THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504160197
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
The Norfolk Tides wanted to see Chris Jones waving a bat in the crucial situation. And when he got to the plate, he did what they wanted him to do: tatoo a pitch.
The Tides' most dangerous hitter in this young season batted with a man on, no outs and the Tides down two runs in the ninth inning Saturday to the Rochester Red Wings. Jones smashed an 0-1 sinker from Jimmy Myers, but not over the leftfield wall as he did to lead off the second inning.
This time, Jones' bullet skipped right to third baseman Scott McClain, who cleanly picked it to start a rally-killing double play. An out later, Myers had his save and former Tide Tom Wegmann had his victory, a 4-2 decision that stopped the Tides' three-game winning streak.
``He fielded that like he knew it was coming,'' Jones said of McClain. ``He was nice and smooth on that one. I can't do nothing about that. I hit two balls hard today. One went out, one stayed in.''
Jones had an infield single to go with his home run for two of the Tides' five hits. Four were off Wegmann in five innings. Tides starter Paul Byrd did better than that, giving up three hits in seven innings.
Unfortunately, two of the hits were home runs - a two-run shot by Tyrone Woods in the fourth and a bases-empty blast by Rod Robertson in the fifth. It was the second consecutive start in which Byrd was hurt by the home-run ball. A three-run home runr he gave up in Charlotte last week helped lead to a Tides' loss.
``It's just a matter of him not executing the fastball, getting the fastball consistently down,'' pitching coach Bob Apodaca said. ``You're going to pitch behind in counts, where you're going to be forced to throw your fastball, and in those situations you have to have good location of your fastball. ... You can make that pitch and they can foul it off and jam themselves very easily, too. But they didn't.''
``He was sharp,'' Woods said of Byrd. ``I didn't hit the ball good, but it just got up and kept carrying. He just made a couple mistakes and we capitalized on them.''
Jones has made an early habit of pouncing on pitches, mistakes or otherwise. The rightfielder is 12 for 31 (.387) with three home runs and six RBIs.
``One thing I try to do is see how many times I can hit the ball hard during the day,'' Jones said. ``To me, that's consistency, if I can hit the ball hard three or four times a game. That's what they're going to ask for in the big leagues, so that's what I'm trying to do now.''
Jones, a solid 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, can rip it harder than most. But as a veteran baseball man like Tides manager Toby Harrah knows, and Saturday's ninth inning proved, hot shots don't always mean hits.
``Sometimes,'' Harrah said, ``it's not how you hit them but where.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BETH BERGMAN/Staff
Tyrone Woods accepts high-fives in the Rochester dugout after his
two-run home run in the fourth inning started the Red Wings on their
way to a 4-2 victory over the Norfolk Tides at Harbor Park on
Saturday night. ``I didn't hit the ball good, but it just got up and
kept carrying,'' Woods said.
by CNB