Link Report Sunday 6/25: Big Money Dominican Pascual Debuts

[Mass Haas]

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www.al.com/stars/huntsvil...amp;coll=1

 

Stars top Lookouts

Acuna scores only run with two outs in ninth inning

By PAUL GATTIS

Huntsville Times Sports Staff, pgattis@htimes.com

 

Wins like this, if you're the Huntsville Stars, you just take it and crank up the music in the clubhouse.

 

You don't sit around and analyze it. Just turn up the volume a little bit louder.

 

It's not as if the Stars didn't earn Sunday night's 1-0 victory over Chattanooga before a crowd of 1,283 at Joe Davis Stadium. But it's not as if the Lookouts didn't help out, either.

 

The Stars scored the game's only run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on a soft roller deep into the hole at shortstop that catcher Lou Palmisano legged out for an infield hit, knocking in Ron Acuna from third base.

 

"I just tried to get a good piece of it," Palmisano said, "and it ended up going where no one was."

 

And that made for a nice post script for Steve Hammond, who made his Double-A debut after a promotion from Brevard County by pitching six shutout innings.

 

"He did OK," Stars pitching coach Rich Sauveur said. "I've seen better from him in spring training. But he had a good night. It was his first start and I'm sure he was nervous, but he put up six zeroes against a good hitting team."

 

Indeed, the Lookouts came into the game leading the Southern League with a .267 batting average and the second-most runs scored in the league.

 

But the bottom of the ninth was ripe for second-guessing the Lookouts.

 

Acuna led off with a double down the left-field line that skipped past third baseman Aaron Herr - the son of former major leaguer Tommy Herr. But Herr attempted to backhand the ball instead of moving in front of it to possibly knock it down and at least prevent the extra-base hit.

 

Then after Drew Anderson bunted Acuna to third base for the first out, Lookouts manager Jayhawk Owens surprised Stars manager Don Money by pitching to third baseman Ryan Braun. The strategy paid off as Braun struck out for the fourth time.

 

But Owens elected to pitch to Palmisano with two outs instead of walking him to get to shortstop Guilder Rodriguez, who has not driven in a run in 47 at-bats this season.

 

"I didn't think they would throw me a fastball," Palmisano said diplomatically. "And they didn't the whole at-bat. I was looking for a breaking ball the whole at-bat. And anything close, I was trying to hit it somewhere hard. A walk wasn't going to help."

 

Money summed up the debate with, "Hey, we'll take it."

 

Especially in a game like this. The Stars improved to 3-39 in games in which they've scored four runs or fewer. The Stars are also now 4-9 in one-run games.

 

Making that possible was Khalid Ballouli pitching two scoreless innings in relief of Hammond, then Gerrit Simpson (1-2) getting the win with a scoreless ninth inning.

 

"As long as we give ourselves a chance to win," Money said, "that's all we can ask."

[hsvstarsfan]

Maybe David Weiser can research this a bit, but it seems Steve Hammond's stellar debut in the pitching-friendly Southern League isn't the first in Brewer-Huntsville memory.

 

Remember the Jeff Housman / Jason Shelley double-debut double-shutout doubleheader in 2003? I would imagine nothing possibly tops that...

 

The first scoreless debut for a Stars pitcher in the Brewer era was actually Hideo Nomo's 7-inning, 7 K, 5-hit performance, May 2 vs. Greenville in 1999. Jamey Wright then had two scoreless rehab starts in 2000, the first going 6 1/3 innings, May 3 vs. Orlando. He gave up 5 hits. They were seasoned major league vets, though. Nothing still matches, at least in the Brewer-era, the Housman-Shelley double debut. Housman, without the benefit of a strikeout, gave up just one hit, while Shelley in game two, struck out 10 and gave up just three hits in a 1-0 sweep.

 

Hammond had some real control issues from the start. He threw first-pitch strikes to only 4 of the 11 hitters he faced in the first three innings and of the 44 pitches he threw, only 20 were for strikes, 5 being batted balls. But he settled down the next three innings, throwing 32 of 53 pitches (60.3%) for strikes.

 

My vacation is over, so daily web updates are going to be difficult. Sleep and jobbie-job trumps my other avocations, but I'll try to send some report on Gallardo's awaited debut tonight.