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Montreal--Tuesday afternoon, the Montreal Royals were returning home after a short road trip, and returning to face their division leaders, the Deadwood Outlaws, who are currently 11 1/2 games in front of their series rivals. If there is any time to pick up the slack for the Royals' dissapointing season, now is the time. "Sweeping Hartford at home was a big deal for us considering they are such a respected franchise," quoted the skipper. "We want to show that that series wasn't an exception to the rule."
In the series against Hartford, two of the three games were decided by 1 run. In both those games, the Royals came back in late innings to win. Hal Morris, still on the DL for at least another few weeks, was thrilled by the outcome of that series. "They showed more character and more emotion than I've seen all year. It made me want to run out onto the field and play."
Perhaps emotions were a little bit TOO high on the trip back.
On the Royals' private jet, there was a fight that involved 5 of the players, reportedly started by Bonilla. The fight supposedly started when Luis Andujar accused Bonilla that he was becoming lazy and that he was putting on too many pounds. Andujar later said that the remark was made only half seriously. But there has been a lot of tension on Bonilla lately, both by the media and the staff, and he practically blew up. A fist fight ensued, and a few other teammates joined and took sides.
Bonilla could not be reached for comment, nor could any of the others who reportedly joined in the fight. Alex Ochoa said that the fight "wasn't to be taken too seriously, it was only a miscommunication among friends."
Despite downplaying the seriousness of the fight, trade rumours swirl around Bobby Bonilla, who could be traded for some much needed pitching. "This year we haven't had a 5th starter," said the Royals GM. "I'm not saying we are going to trade Bonilla for pitching, but we are seriously considering some moves to improve our rotation, and that might involve loosing one of our highly prized veterans."
Steve Kline has been brought up to fill the starting position. In his only start, he has racked up an ERA of 18.00.
"Obviously, he has the stuff, he just hasn't had the chance to show it to us," said the manager. "Next start he will be a bit more relaxed and will be able to rely on his movement rather than overdoing it on speed. We aren't really expecting much of him, considering that he doesn't have very large shoes to fill."
Terry Mulholland, who's been sent down to the AAA level, went 1 for 8 with an 7.05 ERA in 12 starts.
Notes & Quotes:
Labatt, major sponsors of the Montreal Royals, proposed handing out free samples of it's new 8% beer at next Sunday's game, but SAQ (Societe de l'Alchool de Quebec) declared that this was violating a commercial act and would cause too many problems. "There is enough problems with drinking and driving after baseball games when the beer is overpriced, we wouldn't want to even consider what would happen when the beer is given away free," said SAQ commisioner Paul Ysabert.
Written by Peter Carbonetto