The Wheels on the Bus.....
.... go round and round.
The Crawdads take their first "real" road trip of their season as they make the first of three 500 mile trips over the next 9-10 days. (Previous trips to Kannapolis and Asheville are commuter trips, and Greenville is only 1:45 away) Tomorrow its to Lake County (OH) outside of Cleveland for the last time in a regular season as the Captains join the Midwest League in 2010.
In the SAL league, you must have a day off if a team is making a trip of 500 miles or more. The second leg of the road trip from Lake County to Lakewood, NJ is calculated by the league at 497. This means that the Crawdads will play a night game on Friday, then take an all night bus trip to Jersey to play a--- get this---- 4pm game on Saturday. Not sure what genius allowed Lakewood to play a 4pm game on the first game of a series, but it is what it is.
Another "round and round" is the current state of the 'Dads. After the win today, Hickory is at .500 (12-12) The Crawdads have been no better than two over .500, or no worse than one game under .500.
I remember this time last year when Augusta made the trip into Hickory. The Greenjackets were led by top minor league pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner and 1B Angel Villalona. In talking with Augusta's radio guy, Nick Barrale, he mentioned that the team was playing sloppy and just couldn't quite seem to gel. Barrale felt that the Greenjackets could be a second half team; the pitching was outstanding, but games were being lost that should've been won-- including, as it turned out, a pair of games in the Hickory series. His prediction turned out to be dead on as Augusta played on a different level than the remainder of the league from July on and coasted to the SAL championship.
I can't help that Hickory could possibly take the same route. This is a tremendously talented team on the mound, and there is enough on the offensive side to get 4-5 runs a night; but the issue of focus that I mentioned after Friday's game is haunting.
After a good win Friday night, the 'Dads took a 3-0 lead into the 5th inning of Saturday's game and life is looking good; Lakewood, in fact, looked a bit demoralized in their body language.
Wilmer Font started the night striking out the side, Hickory was all over Lakewood's starter Jason Knapp (Phillies 2nd round pick in 2008) scoring two runs in the first.... should've had more, stranding two.
In the third, the 'Dads saw 24 pitches and had Knapp on the ropes after a Mike Bianucci solo shot off a hanging curve, but did no further damage.
Font allowed his first hit in the fifth --- a lead off homer by Travis Matthair, who sat on a first pitch fast ball and drilled it. Next batter, Zach Collier, reached on a bunt single. Then the wheels fell off. A balk by Font and a passed ball by Leonel De Los Santos (ball skipped between the legs), and suddenly, the Blue Claws had life, behind only 3-2.
Fabio Castillo was the hard luck loser on Saturday, as he gave up 4 infield hits (one later changed to an error on Sunday), and had a sure double play botched by 3B Matt West (4 errors in 2 days), and a ground ball single just under the diving Clark Murphy at first... and well, you get the point.
Later in the game, a botched run down led to another run and the offense had 9 of the last 10 retired, including 5 strikeouts. In short, possibly the worst 5 inning stretch of the season.
So today?
The best game of the season.... the wheels rolled around again.
Matt West had a day as the DH and he looked relaxed at the plate with a flair single and three hard hit balls in a 3-4 day with 3 RBIs. Erik Morrison more than handled the hot corner including a high leaping grab in the 9th inning; he also knocked in a pair of runs with a single and triple
Jake Kaase, who is becoming a favorite in the stands with hard nosed play, was 2-4 with his first homer of the season.
Doug Hogan, becoming my personal favorite player, had the most entertaining play of the day with a leg out, hustle triple.... I'm out of breath remembering this play.
But the star of the day was Martin Perez.- allowed only one hit through 5 1/3 innings before being removed after a line double off the wall in the 6th by Leandro Castro.
Perez threw 67 pitches, getting first pitch strikes on 13 of the 18 hitters. He went back to nibbling in the 2nd inning getting full counts on the first two hitters after starting out 1-2. After that point, he had only two 3-ball counts the remainder of the afternoon, including the Castro double. The other hit, in the first... a seeing eye grounder between Murphy at first and Kaase at second. Not dominant, but quite business like... as we say here, "get 'er done."
It will be interesting to see how the players react to the road trip. A lot of time together over the next 8 days. Should be interesting.
Mark P.
