Wasted Opportunity
Sandmen blow 2-run lead to Idols in 8th
Sept. 11, 2009
LOS ANGELES -- First it was New Orleans. Now, the Los Angeles Idols apparently want to spoil the Arizona Sandmen's season as well.
Arizona starter Bronson Arroyo left after 7 innings with a 5-3 lead. He would watch Mike Koplove and Cherokee Fisher squander it in an 8th inning that saw two doubles, two singles and a walk.
Koplove walked Mike Donlin, the only batter he faced. Fisher then fell behind Harry Stovey 3-0 before giving up an RBI double, and followed that by falling behind Adrian Gonzalez 2-0 before he yanked an RBI double down the first base line.
"Walks, pitching behind guys," Arizona manager Patsy Tebeau mused afterward. "That's how you blow ballgames."
Sensing Fisher would be trying to get ahead, George Scales pounced on a first pitch fastball and drilled it into left to score Gonzalez for the lead run.
Idols closer Chad Qualls gave up a leadoff single to Pete Hill in the top of the ninth. But he struck out Jose Reyes and induced a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Nap Lajoie to end it.
Stephen Drew had led off the game for Los Angeles with a homer to right to put the Idols up 1-0. An RBI single from Mike Donlin and an RBI groundout from Adrian Gonzalez in the third would make it 3-0.
But Arizona showed the heart of a champion, coming back with a four-run fifth, aided by two Los Angeles errors. And that is what made the loss so hard to take.
"When you battle back and then essentially give it up, it hurts a bit more," Arizona catcher Russell Martin said afterward. "But we need to be resilient. It [the division] is very much in our reach."