Week Ten: Summary of Series

As goes pitching, so goes the game
Pitching meltdown again key
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Here for the Sass lost again this week to the Save the Twinkies, 9-3.

“We didn’t get shut-out!” Beth exclaimed, optimistically. The Sass were also able to retain their position in 14th place in the BFL.

It was surprising, because for the first time, it seemed, the Sass didn’t take the weekend off, but instead got stronger. They were down 10-2 going into Friday, but over the weekend picked up a point in walks.

“I think there were some threatening tactics used,” Dawn said from Nice, “I think Kat was a good addition to the front office. She’s very motivating.”

The Sass finished the week with two points in hitting, and one in pitching. The final results were: runs (26-49), home runs (11-9), RBIs (36-43), stolen bases (3-7), walks (31-30), batting average (.290-.309), wins (2-5), saves (1-5), strike-outs (30-47), holds (2-0), ERA (5.66-2.44), and WHIP (1.68-1.14).

“It amazes me how we can so often take the “holds” category. It’s the one place where we hold an advantage,” Beth said, “Although, honestly, part of that is probably because we’ve got set-up men, but no real closer.”

Aaron Cook was the first starting pitcher last week in the competition, and had a rough outing. In a state of solidarity that the pitching staff usually has, all other pitchers followed suit, except Kristin Benson, who sometimes fails to realize what the rest of his team is doing.

Amongst the starters, Kristin had the best ERA (3.00), and WHIP (1.17), while Aaron Harang had the only win, and Aaron Cook in his two starts led the team with five strike-outs.

For the relief pitching crew, Ambiorix Burgos had the lone save, and the best WHIP (1.50). Brad Halsey had the most strike-outs (4), and had one of the two holds. Julio Mateo had the other hold, and also picked up a win. Brandon Medder’s 3.00 ERA was the best among the relievers.

The hitting did their job, but against the Save the Twinkies team, they had little to show for it.

Rocco Baldelli only played two days, and Little Nicky Punto played only three days this week, but both had strong showings with batting averages of .538 and .571, respectively. Little Nicky also had three runs, one RBI, one stolen base, and three walks. Rocco, coming back after not playing for a year and a half, scored one run, had two RBIs, and walked once.

“It’s nice to see Rocco coming back from what could’ve been career-ending injuries and come out of the gate running,” Dawn said. “I watched him in his rehab assignment games, and was quite impressed as his ability to hit, and to take pitches. I think he’ll be okay.”

Amongst the regular players, Juan Encarnacion and A.J. Pierzynski had the highest batting averages at .333. Adam Dunn and Jermaine Dye both hit t3ree home runs, while Adam led the way with 6 runs scored, and 9 walks. Michael Cuddyer led the way with 9 RBIs, assisted by his two home runs both being grand slams. He also walked 7 times. Besides Little Nicky, Carlos Guillen stole a base, and in a shocking move that had the entire Sass front office staring in disbelief, Doug Mientkiewicz stole a base.

“I almost fell out of my seat,” Beth said, “Here I am, sitting in my owners’ seat, keeping score for fun, and suddenly…there goes Dougie. This is, like, his second stolen base of this year…and in the two years prior to this, he didn’t steal any. Good job, Dougie.”

Dougie laughed, “I just got a good jump on the pitcher, and took off. I’m trying to be more aggressive on the basepaths. We’ve got some good hitters, but we really need to make things happen--force the pitcher to do things he doesn’t want to, pitch pitches he doesn’t want to; whatever it takes to score runs.”

“It wasn’t our strongest showing this week, but hopefully our pitching staff gets itself back in order. The team will miss Matt a bunch, but we’ve got a couple of guys to replace him and it’s nice to see him here in Nice. We hope things work out for the best,” Dawn said.