Vancouver Report - 1996/04/11

[scottsdale_joe]

Mounties Shock The Sports World
Pitching Leads The Way

by Rich Michaels
Vancouver Sun Sports Reporter
April 11, 1996

With a team that coming off a season in which they lost an impressive 105 games, that sees their best pitcher on the disabled list until September, and that has not made enough changes to seemingly make any difference, it’s no wonder Mountie fans didn’t expect much once Opening Day rolled around.

Lo and behold! The Mounties sprinted out of the gate and won six of their first ten games. And they did it with a team batting average of just .230, good for 11th place in the Johnson League. How is this possible? Well, simply with incredible pitching from the apparently underrated starting rotation.

36-year-old Blama Baker didn’t win any games. In fact, he lost his only decision, a 1-0 heartbreaker against Valencia by way of an unearned run. But in his two games he pitched brilliantly. In fifteen innings he allowed a meager five hits and no earned runs for a pretty impressive 0.00 ERA. Them’s pretty good numbers for a starter who was almost exclusively a relief pitcher until last season.

Niles Renfork (2-0, 1.65), Allan Bartlett, Andre Higa, and Carlos Reyes pitched well too. The combined ERA for the starters was 1.76, best in the Johnson.

The majority of the offense was provided by still-only-19 Jimmie Joe Jananero who had fifteen hits that included seven doubles and by catcher Dick Eggman who had two home runs amongst his eleven hits.

The biggest news reverberating around the stands on Opening Day was the surprise presence of two rookies who weren’t even on the roster for Spring Training. Douglas “Chow” Newhouse was named at second base in the leadoff spot when manager Leo Lyons handed his lineup card over to the umpire. And the other rookie, Nick Mannerden was on the card starting at the hot corner. Mannerden has had a rough start with only three hits to date for an .097 batting average. But Newhouse has made a statement by posting a .278 average and stealing seven bases in ten attempts.

Amazingly, aside from the six victories, the team lost three other games by one run, two of them 1-0 nail biters.

[lynchy34]

So Baker throws 15 innings without allowing an earned run and sits at 0-1? Yikes.