Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008

Dust Devils set turnstile mark for 2nd straight season

By Jack Millikin, Herald staff writer

The good news was that the Tri-City Dust Devils set a franchise record Friday against the Yakima Bears at Gesa Stadium.

The bad news was it had little to do with the action on the field.

Before Tri-City dropped a 4-3 contest to Yakima for its fifth straight loss, the attendance was announced at 2,792 to bring the season total to a record-breaking 76,940 fans.

The previous attendance record was 75,308 set in 2007.

"It's exciting for us. It shows great support from the fans, and that was the plan when (George Brett) bought the team four years ago," said Brent Miles, the Dust Devils president since 2004 who became a minority owner in 2006. "My first seven years in baseball in Spokane, we reset the attendance record seven times. It was just as exciting to see as an intern as it is now."

The Dust Devils (34-37) had no trouble getting hits against Yakima, rapping out 14 against four Bears pitchers. But getting runs across was a different story as Tri-City hit into four double plays.

"We were swinging the bats well, but we left a lot of men (11) on base," said manager Fred Ocasio. "Then we walked the No. 9 hitter and he came around to score the tying run."

Alfredo Marte had a strong night for Yakima, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs. Twice Marte came up to the plate with a chance to put the Bears ahead, and twice he came through.

The 6-foot-1 Dominican native hit a two-out RBI double off Carlos Luna (3-3) in the sixth to give Yakima a 2-1 lead, then later drove a two-out, two-run double to left-center field off Austin Chambliss in the eighth to erase a 3-2 deficit and put the Bears up 4-3.

"I was concentrating, just trying to hit the ball hard," Marte said through an interpreter. "I was just waiting for my pitch."

Jordan Pacheco led the Tri-City offense, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

The Albuquerque, N.M. native came up in the third inning and singled between first and second to drive in Charlie Blackmon for a 1-0 Dust Devils lead.

Pacheco came up again in the seventh with Tri-City trailing 2-1 and drove a 1-0 fastball from Bryan Woodall to the left-center field gap, scoring Chris Vasami and Patrick Rose for a 3-2 lead.

But the Bears, losers of nine of 13 coming into the game, came right back.

"They just wouldn't go away," Pacheco said. "Kind of like the big bad wolf.

"We're just trying to finish strong. Obviously, we're not playing for anything."

Ben Dollar (1-1) got the win for Yakima, tossing a scoreless inning. Jordan Meaker collected his fifth save.

Notes: Blackmon extended his hitting streak to 17 games and pulled to within three hits of the Colorado Rockies' short-season record for hits in a single season (93), set by Juan Pierre in 1998. ... Rose went down in the fourth inning after absorbing a hard slide at the ankles into second base from Yakima's David Cooper on a force play. He was visited briefly by trainer Andy Stover but stayed in the game. ... The Rockies have assigned 17 players to their fall instructional league beginning Sept. 20: pitchers Jonnathan Aristil, Stephen Dodson, Kenneth Durst, Parker Frazier, Christian Friedrich, Brad McAtee, Juan Nicasio, Tyler Trice and Aaron Weatherford; OFs Blackmon, Leonardo Reyes and Scott Robinson; IFs Thomas Field, Austin Rauch and Erik Wetzel; and catchers Pacheco and Johnny Bowden.