Galena, IL (AP)--The Royal's season hasn't reached the halfway mark, but
already they believe this has been the early climax. The team's start to
the season was particularily slow which included an 8-game losing streak in
the month of May, but they rebounded quickly and are now within a 4-game
margin of the McCoy division leaders, the Hartford Whalers.
The Royals lost the first game 4-0 on a complete game by Pete Harnisch. In
the second game, they returned fire and scored 5 runs of their own while
Salomon Torres got his first shutout of the year, a 4-hit 9-strikeout
affair. Torres improved to 3-6 (and lowered his ERA to 2.98) while he gave
Kevin Appier only his second loss this year.
The deciding game of the 3-game series was a close game, but the Montreal
pitching hung on for the win. Both starters, Darryl Kile and Kirk Rueter,
pitched 7 innings and gave up 6 hits, but Kile took the loss. Both pitchers
are now 7-3. All in all, Hartford got more hits, but Joe Hetrick and Jose
Mesa shut down the Hamster's offense, giving up only one hit apiece in 2
innings.
No one, not even the Royals players, expected to leave Galena with a series
victory.
"Pitching was the key to this series," commented the manager, Gary Carter.
"Not in any game were any more than 5 runs scored for one team. This was a
real contest between the best pitchers in the league, I believe. While
Torres and Rueter are still young, they outdueled two of some of the best
arms in the league in Kevin Appier and Darryl Kile." The Galena Hamsters
have the best pitching staff in the EL, while the Royals are 3rd in the EL.
But Montreal continues to have offensive woes, being the second worst team
in the league in offense, in front of only the woeful Thunder bay Storm. No
one on the team is batting over .300. Last season, Bonilla, Greer and
former teammater Roberto Alomar all batted over .300.
"Obviously, we're all trying to regain our stance," said Rusty Greer, last
year's team batting champ. "But lose a step and the pitchers in this league
will take advantage of you. But really, we just need work ethic and
patience and eventually Bobby and me and even Tim [Naehring] will be
getting a few extra hits that count. Hopefully, we'll be able to feed off
the confidence of the pitchers right now."
