THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 13, 1995 TAG: 9507130524
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOKOLOSKI, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: MOOSIC, PA. LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
On his way to the major leagues, Jason Isringhausen wasn't about to apologize for taking a minor loss Wednesday night.
``So I gave up three runs,'' Isringhausen said. ``I'm not worried about it. It's a fun game. I had fun.''
Isringhausen's last minor league fling lasted two innings. The righthander allowed three runs in the first inning and took the loss as the National League fell to the American League, 9-0, in the eighth annual Triple-A All-Star Game at Lackawanna County Stadium.
That was the way Isringhausen said goodbye to minor league baseball. The talented 25-year-old who went 9-1 with Norfolk before being called up to the parent Mets will leave today for New York, where he'll join close friend and former Norfolk teammate Bill Pulsipher.
``I'm glad I get to meet everybody, see Pulse again, see everybody I've played with,'' Isringhausen said. ``If I don't think about it, I'm fine. As soon as I start talking about it, I get a little jittery.''
The 25-year-old phenom is scheduled to make his first start for the Mets in Chicago on Monday.
Isringhausen was hurt by three errors in the American League's three-run first inning.
The first was made by Norfolk first baseman Omar Garcia on a hard-hit grounder from former Tide Jeromy Burnitz that allowed Columbus shortstop Derek Jeter to score the game's first run.
Burnitz scored on a single by Buffalo teammate Luis Lopez, who scored when Riccardo Ingram of Salt Lake reached base on the third error of the inning.
``I was a little jittery, trying to overthrow the ball,'' Isringhausen said. ``I'm always jittery in the first inning of a game. That's the way I am. The second inning, I settled down a little bit.''
Isringhausen struck out two hitters and retired the third on a grounder to the mound in the second - his final inning of work.
``I didn't do badly,'' Isringhausen said. ``There were a couple of errors in the first inning. . . . I felt better in the second.''
The National League never recovered.
Lopez, recipient of the Star of Stars award, doubled and scored in the third inning as the AL built a 4-0 lead. In the eighth, he crushed a three-run home run to left.
Garcia, who brought a .326 batting average into the game, wound up going 0 for 3, all groundouts. by CNB