Chillicothe Gazette from Chillicothe, Ohio • 6

Sports Thursday, September 4, 2008 Chillicothe Gazette 6A LaRoche ends slump, Pirates drop Reds I Pittsburgh ends Cincinnati win streak AP A passed ball gets Dy nns-burgh Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit, right, allowing a run to score in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati B.N day, Sept. 3, RBI single off of Cincinnati starter Edinson Volquez which tied the score at 3 with a broken-bat single to short right field that drove in McLouth with the go-ahead run. "It was outstanding to score some runs off a pretty tough pitcher," Adam LaRoche said. "He can throw all three of pitches for strikes, so you can't sit on anything." "He's a threat in our lineup," manager John Russell said. "Those weren't the hardest-hit balls, but that's all it takes, sometimes." Volquez had a perfect game with five strikeouts before Nyjer Morgan led off the fourth inning with a ground-rule double to center field.

Freddy Sanchez and Doumit followed with doubles to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead. moved to second on a wild pitch, and LaRoche drove in McLouth with a soft single to right Mike Lincoln relieved Affeldt and gave up a run-scoring single to Andy LaRoche. "If you're playing a close ball-game, especially a one-run game, you cant make those mistakes," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "We missed a hit-and-run sign. Lincoln was 0-2 on Andy LaRoche and got one up.

We threw the ball away. Those things hurt you." Tyler Yates (5-3) got the final out of the seventh inning to earn the win. Matt Capps pitched the ninth for his 19th save in 24 opportunities. Adam LaRoche actually gave Pittsburgh the lead twice in the span of three innings after starting the game 0-for-2. He followed Doumit's sixth-inning, The Associated Press CINCINNATI Adam LaRoche didnt need much to snap his slump.

The Pittsburgh first baseman was hitless in 16 straight at bats before coming up with a pair of soft RBI singles to lead the Pirates to a 6-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night "I wasn't aware that I was 0-for-16," LaRoche said. "I've been O-for-16 before, but I had no idea. Both of the hits I got traveled about 100 feet total." With the score tied at 4 in the eighth inning, Nate McLouth led off with a single off of Cincinnati left-hander Jeremy Affeldt (1-1). McLouth stole second and continued to third when.Af-feldt's throw got past first baseman Joey Votto for a throwing error. Ryan Doumit walked and 2008, in Cincinnati.

Reds' Corey Patterson, left, looks on. Pittsburgh won the game 6-5. inn Huntsmen take fourth SVC match Paints bow out with late loss to Florence jit I iZ- 3 v' Unioto's Drew Nichols finished at 40, followed by Caleb Stidham at 41, Dallas Johnson 44 and Ryan Bates at 45. Piketon was led by Jon Crace with a 38 and South-eastern's Eric Stauffer finished with a 42. Adena's Zach Skaggs and Clay Dennis shot a 43 and Westfall's Nathan Cline 42.

For Paint Valley, Kaleb Potts led the Bearcats shooting a 41. Huntington now moves one point behind Unioto in the league standings with 29 points. Zane Trace rounds out the top three with 20 points. For full results see page 7A. The Gazette Staff Huntington finished first in the fourth SVC match at Running Fox Wednesday with a 159.

Craig Magill and Zach Thompson led the Huntsmen shooting 39, followed Casey Gulliams, 40, and Duane Irvin, 41. Zane Trace placed second with a 169, with Unioto and Piketon close behind at 170. Southeastern finished fifth, 173; Adena sixth, 176; Westfall seventh, 179; and Paint Valley eighth, 187. The Pioneers were led by medalist Drew Davis, shooting a 36. Teammate Jordan Long finished with a 43, James Kessler, 44, and Joe Speakman 46.

1 Brewers, Rays good stories but a good Series? Around this time of year, the job of a general manager in Milwaukee is usually to explain how promising the young talent Tjm brought upfor Dahlberg final month of the season is and to remind fans they can still get great bratwurst at the ballpark. So it's a little hard to criticize Doug Melvin for pushing hard for CC Sabathia to get the first retroactive no-hitter in major league history, even if he's making the argument just to let his hired hand know he's loved in Milwaukee. Like his predecessors, Melvin simply doesn't have any experience talking about anything remotely positive this late in the season. Whether toiling in the AL East, AL Central or NL Central, the mantra espoused every year over the last quarter century has always been the same for the Brewers just wait until next year when the players will be better and the brats just as good. Next year now is officially here, and Melvin has other things to talk about, though the Sabathia no-hitter that wasn't was merely a bonus.

