Stars lose: Royster counts the ways

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

It was not the first time this season the Las Vegas Stars received a poor starting pitching performance, played shoddy defense or failed to get key hits with runners in scoring position.

It was, however, the first time manager Jerry Royster called it what it was: bad baseball.

"It's just going to be a struggle for a while," Royster said Sunday following the Stars' sixth loss in seven days, a 14-3 drubbing by the Salt Lake Buzz at Cashman Field. "Right now, we're just not very good ... and we're not doing any aspect of the game very well."

Although the Stars lost several key players last week to call-ups by the parent San Diego Padres, Royster couldn't blame that for what happened Sunday.

Starting pitcher Brad Kaufman (0-5) couldn't make it out of the third inning as the Buzz sent 13 batters to the plate and rallied for nine runs on seven hits -- six of them doubles -- and erased a 3-0 Stars lead.

"Call-ups really haven't been a problem," Royster said. "We have had trouble with our starting pitching getting to the sixth inning. Sure, we're a little short in run-producers but we're also not doing what we're capable of doing -- and that's what bothers me.

"I don't care who's here or not, the guys who are here are capable of doing a lot better job than they are."

Aside from Pete Smith, who is 3-1 with a 4.39 earned-run average in four starts, the Stars' starting pitching has been atrocious. The other four starters -- Kaufman, Marshall Boze, Chris Hook and Heath Murray -- are a combined 1-16 with a 7.87 ERA in 22 starts.

"They're throwing a lot of pitches to hitters for no reason," Royster said of his starting corps. "They know exactly what they're going to do (but) they need to start attacking what they're trying to do. They know how to get a hitter out but they've got to go there and get them out.

"They're throwing way too many pitches to everybody who comes up there. Every time the count goes to 2-2, we throw a breaking ball (and) that's just ridiculous, it's not necessary. We're doing a lot of tricking and no one is being very aggressive with the baseball."

The Buzz, on the other hand, was very aggressive at the plate, pounding out a team-record eight doubles among its 18 hits against five Stars pitchers. Salt Lake shortstop Jon Shave went 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs and former Basic High player Chris Latham collected three hits and drove in two runs.

Salt Lake chased Kaufman in a third inning that saw Stars right fielder Stoney Briggs play what appeared to be a routine fly ball into a double and Las Vegas fail to turn a routine double play that could have gotten Kaufman out of the inning with minimal damage.

Instead, with a runner at second and one out, Kaufman walked three straight batters to force in the tying run, gave up a run-scoring fielder's choice groundout and an RBI double to Latham before giving way to reliever Andres Berumen.

Berumen didn't fare much better, giving up three straight doubles as the Buzz extended its lead to 9-3.

"We're not going to score as many runs (as we did before the call-ups), so that means you've got to be a little stingy out there," Royster said of his starting pitchers. "I think the guys need to do a better job of preparing themselves for the team that they're going to pitch against.

"They're not commanding their pitches very well so, consequently, they're going deep into the count. They should be getting better at that. I'm not expecting them to be perfect at this time ... but they shouldn't be regressing as far as their command of their pitches goes."

Royster also has seen his defense regress in the past week. After playing solid defense for the first three weeks of the season, the Stars have committed 10 errors in the past six games and have misplayed numerous balls -- particularly in the outfield -- for which they haven't been charged with errors.

"We're not playing very good defense and that isn't helping anything," Royster said. "We have had several opportunities the last (four games) ... but we just didn't make the plays. Double plays weren't double plays -- they were one out (and) fly balls weren't caught. That's not good. We haven't played very good defense at all."