“I know our guys can score runs,” he said. “So I just needed to keep us around.” Which he did just fine, thank you very much. Valle went seven innings on his 86 pitches, allowing only 4 hits and a walk on the night. After that first inning he was nearly unhittable.
On the other side of the ledger, YS9 bats clubbed five doubles, a triple, and got homers from Pat Allen and Horrible Bob Frasier as they dropped a 7-run bomb on Storm superstar Alfredo Contreras.
“We’ve got guys who can hit the ball,” said hitting coach Sam Brewington. “But sometimes it takes kids a little while to make the adjustment, so you just take it a day at a time.”
The victory raised Valle’s record to 9-7. His ERA is bloated from a couple horrific shellackings in April and May, but he threw to a 3.60 value in June. It’s enough to make some fans wonder if he’s getting to the point where some wanted him at the beginning of the year—standing atop the staff as its LaLooshian leader. Perhaps this level of optimism is unwarranted, but the fact that the question can be asked bodes about as well as any other news around the team today.