Stars blow lead; Royster blows top

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Not once during the course of 113 games has Las Vegas Stars manager Jerry Royster questioned the heart or desire of his players. Following his team's 4-3 loss to Tucson Monday night at Cashman Field, however, Royster questioned their intelligence.

Leading 3-0 going into the eighth inning, Stars starter Scott Lewis and reliever Paul Abbott made some questionable pitches that allowed the Toros to score four runs in the final two innings and pull to within one game of the first-place Stars in the Pacific Coast League Southern Division standings.

"A stupid f------ loss is what it was," an obviously irritated Royster said afterwards. "As a team, we had a chance to win the game (but) we didn't win the f------ game. Stupid f------ plays is what it was, stupid f------ everything.

"It was all mental, all not (being) prepared ... not knowing their assignments. That's all wrong thoughts going through their heads. This game was individual (stupidity), was what it was. And this is not time to be playing stupid baseball."

Leading 3-0 with one out in the eighth, Tucson outfielder Chris Hatcher belted a 3-0 pitch from Lewis over the wall in left-center field for the Toros' first run of the game. Eddie Pye followed with a double and, with two outs, Kary Bridges doubled him home to chase Lewis from the game.

Abbott (2-2) relieved Lewis, but provided no relief. Dave Hajek hit Abbott's first pitch off the left-field wall to drive in Bridges with the tying run. In the ninth, Abbott threw a low fastball over the plate to Montgomery, a notorious low-ball hitter, and the center fielder responded with a long home run to left.

"I was trying to go away (to Montgomery) and I left it in," Abbott said of the home-run pitch. "I threw a (cut fastball to Hajek), but he hit it well. It was a good pitch, but he hit it good."

Royster wouldn't say specifically that he was upset with his pitchers' pitch selection.

"That was part of it, sure, but we didn't do anything very good," Royster said. "What upsets me is that we had a chance to win the game and we didn't win the game. We give up three of the four runs in the eighth and ninth innings with two outs."

He ordered his players to be at the ballpark early today for a team meeting.

"I thought it was a stupid game, we did a lot of things wrong that we shouldn't have and we're going to fix it -- and it ain't by me going out in 100-degree weather sweating over this, either. We're going to talk about these different things; I'm going to get an explanation from them."

It was not as if the Stars' offense was that much better than the pitching. All three runs Las Vegas scored came as the result of Tucson errors -- the Toros committed five in the game -- and were unearned.

Riccardo Ingram led off the fifth inning with an infield single -- the Stars' first of the game against Tucson starter Doug Mlicki -- and took second when Bridges threw wildly to first. Ingram moved to third on a groundout by Gary Scott and scored on a sacrifice fly by Todd Steverson.

In the sixth, Julio Bruno reached safely on a one-out fielding error by Toros third baseman Pye and scored on Jason Thompson's two-out, two-run home run to left-center.

The Stars, who own the worst team batting average in the PCL, managed only three hits off four Tucson pitchers.

Although Tucson moved to within one game of Las Vegas in the standings, both the Albuquerque Dukes and Phoenix Firebirds lost Monday night and remained two games behind the Stars.