THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090648
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 50 lines
Back-to-back losses to the Richmond Braves at The Diamond wouldn't draw much attention to the Norfolk Tides if it weren't for the red-hot Columbus Clippers.
The Tides' 4-2 loss to the Braves Thursday night dropped Norfolk four games back in the International League West Division when the Clippers won their ninth straight. Columbus is 34-10 since June 22.
``They're not the '27 Yankees,'' said the Tides' Matt Franco. ``It'll catch up, sooner or later.''
Meanwhile, the Tides hope the line drives they drilled at Braves gloves Thursday night turn into hits. And sooner would be better than later.
``We're not swinging the bats all that bad, but if you look at the box scores, it doesn't look like that,'' Franco said. ``Everybody in the lineup hit the ball hard except me and I'm the one that gets a couple hits. We're swinging the bats fine.''
The Tides strung together singles by Joel Chimelis, Franco and Benny Agbayani to start the fourth and jump to a 1-0 lead. But they got no more in that inning, even though they loaded the bases when Terrell Lowery walked with two out. Braves pitcher Chris Brock got Alberto Castillo to fly to left to escape the jam.
The lead was short-lived, as Raul Rodarte homered off starter Joe Crawford with one out in the fourth inning for the Braves' first hit. After Aldo Pecorilli singled, Steve Pegues doubled with two outs to drive him infor a 2-1 lead.
The Braves upped the lead to 4-1 in the fifth on a leadoff double by Darron Cox and a one-out, two-run home run by Robert Smith.
``I didn't throw the pitch there that I wanted to,'' said Crawford. ``I was trying to throw a fastball inside. It stayed out over the plate and he turned on it. That was all it took tonight.''
The Tides touched relief pitcher Mark Lee for a run in the eighth inning when Franco singled and Agbayani followed with a triple, his seventh of the season, to the gap in right. Agbayani, however, was stranded when Jason Hardtke and Kevin Roberson both flew out to end the inning.
Richmond's Rod Nichols pitched a perfect ninth for his 16th save of the season, upping his scoreless innings streak to 21 1/3.
While the Tides have lost ground to Columbus, they still lead third-place Toledo by 6 1/2 games for the IL West's second playoff spot. The Columbus streak is reminiscent of Norfolk's run from mid-May to early July when the Tides went 32-13.
``Columbus? They're going to face us one way or another in a five-game series,'' Tides manager Bobby Valentine said. ``That's when they have to be playing well and that's when we have to be playing well.'' by CNB