http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/145746
Humidity helps
Nippert takes advantage of weather in win
By Patrick Finley
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.08.2006
Rain is good news for Dustin Nippert. His curveball dances and darts like birds in a lightning storm.
It's the humidity — the Sidewinders pitcher can grip the ball better, and the heavier air gives his pitches more bite, he said.
"Pray for the monsoon," he joked.
So when Nippert's wife awoke at 6 a.m. Thursday to the sound of pouring rain, it was good news.
Twelve hours later, the 6-foot-8-inch right-hander did the weather justice.
Allowing three hits and two earned runs in 7 1/3 innings, Nippert delivered the Sidewinders a 4-2 victory in Game 2 of the PCL Pacific Conference series before 5,513 fans at Tucson Electric Park.
The Sidewinders have a 2-0 lead in the series and travel today to Salt Lake City, where they would clinch the series by defeating the Bees. Game time is 6 p.m.
At first, Nippert said he thought Thursday's game would be postponed; he was calling teammates all morning, after hearing the game might be called from his twin brother, Derik, a pitcher rehabbing in Tucson.
It was not until an hour before Thursday's game that the teams knew they would play. From 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., about a dozen Sidewinders officials kicked and prodded the soggy infield dirt — the result of a brutal morning storm and the fact the tarp was put on only after the rain had begun. A dump truck pushed around dirt on the warning tracks.
"It's difficult for everybody, especially the starting pitchers," said manager Chip Hale, who raced around the bases to test the dirt. "We didn't know until the last second."
Nippert did not change his routine — "You'd rather be overprepared than under-prepared," he said — but the result was extraordinary.
"He really stepped up and was a leader tonight," Hale said.
He was spotted two first-inning runs after Bees errors. After Alberto Callaspo led off with a walk, Jon Weber bunted back to Bees pitcher Dustin Moseley. His throw to first was high and up the line, and Callaspo motored to third.
Scott Hairston chopped a sure double-play ball to third baseman Dallas McPherson, but a bad bounce glanced off him as Callaspo scored. The next batter, Chris Carter, bounced into a double play.
The Winders scored without so much as getting a hit.
Tucson went up 4-0 in the sixth inning when Weber singled and Hairston doubled to send him to third. Weber trotted home on a wild pitch, and Hairston came in on a Brian Barden sacrifice fly.
Nippert plowed through the Bees, retiring 14 straight from the third to the seventh innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
"I felt the rain helped out a lot with the humidity for my curveball," said the West Virginia alum. "It's usually a little flat in the dry air. It's weird."
Nippert ran into trouble in the eighth when Jason Aspito walked after catcher Juan Brito dropped a foul pop-up. Two singles and one out later, he was taken out of the game. Both his runs were unearned.
"You can tell by the look in his eye he was ready to go," Hairston said. "We needed that from him. He threw like himself today."
Three Sidewinders relievers — Jeff Bajenaru, Bill White and Mike Koplove — combined for a perfect 1 1/2 innings to close out the Bees.
Had the game not been played, the Sidewinders would have been forced to play up to four games in Salt Lake, including a Saturday doubleheader.
Now, they can clinch tonight.
That's the key, Nippert said. Humidity is good for a starting pitcher; rainouts, not so much.
"A little bit of rain," he chuckled. "But not too much rain."
) in a five-game series starting tomorrow evening. Good luck to the "baby" snakes.
