Charlotte takes 2-1 lead in World Series

Victoria Sun

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.

A week shy of his 20th birthday, Charlotte Knights starter Jon Garland wasn't able to make the rounds at the casinos to face the cunning poker players.

Instead, he did his best impression of a card shark by devouring the Vancouver Canadians batting order Thursday night.

Garland set a Triple-A World Series record with eight strikeouts to help the International League champions beat the Pacific Coast League champions 4-2 Thursday night, giving Charlotte, the Chicago White Sox's top farm club, a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 series.

Garland gave up five hits, no earned runs and no walks in 7 2/3 innings and as he trotted back to the dugout, most of the announced crowd of 3,910 rewarded him with a standing ovation.

Some of the fans included his family and friends who made the trek from Southern California to watch him pitch.

"I felt pretty good," he said. "I was a little nervous to start, but I calmed down and got control of my pitches.

"At about the third or fourth inning, I went 1-2-3 and every pitch felt pretty good. From there on out, I knew I could do it."

For tonight's 8:30 game, Charlotte will start Jason Secoda against Vancouver's Kevin Gregg.

Jeff Abbott, Jeff Liefer and Luis Raven each delivered home runs for the Knights.

"Getting Game 3 helps a lot," said Garland.

"You gain momentum and you have two left with a chance to go home World Series champions tomorrow night."

Garland's performance should be a good indication of what the White Sox have to look forward to.

He was called up from double-A Birmingham on Sept. 6 to help out the Knights in the postseason.

Despite two shaky starts with the Knights, in which he gave up 16 hits and posted a 5.79 ERA with two no-decisions, Charlotte manager Tom Spencer knew Garland would eventually shine.

"One of the guys compares him to (Los Angeles Dodgers ace) Kevin Brown," said Spencer. "At 19, he's got excellent poise. "He's got a great four-seam and two-seam fastball and the bottom drops right out of the two-seam. ... He's not intimidated about being here."

Relievers Brad Ward and Chad Bradford finished off the Canadians.

Ward got the final out of the eighth, then Bradford struck out two and allowed two hits in two shutout innings for the save.

Abott was 2-for-4 and hit a two-run homer off Las Vegas-born Vancouver starter Barry Zito in the fourth to tie the game.

Three batters later Liefer added his bomb and Raven gave the Knights an insurance run by ripping Bill King's first pitch in the seventh inning.

Canadians catcher Danny Ardoin doubled in two runs in the second to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead.

* FALLEN STAR: A few days after Las Vegas Stars manager Mike Ramsey was fired as manager of the San Diego Padres' triple-A affiliate, Stars general manager Don Logan said he could empathize with Ramsey, but that the Stars did not meet the high expectations of the Padres' front office.

In one season as the Stars' skipper, Ramsey led the team to a 67-75 record.

"Well, you know, I feel bad," Logan said. "Unfortunately, the way the game is today, when the guys don't perform, it gets laid back on the manager.

"The fact that things didn't go as well as they wanted isn't a total reflection on Mike, but that's one of the realities of managing professionally."

* NEW LOGO: After 98 years, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues will now be Minor League Baseball.

Minor League Baseball president Mike Moore made the announcement Thursday and unveiled a new blue, gray, red and white logo for the organization.

Moore said that the name NAPBL will still be used to identify the corporate entity of Minor League Baseball.