THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240637
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
In his 21st Triple-A inning, Jason Isringhausen fell to earth. Lightly, but Isringhausen's feet nevertheless became soiled in the land of positive earned-run averages.
Why, Norfolk Tides pitching coach Bob Apodaca even had to visit the mound in the fifth inning of the Tides' 9-1 victory over the Richmond Braves at The Diamond on Tuesday. It was just after Isringhausen's scoreless-inning streak had ended on Eddie Perez's double and a single by Tony Graffanino, and after he had become visibly frustrated by some of plate umpire Pete Celestino's calls.
How positively . . . normal.
By that time, however, Carl Everett's two home runs, which knocked in four, and Ryan Thompson's bases-empty blast off Terrell Wade had helped stake the 22-year-old sensation to a 6-0 lead.
``I'll survive,'' Isringhausen said. ``I was a little mad, but we were up by a few runs, so I wasn't too worried.''
Isringhausen simply pulled his hat down lower over his crew cut and worked two more innings, striking out three of the last four Braves he faced. He finished with a three-hitter over seven innings, with three walks and four strikeouts, to extend his fairy-tale start in Triple-A to 3-0.
His ERA rocketed all the way to 0.38, but his opponents' batting average dipped to .138.
Isringhausen's strikeout total was his season low - he fanned 59 in 41 Double-A innings - but he said pitching coach Bob Apodaca is convincing him that strikeouts shouldn't be his holy grail.
``That's an important thing to learn for a young pitcher who throws hard, to devalue the strikeout,'' Apodaca said. ``Only when you have to have it, so you can be strong late as you are early. You can't learn that soon enough.
``Even if he doesn't try, he's going to get his strikeouts because his stuff is that good. . . . I wish I was him reincarnated. Except with my looks.''
Richmond manager Grady Little agreed, sort of, in his deadpan way.
``You have an arm like that and you're throwing strikes, you have a chance to make a lot of money in this game,'' he said. ``I'm sure the next time he's scheduled to pitch against us, it won't be really something we're looking forward to.''
Speaking of strong starts, Everett has been every bit the offensive force Chris Jones was before Jones went to the Mets and Everett was sent back May 16. Everett, a switch-hitter, crushed his third home run, but his first righthanded, in the first after Jarvis Brown doubled and Omar Garcia walked. Later, Everett collected his fourth home run, also righthanded, on a line drive over the leftfield fence.
He finished 2 for 5 and is up to .375 in eight games with the Tides. Everett, Thompson and Rey Ordonez each had two hits. Garcia only had one, a seventh-inning double, but it extended his hitting streak to 15 games. by CNB