Link Report for Sat 7/21 - History in Huntsville; Helena Hot

[Mass Haas]

David Weiser's

 

www.starsboxscore.com/

 

MOSS MAKES IT 12

STARS TIE RECORD WITH TWO IN THE 9th

Where were you in 1988?........ To put things in perspective, let's go back to May 12....... Don Muraco w/Superstar Billy Graham beat the One Man Gang in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Soviet Red Army was three days from completely withdrawing from Afghanistan. The Cleveland Indians behind Tom Candiotti beat the Brewers and Chuck Crim, 3-1. "Carrie" opened in NYC and lasted five performances. It was the first season for TV's "The Wonder Years" and "America's Most Wanted" and "Die Hard" and "Rain Man' were waiting for theatre release later in the year.

 

And former Mets outfielder Tommie Reynolds, a .200-hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1972, was the manager for the Huntsville Stars.

 

On May 12, 1988, 1st baseman Greg Sparks tied a Southern League record by recording 20 putouts as the Huntsville Stars won their 12th straight game, beating Birmingham at Hoover Met (in their 1st season at their new ballpark), 9-4........ It's been that long.

 

Steve Moss handed the Stars their 12th straight win to match a club record tonight with a one-out double to left-center, scoring Michael Brantley from second for a come-from-behind 5-4 win -- a going-away present, as it were. The Stars take Sunday off, then Will Inman will try to help them break the record in Jacksonville on Monday.

 

A perfect night of weather (83° -- no humidity) was a perfect match for one of the best edge-of-your-seat games of the year, regardless of the subtext....... Red was the color of the night as you looked to the left, to the right, behind, and in front of you as almost 7,300 fans were lured, not just by the weather, but by free red jerseys with the Stars logo emblazoned on the front for the younger set........ Red was the color on the field as well. It's been something of a lucky charm for the Stars to wear, broken only by Steve Hammond's personal preference of blue, Friday night.

 

None of the previous 11 victories of this streak could match the inning-to-inning suspense of this one........Only one of those victories had been won by a single run (the 1-0 shutout victory for Sam Narron, David Johnson, and Marino Salas at Chattanooga a week ago), and two of them by a pair of runs....... The Stars had been behind in only four of those games -- three of them by no more than a run...... So this night was made only more memorable by the way the Stars won tonight.

 

Unlike the previous 11 games, the Stars never had a lead in this one, until the end........ Sam Narron and Ryan O'Malley locked horns in a scoreless ballgame for two innings until O'Malley broke the spell with a one-out double to left in the 3rd. After Chris Walker hit a screecher back to Narron for the 2nd out, Issmael Salas, 3-for-11 in the series, singled down the right field line to score O'Malley and give the Smokies a 1-0 lead. Then a bizarre play in the 4th made it 2-0.

 

Narron got the first two hitters of that inning out on fly balls. He was one strike away from getting out of the inning when Jemel Spearman swung and missed at a 1-2 pitch low and seemingly in the dirt. It should have ended the inning, but the ball squirted out of Lou Palmisano's glove and rolled down the first base line. It kept rolling, with Palmisano chasing it, more than halfway down the line, as Spearman made it safely to first......... Now, no ball could have rolled that far from his glove. The only thing that made sense was that it was kicked down the line by Spearman, and that would have been interference, and Spearman should have been out.

 

It made sense to manager Don Money, who came out of the dugout to argue umpire Chris Ward's safe call. But, as I later learned after the game, Ward said he couldn't call Spearman out, because he didn't see him -- or even Palmisano -- kick the ball, although he agreed it was kicked. West conferred with all the other umps, but they didn't see what truly happened either. In the end, West stated that the kick was inadvertent, and Spearman had to be awarded first base. Narron was charged with a wild pitch........ The results were reminiscent of Mickey Owen's 9th inning passed ball in the 1941 World Series that game the Yankees new life and a Game 4 victory....... Joe Simokaitis followed with a hard grounder to Alcides Escobar that he could not make a play on. That moved Spearman to 2nd. Nate Spears then singled up the middle to score Spearman and give the Smokies a 2-0 lead.

 

So it looked from the early going that this was not going to be the Stars' night....... Despite a one-out double to the left field corner by Ryan Crew in the 1st and two singles in the 2nd, the Stars could not come up with the two-out hit that would put them on the scoreboard...... That trend continued in the 4th when Hernan Iribarren hit into a force play, erasing Adam Heether, who had led off with a single to center........ But on a 1-1 pitch, Alcides Escobar homered high over the WDRM sign to the left of the scoreboard to tie the game up at 2-2, the 20th home run give up this season by O'Malley.

 

Narron and O'Malley each had a quick 5th inning, then in the top of the 6th, Brendan Katin let a liner hit by Matt Craig drop off his glove for a two-base error. Tyler Colvin, 2-for-18 in the series, lined a two-hopper to right-center to drive him in, and the Smokies were back in front, 3-2....... But Hernan Iribarren answered back in the bottom half with a two-out solo home run, his 3rd, lined over the first wall in right-center. All three of Iribarren's home runs have come since June 26 -- less than a month apart.

