EVERETT – It’s taken more than two weeks, but the Everett AquaSox finally have another winning streak.
And there can only be one rational conclusion as to why Everett is back to its winning ways.
It’s got to be the jerseys.
Donning their Frogstock tie-dyed jerseys for the second straight game, the AquaSox prevailed again, defeating the Spokane Indians 6-2 Sunday afternoon at Everett Memorial Stadium.
“That’s the only thing I can figure,” Everett manager Dave Myers answered when asked about the correlation between winning and wearing the Frogstock jerseys.
“We were talking about that,” winning pitcher Mike Schilling added with a grin. “We’re going to keep wearing them until we lose one.”
Jair Fernandez went 3-for-3 and Marcos Villezcas drove in three runs for Everett (19-22), which hadn’t won back-to-back games since winning in Spokane on July 12-13. Since then the AquaSox had lost 12 of 16, including losing streaks of five and four games.
And the psychedelic power of the Frogstock jerseys cannot be denied. In each of the past two seasons the AquaSox used the tie-dyed jerseys to break out of slumps, then proceeded to go on lengthy winning streaks while wearing the fluorescent lime green and purple tops. The Sox appear to be making it three years in a row.
“Maybe they’re good luck,” Villezcas said. “They’re pretty funny-looking jerseys, but if it works, we’ll go with what works.”
Grant Gerrard, Chad Tracy and Wally Backman Jr. each had two hits for Spokane (15-26). Everett scored all its runs between the fifth and eighth innings, erasing a 2-0 deficit. Villezcas’ two-run double in the fifth tied the score and Dean Zorn’s RBI single one pitch later gave Everett the lead for good.
Everett also played an error-free game for the first time since July 21.
“Tonight we did a good job of taking extra bases, we took advantage of the opportunities that came our way, and we didn’t give them anything,” Myers said. “We made them earn everything they got.”
Schilling, who had struggled as late, turned in a solid performance. The right-hander went five innings, giving up two runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out five to improve his record to 3-5.
“It’s been a lot of mechanical stuff,” Schilling explained about his recent difficulties. “I’d been changing things, trying to learn a curve, and I was doing a lot wrong with my arm. But I finally said, ‘Forget it, I’m going back to my slider.’”
The lone blot on Everett’s ledger Sunday came when center fielder Gavin Dickey had to be removed from the game after the first inning. Dickey tweaked a hamstring while chasing down Tracy’s single during the top of the first.
Spokane starter Mike Ballard (1-5) cruised through the first four innings, but ran into trouble in the fifth and sixth. The left-hander ended up giving up four runs on seven hits and two walks in 52/3 innings, striking out five.
The Indians, who threatened Schilling in each of the first two innings, finally got to him in the third. Gerrard, Tracy and Chris Davis hit consecutive bullets up the middle, Gerrard and Tracy each hitting singles and Davis lining a shot over center fielder Kevin Reynolds’ head for a double. Davis’ double scored both runners to give Spokane a 2-0 lead.
Ballard was cruising along, having retired eight straight before the AquaSox finally broke through in the fifth. After Fernandez’s walk and Reynolds’ bunt single put runners on first and second with two out, Villezcas lofted a fly to left. The ball carried to the wall, where it hit just above a leaping Davis, and ended up as a two-run double. One pitch later Zorn lined a single to left, scoring Villezcas and giving the Sox a 3-2 lead.
Everett added cushion with single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth. Fernandez smacked an RBI single in the sixth, Villezcas hit an RBI single in the seventh, and Ogui Diaz had a run-scoring groundout in the eighth, giving Everett a 6-2 lead.
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