Outgunned Stars post comeback victory

Las Vegas Stars pitcher Buddy Carlyle had been sitting in the Cashman Field stands behind home plate charting pitches for eight innings on Monday night when he got the word.

"Get dressed because we need you to pinch-hit," was the message.

Three minutes later, Carlyle was not only dressed but batting in a key moment of the Stars' 7-6 win over the Albuquerque Dukes.

"We're so strapped that we're actually pulling guys out of the stands to hit," Las Vegas manager Tony Franklin said after his team's gutty come-from-behind win.

Because of a bad rash of injuries both at the major league level with the San Diego Padres and also at double-A Mobile, Franklin has found himself with just 20 healthy players instead of the usual 23 the last couple of days.

Outfielder Dusty Allen, the team's leader in home runs and RBIs, and steady shortstop Kevin Nicholson were called up by the Padres over the weekend to replace the injured Tony Gwynn and Chris Gomez.

The Stars were already without one of their best hitters before that because second baseman David Newhan is on the disabled list after badly cutting his knee on home plate while sliding in a recent game at Cashman Field.

So the Stars, who closed to within two games of Pacific Coast League Southern Division-leading Sacramento with the win on Monday night, found themselves pretty much out of players when Carlyle was summoned from the bleachers.

Carlyle was pinch-hitting for relief pitcher Dave Maurer, who has not batted at all this season for the Stars.

Enter Carlyle, who was batting .091 but at least had 11 at-bats to his credit. He grounded out slowly to first to end the inning.

"That's the way it is," said Franklin, who is expecting at least one player from double-A -- infielder Alex Pelaez's name is already above a locker and his bio was passed out to the media -- to report to his team in time for tonight's game. "That's what we had to go with. That's what you have to do sometimes. Maybe some people don't understand it, but when you get a victory doing what we did tonight, you're pleased with it."

Newhan was injured in a June 14 game when he cut his knee on the edge of an exposed corner of home plate while sliding.

Newhan's leg has been immobilized since the injury and he said it will probably be "about a week" before he's ready to return to action.

Newhan, who began the year with the Padres, was hitting .254 with three home runs and 20 RBIs in just 38 games at the time of the injury.

Herndon suffered the injury in the third inning of the Stars' 3-0 loss at Sacramento on Thursday. Las Vegas manager Tony Franklin said he is hopeful Herndon can return to action on Saturday night.

"He says it's getting better, but these things can be tricky," Franklin said. "It's better to be safe than sorry for something like this."

Relievers Brandon Sullivan, Dave Maurer and Vicente Palacios combined to one-hit the Dukes (43-36) over the final 6 2/3 innings as Las Vegas (43-32) snapped its four-game losing streak.

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