 

James Avery and Geoff Jones quieted the Stars in the 7th and 8th on just one hit -- a harmless one-out single to right by Steve Moss....... Going into the top of the 9th, the Smokies and Stars were tied, 3-3. Whether this winning streak could continue was pressed into doubt in the top of the 9th when leadoff hitter Joe Simokaitis hit a no-doubter off Bo Hall on a 1-1 pitch. The ball hit the top of the top wall, the long Corr Wireless ad sign in left, and bounced into the trees behind it........ The Smokies now led, 4-3........ A single by Spears followed, but Hall was able to get the next three hitters out......... Now all Henderson, who retired the side in order in the 8th, had to do was get to the bottom of the Stars order, and an 11-game win streak would be over.

 

It wasn't over for Hernan Iribarren, as far as he was concerned....... On a 2-2 pitch from Henderson, he scorched a grounder through short into left field for a hit. Alcides Escobar's sacrifice bunt moved him to 2nd........ Michael Brantley, the Stars' hottest hitter during this streak, at .407, then extended his hitting streak to seven games with a hard shot up the middle. Iribarren raced around third and tied the game up. Brantley took second on the throw to catcher Chris Robinson........ Finally, Steve Moss, 2-for-14 in the series and a .200 hitter during this streak, became the night's hero....... With a 3-1 count, he got his pitch and lined it to left-center, where it dropped in for a double, scoring Brantley with the winning run........ The Stars, who play well with each other off the field, began jumping up and down on each other near 2nd base as if they had just won the title, congratulating Moss with more pats than a restaurant table loaded with biscuits........ The Stars, riding a record 12-game win streak, were having the time of their lives, and aware of what they had just accomplished, were drunk with joy as they finally lined up for final high fives........ I don't think they fear Jacksonville (21-9), their 1st place counterparts in the South, at all.

 

The Stars, on this 12-game winning streak, are now 19-11 and four games in front of Chattanooga....... They are hitting .262 on this 12-game streak, led by Brantley at .407 and Adam Heether at .459. Heether has also driven in 11 runs......... The pitching, more than anything else, has held this team up during this streak, with an ERA of 1.58. Six pitchers have ERAs of 0.00. Four others have ERAs under 2.00..... Bo Hall, who pitched two innings to get the win, has earned the win in three of the games, all of them his last three appearances........ Sam Narron has started three of the games in this streak, and has two wins and a 1.35 ERA to show for it.

[battlekow]

Is Brantley injured? He's only started one of the last four games.

[Southern Leaguer]

?7,000+ attend at Joe Davis Stadium? Wow, good for Huntsville. I've been to games there where I would have sworn I was the only one there, it's so spacious.?

 

?almost 7,300 fans were lured, not just by the weather, but by free red jerseys with the Stars logo emblazoned on the front for the younger set.?

 

I think more than the jerseys or the weather, the crowd was so big because Boeing, a major employer in the area, gave out free tickets.

 

"It made sense to manager Don Money, who came out of the dugout to argue umpire Chris Ward's safe call. But, as I later learned after the game, Ward said he couldn't call Spearman out, because he didn't see him -- or even Palmisano -- kick the ball, although he agreed it was kicked. West conferred with all the other umps, but they didn't see what truly happened either........ Joe Simokaitis followed with a hard grounder to Alcides Escobar that he could not make a play on. That moved Spearman to 2nd. Nate Spears then singled up the middle to score Spearman and give the Smokies a 2-0 lead."

 

The best part of all of this was Rich Sauveur's reaction. After the run scored, Rich made a visit to the mound. It was obvious that he wasn't going to leave until the home plate umpire came out to break up the conference. Rich had some words for him on the mound and then walked halfway back to the plate with him, talking all the way, before heading back to the dugout. Then, in the bottom of the inning, Rich went out to coach first base (something I've never seen him do) and stayed in the first base umpire's ear until the Stars got a base runner. It was classic Sauveur and just added to the fun of another great game for the Stars.

[Southern Leaguer]

"Hernan Iribarren led off the home ninth with a single off Jim Henderson, moved to second base on an Alcides Escobar sacrifice bunt and scored on a Michael Brantley pinch-hit single to tie the game at four. Moss then drove a 3-1 offering into the alley in left-center field for the decisive blow"

 

Brantley went to second on the throw home. The throw was way too late to get Iribarren, got away from the Smokies catcher and rolled to the backstop. Brantley stopped at second, didn't even take a turn. Money was beside himself at third, yelling and motioning to Brantley (who could have walked to third) but by the time he finally noticed his manager it was too late. Even though he got the clutch game-tying hit and scored the winning run, I'm sure young Brantley got a personal base-running lesson after the game.