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Today marked the biggest series of the season for the Skulls. They began a 3- game series with 2nd place Motor City in the Motor City. Coming into the day the lead over Motor City was 3 games and with a sweep the Madmen could have pulled to within one game of the Skulls but the Skulls would not allow that as they sweep the Madmen in the doubleheader. Andy Benes started the first game but was knocked out after 4 innings and going into the 7th, the Skulls trailed 4-1. The Skulls scored 2 in the 7th and 1 in the 8th to tie the game at 4. Bernie Williams homered in the ninth to give the Skulls a 5-4 lead and Randy Myers shut the door for his 10th save of the year. Bernie Williams hit his 13th, Jeff Bagwell hit his 22nd and Henery Rodriguez hit his 14th, Tom Dodge (1-0) got the win in relief of Benes. " Our bullpen was great for us today, Dodge got the win but Garcia was the MVP of this game, he came on in the 5 in relief and he gave us 3.2 scoreless innings and that saved us and kept us in the game. Over the last 2 weeks, Bernie Williams and Jeff Bagwell have carried the offense and that continued today." This is what G.M. Ryan george had to say.
Juan Gusman started the second game and was brilliant. He went 7 innings, giving up no runs on 4 hits and 6 strikeouts en rout to a 4-0 win. Noberto Martin hit the only homerun of the game. Juan Gusman has been very inconsistant this year, at times he has seemed unhitable and at other times he has been very bad. " When Juan is on he is impossible to score on, and today was one of those days. I'm glad I wasn't one of those hitters in their line-up today. It's a big lift when he pitches like that because we know that we just have to score a couple of runs and play good defense." This is what CF Bernie Williams had to say.
The Skulls made a minor trade getting a backup catcher for Mike Stanley. They traded away RP Steve Sparks for C Jorge Posada. G.M. Ryan George believes that Posada, along with Ruben Rivera, Shannon Stewart, will be their player of the future, " I see Posada as the best catching prospect in the league. He has a gun for an arm and he has a very explosive bat and in the future he will be an all-star. We also have 3 other players that sooner or later will be a very important part of this team. Ruben Rivera is a great all around player and will be a starter next year. Shannon Stewart is also a guy that 2 or 3 years down the road will be a starter."
The Skulls also signed 2b Pat kelly and lefty specialist Rick Honeycutt over the weekend to fill out 2 roster spots.
Both Alex Fernandez and Brian Boehringer are expected to be placed on the active roster within the next couple of days. fernandez will start in a AAA game at Tampa, he will pitch 5 innings and Brian Boehringer will come on in relief and pitch 2 innings. If all goes well, fernandez will start on Monday.
Written by Ryan George