Knights Snap Bums' 10-game win streak in 15 June 7, 1998
Sacramento, CA (AP) - The Vero Beach Bums, the PVBL's hottest team through
the first two months of the 1998 season, lost their first game since
amassing a season-high 10-game winning streak yesterday. The Sacramento
Knights pulled out a grueling 5-3 victory at home in a contest that lasted
15 innings and almost 5 hours.
The Bums out-hit the Knights 17-5 but amazingly left 19 men on base through
15 innings. "We just couldn't cross the plate," said 3B Dave Hollins. "I
was on base six times and didn't score once." The Bums simply could not
put together a rally. They scored one run in each of the sixth, eighth,
and fifteenth innings. In the sixth, Jeff King hit a triple and scored on
one of 5 Hollins singles. In the eighth, Ron Gant scored after a base hit
and a double by Tom Pagnozzi, the only Bum to hit 2 extra-base hits in the
game.
"It was horrible," anguished Bums reliever Kent Bottenfield. "I came out
to finish the eighth inning and ended up pitching over six innings! I kept
thinking, when are the guys going to score? It's Sacramento, for Pete's
sake."
The Knights, on the other hand, had a 12-inning scoring drought stretching
from the third inning to the fourteenth.
Bottenfield was virtually unhittable, but was pulled in the bottom of the
15th inning after tiring and giving up a double to Troy O'Leary.
Bottenfield left with a one-run lead and a chance to win the game, the
difference having been scored by Pagnozzi in the top of the 15th on Omar
Vizquel's RBI sacrifice fly. Lefty Angel Miranda, who has been excellent
since putting on a Bums uniform last year, then suffered his first loss of
the season. Miranda gave up 3 runs on a walk and three hits, including a
2-RBI double by Jorge Posada.
"It's my fault we lost this game," said Miranda, who blew a save
opportunity and is now 6-1 on the season. "I wasn't mentally ready to come
into the game when the 15th came around. I thought we might go to Trevor
[Hoffman, Bums closer], but I got the call and I blew it."
"I wouldn't be so hard on myself if I were him," said Vero Beach CF Marquis
Grissom, who is 0 for his last 12 at-bats. "The simple fact is we had 17
hits against Sacramento and couldn't score more than 3 runs." Bums manager
Phil Garner noted, "Every team is entitled to an off-game, a fluky game,
especially if they're 40-14."
