LOWELL The sky-is-falling mentality hasn’t crept into the Lowell Spinners’ clubhouse, despite being in the midst of a season-high seven-game losing streak.
Although the losses have piled up over the past week, Lowell is still holding down the top spot in the New York-Penn League’s Stedler Division standings. But the stranglehold the Spinners seemingly had on the top spot in the division is loosening, as the Connecticut Tigers are in second place, five games back, and the suddenly red-hot Vermont Lake Monsters are only 5 ½ games back after posting a 9-2 record in their last 11 games.
During the first month and a half of the season, Lowell consistently delivered the pitches, hits and defensive plays that produced wins, and lots of them. Since the calendar flipped to August, the Spinners have been getting beat at their own game.
Lowell is a ballclub that’s in desperate need of a reversal in fortune, but for the second straight game Vermont prevented the Spinners from getting back into the win column.
The Lake Monsters had all four of their hits and scored all five of their runs in the third inning while topping Lowell, 5-2, before a crowd of 3,503 at LeLacheur Park Friday night.
“The effort is there,” said Spinners manager Luke Montz. “The guys are playing hard. They’re still going about it the right way. But it’s not working. It’s not happening. It’s not clicking. It’s not meshing. We get guys on base, we leave guys on base. We get hits. We get hits with nobody on base.
“Everything is just backward right now. We’re doing great things. You look at the game tonight and I think we played well. That third inning we gave up a five-spot. We didn’t pitch well in that inning. The bullpen came in an did a great job. They shut them down for the rest of the game. We had chances and opportunities and just didn’t get it done.”
Lowell (30-23) outhit Vermont 6-4. Gilberto Jimenez had three hits, including a triple, while raising his batting average to .346. Marino Campana belted a solo home run in the second inning.
Vermont (25-29) is now 7-1 in its last eight road games. The Lake Monsters beat the Spinners, 3-1, on Thursday.
“I’m the same guy every day,” said Montz. “They know the energy I’m going to bring. I’m not to going to change. I’m not going to turn my back on these guys. The locker room is still up. Guys are just trying to find things. We might be pressing a little bit. Offensively they might be trying to do a little too much.
“We just need a couple knocks and a couple RBIs to get things going. We’re playing the game hard and going about it the right way. Getting that first win to get out of this will turn everything around. Whatever we have to do to get a win and get the morale back up and celebrate a win.”
The Spinners got off a fast start, jumping out to a quick 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the first, Jimenez ripped a leadoff triple to center field and scored on a wild pitch.
In the second Lowell doubled its lead when Campana homered to straightaway center. The blast had an exit velocity of 108 miles per hour and traveled 429 feet. According to officials in the press box, it was only the third homer hit over the batter’s eye in dead center field at LeLacheur Park. The homer was Campana’s fifth of the season, and ties him with Nick Decker for the team lead in big flies.
The Lake Monsters wiped out the two-run deficit with five runs in the top of the third. Jose Rivas smacked a leadoff double and came around to score on back-to-back wild pitches. Yerdel Vargas then clubbed a 377-foot homer to left center. Dustin Harris (RBI single), Jordan Diaz (RBI single) and Kevin Richards (sacrifice fly) drove in one run each to complete the Lake Monster scoring in the third.
Vermont reliever Michael Murray (2-0) pitched four shutout innings while earning the win on the mound. Jose Mora struck out the side in the ninth while recording the save.
Ryan Zeferjahn started on the mound for Lowell and turned in a dominant effort. Zeferjahn, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound right-hander who Boston Red Sox drafted in the third round of this June’s amateur draft, didn’t give up a hit while allowing one walk and striking out five in two innings. At Kansas this spring, Zeferjahn was 5-2 with a 3.97 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 88 1/3 innings.
Kelvin Sanchez (2-2) took the loss for Lowell. Sanchez allowed five runs (four earned) while giving up four hits and four walks in one inning.
Robbie Baker turned in a great effort out of the bullpen for Lowell, tossing four hitless shutout innings with seven strikeouts.
Antoni Flores had two hits for Lowell.
Kris Jackson chipped in with two scoreless innings of relief with two strikeouts for the Spinners.
The final game of the three-game series with Vermont will be played at LeLacheur Park Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 5:05 p.m.
