It’s early in the season, but every YS9 fan can recall how it felt to live through the first two months of last season, so maybe you can forgive a little late-spring celebration. With Omaha in town, the Nine faced a prime chance to choke, but came out ahead two games to one. Added to rival Twin Cities going down twice to Hawaii, and you’ve got a pretty solid three days of baseball that saw the Nine’s division lead grow to six games.
”Game 1 Recap” wrote: Newly acquired Hawk hurled Bengt de Meza went all 8 innings, but Carlos Valle was more brilliant for just as long, throwing 8 shutout innings, giving up 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4. The bullpen had a bit of adventure, but the Nine prevailed when Tristan Alfama came in and threw one pitch that got Alonso Olvere to tap it back to the mound.
Horrible Bob Frazier hit a solo homer in the 6th to put the Nine up by a run, but most of the damage happened in the 8th inning when Brian Sullivan struck out but made it to first base on a wild pitch. A single and a Dimiao Laqui double scored Sullivan, then after Lucas McNeill was intentionally walked, recently maligned Alejandro Rodriguez replied with a two-run single to put the Nine up 4-0.
The victory moved Valle to 4-2, and dropped his ERA to a more Valle-like 3.66.
”Game 2 Recap” wrote: The Nine jumped on Hawk starter Edris Mtume for five early runs, but homers by Jake Williams and Emilio Morales handed Omaha a 6-5 lead entering the 8th inning when a clutch two-out double by recently struggling Andy McKinney put the Nine on top.
Closer Curt Phillips couldn’t keep the door shut, though, yielding a James Monger homer to send the game to extra innings.
Nate Wood opened the 12th inning with a base on balls, then moved to second when John Ginn executed a perfect sacrifice. He went to third when George Robertson reached on an error on a grounder to first base, and scored two pitches later when Lucas McNeill—who is looking a whole lot more like a normal Lucas McNeill these days—lines a single into right field.
Bottom line, though, even with a game three loss, the Nine emerged from the series with two wins, and were flying high on their way to Boise for another big three-game series, hoping to enact some revenge for the varnishing the Spuds gave them in an earlier trip to Ohio.”Game 3 Recap” wrote: Another rugged outing from Han-lee Kim, and a bout of stone-fingered defense put to waste homers by Horrible Bb Frazier and Jose Machado. Kim gave up four runs despite walking only two hitters, but he was effective enough that he left the game with a 6-4 lead. When Hawk hitter Martin Marin reached on an error by third-baseman Alejandro Rodriguez, he was on base for Sergio Maldonado’s game-tying homer. The Hawks pressed across two more runs off Tristan Alfama in the 9th.
“I just lost concentration,” Alfama sad afterward.
The same, we’re sure, could be said for Rodriguez.