Happ ful-Phils dream at Wrigley Field
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| Abby Happ, 11, of Peru shows her rooting interests Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, cheering for her cousin, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher J.A. Happ to ‘Make it Happ-n.’ Happ and the Phillies won 4-3 in 12 innings. (BCR photo/Kevin Hieronymus) |
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CHICAGO — J.A. Happ couldn’t begin to count the number of times he dreamed of pitching at Wrigley Field one day. He would pitch to his dad in the backyard in Peru and play ball with his friends at Washington Park, always with thoughts of the green grass and ivy of Wrigley Field in his mind.
On Tuesday evening, in front of a packed crowd at Wrigley Field, including a large gathering of friends and family from in and around the Illinois Valley area, that dream came true. Only Happ wasn’t pitching for his boyhood favorite team, the Cubs. He was pitching against them, wearing the red of the Philadelphia Phillies.
After much discussion about the Phillies’ newly-configured rotation, Happ took his regularly scheduled turn on the mound Tuesday. He left after six innings with the game tied at 2-2. Six innings later, another Illinois Valley native, Chad Durbin, pitched a scoreless 12th to earn the save in the Phillies’ 4-3 extra-inning victory.
“We were talking about that after the game. Two guys from the same town. That’s crazy,” Happ said from the tight quarters in the Wrigley visiting clubhouse.
“What are the chances of having two guys born in a little bitty Spring Valley hospital and then growing up in the same town?” said Durbin, who grew up in LaSalle and moved to Baton Rouge, La., at age 12.
The Happ-Durbin bond goes way back. They were born three years apart at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Spring Valley, Durbin in 1979, Happ in 1982. Durbin said their fathers, Joe Durbin of Princeton and Jim Happ of L-P, played basketball against each other in high school. Their mothers danced together with the Cavalettes.
“After J.A. got drafted, my mom said I know his parents really well, if you come across him, make sure you take care of him,” said Durbin, who broke in with the Royals at age 19 in 1999. “He’s just a great guy and unflappable, too. There was a lot of pressure coming into Wrigley, and we’ve lost three games in a row. Pitching in front of the hometown, that’s tough.
“I saw some Happ jerseys. He had his own section.”
Durbin said they may be big leaguers out there, but the nerves will flow on occasions such as this — pitching in front of a hometown crowd like Happ did Tuesday.
“When you watch WGN growing up that much, you go out there and do everything you normally do, but the pressure’s different than it is in other places,” he said. “That’s just the nature of the beast. A guy from L.A. in Dodger Stadium or Anaheim, it’s different than anywhere else. I grew up like Ryne Sandberg, kicking dirt out there. I was trying to do everything like him.”
Happ said he did his best to stay in his normal routine and not get caught up in the extra attention he received from the many Illinois Valley supporters, including his parents, cousins from the Quad Cities and friends from Northwestern and St. Bede, sitting behind the Phillies’ dugout.
He said he heard some cheers but is very superstitious and tries “to go about my thing.”
“I had a lot of adrenaline going before the game,” he said. “I got ready quick. I could hear some people saying some stuff to me, but I tried to keep everything the same as much as I could. It was cool to run out there and take the mound out there in the first inning, that’s for sure.
“It was great to hear the lineups and the great support from a lot of people from the Illinois Valley who came up.”
Happ was able to pitch himself out of trouble in the early going. The 26-year-old rookie left-hander wiggled out of two-on jams in both the first and second innings, but surrendered two runs on two hits and two walks in the third.
He got in a little groove after that, helped by the pitcher’s best friend with double plays in the fifth and sixth innings.
Meanwhile, Cubs starter Rich Harden was mowing the Phillies down, retiring the first 15 batters he faced. He lost the perfect game with a one-out walk to catcher Carlos Ruiz in the sixth. One batter later, shortstop Jimmy Rollins broke up the no-hitter with a two-run homer, tying the game at 2 and taking Happ off the hook.
Happ, who said he didn’t realize Harden had the perfect game going, was relieved by Chan Ho Park after the seventh-inning stretch, though he did make a plea to stay in a little longer.
“I told them, ‘I’m all right. I can go out there,’ (but) I had kind of struggled,” he said. “The quickest inning was probably the sixth. Seemed like something was going on the first five. It was probably time (to pull me), they felt like — 127 pitches the time before that and about 100 tonight.”
He left with exactly 100 pitches, 61 hitting the strike zone. He saw his ERA bump ever so slightly to 2.75, still ranked among the Top 10 in the National League.
Noting his uniform behind him in his locker, Happ said he was glad to still be wearing Philly red having been the subject of heavy trade talk before the July 31 deadline. He has made the Phillies’ decision to keep him a very good one, tossing a 7-0 complete shutout in his previous start against Colorado Aug. 5.
“I thought I was going to be switching colors there for a while,” he said. “I feel like I’m a part of this rotation now, part of the team. (I) feel like I’m contributing. That’s the big thing. That feels really good.”
The Phillies took a 3-2 lead in the eighth Monday, but lost it in the home half when Jeff Baker tied the game with a single.
Ben Francisco’s lead-off solo homer in the 12th inning put the Phillies up 4-3, and Durbin, in his first appearance back from the disabled list, came on in the bottom of the inning to hold on for the save.
“Just like a guy going into the game, the ball always finds you. You come off the DL — that’s how interesting it’s going to be for your first outing ... no pressure,” Durbin said with a smile, both his pitching shoulder and elbow packed in ice. “It was nerve-wracking in a good way.”
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