9-News: 37.053 – Fans Begin to Stir With Hope

[RonCo]

Magic Formula: Kim + 2 = Stone Wins In Dramatic Fashion



Winning streaks have been rare for the Nine this year, so fans are celebrating as the can. April was bleak, after all, and May was weak. So maybe if June was abrewin’, July could be fly. The idea of the Nine getting their shit together just in time to make a legendary run at the Heartland division crown is epic enough to set a baseball fan’s heart a flickering. And baseball is a weird game. It’s a game where magic is possible sometimes. And who the hell knows anything?

In this case, some of the magic came in the form of youthful Wildman Han-lee Kim, who combined with relievers Emil Gutierrez and Mario De La Cruz to limit the Seattle offense to just one run. And it came in the form of vetran catcher Aaron Stone, who continued to come out of a season-long funk with an extra-inning blast that sent fans home happy with a [url-http://montybrewster.net/BBA/HTML/news/ ... _1308.html]2-1 win[/url], but not before they hung around for ten minutes, cheering until Stone came out for a curtain call.

De La Cruz was credited with the victory, but it was a combined effort that Kim survived despite allowing six walks, or—as Kim calls them—“Double play fodder. The oft-maligned YS9 defense turned a pair of DP to preserve Kim’s ERA. See? More magic, right?

On the other side of the field, Seattle’s Ken Walters was just as dazzling, allowing only one run when Jorge Rodriguez doubled, swiped third, and scored on Lucas McNeill’s line drive to right. So the game went to extra innings where Aaron Stone led off against one-time YS9 bullpen specialist Jose Souza with a 349 foot blast to leftfield. “The splitter didn’t split,” Stone said afterward.

The win was the Nine’s 4th straight win. Of more interest, it’s their 9th victory in 12 games against teams who are competing for division titles and playoff spots.

“I told you not to rule us out,” beleaguered manager Bret Richards said yesterday after the game. “We need to get to .500 ball before any real conversation starts, you know? We’re really super-young (the Nine’s major league roster is second youngest in the league). But we’re showing we can beat good teams, and that’s a start.”

The fans are cautiously optimistic. You can see it in the way they stepped out of the stadium, walking on that thin layer of belief that makes sports fans who they are. They’ve seen magic before, of course. There wasn’t any more derelict organization in the league’s environs than the Nine of a decade ago. But kids grow up, and things change.

Today the Nine stand at 43-46, 11 games back of Twin Cities for the Heartland division, and five games out of a possible playoff birth. They’ll face Seattle again tomorrow, then settle back for a three-day respite for the All-Star break. At present, it’s hard to say who will be representing the team this year. Best guesses are rookie outfielder Andy McKinney or third-baseman Rob Thomas. But that’s secondary on most everyone’s mind.

What’s on their mind is coming back to the stadium tomorrow to see the club take on Seattle one more time.

After that?

Well, we’ll just wait and see what kind of magic might be a’brewing.