Friday, April 26, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Jerry Royster doesn't like to make excuses, but the Las Vegas Stars manager kept coming around to one point when asked to explain his team's disappointing 5-12 start.
"It has been basically a wasted month for us," Royster said as the Stars prepared to open an eight-game homestand tonight at Cashman Field against the Phoenix Firebirds. "We've done no work at all because of the weather. It really has been unfortunate for the guys."
Because the Stars had to move their first four home games to Vancouver earlier this month to accommodate the Oakland Athletics, coupled with the bizarre Pacific Coast League schedule that has Southern Division teams playing in the North in April, the Stars have had to play 13 of their first 17 games in Salt Lake City and the Pacific Northwest.
Las Vegas has had seven rainouts in the first month of the season, including Thursday's doubleheader at Vancouver, which would have been the teams's fifth twinbill. All that has played into the Stars' slow start, Royster said.
"We have only played four games in a row the four days that we were at home (April 9-12), and that's not very good at all," Royster said. "We're getting into the seven-inning contests where you don't get an opportunity to do much.
"The pitching has been unbelievable ... but we haven't hit at all. Some guys have been hitting -- a guy here, a guy there -- but it has been kind of sporadic offensively."
On the recently concluded trip to Salt Lake City, Tacoma and Vancouver, the Stars lost eight of 10 games but were outscored only 39-27. In only three of those games did Stars pitchers give up five runs or more.
"There haven't been any games that we couldn't have won," Royster said. "I'm sure the guys are just as concerned about it as I am. We have made some mistakes that can't be attributed to the weather, and that's mental mistakes, running the bases, missing signs -- things that have to be rectified and rectified quickly.
"When you get off to a start that we've gotten off to, you can't be giving away games. If you're not going to be hitting, you can't be giving away games like we have."
Royster contemplated that statement, then amended his comment about the weather.
"I say that you can't attribute it to the weather, but you can," he said. "All of a sudden you're sitting in the locker room and you know you're not going to play, Then all of a sudden, we're going to try to play one game of this doubleheader, then we don't. With this up-and-down atmosphere that we've been in, I think, the concentration is a little lax. We didn't make those mistakes at home."
Royster, however, doesn't lay the entire blame for the Stars' sluggish offensive start on the weather. Nagging injuries have limited the availability of some of their biggest offensive threats, including Mike Sharperson, Todd Steverson and Paul Russo. As a result, the Stars are second to last in the PCL in runs scored (64) and rank seventh (of 10 teams) with a .270 team batting average.
The inclement weather the Stars have faced has had another negative effect on the team, according to Royster.
"The one thing I think that it's doing is it's slowing down guys from getting to the major leagues," Royster said. "I would say a few guys maybe would already have had the opportunity to advance had it not been for the weather."
And that, Royster said, is tougher to accept than a 2-1 loss.
archive
