Inconsistency driving 51s’ manager mad

Nick Christensen

Friday, July 9, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

Just past the midpoint of the season, the Las Vegas 51s' hot-and-cold year was seemingly starting to turn the corner. Eleven games under .500 on June 26, the team won seven of 11 games and pulled closer to breaking even.

They had a decent chance to make it to eight under, trailing 5-4 in the ninth inning Thursday against the Salt Lake Stingers. But six runs later, the Stingers had an 11-4 lead and any hope of a 51s comeback in front of an announced crowd of 10,944 was dashed.

The inconsistent play -- Sunday, the team lost 9-0 at Tucson, then had 24 hits Monday in a 15-6 win -- has bothered manager Terry Kennedy, who referred to his team in horror movie terms.

"You don't know which team is going to show up," he said. "Today it's Mr. Hyde, tomorrow it could be Dr. Jekyll. It's frustrating to me mostly, but I'm sure it frustrates the players."

Starter Heath Totten gave up four solo home runs -- the only earned runs he'd allow -- and six hits while striking out five Stingers and walking two. But the 51s squandered their chances, leaving six runners on base and committing three errors.

Down 5-4 in the ninth, reliever Agustin Montero came in and gave up two runs, leaving the bases loaded before Kennedy pulled him. Salt Lake's Gary Johnson scored after a wild pitch by Las Vegas' Troy Brohawn, which was followed by Stingers third baseman Dallas McPherson hitting a three-run home run to right that left Montero with five earned runs, a 6.91 ERA, and his team with a deficit it could not recover from.

The evening left Kennedy spent.

"This was some kind of bad game. We didn't do too much right," he said. "We had baserunning errors, a bunch of non-plays that weren't errors, just plays that weren't made that cost us. Joe (Thurston) ran into an out, Luis (Garcia) probably should have been on second on that ball off the wall, and if we don't have the lead, we can't get our closer in there."