KANNAPOLIS — Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be managers of professional baseball teams.
Piedmont Boll Weevil manager Greg Legg slumped at his desk for long minutes after Sunday’s 6-5, 11-inning South Atlantic league loss to Cape Fear. His eyes were closed and his head was buried in his hands. Well on the road to an ulcer. And just think, this is the guy who ramrods the best team in the league. Imagine, how Cape Fear manager Billy Masse must feel. His team is 59-68.
“That was a tough one,” said the 40-year-old Legg. “But, geez, they’re all tough, aren’t they?”
Some, though, are clearly tougher than others. And Sunday afternoon’s setback was tougher than Joe Frazier in his prime.
Piedmont trailed 3-1 in the seventh only to rally on Jay Sitzman’s two-run pinch-double. Down 4-3 in the eighth, the Weevils got Nate Espy’s first homer in over a month to get even again. But the visiting Crocs scored two in the 11th to spoil reliever Justin Fry’s 24th birthday and then hung on.
The Weevils fell one run short when Ambiorix Reyes was gunned down at first by a step for the final out.
Piedmont (82-45, 35-21) has enjoyed a phenomenal season and boasts a pair of legitimate SAL MVP candidates in outfielder Marlon Byrd and Espy. And yet, the key to everything has been Legg’s five-armed bullpen Hydra that has protected leads, extinguished fires and won a ridiculously high percentage of the games that have been placed in its hands.
But Sunday, Legg’s head was in his hands, because that bullpen let him down.
“That was the difference today,” said Legg. “Our bullpen’s done it all year long. Today, they pitch less than five innings and they give up six runs.”
With 20-20 hindsight, Legg agonized over his decision to lift starter Franklin Perez, who had been working on a shutout. Perez, stepping in for disabled buddy Matire Franco, was as good as he’s been all year. The 19-year-old
righty, youngest player on the Piedmont roster, nursed a 1-0 lead into the seventh. But after a leadoff single and a sacrifice, Legg patted Perez on the rump and summoned his super southpaw Mark Outlaw.
“Frank was great today, but his pitch count was getting up and the next three hitters were lefties,” explained Legg.
It was the same sort of percentage move that has paid off handsomely for Legg all year. Three lefties in a neat little row and what Outlaw has done to lefty hitters this summer is absolutely criminal. He’d faced 51 of them before Sunday and exactly two had gotten hits. Two! And Outlaw had fanned 26 hapless foes.
Of course, Masse gets paid, too. And he wanted no part of Outlaw. He sent up two righty pinch-hitters. The first one walked on a borderline pitch. The second reached on an error. Then, with the bases loaded, the unthinkable happened. Outlaw got a pitch up and lefty-hitting leadoff batter Troy Gingrich yanked a smash to right. Weevil right fielder Dan O’Neill was playing shallow and had no chance. Three runs trotted home and the Weevils trailed 3-1.
Of course, you don’t get to be nearly 40 games over .500 by quitting and the Weevils didn’t.
Sitzman’s opposite-field blow made it a new game. Then, after Ryan Brookman, the third of four Weevil relievers, was touched for a homer by Josh McKinley in the top of the eighth, Espy retaliated with his league-leading 21st blast for a 4-4 tie.
But the 11th — top and bottom — was a nightmare if you were a Weevil fan. Or a Weevil manager.
Fry walked the leadoff man, then went to a full count on Brian Preston.
“That guy on first (Lou Melucci) is not going anywhere,” said Legg. “But Fry let it get to a running count. Three-two lets them put the runner in motion and Preston gets a base hit. Then they’ve got first and third and no outs, and it’s tough to stop ‘em after that.”
Fry couldn’t. Wilken Ruan chopped a ball toward first and Espy’s hurried throw home had no chance to get
Melucci, who slid in with the go-ahead run. It was 6-4 after Jon Palmieri’s chopper to short plated an insurance tally.
The Weevils battled back yet again in their half. Jeremy Deitrick doubled and Brian Hitchcox singled and Legg had the tying runs on with no outs. Next was O’Neill, who’s been hot. He got ahead in the count, but checked his swing on a 3-1 pitch and popped up meekly to kill his team’s momentum.
“If Dan gets a walk or rips one there, we’re right back in the driver’s seat,” said Legg. “But their guy made a good pitch and Dan got fooled. That really gave Cape Fear a breath of fresh air.”
Kevin Sullivan made it 6-5 with a sac fly to center, but winning pitcher Darryll Roque threw out Reyes to finish off the Weevils and send Legg to the silence of his office where he could re-hash the ill-fated game a hundred times in his head.
Until the next one.
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