He lost that appeal Wednesday, but so far he's been more successful as the architect of the current team and the guy who risked four prospects in June to trade for Sabathia in a gamble that the future indeed was now. "I'd say we're going for it," Melvin said then. "That's the way I look at it." Before anointing Melvin as executive of the year, remember that this was the same GM who gave Eric Gagne $10 million of the team's money just a few days before the reliever was featured in the Mitchell Report on drugs and baseball. That hasn't worked out nearly as well as the trade for Sabathia, who has rewarded his new team with nine straight wins and a 1.43 ERA in the midst of a race for a playoff slot that seems assured now barring a total collapse. So allow him one mistake a year.

His fellow GMs have made worse, not the least of which was Ned CoUetti's decision to reward Andruw Jones for his fine play in Atlanta by giving him $36.2 million over two years to bat .161 with three home runs for the Dodgers. Melvin, by contrast, locked up Ryan Braun for the next eight years with a $45 million deal that is astonishingly cheap for a player most GMs would pick first to build a team around. And any fans in Milwaukee old enough to remember Harvey's Wall-bangers certainly aren't going to second-guess trying to win now. Baseball still matters in Milwaukee, despite the long seasons of ineptitude strung out one after another since the Brewers won the American League pennant in 1982. It matters even more this year, when a group of young sluggers led by Braun and Prince Fielder and a pitching staff fronted by Sabathia and Ben Sheets hope to avoid the late slump that did in last year's promising team.

It doesn't seem to matter as much in Florida, where an exorcism of the Devil in Devil Rays helped put Tampa Bay in first place and make it even more of a surprising playoff team than the Brewers. Only 21,629 showed up Tuesday night for a big game with the Yankees, and many were New York fans. You can't blame Floridians for not embracing a playoff race. None has ever seen one at Tropicana Field, where the Rays have surprised just about everyone by not only getting in front of the Red Sox and Yankees but staying there. For 10 miserable years they were the Devil Rays and the only thing worth betting on was whether they would hit the magical 100-loss mark each season.

Now they're the Rays, a team with more balance than stars and a pitching staff that features five starters with 10 or more wins. i At the old ballgame Jim Rinaldifor the Gazette Above: Adrian Cantu of the Chillicothe Paints makes contact with the ball during play against the Florence Freedom at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe. Mil' JJWMPIiH.nill tlU.M WW.MMIWHUiiimi.V mwin "1 -j A 1 i ,4, By PHIL GRAY Gazette Sports Writer The answer to the trivia question played out like this. The count was 2-2 with Jeff Vincent at the plate when Florence reliever Chris In-goglia found a little extra oomph and threw a fastball past Vincent. That was the third out of the bottom of the ninth Wednesday.

And with, the era of the Chillicothe Paints' run in the Frontier League came to an end. In the books, it will forever be a S3 loss to the Freedom in a game in which the Paints bullpen gave up four runs in the final two innings to turn things sour. In the books, it will be a series of missed chances by Chillicothe's offense and a collection of bleeder, blooper and broken-bat hits by the Freedom that made the difference. In the books, it will go down as the team's 57th loss in 96 games this year. Beyond the books, it was a lot more than that.

In the simple terms of how things have unfolded in oh-eight, Wednesday was about as good of an example as you could ask for. The pitching was good when the hitters didn't hit, then the hitters hit when the pitching went bad. By the end of it, outfielder Jeff Vincent was on the mound for the Paints, with the team kind of throwing up its hands in a final just-get-it-over-with salute to the season. Timeline that over one game or timeline it from May 19 until now. It's what happened to the Paints this year.

Big picture-wise, Wednesday might have been the end of one thing, but it's the beginning of another. The Paints will be back that much has been made clear by the team but with a different look than in years past. It might amount to younger talent and a shorter season in Chillicothe, but baseball will be back. As the saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. What's beyond remains to be seen, but the footing seems stable.

The Paints exit the FL as the lone franchise to survive every day since the thing was born in 1993, its baptism in Ross County coming in the mud of natural grass and a two-hour rain delay back in 1993. In a way, the Paints can be seen as an example of the league as a whole. Chillicothe was the showpiece when the first spike sunk in the dirt back then. Now, it's a town the FL has simply outgrown. But with the end of one thing comes the beginning of another.

Timeline that however you want that's just life. One touching moment of Wednesday's game came in the top of the seventh, when the proceedings were stopped long enough for Florence manager Jamie Keefe Jim Rinaldifor the Gazette Paints second baseman Josh Blackstock fields a ground ball during play between the Chillicothe Paints and the Florence Freedom at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe By STEVEN VITTE For the Gazette I am a baseball fan, and I am truly loyal to those who take the field each day. For better or worse, for these past few years, I have been following the Chillicothe Paints of the Frontier League, and as the writing l(K)ks to be on the wall more and more as the days wind down, I would like to talk about how I got to be where I'm at right now. The first game I ever attended was in August 2005, and 1 haven't stopped going ever since. Back then, I had never envisioned of becoming a correspondent for the Paints on a blog, but when you follow the Paints as much as I have throughout this time, doors just happen to open for you.

