RENO - The Reno Silver Sox will have to battle for supremacy in the second half of the Golden Baseball League without slugger Edgar Varela.
Varela's contract was purchased by the Florida Marlins Saturday afternoon prior to Reno's 10-5 loss to the San Diego Surf Dawgs before an announced crowd of 1,935 at Peccole Park.
Varela, who hit .348 with nine homers, will play for the Jupiter Hammerheads in the Florida State League. Varela, who didn't play in the game, is expected to leave sometime today for Florida. Varela signed a two-year contract with the Marlins.
"I don't know that I was surprised," Varela said when he came to the clubhouse to pick up his belongings. "To me, it was a matter of time. Calls were coming in. I've just been playing the waiting game. I couldn't get caught up in that though. I came to the ballpark today expecting to play."
It leaves a pretty big hole for the Silver Sox to fill for the final 38 games of the regular season. Besides putting up some good numbers, Varela provided some protection for fellow sluggers Marcus Jensen and Doug Gredvig.
"You hate to lose a guy like that," Jensen said. "The objective is not to stay here. It's going to require other guys to step up."
True, but you can expect manager Les Lancaster to be scouring the waiver wires and running up his phone bill in an effort to find an everyday third baseman.
Lancaster skipped out of the lockerroom quickly after the game. He was ejected in the bottom of the eighth inning after disputing an interference ruling by the umpiring crew of Robert Anderson and Dave Noble. On a third strike, Sobel interfered with San Diego catcher Nick Guerra's throw to second, and the umpires ruled that baserunner Phil Grau out as well.
The only thing Lancaster missed was his team going out meekly in the ninth against submariner E.J. Shanks, who picked up his first save of the season with 3 2/3 innings of two-hit relief.
It was the second time in three games that Reno looked like it had the blahs, and the second time in three games that the starting pitching was ineffective.
Ben Thurmond struggled, allowing seven runs and 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings. Not exactly what you want to see in an all-star pitcher three days before the all-star game.
"He wasn't as effective as he usually is," Jensen said. "He's been pretty good for us this year."
"He was having trouble locating his fastball and change-up," pitching coach Mike Hartley said. "That's a pretty good hitting lineup. He'll bounce back."
Mike Done gave Reno a 1-0 lead in the second with a run-scoring triple off starter Chris George, who won his first game of the season. It's the last time the Silver Sox would lead.
Thurmond surrendered four runs and four hits in the third, as San Diego sent nine batters to the plate.
Adam Mandel singled and moved to third on Tony Garcia's double. Seth Pietsch walked to load the bases. All three runners scored on Scott Goodman's double. Goodman later scored on a passed ball.
Reno cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the third thanks to singles by Jensen and James Shanks plus a passed ball.
The Surf Dawgs made it 7-3 in the fourth when Garcia doubled again, moved to third on Pietsch's single and scored when Goodman singled. Guerra hit a sacrifice fly to left, and following a a walk to Jeremy McCann, Richard Quihuis-Bell delivered a run-scoring single to make it 7-3.
Thurmond left in favor of Nat Harris, who retired the side without further damage.
Reno sliced the deficit to 7-5 in the sixth without the benefit of a hit, as reliever Yoankis Turino walked two batters and hit two batters before giving up a sacrifice fly to C.J. Lang.
That's the closest Reno would get, as San Diego scored two in the seventh thanks to Garcia's two-run homer, and added one in the eighth on Adam Mandel's fielder's choice. Lancaster came out on the play, arguing that Noble had missed the tag at first base, but that fell on deaf ears.
That only set the stage for the controversial call in the bottom of the inning.
Notes: Reno's Carlos Chavez will start the series finale against the Surf Dawgs tonight at 5:05 p.m. Chavez is 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA ... The all-star game is Tuesday in Chico at 7 p.m.