Mike Hampton couldn’t remember precisely how he had pitched at Shea Stadium before. He figured he took the mound about six times and said, “I think I’ve done well here, except for one or two times.” Hampton, tonight’s starter, was in such an optimistic mood before last night’s game against the Padres that it wasn’t worth mentioning that he is a mediocre 2-3 in Flushing with a 3.42 ERA. Hampton’s career ERA coming into the season was 3.50.
His strongest memory from Shea?
“The fans are pretty rowdy,” he said. “It’s nice to know they’ll be on my side this time. I’m looking forward to it.”
The 27-year-old hired ace said he is eager to erase his nine-walk performance on Opening Night in Japan.
“All I remember about that is everyone seemed to be on base all the time,” Hampton said with a wry smile. “But I hope to put that all behind me with the Mets fans here in the U.S.”
Hampton said the root of his control problems during that 5-3 loss to the Cubs was “rushing and flying open so that my arm couldn’t catch up to my body.”
But Hampton has worked with pitching coach Dave Wallace since then and the two are confident that the ills have been remedied.
“I’ll be ready,” Hampton said.
“It was a travel thing and an excitement thing,” Wallace said of Hampton’s sub-par performance. “He’s such a competitor and he got his juices flowing. He got caught up in all the emotion of his first game with us.”
Hampton explained that even as he was on the mound in Japan, he knew what was happening to him. But, he explained, “It’s one thing to feel it happening to you and another to correct it.”
Said Wallace: “You get so caught up in the game. You know what is happening, but you feel like you have to make your next pitch a great pitch. And that experience repeats itself.”
Wallace and Hampton understand each other well. It’s a relationship that manager Bobby Valentine calls, “special.”
Valentine has not even gone to check up on any of Hampton’s adjustments because the player and coach feel so at ease with talking about problems and fixing them.
“We take a wait-and-see approach here,” Wallace said. “We are still learning about Mike Hampton. We are not the type to jump in there and force things. We ask questions, listen, observe. Maybe that’s how a mutual respect develops.”
Wallace brushed off any advice he gave Hampton, saying the off-day workouts included “nothing crazy.”
“It’s no big deal,” Wallace said. “Even as bad as he pitched that game, he still only gave up two runs. He kept them in the game. That’s pretty good. I am confident he will be fine.”
Padre manager Bruce Bochy agreed.
“It shows you what kind of pitcher he is that despite those walks, he kept them in the game. That’s what those guys can do for you.”
And while Valentine put up some red flags by saying some of the players might not totally be over jet lag from the trip to Japan, Hampton put that to rest.
“I felt fine the day I got back,” he said. “That isn’t a factor.”
Valentine and Wallace both said that Hampton handled the loss in Japan perfectly.
“He was professional about it,” Wallace said.
“He’s a driven guy,” Valentine said. “He wasn’t satisfied with his personal performance or the team’s performance. I think that was good enough.”
Hampton does not have a dominant record against the Padres, though his last outing was a complete-game 7-4 victory last season. Hampton is 2-4 with a 4.35 ERA in 16 career outings (12 starts) against San Diego. But the Padres themselves have some thoughts for any Met fans who might be doubting their highly touted newcomer.
“Adding Hampton, he’s a great pitcher,” said San Diego second baseman Bret Boone, a former Brave. “He’s a guy that was second in the Cy Young voting [last season] and any time you add someone like that to a team, it’s going to make them that much better.”
“He won more games than anyone else in the league last year,” Bochy said. “He’s a No. 1 guy.”