August 8: Bad Start, No Finish, As Fish Fall To Schaumburg

Following a 16-hour trip from Gary, the Schaumburg Flyers got off the bus just two hours before game time in Winnipeg on Friday night.

You never would have known it.

Schaumburg put up five runs in the first inning and then held on late in the ball game to beat the Goldeyes 8-5 at Canwest Park.

It was not a virtuoso performance for Winnipeg. Starter Ace Walker, who has been the top pitcher in the Northern League for most of the 2009 season, gave up five runs on four hits (a three-run homer by Victor Ferrante was the big blow) in the first inning.

Defensively, the Goldeyes have been almost flawless in recent weeks, but two big errors led directly to Flyers runs. And on offence, the Fish pounded out 10 hits, but couldn’t get timely hits with runners in scoring position. Winnipeg left six runners on base, five in scoring position.

“The first inning was way too much for us to overcome,” said manager Rick Forney. “Then we made two big errors to give them two more runs and we just couldn’t get enough timely hits to overcome that.

“It was a tough start for Ace. He was wild in the strike zone. Then he had that problem with the mound. But I don’t think that was the reason we lost today. They put up five in the first inning and we just weren’t able to overcome it.”

With the loss, the Fish fell to 45-27 and are now just one-and-a-half games ahead of Gary in the race for first in the Northern League.

However, if there was a bright spot in Friday night’s loss, it was the hitting of Juan Diaz. The Goldeyes big DH hit his league-leading 24th home run, singled, doubled, scored a run and drove in three. Diaz is now legitimately in the hunt for the Northern League Triple Crown. He is now fourth in batting at .326, first in homers with 24 and second in runs batted in with 73.

Still, Forney is concerned about one disturbing offensive quirk.

“We’re sluggish offensively against left-handed pitching and that worries me,” Forney said. “If you spend some time looking at the clubs that are starting to get into the playoff hunt, they all have solid lefthanded pitching. In a short series, you know you’ll see a couple of left-handers, maybe even twice. We have to address that problem.

“Early in the year, we were pretty good against left-handers because Wes Long hit them so well. But since Wes’s injury, we’ve been sluggish. We’re going to see a lot of lefties so we have to get better.”

Saturday night, the Goldeyes will see a right-hander. Dustin Glant gets the start for Schaumburg while Andrew Cruse replies for Winnipeg. It’s a 6:00 start.