No one could believe his eyes.
Sure enough, there, coming out of the bullpen, was none other than outfielder Frank Corr, a Cyclones star who typically wins games with his bat, not with his arm.
The Cyclones were leading Sunday night’s game against the Lowell Spinners 2-1 and starter Lenny DiNardo was cruising, but no one outside the Cyclone clubhouse knew that DiNardo was on a strict, 75-pitch limit, lest his arm become overworked.
DiNardo got into trouble in the first inning and reached his pitch limit after only four innings.
Problem was, all of the Cyclones relievers had pitched too many innings recently to close out the game, meaning that someone would have to pitch two frames before turning the ball over to closer David Byard.
“I always joked with [pitching coach] Bobby Ojeda that I throw a mean knuckleball and that I was ready to go whenever he needed me,” Corr said. “Well, this time, he actually took me up on it.”
The meanness of Corr’s knuckler remains somewhat in question. The first two batters laced singles off him (and the knuckleball never came close to the strike zone) and the third loaded the bases with a cheap swinging bunt. But after walking in a run, Corr settled down, getting a pop up and a fly out to center field that was turned into an inning-ending double play when a great throw by newcomer Wayne Lydon nailed Freddie Money as he foolishly attempted to tag up.
In his second inning of work, Corr put down the Spinners 1-2-3, even ending his Cyclones pitching career with a strikeout.
Afterwards, the clubhouse was still buzzing about Corr’s bizarre appearance, his 50-mile-per-hour off-speed pitches and the knucklers that avoided home like a runaway child.
“I thought it was hilarious,” said DiNardo, a teammate of Corr’s at Stetson University. “It takes guts for him to go out there. It was fun for us to watch, but he actually spotted his fastball pretty well.”
Catcher Brett Kay deserves much of the credit for getting Corr through his stint.
“He was throwing pretty hard, so I told him to take something off the ball rather than trying to blow it by them,” Kay said.
“And the knuckleball wasn’t doing anything, so I told him to stop throwing it.”
Corr wasn’t sure if he was following Kay’s advice or not.
“He told me to just hit my spots and I said, ‘I’m just throwing them. I don’t know where they’re going.’ I mean, I only threw two pitches out there: a fastball and a fastball that I threw a little slower than my fastball.”
Transactions
Awesome Aussie pitcher Matt Gahan (4-1, 1.99 ERA, 4 saves) was promoted to the Capital City Bombers of Columbia, S.C.
New Cyclones include infielder David Bacani, outfielder Wayne Lydon and pitcher Ryan Olson, all of whom were promoted from Kingsport.
The Clones also picked up right-handed pitcher Orlando Roman from Kingsport. The Bayamon, Puerto Rico native was then 31st round draft pitch for the Mets in 1999.
run the bases after the game (a Sunday night ritual at Keyspan)
that a long T-shirt doesn’t get in their way — witness
cousins Rachel Leah and Elizabeth Weintrob heading for home.
