Chihuahuas halt ’Topes’ winning streak

First-place El Paso increases divison lead

Ten minutes after Wednesday’s heartbreaking extrainning loss in the middle of the pennant race that was never supposed to happen, the silence as reporters walked down a hallway toward the Albuquerque Isotopes clubhouse seemed to tell the story. Not a sound. It was a far cry from the past four games when strobe lights were going, loud speakers could be heard blaring music for blocks around and a smoke machine even set off an alarm in the nearby indoor batting cages.

But, while the pesky El Paso Chihuahuas may have delayed the opening of Club ’Topes on Wednesday night with a 4-2 win in 12 innings, Albuquerque’s newest hot spot certainly wasn’t closed down for the season just yet.

The silence Wednesday was only temporary.

Manager Glenallen Hill had gathered the entire team in a weight room near the clubhouse for a “rally meeting” before himself turning on the music and dancing his way back toward his office for interviews.

“What is there to be sad about?” Hill asked a reporter. “… We have a certain amount of games (remaining). I don’t think there’s been a better team in the PCL since the All-Star break, and we need to finish strong. Hard work pays off.”

Wednesday’s loss ended Albuquerque’s six game winning streak and drops the Isotopes to 63-67 on the season and 5½ games behind the Chihuahuas in TripleA’s PCL Pacific Southern Division.

With just 13 games left for Albuquerque and 12 for

El Paso, there’s no question time is running out. But eight of those games are against each other and momentum, the Istotopes feel, is still very much on their side.

“I wanted to remind them that just because we lost this game in this run,” Hill said of the postgame talk, “We’re not done. There’s blood in the water.”

It’s true there isn’t a hotter team in professional baseball lately than Albuquerque, which on July 8 sat 17 games behind the division lead. Now, winners of 15 of its past 18 games, the team seems on board with Hill’s optimism and enthusiasm, even if minor league baseball is notoriously about player development first and results second.

“I think the biggest thing is we care about each other and we’re competitors,” said Isotopes outfielder Brandon Barnes, who was 2-for-5 with a home run Wednesday. “Yeah, this is a development stage. We’re trying to get to the big leagues — developing players to the be best players they can be. But at the same time, we don’t come out here to lose. I think that’s a part of development. That builds winners — the mindset of I’m going to go out and I’m going to win at all costs. That’s development in its own way. Developing winners.”

Isotopes utility man Stephen Cardullo, who didn’t play Wednesday, said the winning lately surprises him much less than the team’s struggles early that put them in the hole in the first place.

“This team is full of a bunch of winners,” Cardullo said. “We have great talent. Earlier in the year, we weren’t playing like we could, but now we’re playing how we can play. I think the success is a byproduct of that.”

So, no. The season is hardly over for the ‘Topes and party is just beginning.

“We need to celebrate who we are,” said Hill. “And even though we came up short tonight, we left it on the field and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”