Stars solve ‘Little Unit’

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, May 17, 2000 | 10:05 a.m.

The "Little Unit" had big problems throwing strikes in his Cashman Field debut Tuesday night.

Ryan "Little Unit" Anderson, the 6-foot-11, 20-year-old left-handed pitcher who has been compared to Randy "Big Unit" Johnson and may be the hottest pitching prospect in minor league baseball, lasted just four innings before departing in Tacoma's 7-1 loss to the Stars before an announced crowd of 3,434.

"He didn't have very good stuff, and he had even less command of it," Rainiers manager Dave Myers said. "Obviously, you're going to have some bad outings and today surely was."

Anderson (3-2), who had walked just 16 batters while striking out a Pacific Coast League-leading 59 batters in 37 innings entering the game, walked four in four innings, including three in a 31-pitch first inning.

Perhaps an even bigger clue that it was an off night for the hard-throwing lefty was the fact that he didn't strike out a Las Vegas batter until the third inning. It was the first time this season that he went back-to-back innings without striking out at least one hitter.

For the night, Anderson allowed seven hits, including a long opposite-field home run to John Roskos in the fourth, and five earned runs while walking four and striking out three. He threw 87 pitches in his four innings.

"We can't ask him to be at the top of his game every time," Myers said. "Hopefully this was a one-shot deal, which I suspect it is."

"I just didn't have anything the whole game," Anderson said. "I couldn't get ahead."

Still, even on an off night Anderson impressed the Stars (21-14).

"I think he threw the ball very well, but we also swung the bats well," Las Vegas manager Duane Espy said. "We did a good job of getting a pitch to hit and then when we got it, we did something with it. I'm very happy with what we did but I also realize that we were fortunate because that guy out there had good stuff."

Although Anderson has been clocked as high as 100 mph on occasion, he threw mainly between 94 to 96 mph on Tuesday night.

"These guys didn't get here because they couldn't hit a fastball," Espy said. "If velocity was the terminator, nobody would be here. The guy (Tom Davey) they threw out there (Monday) threw 95. The fact (Anderson) threw 95 or 97 wasn't the issue. We laid off the pitches we couldn't hit and hit the ones we could."

Roskos was optioned to Las Vegas by the Padres on Monday to make room for Tony Gwynn, who was coming off the disabled list. Roskos hit .432 in the spring and was one of San Diego's final cuts, but is just 1-for-28 with the Padres and was 0-for-13 in his most recent stint. Still, Roskos, who went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs Tuesday, was hitting .432 in triple-A action heading into last night's game.