Blacksnakes complete sweep of Explorers
By Terry Hersom, Journal sports editor | Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2007
Sioux City first basemen Julian Benavidez makes the catch from pitcher Rory James as St. Joe's Chad Sosebee is picked off Wednesday at Lewis and Clark Park. (Staff photo by Jerry Mennenga)
Win or lose, it became a gloomy night for the Sioux City Explorers just as soon as starting pitcher Rafael Gross pulled himself out of the game after warming up for the second inning.
The news didn't get any better after that as the St. Joseph Blacksnakes nipped the X's 5-4 Wednesday night at Lewis and Clark Park, weathering a ninth-inning rally to finish off a sweep of a three-game American Association baseball series.
And, just like that, a St. Joe club that had been saddled with the league's worst record for most of the league's first-half schedule now has company in the North Division cellar, matching Sioux City's 15-30 record.
The early exit by Gross, hugging several teammates before he left the diamond, very likely signaled the end of a courageous comeback bid for a 32-year-old righthander who was making his seventh start and had skipped three others due to physical infirmities.
Gross, who did have two outstanding performances, both wins, had left early twice before when he experienced something like the tightness that surfaced again this time.
"He was either going to be okay this time or he wasn't going to be with us,'' said X's Manager Ed Nottle, who had made it known he couldn't proceed into the second-half schedule with Gross unless the former Northern League pitcher of the year was healthy.
Rory James, the closer for most of his 20 previous appearances this season, stepped up with five innings of work for a team that had already called on reliever Jon Koch for a spot start on Tuesday. However, the X's highly inconsistent offense sputtered yet another time and St. Joe held a 2-1 lead before picking up three more runs in the seventh off lefty Joel Schmal.
Two runs in the seventh pulled the Explorers within 5-3 and the game seemed headed for extra innings after they plated another run in the ninth and had runners on the corners with just one out and the heart of the order due up.
No. 3 hitter Julian Benavidez, though, lunged at the first pitch he saw, popping out in foul territory, and cleanup man Jorge Moreno's fly ball to right field pulled the plug.
"Another game where we outhit 'em and lose,'' sighed Nottle, whose team totaled 10 hits to nine for the Blacksnakes. It was the 11th Sioux City loss in 14 one-run games this season.
Moreover, it was the fifth loss for Nottle's team in six meetings with the Snakes, who hadn't previously won three games in a row - a streak the X's have yet to experience - when they arrived in town on Monday.
Australian native Paul Weichard drove in two runs and scored the other three for St. Joe, which won the final two games of the series with two starting pitchers who had been a combined 0-11 on the season.
One night after an 8-4 win for Andrew Edwards, 0-5 with four no-decisions in nine previous trips to the hill, this one was a welcome breakthrough for lefthander Brian Buchanan, previously 0-6 with three no-decisions.
"Buchanan pitched well tonight and he pitched well for me three years ago in Brockton,'' said Nottle, who enjoyed an 11-5 season from Buchanan in 2004 while skippering the Can-Am League's Brockton Rox.
Buchanan, though, had been sidelined the last two seasons by arm trouble and his earned run average with St. Joe this year was 6.99 before he went six innings Wednesday, yielding one run on four hits.
The first batter to face James, Weichard drew a leadoff walk that led to the game's first run in the second inning.
The X's got that run back in the fourth inning, but a hit-and-run lineout by Benavidez also erased a leadoff single by Nick McCoola, ultimately preventing a big inning after Moreno singled and scored on a triple by Jake Daubert.
St. Joe got nothing out of two fifth-inning singles off James, but the 6-9 righthander wasn't as fortunate in the sixth, which started with Weichard's double to left-center.
Two outs later, Weichard stood at third when Chad Sosebee's looper to shallow left field narrowly escaped the glove of a diving Moreno, sending the Snakes in front, 2-1.
