win 10 games. By contrast, Wells was inconsistent in Chicago, where he got labeled as a pitcher who tried to be too fine, always trying to throw a perfect pitch when he should have trusted more in his ability to throw strikes.

Wells already has won half as many games as he did last season, when he was 10-11 with a 4.79 ERA in 40 games for the White Sox, including 20 starts. His career record going into this season was 20-21.

“When he pitches in the strike zone and pitches in, he’s fine,” manager Lloyd McClendon said. “His stuff is plenty good. He’s probably got better stuff than anybody on our staff. When he harnesses it all, gets more experience and settles in better, he’ll be quite a pitcher.”

LOOKING LIKE ’94: For years, owners and players agreed that baseball could never again have a convulsive, divisive year like 1994, when a players strike prematurely ended a season for the first time and led to cancellation of the World Series.

Baseball took several years to win back its fans from that labor mess, and it wasn’t until the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race of 1998 that the sport fully recovered.

Don’t look now, but 1994 might be repeating itself.

With labor negotiations going nowhere, the players uncertain of what the owners want in talks and the owners themselves seemingly divided, Pirates player representative Kevin Young doesn’t have a good feeling.

There are rumblings again that, as in 1994, the players may vote to strike in August, just when the pennant races are getting interesting.

Young, as might be expected, was critical Wednesday of the going-nowhere pace of talks so far, blaming commissioner Bud Selig for his lack of involvement.

“We’ve been chasing Bud Selig all over the country. We need to sit down with Bud – no more negotiators, it’s his show, and tell us what’s going on.

“We’ll get this taken care of when baseball itself wants this taken care of.”

Young also wonders if there can be labor peace when the owners themselves don’t seem to be in agreement.

“There’s 30 owners, and 10 of them have agendas that are totally different from the others,” Young said. “The only one (issue) they agreed on was contraction, and everybody agreed to it so that became the issue. That’s why Bud has pushed it so hard, because it’s important to have unity among the owners.”

NOTES: The Pirates needed 37 games to win their 19th, compared to 60 games during their 100-loss season of a year ago. … The Pirates were 14-6 in the first 20 games in which their starting pitcher lasted at least six innings. … On Thursday, the Pirates open an eight-game road trip to Houston and Chicago that includes a makeup doubleheader May 21 in Wrigley Field. … Ryan Vogelsong threw 10 minutes of batting practice Wednesday for the first time since having reconstructive elbow surgery Sept. 20. He is hopeful of pitching again by September, though that might be an overly optimistic expectation. … Wells on slick-fielding second baseman Pokey Reese: “He’s above and beyond good. He smothers it out there.”