Streak Over, Drops Two To Binghamton June 16, 1999
(AP) WASHINGTON--It was a day of outs for the Washington Sea Dogs.
Mackenzee Leefenhaufenhauz and Mark Thompson both had 24 of them, and the
Sea Dogs suffered through two of them - a blowout and a shutout - as
Washington lost both games of a doubleheader to Binghamton 1-0 and 17-4.
The 17-4 loss is the worst loss for the Sea Dogs since 1997, and the
series loss is the first since May 5 against Calgary.
"Well, if you look at it optimistically, we're 11-2 over our last thirteen
games," captain Chuck Knoblauch quipped. "But we just got our butts
beaten in today."
Leefenhaufenhauz pitched the complete game in the first half of the
doubleheader, allowing just five hits and three walks, striking out five
in the third complete game of his career.
But Binghamton starter Mark Thompson was better, giving up no runs in
eight innings on seven hits and no walks. Tim Worrell completed the
shutout against Washington with his fifth save.
"It seemed like everything I did, Thompson would come back with something
equally great," said Leefenhaufenhauz, who gave up the run on a Arnold
O'Neill groundout in the eight inning. "Finally they scored off of me."
Oddly, Washington couldn't seem to hit the ball out of the infield despite
making good contact - nobody struck out for the Sea Dogs, and nobody
walked.
"It wasn't like we weren't hitting the ball, but you know, it was just one
of those days," third baseman Robin Ventura said. "It got really
frustrating to keep hitting the ball right at people."
The emotional letdown of the first game seemed to carry immediately over
into the second game. Starter Shawn Estes came in and got rocked, giving
up two homers and four runs in the top of the first inning.
That was only foreshadowing of things to come, however. Long man John
Burkett came in and quickly gave up seven more runs in the next two
innings, and eight in three innings. Second long man Fred Smith then
pitched the final four innings, allowing five runs on five hits.
In all, Binghamton managed eight homers off of Washington pitching, the
most ever allowed by a Washington pitching staff.
"It was a complete breakdown of the pitching staff today," manager Aaron
Weiner said. "Our strength swiftly and unfortunately became our
weakness."
Washington's Larry Walker did manage his 21st homer of the year in the
seventh inning, and Chuck Knoblauch collected two doubles to raise his
average to .302, but it wasn't a day of many bright spots for the Sea
Dogs.
To add injury to the insult, Phoenix swept their doubleheader and now
stand just five games back of the Sea Dogs in the DL Data race.
Binghamton served to pad their lead against the Picard Division, in which
no rival is over .500.
"We're just hoping to rebound from this after the amateur draft," Weiner
said. "We don't want to start a losing streak."
Washington will be in Binghamton after the draft for one more outing.
Washington's hottest pitcher, Alex Fernandez (6-8, 3.31) will face off
against Binghamton's high wins man, Bobby Witt (8-2, 3.62).
The Sea Dogs will then travel back home to face Richmond and place starter
Tim Belcher (1-0, 0.00 as a starter) against Bob Wolcott (5-3, 4.60).
The Sea Dogs are 45-19 after the losses, best record in PVBL.
