THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200580
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 47 lines
The Norfolk Tides squeezed about a week's worth of double plays into one afternoon Wednesday.
Unfortunately, they were on the wrong end of those double plays, which led to a 3-0 loss to the Syracuse Chiefs in front of 9,707 in Harbor Park's last business person's special of the season.
The Chiefs turned five double plays to end the Tides' four-game winning streak.
None, however, seemed to take the wind out of the Tides more than the one in the third inning. After Kevin Roberson tripled down the rightfield line to start the inning, the Chiefs escaped one out later when Shawn Gilbert lined back to Syracuse pitcher Giovanni Carrara, who doubled Roberson off third.
Carrara snagged the ball off his left shoe top and looked at it in his glove in mock surprise before throwing to third base.
``That double play's the pitcher's best friend, other than a grand slam for your own team,'' said Carrara, who added that he'd all but conceded Roberson's run. ``I was just thinking about getting the next batter out and Gilbert lines it back. I said, `Thank you.' ''
Alex Ochoa grounded into two of the Tides' double plays, in the fourth and seventh innings, with Carrara once again gloving a shot up the middle in that seventh inning to begin things.
``We just didn't have any luck,'' Ochoa said. ``Those things happen sometimes in baseball and you just can't explain it.''
Starting pitcher Rick Reed (3-6) was once again the hard-luck loser. In five of his six losses this season, the opposition has finished with four runs or fewer.
The Chiefs plated a run in the first inning when Shannon Stewart and Felipe Crespo doubled to right with one out and John Ramos lifted a sacrifice fly to center for a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth, Ramos and Tilson Brito singled and moved up on a groundout by Felix Jose. Sharnol Adriana followed with a bloop single to right that barely eluded the outstretched glove of Tides second baseman Jason Hardtke, driving in two runs.
``We helped them out an awful lot, didn't we?'' said Hardtke, who went 2 for 4 to lift his team-leading average to .350. ``Those were not all routine double plays. And every double play we hit into, we hit the ball hard.''
NOTE: Tides outfielder Jay Payton will fly to Port St. Lucie, Fla., to begin rehabilitation of his right throwing elbow, which in May underwent surgery for the second time in eight months. Tides manager Bobby Valentine did not give a time frame for his return. by CNB