Stars jolted by lopsided defeat to Sacramento

Steve Guiremand

Friday, July 21, 2000 | 9:57 a.m.

If there was any doubt which team is the class of the Pacific Coast League Southern Division this year, the Sacramento River Cats may have put an end to that debate this week at Cashman Field.

Sacramento extended its PCL South lead over Las Vegas to five games with an exclamation point on Thursday night at Cashman Field, pounding out 18 hits and five home runs in a 19-10 victory.

The River Cats outplayed the Stars in all three facets of the game -- pitching, hitting and defense. This despite the fact star pitcher Barry Zito didn't even pitch in the series while waiting for a weekend call-up with the parent Oakland Athletics.

The only game the Stars have won in eight tries against Sacramento this year was Monday night's 8-4 victory in which the River Cats started a pitcher, Jonathan Adkins, called up from extended spring training to make an emergency start. Sacramento won Wednesday night despite using another starting pitcher, Justin Lehr, who was called up from Class A Modesto to make his first triple-A start.

Perhaps even worse than the loss was the fact it appeared to many in the announced crowd of 3,876 that some Las Vegas players were going through the motions at the end.

That thought obviously crossed manager Tony Franklin's mind, too. He spent about 10 minutes afterward in a closed-door meeting with all-star outfielder John Roskos, who then went into the clubhouse and closed the door behind him for a five-minute team meeting.

Forty-five minutes later, Roskos could be found sitting in front of his locker dressed in his dirty uniform staring blankly into space.

"It was a terrible night, a terrible night," Franklin said. "I feel miserable right now. There's no question about it. I'm sure those guys out there do, too. ... We got beat up pretty good tonight and it's not a good feeling. ... It was one of those nights you want to forget and it seems like it's never-ending."

The two clubs still have eight meetings left, including a season-ending four-game series at Cashman Field Sept. 1-4. So the Stars still have time to make one last charge at the defending triple-A champs.

"I don't panic too much when things happen like this," Franklin said. "Strange things can happen in this game. There's still lots of baseball left to play. Anything can happen. But we need to play better. It's as simple as that."

Maurer compiled a 2-0 record with a 3.03 ERA in 22 appearances. He struck out 31 batters while walking just 12 in 32 2/3 innings.

"I don't think it has really set in," Maurer, who will join the Padres at Colorado today, said. "It probably really won't set in until (today). It's not one of those things you expect to happen and when it does it kind of catches you off guard."

It's the first trip to the big leagues for the 25-year-old Maurer, who began the year at double-A Mobile and was promoted to Las Vegas on May 11.

After going 0-for-3 in Thursday's loss at San Francisco, Rivera saw his average dip to .236. He has struck out 24 times in his last 51 at-bats. So much for those Mickey Mantle comparisons.

Meanwhile, two other ex-Stars have seen their batting averages plummet recently.

Catcher Wiki Gonzalez is now hitting just .214 while shortstop Kevin Nicholson is hitting .229.

One has to question to wisdom of the Stars' brass for scheduling Sunday afternoon games during the hottest time of the day.