Down 3-1 in their EL Championship series after losing 3 straight, the
Mississauga MapleDogs are ready to play desperate baseball. "We've got
to win. It's as simple as that. We're not ready to lose, in fact, we
refuse to lose." said Reggie Jefferson, a member of the 1998 Galena
Hamsters championship team.
The M-Dogs lost their last game in extra innings after yet another
collapse of the bullpen. "That our obivous weakness and Anchorage is
exploiting it. We've done a lot to try and improve it but they're just
too inconsistent. The only pitchers we have confidence in now are Kevin
Brown, Curt Schilling and Steve Trachsel." said pitching coach Ferguson
Jenkins.
"Only three pitchers? You're exagerating, right?" asks the average fan.
Jenkins had this to say about his reasoning. "Well those three always
give us a chance to win. Wells hasn't been great lately, Arrojo is a
disaster, Oliver can't pitch past July and our bullpen is blowing leads
left and right, there's not much to be happy about. If only Steve
(Trachsel) didn't pull himself out of game 4 early on I think we
would've won that game.". Trachsel pitched 3.2 innings of shutout ball
before complaining about a tender shoulder.
GM and manager Jesse Gouldson finished with this, "At least we've got
Brown and Schilling in the next two games. After that, we've got a tough
decision to make on who to pitch for game 7. It could be Wells, who's
spot it should be, Trachsel if he's healthy, Arrojo or even Oliver if I
get a gut feeling. But first things first, we've gotta win games 5 & 6."