The Crawdads take their first "real" road trip of their season as they make the first of three 500 mile trips over the next 9-10 days. (Previous trips to Kannapolis and Asheville are commuter trips, and Greenville is only 1:45 away) Tomorrow its to Lake County (OH) outside of Cleveland for the last time in a regular season as the Captains join the Midwest League in 2010.
In the SAL league, you must have a day off if a team is making a trip of 500 miles or more. The second leg of the road trip from Lake County to Lakewood, NJ is calculated by the league at 497. This means that the Crawdads will play a night game on Friday, then take an all night bus trip to Jersey to play a--- get this---- 4pm game on Saturday. Not sure what genius allowed Lakewood to play a 4pm game on the first game of a series, but it is what it is.
Another "round and round" is the current state of the 'Dads. After the win today, Hickory is at .500 (12-12) The Crawdads have been no better than two over .500, or no worse than one game under .500.
I remember this time last year when Augusta made the trip into Hickory. The Greenjackets were led by top minor league pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner and 1B Angel Villalona. In talking with Augusta's radio guy, Nick Barrale, he mentioned that the team was playing sloppy and just couldn't quite seem to gel. Barrale felt that the Greenjackets could be a second half team; the pitching was outstanding, but games were being lost that should've been won-- including, as it turned out, a pair of games in the Hickory series. His prediction turned out to be dead on as Augusta played on a different level than the remainder of the league from July on and coasted to the SAL championship.
I can't help that Hickory could possibly take the same route. This is a tremendously talented team on the mound, and there is enough on the offensive side to get 4-5 runs a night; but the issue of focus that I mentioned after Friday's game is haunting.
After a good win Friday night, the 'Dads took a 3-0 lead into the 5th inning of Saturday's game and life is looking good; Lakewood, in fact, looked a bit demoralized in their body language.
Wilmer Font started the night striking out the side, Hickory was all over Lakewood's starter Jason Knapp (Phillies 2nd round pick in 2008) scoring two runs in the first.... should've had more, stranding two.
In the third, the 'Dads saw 24 pitches and had Knapp on the ropes after a Mike Bianucci solo shot off a hanging curve, but did no further damage.
Font allowed his first hit in the fifth --- a lead off homer by Travis Matthair, who sat on a first pitch fast ball and drilled it. Next batter, Zach Collier, reached on a bunt single. Then the wheels fell off. A balk by Font and a passed ball by Leonel De Los Santos (ball skipped between the legs), and suddenly, the Blue Claws had life, behind only 3-2.
Fabio Castillo was the hard luck loser on Saturday, as he gave up 4 infield hits (one later changed to an error on Sunday), and had a sure double play botched by 3B Matt West (4 errors in 2 days), and a ground ball single just under the diving Clark Murphy at first... and well, you get the point.
Later in the game, a botched run down led to another run and the offense had 9 of the last 10 retired, including 5 strikeouts. In short, possibly the worst 5 inning stretch of the season.
So today?
The best game of the season.... the wheels rolled around again.
Matt West had a day as the DH and he looked relaxed at the plate with a flair single and three hard hit balls in a 3-4 day with 3 RBIs. Erik Morrison more than handled the hot corner including a high leaping grab in the 9th inning; he also knocked in a pair of runs with a single and triple
Jake Kaase, who is becoming a favorite in the stands with hard nosed play, was 2-4 with his first homer of the season.
Doug Hogan, becoming my personal favorite player, had the most entertaining play of the day with a leg out, hustle triple.... I'm out of breath remembering this play.
But the star of the day was Martin Perez.- allowed only one hit through 5 1/3 innings before being removed after a line double off the wall in the 6th by Leandro Castro.
Perez threw 67 pitches, getting first pitch strikes on 13 of the 18 hitters. He went back to nibbling in the 2nd inning getting full counts on the first two hitters after starting out 1-2. After that point, he had only two 3-ball counts the remainder of the afternoon, including the Castro double. The other hit, in the first... a seeing eye grounder between Murphy at first and Kaase at second. Not dominant, but quite business like... as we say here, "get 'er done."
It will be interesting to see how the players react to the road trip. A lot of time together over the next 8 days. Should be interesting.
Mark P.
2 Responses to "The Wheels on the Bus....."
This team is improving offensively as we move forward. I'm really stoked about Matt West's performance over the last 4 or 5 games. It's like he's just been asleep at the plate or something. Hopefully his defense will continue along the path of righteousness also :)
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