Miracle hit their stride

Bats start producing, combined with pitching, to yield wins

By David Dorsey
Fort Myers News Press

Growing and then shaving mustaches had little to do with the Fort Myers Miracle compiling a 12-game, club-record-tying winning streak over the past two weeks.

But showing supreme and extreme confidence sure did help.

The Miracle have led the Florida State League in ERA all season. Once the team's hitters started hitting, the winning streak began in full force.

"It was crazy," said pitcher Errol Simonitsch, who started in two of those 12 games. "Every day when we came to the ballpark, we knew we were going to win the game. That's how it was. It's crazy.

"In two weeks, we lost one game. It's pretty cool."

In addition to the word "cool," Miracle players were using the word "fire," as in "on fire."

"All of a sudden, you turn around, and you're in a pennant race," Fort Myers hitting coach Jim Dwyer said.

The Miracle gutted through a nine-game losing streak in the first half of the season.

On Aug. 4, they had a 20-23 record. They were nine games out of first place and fifth out of six teams in the FSL's Western Division.

"We really don't remember that that ever happened," said relief pitcher Eddie Morlan, who leads the team with 17 saves.

Winning, it seems, brought on amnesia, in addition to a surging, team-wide confidence.

The Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins embarked on a 12-game winning streak that ended Saturday. The streak tied the franchise record set by the 1995 Miracle, a team managed by Al Newman that included future big-leaguers Torii Hunter, Doug Mientkiewicz and Mark Redmond.

On Sunday, the Miracle won again, making it 13 out of 14. They entered Monday's three-game series against the Dunedin Blue Jays at Hammond Stadium with a 33-24 record, 3 1/2 games behind first-place Dunedin, and two games behind second-place Clearwater.

Fort Myers can gain even more ground this week, as the Miracle will play Dunedin twice and Clearwater three times. The regular season will end Sept. 2, and the Miracle must place first in the division in order to qualify for the playoffs.

Kyle Waldrop (6-3, 3.00 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Miracle at 7:05 tonight at Hammond against Dunedin's Adrian Martin (4-2, 2.63 ERA).

"We're playing who we need to play," said Miracle manager Kevin Boles, whose father, former Florida Marlins manager John Boles, once put together a career-best, 12-game winning streak while managing the Triple-A Omaha Royals.

"We knew we were going to click. Now, no one predicted we were going to win 12 in a row. We just thought that if we could get hot for a week, we could get back into the hunt.

"Instead, they got hot for two weeks. They went above and beyond."

An influx of new hitters to the roster certainly helped, Dwyer said.

Second baseman Brian Dinkelman, center fielder Dustin Martin, third baseman Danny Valencia and first baseman Johnny Woodard all joined the team in the second half of the season.

The newcomers lifted a burden off first baseman/outfielder Erik Lis, who slugged four home runs over three games last week, boosting his team-leading total to 16 entering Monday.

But all of the players on the roster, including the reserves, have contributed to the run.

"Everything started falling into place," Dwyer said. "It gets contagious when you start scoring some runs."

The only thing that did not fall into place was the mustache grown by Boles. His father's teams often toyed with the concept of growing mustaches for good luck, and the Miracle tried the tactic as well.

"It was terrible," a clean-shaven Boles said Monday. "I was miserable with it. I've never heard of a mustache hitting a home run."

Morlan said he tried growing one for about a week. Although he had four saves during the winning streak, he said of the mustache: "It was not a good idea for me. Not a good idea."

The best idea for the Miracle so far has been simple: roll with it.

"We're pretty confident right now," Morlan said. "We're feeling pretty good about ourselves."

TODAY'S GAME

7:05 at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers against the division-leading Dunedin Blue Jays. It's Two-for-Tuesday, and it's "NASCAR Night," with a chance to win prizes and race tickets.