Hartford--The bottom of the Montreal's rotation, the third, fourth and fifth starters went into Hartford with smiles on their faces. In their past 10 games, they were 8-2. But neither of the Royals pitchers could come up with a win in Hartford, despite quality pitching by Salomon Torres and Kirk Rueter.
On Friday, Torres pitched 7 storng innings, giving up only 4 hits and 2 earned runs. Torres was set to lose the game because the Royals offense hadn't come up with any. But in the top on the 9th, the bats exploded, and Bonilla, Bournigal and Fletcher all combined for 4 runs in the last inning, to give them a comfortable 2 run lead.
Cooke took over in the eigth, and suddenly things didn't look so good. Cooke, who had been solid up to now with a 2.77 ERA, the second best on the staff, did his warmups on the mound. First up, Joe Girardi, and Cooke allowed a single. Then second baseman Reynolds grounded out to the shortstop. Tony Phillips came up to the plate with one run of the two runs on the night. Steve Cooke gave him a fat slider, and he slammed it inches over the rightfield wall.
"I was just hopin' the wind would push it make far enough, and that must've been a strong hit, because the wind was really pushing hard," commented Cooke after the game.
By then the game was tied and there were no men on base. Mark Acre replaced Cooke. HIs job was to keep the Royals into the game for the ninth. Acre was coming in on 5 days rest, and he was throwing his fastball clocked at over 90 mph. The only problem was the Whalers offense wasn't leaving any room for mistakes.
Acre couldn't get his slider down. Fletcher came out two times to calm Acre down and to tell him to get his pitches down. Once he came after the walk to Ken Griffey Jr., then after the pitch in the dirt to Palmeiro. Behind 2-0 in the count, Acre gave Palmerio a pitch way on the outside, but he hooked it over the 3rd baseman and down into the alley. Greer was slow on reading it, and Palmerio came to third standing. After that, the Royals couldn't come back.
Skinner failed to keep the Royals in the 6-1 Sunday game, but it was the second game that was also decided by a run.
Rueter made his second start since coming to the Royals. He had to face Greg Maddux, the winningest pitcher in the EL. No one gave him much of a chance. Despite giving up only 1 run in 7 innings, he still didn't have a chance.
Rueter's only mistakes was in the second inning, when he allowed Palmeiro to score on a single by Scott Brosius. After that, Rueter didn't allow one walk and gave up only 7 hits in total after being replaced by Eric Beeler in the 8th.
Kirk Rueter thought that the Royals would have a chance with the Lankford, Alomar and Bonilla coming up in the ninth. But only Bonilla could manage a hit on Broskie, and the crowd erupted after Morris flied out to Tony Gwynn for the third out out.
With that win, Maddux leads the league with 13 wins. Today Clemens will go for his 12th win as he faces the Edmonton Oil Kings at home.