Opportunity was apparently. However, there's also something that you experience whenever you are at VA Memorial Stadium. You experience a joyful time. If you just take a look at the ballpark, from the old red and yellow painted wooden seats and all the -way to the scenery from behind the outfield fences, you know tliat you have a special gem of a ballpark. The ballpark we have just outside of Chillicothe's city limits is probably one of the best kept secrets in all of baseball, and I am not making that up.

Sure, you have the fancy and shiny new ballparks popping up all over the place these days, but when you have an old ballpark that is still in good enough shape to be called home to baseball, there comes a time when you really need to show your appreciation for the things that you have. I always find a way to have fun when I'm at the VA, and I don't regret it, because you am make friends and you can see certain moments that you won't forget for some time to come, or ever, for that matter. The Chillicothe Paints have given me a reason to root for something again. I root for the game of baseball, not so much the business of baseball. The game of baseball has always been fun, and when you have a chance to see a game, it should be an honor, not a burden.

There are com-munties where they aren't even fortunate enough to have certain baseball programs, so for these last 16 years, going to see the Paints has been an option for those who are in Ross County for the summer. Now I'd like to talk about a certain player, who I've gotten to know real well for these last couple seasons. Not only is he a team player, but he just so happened to help me get by whenever I needed information or help. Travis Garcia has been my favorite player, but not only that, he's been a true friend to me. Whenever you talk to him, he always conducts himself the right way, and it's been an honor to talk to him.

Travis is a great example of a role model athlete, and it's a shame that we don't have more players like him in the higher ranks of baseball or in any sport in general. I'd also like to thank the players, past and present, who I've been able to see play and who I will remember for what they've done on and off the field for some time to come. Players like Steve Martin, John Ramistella, Doug Dreher, Jose Rodriguez, Josh Ury, John Martinez, Perry Cun- 1 ningham, Kurt Hartfeldur, Jeff Funaro, Brian Colopy, Eric Teall, Paul Rutgers, Ryan Flanigan, Adrian Cantu, Drew Saylor, Edwin Walker and Stephen Spragg. Those memories are what I will always have as a Paints fan, and sure enough, there will be more memories to come. Vilte has written a Paints blog for the FL history website for the last few years and has been a follower of the Paints since 2005.

3 (who played for the Paints, then was the successor to the legendary Roger Hanners as the third manager in Paints history) to grab the PA microphone long enough to acknowledge Paints coach Marty Dunn. "Not only did he teach me about baseball, but this gentleman helped me understand life," Keefe said of Dunn. "With the respect you have and the love you have for another person, I can tell you Marty is one of the greatest human beings you'll ever meet." "I was overwhelmed. I was humbled," Dunn said later. "Things like tonight are things reserved for guys like Travis Garcia, Gator McBride, Morgan Burkhart.

And I'm in no way on their level. But I'm grateful that people might think highly enough of me to stop a game like that. For me. Just overwhelming." Wednesday slipped away with one final standing ovation from the crowd, one final salute by John Wend to the fans reminding everybody that the Paints and the Freedom appreciate their support of Frontier League baseball. And, of course, with that one final line.

"We'll see you next year." Other lasts In the interest of trivia, here's a quick collection of how certain things played out Wednesday night. Last first pitch A fastball from Mike Rocco (who gave up just five hits and one run through seven innings, but got a no-decision) to Justin Randall, who swung through it. Last first hit A double by Randall on a blooper that spun hard off the turf and got "I was overwhelmed. I was humbled. Things like tonight are things reserved for guys like Travis Garcia, Gator McBride, Morgan Burkhart.

And I'm in no way on their level. But I'm grateful that people might think highly enough of me to stop a game like that. For me. Just overwhelming." Paints couch Marti Dunn past Paints outfielder Zach Rodeghero. Last first out of a game When Rocco fanned Garth McKinney on a 3-2 pitch after Randall's double.

In fact, Rocco pitched out of that inning without giving up a run. Last Paints leadoff hitter-Josh Blackstock, who started the bottom of the first with a fly out the opposite way to left. Last Paints run to score In the bottom of the seventh, when Drew Saylor drove home Vincent with a two-out single. Last run to score That was in the top of the ninth, when Josh Lex led off with a solo homer off Joe Brown, who relieved Vincent in center (and got an at-bat) when Vincent relieved him on the mound. (Gray can be reached by calling 772-9302 or via e-mail at pagraynncoganneU.com).