Well, it was more of the same in Yuma tonight as the Seals fell 14-8 to the mighty Scorpions, remaining winless on the road and tying a club record with their 6th consecutive loss. Victoria spotted the Scorpions an 11-0 lead before crossing the plate themselves. Kyle Wilson was roughed up early and often, surrendering 10 earned runs on 10 hits before handing the beach ball to Nick Martin in the 4th inning. Charlie Strandlund came in to help out the overworked staff and pitched another hitless inning while Chris Bodishbaugh, last night's starter, even made an appearance hurling 2 scoreless innings himself. However, the Seals' bats continue to avoid solid and consistent contact with the ball as they eked out 11 hits - most of which came in the late innings when the game was well over - while committing 4 errors.Not sure how much longer this can go on without some sort of major lineup changes. Overall, the pitching has some bright spots (although it may not look like it from this this road trip...keep the faith!), especially in the bullpen - Arreola, Villafuerte, Pluta and Easton have been solid and despite a rough last outing, starter Jason Kershner should come good. That said, what about the sticks? Something has to be done to wake them up, as the pitching and fielding seem to feeding off their lack of consistency. The Seals are still the only GBL team not to score double digits in any game this year, with a season high of only 8 runs. As of two nights ago, they had averaged only 5.0 runs per game which was good enough for only 7th out of the 10 teams, and I suspect they may have dropped a spot or two within the last 2 nights. Overall, not good.
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My mom always told me not to bring up a problem without a proposed solution. Or maybe that was General Patton. In any case how about this:
- move Perez up to leadoff until Sean Smith gets going (and I believe he will)
- move Perez up to leadoff until Sean Smith gets going (and I believe he will)
- give Dale Swinford a shot at the 2-spot
- add Cronin to T-Mac and Inky (Rios) at the heart of the order
- give Charlie Strandlund a couple of starts (maybe pitching!) in a row and see what happens
- keep trolling the market for other good hitting cast-offs
- maybe try wearing garters a la Nuke LaLoosh
- add Cronin to T-Mac and Inky (Rios) at the heart of the order
- give Charlie Strandlund a couple of starts (maybe pitching!) in a row and see what happens
- keep trolling the market for other good hitting cast-offs
- maybe try wearing garters a la Nuke LaLoosh
Hey, it can't hurt, right? Let's hope the boys get fired up and avoid a complete road sweep before we welcome them back to the friendly confines of RAP. I still believe this is a talented team of both pitchers and hitters, they just need a good "wake up" game to get the confidence going again and avoid an "ofer" Arizona. Too rosy of an outlook? As Ricky from the Trailer Park Boys would say, I'm not a pessimist, I'm an optometrist.
Tonight's game saw an interesting call in the 4th inning when Colin Moro hit one to the wall and none of the umpires made any kind of call. The runners stood in limbo until it was finally declared a home run, much to the wrath of the Scorpions bench. After a conference, the umps changed the call to a ground rule double which got Kip Gross out of the dugout, to no avail of course. Skip was up again one out later when Terrance McClain was called out after an aggressive turn at first and Gross lost it once more in the 6th, screaming at the home plate umpire on a debated fair/foul call but somehow managed not to get tossed. Lou Pinella would have been proud.
And finally, a quick thanks to Mike Walker for the kind words about this blog in tonight's broadcast. Appreciate it, and keep up the good work behind the mike...uhh...Mike!
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