文章基本信息

标题：Sky Sox fall to Zephyrs in opener
作者：For The Gazette
期刊名称：Gazette, The (Colorado Springs)
出版年度：2000
卷号：Apr 7, 2000
出版社：Colorado Springs Gazette

Sky Sox fall to Zephyrs in opener

For The Gazette

NEW ORLEANS - Looking for a way to measure what kind of season the New Orleans Zephyrs might have in 2000?

Consider the way the Zephyrs scored their first run of the year in the sixth inning against Colorado Springs starter Kevin Jarvis: after retiring 12 straight, Jarvis walked leadoff hitter Julio Lugo, who stole second, stole third and scored on an errant throw by catcher Ben Petrick. One run, no hits.

Add a solo home run by Lance Berkman in the seventh to back up the two-hit pitching of Scott Elarton and the Z's took a 2-1 victory over the Sky Sox in front of an opening-night crowd of 7,914.

"That's what we're going to have to do a lot," Zephyrs' manager Tony Pena said afterward.

Elarton, on a rehabilitation assignment from the parent Houston Astros while recovering from offseason rotator cuff surgery, seemed to have full command of his repertoire against the Sky Sox.

Limited to a pitch count of 85, Elarton (1-0) gave up a second- inning double to Scott McClain and a fourth-inning single to Petrick, walking one and striking out five in six innings. He left after throwing 73 pitches.

"It felt good," said Elarton. "For my first time out, I was pretty pleased. The main thing I was looking at was being healthy."

Jarvis (0-1) was keeping Z's hitters off balance through the first six innings. But when the Sky Sox brought in Colorado Rockies' reliever Jerry DiPoto, also on a rehab assignment, in the seventh, Berkman worked the count to 3-1 before DiPoto allowed a fastball just a little too close to Berkman's hot zone.

"It was right where you'd like a pitch like that to be, right where you want to hit it," said Berkman, seeing action this year in left field where he made three nice defensive plays, including two running catches.

The Sky Sox scored in the ninth when pinch-hitter Norm Hutchins tripled off Erik Plantenberg and scored on Chris Latham's ground out.

"We played good defense tonight," Pena said of the Z's errorless performance. "We turned two double plays . . . . if we can play like that all year, we'll win some ballgames."