Punxatawney, PA (AP)-- It certainly isn't the same kind of season last year.
A closer in Punxatawney seemed useless because there were never close games
to be saved. One year later, Punxatawney's recent winning streak has been
given a nickname. The "Enough Offense to Win" streak. Today they held on
to top the Houston Hellraisers 5-3 and complete a sweep of their division
rivals.
"Somehow we keep finding a way," team GM Dan Shapiro noted. "Even with our
two big bats out, we still found a way. I'm damn proud of this team."
Yesterday Shapiro had called up his other regulars to step up their games
and help lead the Hogs to victory. And they did just that. Roberto Kelly
moved into the 2nd spot in the order and responded by going 2-5, scoring
twice. Marty Cordova, moving back into the 3rd spot he had last season,
went 3-4. Jason Giambi went 2-3, scoring once and driving in 1. Tony
Batista, went 3-4 and drove in a run in the 5th spot. And while Robin
Jennings struggled to an 0-4 day as one replacement, Jack Jackson had a 2-3
day and scored a run from the 9th spot to improve to 3-6 on the season.
Many of these hits were doubles--Giambi, Batista, Jackson, Rolen, and Kelly
all registered doubles in this contest.
Jackson was elated after the game, even though he did make one error at
short. "Hell, I'm just glad to finally get in there and help this team out.
And I think I showed that I got something in my bat. But the error was
stupid, I just threw that ball away. Luckily it didn't cost us anything.
Believe me, the adjustment from minor league secondbaseman to major league
shortstop isn't easy, and I haven't played short much since high school
anyway."
And once again, the starting pitching of the Punxatawney Groundhogs gets a
large deal of credit for the win. The Hogs' 4th starter, Bobby Thomas,
evened his win/loss record at 5-5 with 7 1/3 innings of 2 run, no walk
pitching. Scott Aldred threw the last 1 2/3 innings, allowing 1 run. And
Punxatawney scored all 5 of their runs against Houston's hard luck #1 Alex
Fernandez who fell to 3-12 after the loss. Curiously, his ERA is a fairly
low 3.25 and he has 10 quality starts, 7 of which were complete games,
included in that 3-12 record. Comparitively, starter Tom Glavine is 10-5
with a 3.67 ERA, is allowing a higher opposing average, a higher opposing
slugging percentage, has walked more, struck out less, and has less quality
starts.
Bobby Thomas was fairly non-chalant after the game. "I've gotten more
starts than anyone else this year because of injuries and rotation
adjustments. I only have 5 wins, and my ERA is nearly as low as last year.
Its just the way things happen. Alex [Fernandez] has just simply had it
worse than me. We both have way more quality starts than wins, we both have
thrown more innings than anyone else, we just haven't gotten the same run
support."
The win, accompanied by an exciting extra-inning Tampa Bay victory over the
Atoms, gave Punxatawney its largest lead of the season at 4 games.
"Its nice to grab the morning paper and see our team back up top," remarked
Groundhogs fan Paul Kroger. "We got spoiled last year but now we are
playing just like we did back then."
This game also continued Punxatawney's winning streak to 8 games, nearing
the team record of 10 straight wins set last season. They are now 47-37 and
have a winning percentage of .560, on pace to win 90 games. While it
doesn't near last year's 105 victories, Shapiro has realized that is
unimportant. "We don't care how many we win--as long as we make the
playoffs," the owner/GM/manager said. "Last year we went in as the heavy
favorite, to win a pennant, as did Galena, and neither of us even made the
series. This year we have to get it done in the clutch."
