Week Twelve: Summary of Series

Moving on up!
Things start falling in place for Sass
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

The Here for the Sass team moved up in rankings on with their performance last week, beating Gassner’s All-stars with a final score of 7-2, with 3 ties.

“We would’ve won, if only Dave Gassner wasn’t on the DL!” owner and manager Ryan said, sadly. “We’ve just been getting more and more depressed about his injury as the weeks go on, and it’s showing in our rankings.”

This week, the Sass did well, but power dominance was not their forte, as they lost in home runs and strike-outs. The bullpen, which is usually solid, had an off-week. While they did manage to win the hold category again, they also managed to blow some leads the starting rotation had.

“It sucked. Kristin and I both went eight innings, giving up one run, only to get a no decision,” starting pitcher Aaron Cook said. “I’m not mad, though. They’ve been so solid and backed us up so many times, I can’t complain when they have a bad week.”

The final results for the team were: runs (37-28), home runs (4-8), RBIs (28-26), stolen bases (4-2), walks (24-24), batting average (.270-.251), wins (2-2), saves (2-2), strike-outs (31-42), holds (3-2), ERA (3.06-4.09), WHIP (1.24-1.26).

“That’s pretty impressive all around,” Beth said, “I like to see things are starting to gel. The All-stars are not an easy team to beat, and they fought all the way until the end. Our guys got a little lax towards the end, as they’re wont to do, but they didn’t completely whither, which is an improvement.”

The hitting put on a solid performance. Placido Polanco led the team, scoring 6 runs. Four Sassians--A.J. Pierzynski, Adam Dunn, Rocoo Baldelli, and Michael Cuddyer--each had 1home run, so no leader emerged. Michael Cuddyer led the team with his 5 RBIs. Juan Encnarnacion led the team with two stolen bases. Adam Dunn and Carlos Guillen led the team having 4 walks each. The batting average title, with an impressive .353, was held by both Rocco Baldelli and JEn.

“It was more of small-ball week, obviously,” Michael Cuddyer said, “There wasn’t a lot of home runs, but we were still moving people over and scoring some runs. It would’ve been nice to win the walks category, but we faced some tough pitching this week. We were making some solid contact with the ball, for sure.”

Even the bench had a fairly solid week, with Emil Brown batting .400. Both Emil and Mark Grudzielanek had 3 RBIs, while Mark scored 3 runs and had 1 walk.

“The bench did well, too. It’s nice to see them stepping up to the plate when we ask them to,” Beth said.

The starting pitching stepped up their performance this week, with Aaron Harang clearly leading the way with 1 win, 6 strike-outs, and a 0.00 ERA. Aaron C. had a team-leading 0.63 WHIP.

“Really, what our starting pitching did this week was stellar. Any other week, Aaron C.’s and Kristin’s 1.13 ERAs, or Aaron H.’s and Kristin’s 1.00 WHIPs would’ve been worthy of a the leader of the week, but this week, there was just too much going for us. I’m very pleased with the work our guys did,” Beth said.

The bullpen had less to be proud of, other than winning the hold category, and tying the saves category.

Ambiorix Burgos was the clear leader, with two saves and a relief-pitching-leading 1.20 WHIP. Jon Rauch and Ambiorix both had 4 strike-outs and a 2.70 ERA, to lead the relief pitchers. Rheal Cormier’s 2 holds led the team, and Julio Mateo had the only win of the bullpen.

“Well, they’ve been better,” Dawn said, “But I ain’t complaining.”

The Sass moved up a position, to 13th place, by beating Gassner’s All-Stars, and will enjoy DL Vanilla sometime this week.

“We really need to get as many points as we can. We end the season facing the same difficult teams we faced earlier this year. I’d really like to see some momentum going when we get to the end, and the time to start rolling is now,” Beth said.