Jose Rodriguez never envisioned his error-filled evening Tuesday. You don't dream about bobbled balls or errant throws.
Rodriguez committed three of Fairbanks' four errors at Mulcahy Stadium -- suddenly the house that boots built. But the Goldpanners used a pair of unearned runs in the second inning to do away with the fizzling Anchorage Glacier Pilots 2-1 and remain at the top of the Alaska Baseball League standings.
"It's tough accepting errors, but you don't let yourself get disappointed because things happen,'' Rodriguez said. "You have to flush them right away.''
Or if you're the Fairbanks Goldpanners, keep hoping your opponents continue to waste the gifts given to them.
Fairbanks, 23-13 overall and 15-10 in league play, won a game featuring no earned runs for the second consecutive day as Mulcahy continued to showcase little hitting and defensive lapses. Monday, the Goldpanners downed the Anchorage Bucs 3-1, kicking off a string of 18 innings with no earned runs crossing the plate at the old yard.
The Goldpanners and Pilots, losers of eight of nine, combined for five errors and nine hits Tuesday.
"It's the story of the summer,'' Pilots manager Kris Didion said. "No one can hit, offense is down and there just aren't any guys hitting the ball out of the ball park. It's not real offensive, so every error is magnified.''
Take the only Pilots error, for instance. After Anchorage starter Mike Pelfrey fanned four of the first five Goldpanners he faced, Pilots shortstop Jose Ortega made a bad throw on Jeff Culpepper's grounder with one out in the second inning. Pelfrey then hit James Guerrero two batters before Aaron Matthews and Nick Blasi connected on back-to-back, first-pitch singles to plate both Fairbanks runs.
Matthews' bloop single down the right-field line was the first of the center fielder's two hits in four at-bats.
The Goldpanners took the 2-0 lead in the third inning before the defense tried to cough it up. Anchorage's Jordan Szabo successfully led off the bottom of the third when Rodriguez couldn't handle a sharply-hit grounder. Rodriguez's second gaffe came two at-bats later and put two Pilots on.
But Fairbanks starter Clay Johnson, who allowed three hits in seven innings, worked out of the jam by getting Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Paulk to ground out.
"I think I was pretty aggressive with some of the errors I made,'' said Rodriguez, a junior at Lewis-Clark State in Idaho. "But our pitching is tough. I trust them, and they can trust us.''
The Pilots (15-19, 12-15) scored their only run in the seventh inning -- a result of an another Rodriguez error, a balk by Johnson and an RBI groundout from Ortega. Fairbanks reliever Jon McCaslin pitched the final two innings to earn his fourth save against the Pilots in the last week.
Anchorage dropped the first game of a pivotal eight-game home stand.
"We know we've got to start winning,'' Didion said.
The teams play again tonight in their seventh and final meeting of the ABL season. The Goldpanners have won five of the first six games and have outscored Anchorage 24-12.
The gas from Gomez
Anchorage's Scott Gomez had enough left in his system to delight the 1,203 in attendance by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the game. The New Jersey Devils forward was making one of his final stops after spending his 24 hours with the Stanley Cup, which had already made its way to the airport.
Gomez, the stocky right-hander from Airport Heights, worked from the wind-up and delivered a strike, high on the outside corner to longtime Pilots coach Lefty Van Brunt.
"It wasn't a bad pitch,'' Didion said. "He's come out and taken BP with us, but wasn't very good at the dish. Maybe he has a better future in pitching.''
Daily News reporter Matt Nevala can be reached at mnevala@adn.com.
