Trenton Thunder manager Bill Masse sat in his office after
his team’s heartbreaking 5-4 loss to the Connecticut
Defenders, wondering if the remaining 70 games at Waterfront
Park would unfold quite like the first one had. He
dejectedly stared downward and threw his clothes onto
the ground, ignoring the plates of food that the clubhouse
manager was placing on his desk.
Masse’s club was
just three outs away from sending their manager and the franchise
record home opener crowd of 7,069 home happy, but it was not
to be.
With the score tied at
three in the top of the ninth, J. Brent Cox was in his third
inning of work after replacing starter Danny Borrell, who
threw six masterful innings of four-hit ball for the
Thunder. Facing Defenders number nine hitter Jake Wald with
base runner Aaron Sisk on third, Cox caught his cleat in the
dirt and the umpire called a balk, allowing Sisk to take a
leisurely trot home to make the score 4-3.
“He’s got a low
leg kick,” said Masse, “he almost drags it on the mound.
It just has to go in foul territory (for it not to have been
a balk). He could have thrown it in the (freaking) dugout.”
But the Thunder fought
back in the bottom of the ninth, with first baseman Shelley
Duncan coming a few feet short of single-handedly tying the
game with a double off the wall in right field. Duncan was
replaced by pinch runner Vince Faison, who scored on a
two-out single by catcher Omir Santos to tie the game.
But Paul Thorp, the
only closer in the Eastern League yet to record a save, came
in for the tenth inning and the Defenders immediately took
advantage with two straight doubles from Nate Schierholtz
and Eddy Martinez-Esteve to take a lead they would never
relinquish. But Thorp insists he’s comfortable in his
first year as a Double-A closer.
“I’ve done it for
two years (in Single-A Tampa), and I was fortunate enough to
get a lot of opportunities,” Thorp said. “This is the
eighth game and there’s 130 to go. I’ll get my chances.”
As for Masse, he wasn’t
as concerned with his team’s opportunities as he might be
with a higher power.
“It’s the Thunder
gods,” Masse joked. “They must be in a battle up there
with the baseball gods or something.”
With his team’s
batting average (.198) just under the Mendoza Line and his
team sitting in last place in the division at 0-10, Masse had better
hope that’s a battle that gets resolved before the Yankee
gods take notice.
Correction From Last
Week: The Thunder are in their 13th season and
started the season with a 7-5 record in both the home and
season openers.
Thunder Notes: Chien-Ming
Wang started the prestigious Yankees home opener on April
11th against the Royals. He pitched for the Thunder in 2003
and 2004 and was the Yankees 2004 Minor League Pitcher of
the Year…By virtue of winning that game, the Yankees have
now won their last nine home openers…Yankee legend Jim
Leyritz signed autographs for a long line of fans on opening
night. Leyritz was originally scheduled to throw out a first
pitch, but showed up after the game had started due to
traffic…This was the team’s first sellout of their home
opener since 2001 and the largest home opener crowd in team
history, eclipsing the mark set in 1995 by roughly 100 fans.
Around the EL:
Connecticut Defenders catcher Justin Knoedler played briefly
with the San Francisco Giants in 2004 and 2005 and talked
about playing with noted baseball villain Barry Bonds.
“People might think
that he’s cocky and he doesn’t have to work,” said
Knoedler, “but he works as hard as anybody in the game.”
Contact Mike At:
mashmore@patriotsbaseball.com
