Washington Drops 2, McDonald Out For Season? July 21, 1999
(AP) WASHINGTON--The Sea Dogs dropped their first doubleheader in over two
months yesterday, but suffered an even larger loss when 15-game winner and
All-Star starter Ben McDonald went down for the year with an injury.
"The entire dugout went quiet when McDonald stepped off the rubber and
called for Aaron," right fielder Chris James said. "Mike MacFarlane must
have run the fastest 20 yards of his life getting out there."
McDonald, who suffered an inflamed triceps muscle, will undergo an MRI
tomorrow to see if there is any serious damage to the arm.
Initial reports are McDonald could be back by the end of September, or
could miss the rest of the season.
"It hasn't been a fun week and a half," McDonald, who started the All-Star
Game on two-day's rest and also lost his first start after the Break. "In
fact, I'd say it's the worst week and a half of my career."
Weiner was completely distraught after the game, the second of the
doubleheader.
"If you had told me that I'd have to lose one player on my team, the last
person I'd have had in line would be Ben McDonald," Weiner said. "He's
the ace of our staff, he's the guy who makes it all work."
Shawn Estes, who lost the first game of the doubleheader, was more
confident.
"Ben was very important to our staff, yes," Estes said. "But this is a
good pitching staff, a deep pitching staff. We'll be able to go on
without him."
Washington lost the doubleheader by identical 8-7 scores. In the first
game, Washington took a 7-4 lead into the eighth inning but saw Spokane
score a run off of four different relievers to win it in extra innings.
Washington's Delino Wilson got the loss, but Weiner said that it was a
team collapse.
"That was just a disaster, a total breakdown," Weiner said. "We had that
game in the bag and let it slip away."
Fred McGriff was the offensive star for the Pirates, going 2-2 with three
RBI including his sixth homer, and Spokane got nearly four innings from
reliever Paul Shuey, who got the win.
The second game was, of course, marred by the McDonald injury, but
featured another bullpen breakdown. Paul Kilgus relieved McDonald and
allowed just one run over four innings, but each of the next three
relievers allowed two runs.
Tim Belcher eventually got the loss by allowing a run in the top of the
11th, but Washington allowed 20 hits to the Pirates.
"Unbelievable," Weiner said. "I can understand that they were little
shell-shocked in the second game, but we're a professional ballclub.
Blowing the game as many times as we did today is frightening."
Washington's lead shrunk to 9.5 games with a Phoenix split over Richmond.
Washington will face Spokane once more and then travel to Larimer over the
weekend.