After the clutch performance by James, Schmal couldn't follow suit, surrendering three runs in the seventh inning to let the visitors open up a 5-1 advantage. Weichard's two-out double drove in two runs, then the second passed ball of the night helped Weichard score his third run on a base hit by David Fowler.
The X's loaded the bases with one out in the seventh on a walk plus base hits by Ramon Navarro and Tuttle. McCoola, turning in his ninth multi-hit performance in the last 10 games, scooted a two-run single through the middle to make it a 5-3 game.
The rally died there with Benavidez and Moreno both striking out, failing to deliver in much the same fashion as the would in the ninth.
Pinch-hitter Dustin Jones battled through a 10-pitch at-bat, leading off the ninth with a broken bat single up the middle. One out later, Tuttle blooped a single to left and then McCoola's third hit of the game, a bad hop single over Yount, the first baseman, pulled the X's within 5-4.
X's AND OH's: After a day off today, the Explorers close out the first-half slate with a three-game series starting Friday against the Pensacola (Fla.) Pelicans. Pensacola is the last-place team in the South Division, but the Pelicans, 17-26, had reeled off six wins in a row before a skid that reached three in a row with a 6-0 loss Wednesday at St. Paul....
The Lincoln Saltdogs' run to the North's first-half flag was slowed down a bit Wednesday in a 13-4 loss to Sioux Falls and former major leaguer Pat Mahomes. The Saltdogs, 30-12, are now just 3.5 games in front of St. Paul, 27-16 with an impressive nine-game winning streak, and those two teams will finish the half with a four-game series that runs through Monday, the only Monday game in the league. First, Lincoln and Sioux Falls meet again tonight while St. Paul again entertains Pensacola....
Moreno's fourth-inning run give him a whopping 40 in 45 games, one shy of league leader Walter Olmstead of El Paso. The X's leftfielder also has 15 stolen bases, fifth in the league and just one less than his team-leading season total a year ago, after an ill-advised steal of third with two outs in the sixth inning. That frame ended with runners at the corners when Alex Llanos, the last batter to face Buchanan, tapped out to the pitcher....
Two more errors in this one mean the X's, the league leader in defense until their recent swoon in the field, have now gone 11 consecutive games without an error-free performance. They've piled up 24 miscues in that span and have had just two error-free nights in the last 20 games.
The news didn't get any better after that as the St. Joseph Blacksnakes nipped the X's 5-4 Wednesday night at Lewis and Clark Park, weathering a ninth-inning rally to finish off a sweep of a three-game American Association baseball series.
And, just like that, a St. Joe club that had been saddled with the league's worst record for most of the league's first-half schedule now has company in the North Division cellar, matching Sioux City's 15-30 record.
The early exit by Gross, hugging several teammates before he left the diamond, very likely signaled the end of a courageous comeback bid for a 32-year-old righthander who was making his seventh start and had skipped three others due to physical infirmities.
Gross, who did have two outstanding performances, both wins, had left early twice before when he experienced something like the tightness that surfaced again this time.
"He was either going to be okay this time or he wasn't going to be with us,'' said X's Manager Ed Nottle, who had made it known he couldn't proceed into the second-half schedule with Gross unless the former Northern League pitcher of the year was healthy.
Rory James, the closer for most of his 20 previous appearances this season, stepped up with five innings of work for a team that had already called on reliever Jon Koch for a spot start on Tuesday. However, the X's highly inconsistent offense sputtered yet another time and St. Joe held a 2-1 lead before picking up three more runs in the seventh off lefty Joel Schmal.
Two runs in the seventh pulled the Explorers within 5-3 and the game seemed headed for extra innings after they plated another run in the ninth and had runners on the corners with just one out and the heart of the order due up.
No. 3 hitter Julian Benavidez, though, lunged at the first pitch he saw, popping out in foul territory, and cleanup man Jorge Moreno's fly ball to right field pulled the plug.
"Another game where we outhit 'em and lose,'' sighed Nottle, whose team totaled 10 hits to nine for the Blacksnakes. It was the 11th Sioux City loss in 14 one-run games this season.
