This past week was not a good one for the Clearwater Threshers. On May 14th the team was just one game out of first place and the pitching staff owned the lowest overall ERA in the entire Florida State League. After the next seven games where the team lost all but one, including two games where they gave up 13 runs and 16 runs back-to-back to the first-place Sarasota Reds they are now five games behind the Reds, and the team’s ERA has fallen to sixth in the league.
The week began on an ominous note with the Threshers losing in 10 innings to the last place Ft. Myers Miracle (Twins). Going into the tenth inning tied at 1-1 the Threshers picked up two runs to take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the inning. Brett Harker came in out of the bullpen to close the game since the Threshers ace closer Mike Zagurski had been promoted to Reading two days prior. Though Harker had four saves on the year, the situation seemed alien to him on this night. He walked the first batter, gave up a single, then walked another to load the bases. He then gave up back-to-back singles as the Miracle scored 3 runs to down the Threshers 4-3.