THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 21, 1995 TAG: 9508210108
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Chris Roberts' rookie Triple-A season meandered nearer to a close Sunday afternoon at Harbor Park, which was unable to contain two long drives in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons' 7-1 victory over the Norfolk Tides.
Gene Schall and David Tokheim added themselves to the list, now an International League-leading 22 names long, of players who have hit home runs off the 24-year-old lefthander in his frustrating 6-12 season.
Each roped a two-run shot to help nudge Roberts, a former first-round draft pick, to the top of another league list: most losses. As well, they backed the complete-game effort of Mike Grace, a 6-foot-4 righthander who scattered eight hits in his Triple-A debut.
Grace joined the Red Barons Thursday from Double-A Reading, where he'd won seven of his last eight decisions and was 13-6 overall. Using mostly fastballs, Grace, who has had surgery on his arm four times since he was drafted in 1991, lost his shutout with one out in the ninth.
Omar Garcia singled and scored on Aaron Ledesma's triple, the final hit for a team that collected 18 hits the night before.
``The first three innings he was getting us out with all fastballs,'' said Tides manager Toby Harrah, whose club's magic number to clinch first place in the West Division remained at three. ``He started mixing in those sliders and we didn't have much of a chance.''
It was Roberts' inability, again, to throw fastballs in good spots that kept him on the treadmill. He has won once in eight decisions since July 2, and despite showing better stuff than he's had lately, according to pitching coach Bob Apodaca, Roberts ran into trouble first with walks, then home runs.
He walked two in the fourth, the only hitters he walked in 6 1/3 innings, but both scored on Mike Lieberthal's double and leftfielder Ricky Otero's error. In the sixth, Schall jumped on a 3-0 fastball and parked it over the centerfield fence, and Tokheim laced a 1-2 pitch to right in the seventh.
``Hopefully I'll get lucky next time; maybe they'll hit them at somebody all day,'' Roberts said, clearly exasperated.
Apodaca said Roberts threw a poor ratio of 35 fastballs for balls and 38 for strikes, and Roberts agreed that winning pitching starts with improving those numbers.
``If you don't have that you're not going to be successful,'' Roberts said. ``That's just got to be there. Mine hasn't been there all year.''
Roberts has two more starts to find the form that propelled him to 13 victories in Class A and Double-A the last two years.
``We were going to be more aggressive today, and I thought he did that,'' Apodaca said. ``The first four or five innings I thought he had good life on his fastball and a little better bite on his breaking pitch. You have to attack in areas you're strong at, though, and he has to stay in good pitching counts and he's got to be more consistent down in the strike zone.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Martin Smith-Rodden
Tides manager Toby Harrah returns to the dugout Sunday after
conferring with first-base umpire Greg Street, who had called a
Norfolk player out.
by CNB