All Things Back in Order--Groundhogs Regain First April 18, 1998
Punxatawney, PA (AP)--After a busy day in which the Punxatawney Groundhogs
first played a game in Tampa Bay, then flew home to play their arch-rivals,
the Houston Hellraisers. The Hogs came into the day tied with Houston for
the Riker lead, hoping to take their first outright lead of the season.
After the tiring day was over and Dave Martinez had played his first game in
a Groundhogs uniform, Punxatawney had taken an outright lead and pushed the
Hellraisers back into third place, behind the suprising Springfield Atoms.
Though today's two games weren't very much alike, they were both excellent
close battles. The first game, an early afternoon battle against the lowly
Tampa Bay Mets, was a pitching for most of the game. It pitted Bobby Thomas
against Roger Pavlik and for the first 3 innings, neither team could get any
offense going. Then Punxatawney tallied a run in the 4th and another in 5th
to go ahead 2-0. The score stayed the same until the 8th when Punxatawney
tried to put the game away by scoring twice more. However, Tampa Bay fought
back against Sean Bergman in the 9th inning, rocking him for 3 hits and a
walk, along with 2 runs, while he only recorded one out. That prompted
Shapiro to put his closer, Ricky Bottalico, on the mound to finish up.
Ricky did just that to record his first save with a perfect 2/3 of an
inning, needing only 2 pitches to get those 2 outs.
Tony Batista was one of the offensive leaders in today's game. Perhaps
happy to find out this would be his last game hitting leadoff due to the
Dave Martinez trade yesterday, Batista went 3-4, doubling once and driving
in a run. Jose Valentin drove in a pair with a solo homer and a sacrifice
fly. Jason Giambi and Rick Wilkins also had two hits each.
However, the late game insurance runs were once largely to the credit of
utility man John Cangelosi. The veteran outfielder was a simple throw-in as
part of the Rick Wilkins trade. So far, coming off the bench to pinch hit
and pinch run late in game, Cangelosi is 4-9 with 4 runs, 2 RBI, and 3
stolen bases.
"I'm in the same role I was in last season on the Hamsters," the outfielder
said. "I'm the late game pinch runner and utility guy who gets the
important run or two to win the game. I've really been able to help out
this year--I just hope I still get the chance with Martinez coming to town."
Cangelosi has done much better in the short time he's played this season
than last. Although he did steal 28 bases off the bench last season, his
batting average was down near the .200 mark.
The great pitching in this game was done by Bobby Thomas. Today's game was
perhaps his best outing yet as a Groundhog over two seasons. He tossed 7
full innings for his second win and only gave up 1 hit and 2 walks. To go
with that, he racked up 10 strikeouts.
"It killed me last season, that stupid injury. I have no idea why I reached
for that grounder barehanded but it was stupid, I was trying to do too much.
This year, I'm concentrating on doing the pitching and I'm going to get this
team the championship we deserved last year," said Thomas after the game.
Shapiro wanted to thank Tampa Bay for being great hosts and playing a great
series. "Their record is deceiving. They beat us yesterday and stuck with
us in all three games. I just don't want to be around when their luck
turns."
Meanwhile, the Houston Hellraisers were locked in a battle of their own
against the Springfield Atoms. New Atoms Livan Hernandez and Dan Consedine
combined with Randy Myers to beat Houston 3-1 and give Punxatawney their
first outright Riker lead of the season.
But would the lead last? After the first game was completed for both teams,
Punxatawney hopped on a plane to get home in time to meet Houston in the
second battle of the two titans. However, Josh Ludolph and Luis Gonzalez
said their goodbyes and hopped a flight leaving for Duluth. Dave Martinez
was already in Punxatawney as his team only had one game scheduled.
If the first game was a pitching duel, the second game was a total opposite.
There were 8 lead changes, 9 pitchers used, 5 homers, and a partridge in a
pear tree! It seemed like it would be a crazy game from the start. Houston
scored in the first and again in the second to go up 4-0 but Punxatawney
responded by scoring 4 in the bottom of the 2nd and 1 more in the third and
went ahead 5-2. After a scoreless 4th, Houston tallied 5 runs in the 5th
and took a 7-5 advantage. The didn't last long as Punxatawney scored 3 in
the 6th to lead 8-7. Nobody was able to score in the 7th, but the 8th was
another eruption of offense. Houston got 4 runs and went up 11-8, but
Punxatawney equalled their 4 to go up 12-11 heading into the final frame.
Would that be enough to win? Of course not. Houston scored twice and hoped
to win taking a 13-12 lead into the bottom of the 9th. With two outs and
Scott Karl pitching, Punxatawney rallied to score twice more--and win this
insane game 14-13.
"That was freaking amazing!" exclaimed the Groundhogs new centerfielder Dave
Martinez after the game. His first game as a Groundhog was a mediocre one,
as he collected just one hit in 5 at bats, but he drive in two runs and
score once. "If every game is as great as this, then I'm gonna love playing
here."
Nearly every Groundhog had a great hitting day in this high scoring battle,
but two really stood out. As expected, last year's 50 homer/150 RBI man
Ryan Klesko was one of them. Ryan went 5-6, scoring 3 times and driving in
one run. Two of his hits were extra base--a double a homer. But although
Klesko was 5-6, he didn't drive in many runs. Nor did Jason Giambi, who had
perhaps the worst day of any Groundhog, going 0-3 with 2 walks.
The task of driving in the runs was given to Tony Batista, finally batting
again in a position where he is more comfortable--6th. Batista had an
incredible game, going 4-5 with 4 runs scored and 5 RBI. This included a
homer, a double, and a stolen base.
"I admit, I'm not really a leadoff hitter. I like batting 2nd or 6th.
Well, Marty is doing a great job in the 2 hole, so I'll stay down here at
6," the young secondbaseman said.
Of course, logic demands that with any 14-13 game, the pitching could not
have been pretty. And it was pretty bad for both teams.
Scott Aldred, who was mauled in his first start and brough a 7.50 ERA into
the game, did nothing to help his stats. He has, however, thrown both his
games against the Hellraisers. In this game, he allowed 7 runs in 5
innings. Todd Stottlemeyer gave up 4 in the first 2. Other pitchers,
including Henry Neale (3 IP, 4 ER), Charles Nagy (3.2 IP, 4 ER), and Todd
Ritchie (1/3 IP, 4 ER) also got hit hard. Only Roger McDowell and Jeff
Juden were able to survive the outings without giving up a run.
The last two pitchers--Sean Bergman for Punxatawney and Scott Karl for
Houston--both did horrible as well. Karl gave up 2 runs in 2/3 of an inning
for the loss while Bergman got an undeserved win, giving up 2 runs in an
inning and blowing a save opportunity.
The game did quite a bit for the Hogs overall offensive standings. With a
team batting average of .282, they now rank 2nd in the DL and 3rd overall
for that catergory. Their pitching stats suffered, however, with the team
ERA skyrocketing from well below 2.00 to 3.00.
But, most importantly--their 7-3 win/loss record is good enough to put them
1.5 games ahead of the Springfield Atoms and 2.0 ahead of Houston.
"It's a very different division this year," noted Dan Shapiro. "Last year
it was a joke from the start. We led the whole season and it wasn't even
really close after April. This year, we have Houston, who has surprisingly
only gone 5-5 so far. And we have the Springfield Atoms, picked to struggle
but so far surprising everyone with a 6-5 record. We're gonna have to win a
lot more close games than last year. And its still a month or so until we
get to play anyone other than Riker teams. Whoever comes out on top by
mid-May is going to have a huge advantage."
