Contemplating the Crawdads

(pictured, Martin Perez)

Difficult decision last night: watch the series opener between the Rangers and Angels or go see Jake Brigham and Martin Perez pitch at L.P. Frans Stadium. A free team set of baseball cards sealed the deal for me; we headed to the ballpark.

The game was hard to watch at the beginning, then calmed down in the middle only for frustration to return by the end. Righthander, Jacob Brigham started the game for Hickory. Brigham’s performance looked worse than his line of 4 innings, 5 hits, 3 ER, 1BB, 6 K’s. The first three innings were particularly rough.

Both team’s pitchers benefited from a larger than normal strikezone. With a lightning storm flashing in the distance, the home plate umpire appeared determined to squeeze in 5 innings before things got nasty. The ump was clearly frustrated with Lake County’s slow working pitchers and the multiple, lengthy visits to the mound by their catcher and pitching coach. To everyone's surpise, we didn't encounter a single sprinkle as we watched the lightning in the distance behind centerfield.

Brigham would have had 10 k’s if he could have located his fastball. Instead he plunked two batsmen—he hit one in the side and ear-hole’d the other. Brigham’s fastball routinely caught too much of the plate. In the fourth inning Jake struck out the side throwing curveballs at about a 75% clip. At one point in the inning I counted 6 straight curveballs, and the Captains still couldn’t touch it.

Too little too late. Oh, and one of the unearned runs was on a throwing error by Brigham as he had caught a baserunner attempting to steal second but threw the ball behind second baseman Jake Kaase. A man on third raced home after the ball dribbled into centerfield. It was one of those nights. So when considering Jacob’s line, you have to consider the impact of the two HBP’s and the throwing error.

Here’s some Brigham video. The video picks up with a runner on first and none out in the top of the 3rd. Watch for the headshot. Oh, and the Captains did not retaliate, though I was ready for it with camera in hand. Remember, this was the team that Hickory had the big dust up with on their roadtrip and resulted in something like 5 guys being ejected from the game.



Martin came in to pitch the 5th and surprisingly had a lead to defend after the Crawdads responded with 6 runs of their own. Perez (5 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 BB, 5K’s) pitched well, but gave up a run on a pair of doubles in the seventh. With a one run lead in the top of the 9th I expected Hickory to turn to their pen, but they rolled Martin out for one more inning. Perez gave up his second homerun of the year to the first batter of the 9th, allowing the game to become tied. It’s hard to knock a guy like Perez; if anything, it seemed like he didn’t pitch off of his fastball. Martin wasn’t attacking batters inside with the fastball like I have seen in more successful outings of his. Admittedly, this is a bit of nit picking on my part...

Here’s some Martin Perez video just because it never gets old watching this kid.


The Crawdads lost in 10 innings.

Other notes:

CF David Paisano has the average up to .315 after another multi-hit night, going 3 for 6. It’s incredible to watch David run and throw. In the third inning, the 21 year old scored from second on a flare that fell just in front of the centerfielder, and there was no play at the plate to be had. Paisano’s long, gliding stride is a thing of beauty.

Seems like the first long road trip of the year did the team some good as far as camaraderie goes. There was a lot more communicating on the field than in the first month and a half on the season. Too bad it didn’t prevent defensive miscues as the Crawdads committed 4 errors to add to their league leading total.

To my surprise, CtheC’s own Mark Parker did an awesome job singing God Bless America at the game. Bravo.