May 19, 2007
Game Recap: Vanderbilt 6 LSU 2
Battle-Tested, Minor Shines Again for Vanderbilt
Post-Game Column By Will Matthews
NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt freshman Mike Minor didn’t shy away Friday from admitting the toll that three consecutive less than stellar starts had taken on his psyche.
The Commodores’ 19-year-old phenom appeared nearly unhittable and was literally unbeatable through his first eight starts of the year, compiling a 6-0 record, a 2.24 earned run average, 42 strikeouts against just 11 walks and wins over Southeastern Conference powers South Carolina, Alabama and Kentucky.
But Minor, who posted an other-worldly 0.08 ERA while dominating all comers as a senior at Forrest High School in tiny Chapel Hill, Tenn., came back to earth the past three weeks, failing to record a single victory, earning his fist collegiate loss and watching his ERA jump a full point to 3.24.
“It kind of got in my head a little bit,” Minor said of his last three starts in which he gave up 12 earned runs in 12.2 innings, failing to get out of the fifth inning in two of them. “I had a little bit of a downfall just wondering if somehow everyone had figured me out.”
Minor can rest a little easier tonight.
In notching his eighth win of the year Friday by tossing 7.2 innings and allowing just two runs in Vanderbilt’s second consecutive win over LSU, Minor proved that he is still a pitcher to be reckoned with and, in the process, infused some much-needed stability into Vanderbilt’s starting pitching rotation as the team wraps up the regular season and heads toward the SEC tournament next week in Hoover, Ala.
“Tonight feels great,” Minor said after improving his record to 8-1 on the year. “I feel like I am back where I was at the beginning of the season.”
And that is a relief to more than just Minor. Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin knows his team will have to get quality starts from more than just staff ace David Price if his squad is to taste any postseason success. A confident and effective Minor would go great lengths toward making sure that happens.
“Getting him through the fifth inning tonight was important,” Corbin said. “We talked about it in the dugout and even if he had run into trouble tonight we were going to try and push him through because if he can’t get past the fifth we are going to have a hard time winning a regional, I can tell you that right now.”
Outside of Price – arguably the nation’s best pitcher and a likely candidate to be the No. 1 overall selection in next month’s Major League Baseball draft – Vanderbilt’s pitching staff has scuffled some in recent weeks, something that has been a cause for concern for Corbin despite Vanderbilt’s perch atop the national rankings.
“We can’t do what we want to do in the postseason with just Price,” Corbin said. “He can’t pitch three games in a row. You have to have a number of quality starters and for us to be successful Mike is going to have to be one of those guys. He doesn’t have to be lights out, but he does need to give us some consistency.”
On a night Friday in which the Commodore offense was, according to Corbin, just mediocre, Minor was able to do what it took to get Vanderbilt into the win column.
“He pitched in a tough situation tonight,” Corbin said. “We didn’t cushion him with a lot of runs. The game was pretty tight and we weren’t wearing out the wall. So he had to pitch in a tight situation and that is good for him. He did a very nice job tonight.”
The difference Friday, Minor said, was locating his fastball down in the strike zone. It was when he left the ball up during previous starts that he would get hit, he said.
But Minor also said an important key for him is learning from his struggles. The ease with which he dispatched of his high school competition and the way he took the SEC by storm early in the year left him unaccustomed to being tested.
“The first couple of months of the season were easy,” Minor said. “It was just like high school. But then I started facing failure and that is something that I’ve never had to do before. So I had to figure that out and keep my head on straight. You have to get used to getting hit sometimes. Every pitcher gets hit. The key is just to bounce back as best as you can.”
Will Matthews spent three years as an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group in Southern California. He earned his Master of Divinity degree in 2007 from Vanderbilt Divinity School. To email Will your feedback, Click Here
