Washington Takes League's Best Record April 27, 1999
(AP) WASHINGTON--Amidst the excitement of the enormous Ann
Arbor/Washington trade, they also had to play a game.
Washington got a homer from Johnny Damon in his last Sea Dogs game and two
RBI from Chuck Knoblauch as they insured themselves a series victory over
Calgary with a 5-4 win. The triumph was especially triumphant because it
also gave the Sea Dogs the league's best record.
"This is the biggest day in Sea Dogs history," manager Aaron Weiner said.
"We're the top team in the league today, we got two of the league's top
hitters and we're in first place. This is why I manage."
Calgary took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning against Mackenzee
Leefenhaufenhauz, who was mostly ineffective today, giving up four runs on
four walks in 6 2/3 innings. Leefenhaufenhauz was chased after giving up
a seventh-inning, three-run rally that temporarily put Calgary ahead 4-3.
Leefenhaufenhauz was disgusted with his performance.
"While this is a bunch of very strong hitters, I'm disappointed that I
couldn't do better," Leefenhaufenhauz said. "I struggled with my control
all day today, and they just got me in the sixth inning."
Washington responded to their ace being pulled, and came back in the
bottom of the seventh inning to post the game-winning runs on a Knoblauch
two-RBI double.
"I was looking fastball all the way, and I got it," said Knoblauch, who
is third on the PVBL all-time doubles list. "I was ahead in the count, so
I figured he'd come in there with his best stuff."
Nealy Becker got the last out in the seventh and pitched a scoreless
eighth for his second victory of the season in relief. Becker has been
outstanding so far this season with a 1.08 ERA, though he has allowed two
of three inherited runners to score.
"Nealy's been pretty good for us," Weiner said. "He still has a little
work to do on his control; we'd been working with him on that during the
offseason. If he can get it all together, he can dominate."
Washington moves to 13-5 on the season with the victory, Calgary drops to
7-11 with the loss. Washington's 13-5 record is not only the best record
in the league, but also the best winning percentage (.722) in team
history.
Notes and Quotes:
"Speaking of decadence, we just got Larry Walker!"
-Manager Aaron Weiner
"To recreate a franchise in my own image is one thing. To create a World
Series lock? You're dreaming. Who knows?"
-GM Aaron Weiner, on whether Washington
is a shoo-in for the DL pennant with Walker
* * *
Murmurs around the league are that Washington, with the Larry Walker deal,
may have almost sealed a return trip to the World Series. GM Weiner isn't
so sure though.
"There's still a lot that can happen between now and October," Weiner
said. "Other teams could move up, we could get injuries. Lance
Johnson could go out for the season right now, and then where are we?"
Weiner is also cautious about the trade being beneficial to the franchise
as a whole.
"We're gonna have payroll problems after this season, big ones," Weiner
said. "When we had guys like Bill Mueller and Johnny Damon and Joe
Girardi, making half of what these new guys are making, we were totally
under our cap. Now...well, now we're gonna be in some financial duress."
Weiner didn't say who the Sea Dogs would be able to keep, but he did hint
that a salary dump might occur at the end of the season.
"We might have to move some pretty big salaries, some pretty big names at
the end of the year," Weiner said. "There's no way we're gonna be able to
keep all of them."
Weiner did add that the deal, obviously, had its positives. But he said
that trading Johnny Damon was especially hard.
"Last year about this time, we had a plan in mind," Weiner said. "We were
going to get one cleanup hitter and try to win the World Series on Larkin,
Knoblauch, and the player that turned out to be Gary Sheffield. But Gary
didn't hit, so that changed our whole team immediately."
The change was to acquire Lance Johnson, the sparkplug of the offense.
But Washington still lacked a cleanup hitter, a glaring weakness that the
Sea Dogs tried to fill with the acquisition of Robin Ventura.
"But while Robin's a great hitter," Weiner said, "he's not on the level of
the premier guys in the league. And he wasn't hitting with them either."
So Washington was faced with a similar dilemma to last season, except for
the fact that the Sea Dogs could no longer trade the new powerhitter for
anyone else.
"Even if Robin hits .250, he's still a great fielder and a great guy to
have in the clubhouse," Weiner said. "Thus we were faced with the
unfortunate dilemma of trying to figure out a way to get a premier power
hitter while not giving up the strength of our lineup."
That solution proved to be Mike Baldwin and Johnny Damon, the key elements
for Larry Walker.
"We knew we had 'em to trade, but after Damon's power surge, we weren't
sure we wanted to," Weiner said. "We thought that maybe he was the
answer. But when (Ann Arbor GM Michael) Kennedy made Larry Walker
available, we couldn't pass him up."
As for the rest of the Sea Dogs' regular season, Weiner said firmly that
the only deal that might take place would be for one more starting
pitcher.
"I can't see any reason why we'd need to do it, but we might go out and
get another starter," Weiner said. "We've got the 3rd best pitching in
the DL, so we're not really suffering for pitching."
Weiner said that even if they didn't get another starter, the Sea Dogs
were in pretty good shape.
"We might be the best team in baseball right now," Weiner said.
"Powerhitting was our only real weakness, and now that we've got that,
we're a very well-rounded ballclub. We're gonna be hard to beat."
