Clemens pitches tips to Lohse

Struggling Twin gains insight from a master

BY GORDON WITTENMYER
Pioneer Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Twins pitcher Kyle Lohse searched far and wide for answers throughout a season spun out of control last year.

But it wasn't until he went to the Far East that he discovered what he was looking for.

It was there, during an offseason exhibition series between U.S. and Japanese major leaguers, that Lohse sat next to Roger Clemens and listened to Houston's Cy Young winner break down hitters and watched his approach to the games.

"It was stuff you already knew," Lohse said.

But it was the stuff of a legend, and it was up close. And it spoke to the heart of Lohse's 2004 woes.

"It was how aggressive he is. Kind of the switch he throws on. Even though it was an exhibition game, just how aggressive he was," Lohse explained. "It was fun to watch firsthand, really for the first time."

Lohse felt around for that switch throughout last season, his most disappointing in the majors. He barely won as many games (nine) as Clemens has won Cy Young Awards (seven), and he appeared on the brink of losing his starting job several times — saved in some cases by the Twins' lack of depth.

Without a strong season by Lohse, the Twins won 92 games and their third consecutive American League Central Division championship. With the entire pitching staff from last year's playoff roster back, a strong season by Lohse could go a long way toward making the Twins a serious World Series contender.

"He's already 1-0," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said, joking about Lohse's victory in his salary arbitration hearing two weeks ago. "He's already beaten the Twins. Now he's just got to beat the other guys."

That arbitration result netted Lohse a $2.4 million salary this year and makes this the first time in three years he has arrived at spring training with his contract resolved.

"I've got nothing to worry about but baseball now," he said.

That freedom from contract issues is one reason Lohse is optimistic about rebounding from a 9-13 season in which opponents hit .305 against him. A bigger reason might be what he brought back from Japan in November.

"I told him last year, 'Just be yourself. When you were successful, you went after guys. Be yourself,' " pitching coach Rick Anderson said.

Instead, Lohse fell behind hitters, fell behind early in games, got away from his aggressive power game and seemed to pick at the strike zone. Opponents hit .338 against him in the first inning, with a .412 on-base percentage. Eight of the 28 home runs he allowed came in the first inning. The second and third innings weren't much better.

And as for the late innings, there weren't many of those. He faced only 36 batters last season after the sixth.

"It was just a thing that kind of built up," Lohse said. "I knew coming into last year I had a lot of expectations, and it just seemed that as the season progressed, it kept piling on and piling on. I just have to learn to handle it better."

And that might be a matter of little more than returning to basics. He won 27 games over the previous two seasons with a simpler, more aggressive approach.

"As crazy as it is to say, his stuff got better — his changeup, his curveball," Anderson said. "But it's still his second, third pitch. He's got to pitch to his strength. Last year he got away from his strength.

"Hopefully, being with Roger Clemens and getting away and starting fresh can get him back to that."

"It's all zeros right now," said Lohse, 26. "It's just experience. It was a tough thing to go through. But having been through it, you learn."