Whicker: San Dimas alum Peter Lambert holds off…
Whicker: San Dimas alum Peter Lambert holds off the Dodgers as best he can
The San Dimas righthander is launching his career with Colorado
By Mark Whicker | mwhicker@scng.com | Daily News
Chris Taylor #3 of the Los Angeles Dodgers bobbles the ball as Peter Lambert #23 of the Colorado Rockies is safe at second base in the third inning of a MLB baseball game at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, June 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Peter Lambert #23 of the Colorado Rockies scores on a single by teammate Ian Desmond (not pictured) against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third inning of a MLB baseball game at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, June 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Peter Lambert #23 of the Colorado Rockies and former San Dimas High School baseball player throws to the plate against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning of a MLB baseball game at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, June 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are a demanding exam for a young righthander. Sometimes they're the final one.
Peter Lambert, 22, of San Dimas High and the Colorado Rockies, will live to pitch again.
In his fourth big-league start, he went five innings Saturday against a trash compactor of an offense that has bashed 85 home runs in 51 starts against righties, with an .830 OPS.
Only one of Lambert's 98 pitches left the premises, a solo from Alex Verdugo that tied it 3-3, but that's where the game stayed until Lambert was relieved. To boot, he had to deal with opposing pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu, the best lefty in baseball this year.
Lambert frustrated Cody Bellinger with changeups, left three Dodgers in scoring position, and after he walked leadoff man Joc Pederson he didn't walk anyone else. His second inning began double-single-single and yet only one Dodger scored.
He also banged out two base hits, for the second consecutive game, and scored the first run.
As it turned out, it was just a delaying action. Verdugo's second homer scaled the right-field wall, in the 11th, and was the second consecutive walk-off win for Los Angeles, 5-4.
"The elevated pitch count made it tough for Peter to continue," said Rockies' manager Bud Black, "but he battled. His curveball was good, his changeup came into play. He kept the ball down, as we wanted, and he just missed with some. But he did fine."
"It was exciting, it was loud in here," said Lambert, who said he would attend "almost 10" games a year while growing up. "They took a lot of pitches, they made me work out there, but I thought my off-speed stuff was pretty good. I just wish it had turned out a little differently."
Jon Lukens is the Rockies' scout who signed Lambert. He was one of many faces and radar guns who gathered at the San Dimas games in 2015, when the Saints won 31 consecutive games and were ranked No. 1 nationally, then lost to Walnut in the CIF Southern Section semifinals.
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"He didn't really start pitching until he was a sophomore," said Jim Lambert, the dad, "and before you knew it there were scouts there, every time."
Lambert was held back to pitch that final game that never happened. Odds would have favored him. He pitched 13 times, completed nine games, threw five shutouts and struck out 113 in 93 innings. His ERA was 0.43, like a marked-down cup of yogurt in the dairy case.
"We saw what everybody else saw," Lukens said. "I was probably more impressed during the home visit. He was tremendously focused. There were times when you weren't sure if he was getting what you were saying, but he's a processor. He was right there with you."
Lambert also brought a fresh arm to his pro career. He didn't play travel ball every summer. He followed his older brother Jimmy, and now Jimmy is a starting pitcher for Birmingham, the Double-A affiliate of the White Sox.
Lambert committed to UCLA, but the Rockies drafted him in the second round and signed him for $1.49 million, and here he is. He was picked 44th. Only 12 that went ahead of him have made a significant minor league splash, and Atlanta's Mike Soroka is the only one besides Lambert who is in a rotation..
"I was impressed with him two years ago in spring training," Black said. "He is very professional. Because he doesn't throw in the high 90s he has to command his fastball. But he's very calm when you talk to him. Put the ball in his hand and he becomes the baby-faced assassin."
"You're also proud because he's a high school right-hander and he got up there in four years," Lukens said. "That's a tough group to predict."
A high school lefty can plot his way to the big leagues with deception, angles and funk. The right-handers have to bring stuff that works in the strike zone. Few do, and while the college pitchers can grow into their bodies and have tighter supervision, the high schoolers are dealing with an unrelenting pace of life, often in a faraway place. The minefields are thicker.
However, six prep-bred righties are among the top 14 major league pitchers in WHIP (walks and hits,per innings pitched) at the moment: Soroka, Zack Grienke, Lucas Giolito, Charlie Morton, Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi.
A more accurate picture might be found in the active career WHP leaders. There, Corey Kluber, Greinke and Adam Wainwright are the only RHPs from high school in the top 20.
You don't join that group in four starts, and Lambert and the Rockies couldn't make a vicctory Saturday. He did, at least, make another appointment.
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Mark Whicker
Mark Whicker has worked for SCNG newspapers since 1987. He has been a sports columnist for newspapers since 1980 and a professional sportswriter since 1974.
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