37.19 Back is against the wall

[crobillard]

In my previous post I talked about the keys to the Jackrabbits overcoming the San Fernando Bears. Now, Edmonton finds themselves in a three game hole. The team has proven their ability to win and now they have to do it three more times in a row. Seems unlikely right? Edmonton has been in this spot before and they were just one run away from having a chance at sweeping the Bears before. It was only two months ago too.

August 5th: EDM 4 - SFB 3
August 6th: EDM 2 - SFB 3
August 7th: EDM 6 - SFB 5

I know, I know. The whole series was one run away and it could have totally went the other way easily, but there's a chance! So let's talk about my keys for the series, what I got right and wrong, what I learned and how I may approach these next three games to try to pull off what has to be one of the biggest potential upsets in at least Frick League history.

Lefty pitchers have success against San Fernando

This might be true, but I should probably rephrase it to lefty pitchers have more success than righty pitchers against San Fernando. It's always tough on pitchers throwing to these rockstars at the plate. I expected a good outing from Bobby Lynch and I got a quality start at 6.1 IP allowing seven hits, three runs and zero walks while striking out four. It's not his best outing, but he definitely put the Jackrabbits in a winnable position. Hiroyuki Rin came out after him and was solid with 1.2 IP and allowing only one hit while punching out two. Edmonton lost this game though. They even had 10 hits. They just could not string them together to score some runs. Give credit to San Fernando's 20 year old phenom Sergei Hopkins too who has three wins in three starts this postseason with six allowed runs in 20 IP. Edmonton has one other lefty we need to talk about though.

The Edmonton bullpen is also an issue.

Taisuke Suzuki. He's been so flexible all season. We put him all over the bullpen and he's been so good with a 3.10 ERA in 116 IP including five starts in which four of them were quality starts. Then, we put him in the first game in relief of Chet Parrish, up 6-5, against the lefty Tai hoi Wie. This is the moment that he's here for! Wie hit a single and ties the game. In his first full inning, he loaded the bases with a couple walks and a hit, but he got out of the jam. All good right? No. He walks his first batter at the top of the next half inning, so we pull him and send out Arturo Lopez. He's probably our best complete reliever on paper outside of Jorge Huerta, but he walks the next batter. Runners on first in third in a game in which the score is tied at six and we walk the first two batters in the eighth inning. Not fantastic, but hey a double play almost gets us out of it. Luis Maldonado is at the plate, so okay this isn't the greatest situation ever. First pitch and we hit him. Bases loaded and Grant Lee rolls up to the plate. Now, what do you do? Lee has only four hits in 18 at bats this season with the bases loaded. Let's strike him out and hope the next guy grounds into a double play. Nope. HE IS HIT BY A PITCH TOO. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING??????? Anyways, they score another on a sac fly and win the game 8-6.

That first game was terrible bullpening, but we're not done yet. As noted above, despite losing the second game, Rin was solid. Nothing to see here. The third game saw Rin, Suzuki and the 39 year old Ricardo Valera coming out in relief of Maxime Manceau. They combine for 3.1 IP with Valera carrying the load with 2.2 IP. The three of them allowed three hits with zero runs scored. I bet you didn't see that coming. Finally, there's the fourth game. Ramos only allowed two hits in 5.1 IP. We sent out Suzuki who only allowed one hit in 2.2 IP with only one walk and four strikeouts. That set things up for blown save leader in the postseason (don't fact check me) Jorge Huerta. We were down three games, we need this win to stay alive. It's the ninth inning and we're up by two runs. Maldonado is up. Literally the same position as the blasted first game. He hits a single, then Lee stikes out, William Moreland hits a freaking line drive double to left and somehow Luis Costello in his biggest play of the postseason (don't fact check me) holds the 8 speed Maldonado to third. Huerta strikes out Angel Garcia and gets Pedro Garza on a called strike to end it.

So you be the judge. Over 11 innings the Edmonton bullpen allowed eight hits and two runs while walking six and striking out 14. Not bad, but gosh did it seem closer than that right?

Can [url=http://montybrewster.net/BBA/HTML/news/ ... 31867.html]Steven Collins III[/url] keep hitting the way he is?

5 for 15 over the course of the series definitely isn't batting .500 like he did in the series with Omaha, but I'm very happy with the way he's hitting, so I'll say this is a success.

[url=http://montybrewster.net/BBA/HTML/news/ ... 18436.html]Luis Costello[/url] needs to hit more like he did in the first half of the season and less like he did in the second half.

2 for 16 in this series. Ouch. Here lies the issue. We need more runs. This Bears team wrecks pitching. They haven't wrecked the Jackrabbits much thankfully. I am very happy with only allowing them 37 hits and 17 runs over four games, but only 33 hits over the same frame is not good enough. We have to hit more and score more. Pitching isn't our problem in this series like I thought it would be. I may have underestimated the Bears pitching too. We have to bring out any offensive weapons we have to get feet to start crossing home plate.