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Hartford (AP)-All-Star candidate, Hartford Whalers first baseman, Paul Sorrento, hit 2 more homeruns in today's double header (17, 18) making it 6 in two days. Sorrento hit 4 homers in a double-dip against Seattle yesterday and returned home to Hartford with the same hot hands as the Whalers defeated the United, 5-3 in Game1 and 7-5 in Game2. Sorrento leads the EL with 18 homeruns and 53 RBI in starting every game this season for Hartford. Manager Jeremy Chrabascz responded by saying, "He's great. He's provided us a real spark. Everyone in the ballpark, including our bench stands up and shuts up when he's up to the plate now. I guess we can overlook all his errors, eh?" Sorrento himself seemed surprised, "Yeah, I've been doing pretty well so far this season. I've been lucky to be healthy and I thank God for touchin some of those fly balls." Outside of Sorrento's good fortune, there were other positives in Hartford's sweep of the double header. Rookie pitcher John Burke pitched another solid game, allowing 3 earned runs in 5 innings of work as he picked up another no-decision. Recently promoted, Jeff McCurry (1-0), pitched 3 shutout innings for the win while Pichardo picked up his 4th save. In Game 2, Tony Saunders pitched his first game as a starter this season (filling the 5th spot in the rotation over the struggling Aaron Sele) and went 6 1/3 allowing only 2 earned runs for his first win (Pichardo picking up save #5) as Hartford outlasted DC 7-5. Hartford re-opened a 6-game lead in the McCoy division over second-place Seattle/Deadwood and moved to 23-12 overall.
Trade Winds
Hartford's deals (reportedly) for Jeff Bagwell and Albert Belle have apparently fallen through due to stand-off's and miscommunication in negotiations. Chrabascz simply said, "I'm not sure what happened, exactly but I'm still quite interested in Bagwell and Belle. Oh, well."
Meanwhile, Hartford has shown some renewed interest in trading by opening talks with Larimer and Seattle. Hartford is looking to unload some of its excess pitching to gain some depth at skill positions and some power and increased run production (while Griffey remains out 2 weeks). Chrabascz did have this to say, "We are VERY open to trading our surplus of quality pitching as long as we receive reasonable offers and people realize that Maddux, Rogers and Rosado aren't going anywhere unless we're offered something close to Babe Ruth."
Written by Jeremy Chrabascz