THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508130811
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Letdowns happen. But in the afterglow of their sublime victory the night before, when they ruined a no-hitter and beat Richmond in the ninth inning, the Norfolk Tides got ridiculous Saturday against the Braves at The Diamond.
They were trounced, 10-1, which wasn't the issue as much as the ragged way in which it happened. On Turn Back the Clock Night the Braves wore the wool uniforms, circa 1964 when the Richmond franchise was known as the Virginians, but it was the Tides who set back the game.
They made four errors, all in Richmond's four-run sixth. Backup catcher Ben Boka, subbing for the injured John Orton, committed two passed balls. Phil Stidham, rushed into the game in the second inning when starter Juan Acevedo pulled a muscle in his rib cage, hit two batters, walked five and yielded eight runs in four innings.
Worse, Ed Alicea, on third base with two outs and the Tides down, 6-0, in the sixth, inexplicably got picked off by catcher Eddie Perez. And in a final symbolic moment, Tides manager Toby Harrah yanked first baseman Omar Garcia off the field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh for loafing to first on his fly ball that ended the previous inning.
As Tracy Sanders jogged out to replace him, Garcia, in the midst of a 3-for-20 slump, slowly walked, head down, to the Tides' dugout.
``He looked awful tired,'' Harrah said sarcastically of Garcia's trot to first. ``I can put up with anything, errors and strikeouts and all that stuff, but not giving 100 percent, I can't let that slide. He didn't hustle.''
``No comment,'' Garcia said.
The Braves got their first break when Acevedo, a newly acquired righthander plagued by elbow tendinitis, hurt his ribcage while warming up for the second inning. Acevedo and Orton could be out a while.
Orton took a foul tip off his right hand Friday and, though X-rays were negative, his hand was stiff and swollen Saturday. The Tides have put a call out for catching help, with Class A St. Lucie catcher Cesar Diaz a possibility for promotion.
But nothing helped the Tides (75-47) against lefthander Darrell May, who four-hit them over six innings. He struck out Jay Payton with the bases loaded in the second and breezed from there.
By the time May left, the Tides trailed, 10-0, thanks to that abominable sixth inning. Alicea dropped a throw at second on a potential double-play ball and rightfielder Alex Ochoa fired one into the seats behind third. Then Graham booted a ground ball, picked it up and shoveled it toward third. It hit the sliding Mike Sharperson, however, and rolled into the Tides' dugout.
To Harrah, it all indicated a season-long flaw in his team's execution that superb pitching has masked. Until recently.
``We've been pretty much doing the same thing all season, our pitching's just been picking us up,'' said Harrah, whose staff has been weakened markedly by promotions to the Mets. ``But we're getting to the point where we're just not able to continue to give the fourth and fifth outs without the other team scoring.''
The loss stalled the Tides' magic number countdown for the West Division regular-season title at nine and trimmed their lead over Richmond (63-57) to 11 1/2 games.
Comfortable, yes. Yet a coaching staff that has seen the Tides' overall performance slip lately is hardly content.
``Good thing we've got a big lead,'' Harrah said, smiling. ``May not be enough.'' by CNB