Maroth's 20th Lost!

Damn he is the first one now comes the rest that have 19 or 19 losses.

09/05/2003 11:38 PM ET

Lefty Maroth reflects on 20th loss

Tigers hurler remains positive after latest defeat

By Jason Beck / MLB.com

TORONTO -- Statistically, Friday night was Mike Maroth at his worst. Character-wise, it might have been Maroth at his best.

Dealing with both personal and professional heartache, he took his seat under the largest media presence he's seen all year. He answered every question as honestly as he could. And he left it there.

"I have no regrets about the way I pitched tonight," Maroth said after an 8-6 Tigers loss made him the first pitcher with 20 losses on his record since Brian Kingman in 1980. "I went out there with everything I had."

No temper tantrums on the mound or in the clubhouse. No shying away from questions. If he'd wanted to hide, he wouldn't have pitched in the first place.

It was his loss in the record books, but it was the Tigers' sense of letdown.

"He's a better man than most of us in here," Dmitri Young said. "For him to come out here and say, 'Forget about everything, I'm going to go out and pitch for my team,' I thought I failed him."

Maroth found out Friday morning that his grandmother passed away, ending a difficult battle with cancer. Agnes Maroth was one of her grandson's biggest baseball fans dating back to Little League. He pitched anyway, just as he did last September when his maternal grandmother died.

The difference this time was that everybody on the team knew. And in the face of defeat, many came to his defense.

"He's a good guy," Young said. "And nobody knows that. They just see him losing games."

Maroth wanted to treat it as any other game, but the adversity and the attention made that almost impossible. Two-run homers from Eric Hinske and Josh Phelps in the second and third innings, respectively, put Maroth on the ropes early. But with the Tigers offense coming out to hit, he entered the third inning with a 5-4 lead.

Manager Alan Trammell has repeated the past few weeks that he would lift Maroth early with a lead, leave him in late with a close deficit, do just about anything he could to set him up for a win. But to him, taking him out after three innings would've been about the same as not pitching him at all. That would deny him the one strength he's taking out of the season -- that he can pitch the whole season.

"It's hard to look at my record, that's for sure," Maroth said. "But I go out there and pitch well (down the stretch), that will help me for next year."

That fourth inning did him in. Dave Berg singled, Kevin Cash doubled and Reed Johnson lined a go-ahead two-run single to left. Mike Bordick doubled Johnson in with a one-hopper off the left-field wall, stretching the lead and chasing Maroth.

After his last loss, he admitted that the record might be curtailing his aggressiveness. This time, he went down going after hitters. That's what helped him make peace with his record.

"I was saying the past couple (starts) I had a little doubt in myself or whatever it might have been," Maroth said. "But tonight I was able to go out there and give it everything I had. Looking at the numbers, it looks like I was struggling, but it was fine. I was able to overcome what I was going through."

The eight runs were the most runs Maroth has given up this season. Considering five of his losses came upon leaving with a 2-1 deficit, the Tigers felt they owed him one.

"Hey, we win together, we lose together," said Trammell. "It's not Mike. I know it's on his record, but hey, he's a trooper. Thirty-seven wins (for the team this year) is the answer."

No one could relate better to that than Friday's winning pitcher. Blue Jays reliever Tanyon Sturtze lost 18 games last year for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Thanks to Friday's win, he's now 7-6.

"It's a tough situation. He's just a kid, and that makes it even tougher," Sturtze said. "He's learning, and that's the way I looked at it. Next year, he'll be a better pitcher for it."

And the Tigers might be a better team for it. More than anything else in the long line of adversity the Tigers have suffered this year, Maroth's struggles seemed to unite them.

"It was a tough time for me to go out there," he said. "For my team to support me, that's what a team is."

As the record approached, Maroth said he hoped he would be remembered more for the quality of person he is than for his pitching stats. They both were on public display Friday.

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