Stingers continue losing skid

It's the halfway mark of the Salt Lake Stingers season, and manager Mike Brumley is confident the second half will be better than the first.

He's probably not sticking his neck out much, since it would be hard for it to be much worse.

The Stingers lost their third in a row Monday night, 9-4 to the Tucson Sidewinders at Franklin Covey Field.

Once again, it was the pitching that broke down. In the last three games of this four-game series, the Sidewinders scored 29 runs. Not all of them were earned, of course, but Brumley was as worried about the unearned ones as the earned.

Three times in the past two games, the Stingers committed an error on a leadoff groundball that opened the flood gates to a big inning. On Sunday it was shortstop Zach Sorensen's miscue that started a five-run Tucson outburst. On Monday it happened twice.

But errors happen, and what Brumley is more concerned about is how his pitchers react to those errors.

"I don't think guys are quitting or giving in, but they make a good pitch and get a groundball and then they think, 'Here we go,"' Brumley said. "We're getting that one blown-up inning that really floors us."

Take Monday night, for example. Salt Lake starter Steve Green was sailing along, looking sharp, holding the Sidewinders to a lone run while striking out five in the first three innings.

Then Sorensen let a groundball by the leadoff hitter in the fourth roll through his legs. The next batter, Craig Ansman, blasted a homer deep to center, and by the time Brumley yanked Green, Salt Lake was down 6-1.

Green was replaced by Dusty Bergman, making his first appearance after being sent down from Anaheim. He got the last out of the fourth inning, then started the fifth, which began with the leadoff hitter reaching base when Salt Lake third baseman Brian Specht's throw sailed over the head of first baseman Casey Kotchman. Bergman then gave up two singles and a double. All three of those runs were unearned, so Bergman's ERA is safe, but the effect on the scoreboard was a 9-2 Tucson lead.

After a postgame closed-door chat with Green, Brumley said, "We're really battling to find out how tough we are, mentally and inside. It's really a gut-check for all of us right now. We've got some guys that are really borderline with their confidence."

Despite his players' struggles to deal with adversity, Brumley is still optimistic that this team can right itself and have a strong second half.