Moreover, it was the fifth loss for Nottle's team in six meetings with the Snakes, who hadn't previously won three games in a row - a streak the X's have yet to experience - when they arrived in town on Monday.
Australian native Paul Weichard drove in two runs and scored the other three for St. Joe, which won the final two games of the series with two starting pitchers who had been a combined 0-11 on the season.
One night after an 8-4 win for Andrew Edwards, 0-5 with four no-decisions in nine previous trips to the hill, this one was a welcome breakthrough for lefthander Brian Buchanan, previously 0-6 with three no-decisions.
"Buchanan pitched well tonight and he pitched well for me three years ago in Brockton,'' said Nottle, who enjoyed an 11-5 season from Buchanan in 2004 while skippering the Can-Am League's Brockton Rox.
Buchanan, though, had been sidelined the last two seasons by arm trouble and his earned run average with St. Joe this year was 6.99 before he went six innings Wednesday, yielding one run on four hits.
The first batter to face James, Weichard drew a leadoff walk that led to the game's first run in the second inning.
The X's got that run back in the fourth inning, but a hit-and-run lineout by Benavidez also erased a leadoff single by Nick McCoola, ultimately preventing a big inning after Moreno singled and scored on a triple by Jake Daubert.
St. Joe got nothing out of two fifth-inning singles off James, but the 6-9 righthander wasn't as fortunate in the sixth, which started with Weichard's double to left-center.
Two outs later, Weichard stood at third when Chad Sosebee's looper to shallow left field narrowly escaped the glove of a diving Moreno, sending the Snakes in front, 2-1.
After the clutch performance by James, Schmal couldn't follow suit, surrendering three runs in the seventh inning to let the visitors open up a 5-1 advantage. Weichard's two-out double drove in two runs, then the second passed ball of the night helped Weichard score his third run on a base hit by David Fowler.
The X's loaded the bases with one out in the seventh on a walk plus base hits by Ramon Navarro and Tuttle. McCoola, turning in his ninth multi-hit performance in the last 10 games, scooted a two-run single through the middle to make it a 5-3 game.
The rally died there with Benavidez and Moreno both striking out, failing to deliver in much the same fashion as the would in the ninth.
Pinch-hitter Dustin Jones battled through a 10-pitch at-bat, leading off the ninth with a broken bat single up the middle. One out later, Tuttle blooped a single to left and then McCoola's third hit of the game, a bad hop single over Yount, the first baseman, pulled the X's within 5-4.
X's AND OH's: After a day off today, the Explorers close out the first-half slate with a three-game series starting Friday against the Pensacola (Fla.) Pelicans. Pensacola is the last-place team in the South Division, but the Pelicans, 17-26, had reeled off six wins in a row before a skid that reached three in a row with a 6-0 loss Wednesday at St. Paul....
The Lincoln Saltdogs' run to the North's first-half flag was slowed down a bit Wednesday in a 13-4 loss to Sioux Falls and former major leaguer Pat Mahomes. The Saltdogs, 30-12, are now just 3.5 games in front of St. Paul, 27-16 with an impressive nine-game winning streak, and those two teams will finish the half with a four-game series that runs through Monday, the only Monday game in the league. First, Lincoln and Sioux Falls meet again tonight while St. Paul again entertains Pensacola....
Moreno's fourth-inning run give him a whopping 40 in 45 games, one shy of league leader Walter Olmstead of El Paso. The X's leftfielder also has 15 stolen bases, fifth in the league and just one less than his team-leading season total a year ago, after an ill-advised steal of third with two outs in the sixth inning. That frame ended with runners at the corners when Alex Llanos, the last batter to face Buchanan, tapped out to the pitcher....
Two more errors in this one mean the X's, the league leader in defense until their recent swoon in the field, have now gone 11 consecutive games without an error-free performance. They've piled up 24 miscues in that span and have had just two error-free nights in the last 20 games.
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