Rays' Chris Archer emerges and goes on historic run
On the afternoon of June 2, a tall fellow with prominent hair and a teenager's face walked into an Anaheim, Calif., bookstore.
Chris Archer emerged with a copy of Pedro, the well-reviewed autobiography of Pedro Martinez with Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald.
Yes, a book. Not a device with a book imbedded within.
Someone told Archer that his affinity for actual handheld, hardcover books was not the norm for a 26-year-old in 2015.
He smiled. "Usually guys my age aren't reading at all," he says.
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A few hours later, Archer went to Angel Stadium and threw the preface, the introduction, the bibliography and the entire contents of the book at the Los Angeles Angels.
His performance was a lot like his favorite books: direct, precise, inspirational.
The 6-3 Tampa Bay Rays right-hander struck out 15 Angels. He walked none. He flung a 96-mph third strike past Mike Trout in their fourth encounter of the night. The next batter was Albert Pujols, who got major wood on another fastball, and Archer put his hand over his mouth as he turned and watched, his eyes threatening to careen out of his face.
Tampa Bay center fielder Mikie Mahtook made the catch. And Archer came in to reflect on eight of the strongest innings anyone will pitch this season as the Rays won 6-1.
This was a follow-up to Archer's eighth-inning, no-walk, 12-strikeout flourish against the Seattle Mariners, a game in which he matched bullets with Felix Hernandez.
Then Rays manager Kevin Cash lifted Archer, after 95 pitches, and Seattle beat up on closer Brad Boxberger to win 3-0.
Sunday, Archer pitched seven scoreless innings and struck out 11 more in Seattle, and his bullpen held on to preserve a 3-1 win. That's 23 innings with no walks, 38 strikeouts, one run and 14 hits.
No pitcher had ever struck out that many in a three-start span without a walk.
During the gem in Anaheim, first baseman Jake Elmore was a lonely guy, but he noted reactions of the Angels who came down to see him.
"A couple of guys who got hits said, 'I closed my eyes, to be honest,'" Elmore told the Tampa Bay Times.
Archer's 108 strikeouts entering the week led the American League, and his 1.84 ERA ranked second. He also was third in WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), second in strikeout rate (11.7 per nine innings) and fourth in batting average against.
Only 58% of American League hitters had put the ball in play against Archer, the lowest percentage in the league.
It makes for serene bedtime reading.
"After that game, the No.1 thing that went into my mind was, 'Here's your reward for all your hard work. And when you work that hard, you keep getting those rewards,'" Archer says.
"It's not the 15 strikeouts. It's pitching deep into the game and helping our team to the maximum level. It's the idea of guys saying, 'When Archer gets up there on the mound, we have a chance.' It's when Evan Longoria, your franchise player, looks you in the eye and knows what you brought to the table."
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Always learning
Do not ask Archer a question unless you want him to take it seriously. His interviews are unrehearsed, more like conversations, and they are likely to go anywhere.
But then Archer seems to know life isn't a rehearsal, either, and he is bound to live to the limit. That's why he formed the Archway Foundation to advise youth, and it's why he reads everything he can seize.
"I was always against reading baseball books," Archer says. "But then I read a short biography of Satchel Paige, and it opened my mind to some things. Whether it's a book about Barack Obama, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass or Pedro Martinez, you can always get something positive about life experiences. Nobody comes from the Dominican Republic and has it easy."
"Chris is like a sponge," says Ron Walker, his former junior varsity baseball coach in Clayton, N.C., and a life-long mentor. "He's always in the process of learning something. And he has a real sense of perspective. When he comes home, he's interested in finding out what his friends are doing, what their lives are like. He says that's more interesting than flying around the country and throwing pitches for a living."
Walker credits Archer's maternal grandparents, Donna and Ron, for adopting and raising Chris.
That's not to say there weren't a few bumps. Archer is naturally exuberant, as he showed in Seattle when a fan blew him a kiss from the stands and Archer pretended to catch it and then, theatrically, heave it onto the field. Archer's playfulness wasn't understood at times.
"At one point, there was talk of putting Chris in an alternative school," Walker says. "He was never a kid who caused trouble. His parents (grandparents) had the right approach. They made clear he understood it was up to him."
Says Archer, "Ron always made me realize I had a lot on the line. He told me not to fit in. Be the designated driver. Don't jeopardize your chances like everybody else does. If not for him, I'm not sure I would have been consciously aware of that."
Archer was a promising quarterback at Clayton, a suburb of Raleigh, and wasn't all that prominent as a young pitcher. "Daddy ball," Walker says. "There's always a lot of politics in a small town."
He blossomed late in high school and had a scholarship offer from Miami (Fla.) but signed with the Cleveland Indians as a fifth-round draftee.
Archer walked too many people early in his career, as he learned to pitch with his fastball and as his velocity rose. The Indians, to their deep regret, traded him and two others to the Chicago Cubs for Mark DeRosa, who is now an MLB Network studio analyst.
The Cubs dealt Archer to Tampa Bay in an eight-player transaction that brought Matt Garza to Wrigley Field, temporarily.
When Archer talks to kids, he usually finds at least one who maintains eye contact and asks questions. That keeps him going, but he's a realist.
"It's hard to keep in contact with some of them because they're in juvenile detention and they don't have Twitter or cellphones," Archer says. "Occasionally I'll develop a pen-pal relationship with them. But it's important to realize they're no different than us at that age. They just got caught."
So it's all unfinished business, at least until another young pitcher wants to read about Chris Archer. Whether bookstores will be around is uncertain. The identity of the author is not.
Whicker reported from Anaheim, Calif.