Weathers quietly takes charge
By Hal McCoy
Dayton Daily News

PITTSBURGH | Quietly, without fanfare, with little notice, David Weathers is 7-1 with 11 saves and performing as if the closer's role was listed on his birth certificate nearly 36 years ago.

What about next year? When Weathers made his 55th appearance a few days ago, his contract with the Cincinnati Reds became guaranteed for next year.

The team could trade him, it could leave him in the closer's role or it could tell him to shine spikes.

"Whatever they want me to do," Weathers said. "If they go get somebody else to close, I understand. They signed me to pitch, so I pitch whenever and wherever they want.

"Yes, it's more fun being on the back end saving games and it was fun even when I struggled early in the year," he said. "Whatever their plans, I'm good with them."

Not only is Weathers the closer, he is the father confessor and the policeman of the pitching staff. Aaron Harang discovered it this weekend when he talked too much about breaking his 0 for 49 batting skid with a single Friday night.

The next day, Weathers grabbed the newspaper clips and read them out loud in the clubhouse as Harang sat and listened. On Sunday, Weathers didn't let up. He prepared a special photo out of a newspaper and pasted Harang's photo on an uncomplimentary body. It wasn't pretty.

Said Harang, "I took it with a smile. I told them I was happy to be the butt of their sense of humor. It's good. Everybody was laughing and having a good time."

Weathers is good at self-deprecation, too. Somebody showed him a weirdly shaped baseball Sunday in the clubhouse and he said, "That's like a ball I throw to the umpire after somebody hits it to ask for a new one. The umpire says, 'Is it scuffed?,' and I say, 'No, they knocked it lopsided.'"

Milton improves

Also quietly and with little notice, starting pitcher Eric Milton is putting together a strong segment after a horrendous beginning.

He has been good in six of his last seven starts. The one throwback-throwaway was a start against San Francisco in which he gave up six runs and 12 hits in five innings.

But in the other six starts he has given up 13 runs and 26 hits in 34 innings, a 3.44 earned run average, and only five homers. His best was Saturday night, when he held Pittsburgh to one run (a homer) and six hits over eight innings.

"I can't really say what the difference is, but (fired pitching coach) Don Gullett figured out I wasn't using the lower half of my body," said Milton. "That's where you generate your power and that cost me velocity. When we fixed that, my fastball went up 2 miles an hour and that makes a huge difference."

Milton said a couple of knee surgeries was the culprit.

"It hurt to push off with my lower body so I taught myself to pitch by not using it, by falling away. I had to learn all over how to use my lower body for my power."

Milton gave up only one run Saturday, but left the game down, 1-0, because of the home run. The Reds tied it in the ninth and won it in the 10th.

"I can't complain," he said. "I gave up the home run and put my team down. It would have been my loss, but the team made a good comeback and it was fun to watch from the dugout."

Save for Coffey

Todd Coffey recorded his first major-league save and wasn't even aware of it until he walked to the mound in the ninth inning with a five-run lead.

He entered Sunday's game with a 5-2 lead in the eighth and held the Pirates scoreless, then he was 7-2 when he walked out for the ninth and pitched another scoreless inning.

Because the Reds led by three runs when he entered the game, he receive received a save.

"Awesome and absolutely it was something I've been thinking about every since I came to the majors," he said. "You think about your first save, your first win and your first hit . . . although I'm not worried about ever getting my first hit."
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