Week Fourteen: Summary of Series

Slipping downwards
A loss sends the Sass down.
By Beth Sass / cheapseatschick.com

It was another tough week for the Here for the Sass team, as they dropped the series to Johan es mi novio, which pushed them down to 14th place in the BFL. Although they have more wins than the number 13 team, Gassner’s All-Stars, they also have more losses. The final score for the series with Johan es mi novio was 5-7.

“You never think one more walk will make a difference, but too often it’s been the difference between a win or a loss,” outfielder Juan Encarnacion said. “I’m pretty much a free swinger, but maybe I should work on a little plate discipline. Adam [Dunn] doesn’t have the greatest batting average, but he does have a lot of walks and a lot of home runs.”

The hitting took 3 of 6, and the pitching managed an amazing 2 of 6. The final results by category were: runs (32-23), home runs (9-7), RBI (34-28), stolen bases (4-8), walks (14-15), batting average (.277-.286), wins (1-3), saves (1-0), strike-outs (35-48), holds (4-0), ERA (6.09-.2.49), and WHIP (1.72-1.04).

“I thought for sure, earlier last week, that the home run category was chalked up for a loss. And then suddenly Jermaine Dye happened,” Beth said.

Jermaine was the team leader this week, having the most runs (7), home runs (5), RBIs (11), and batting average (.379). Carlos Guillen had the most stolen bases with 2. Four Sassians in the starting line-up had 2 walks (Adam, Jermaine, JEn, and Michael Cuddyer), which was the most.

“That’s just sick,” Adam said, who had two home runs. “Old men like him shouldn’t be able to hit more than one home run a week. He’s totally catching up to me. That can’t be happening!” Adam currently leads the team with 28 home runs, while Jermaine has 25.

Of the bench players, Mark Grudzielanek led with 3 runs and 2 walks. Doug Mientkiewicz had a .500 batting average, all three (Mark, Doug, and Placido Polanco) had 2 RBIs.

Despite repeated showings of That is a Very Bad Idea, the pitching staff really did do some very bad things. They had a few quality performances, which more surprised Beth and Dawn than anything.

“Sometimes I’d forget they could pitch well,” Dawn said, “They have in the past, but for as many times as we had to run That is a Very Bad Idea I wondered if they just forgot how to pitch well.”

That final stats line showed how poorly the Sass pitching did, both individually and as a team. The scattered good performances are lost amongst the high numbers.

“There are some misleading stats. Ambiorix [Burgos] had a 0.00 ERA but he was responsible for a blown save when he allowed inherited runners to score,” Beth explained.

The team leaders for the starters was: wins, Chan Ho (1); strike-outs, Aaron Harang (11, two starts); ERA, Chan Ho (3.86); and WHIP, Chan Ho (1.57). Amongst the starters, there were no wins; saves, Ambiorix (1); strike-outs, Jon Rauch (7); holds, Rheal Cormier; ERA, Ambiorix, Justin Duchschererererer, and Rheal (0.00), and WHIP, Justin (0.64).

“We had not one, not two, but three pitchers with ERAs over 20,” Beth said, “I defy any team in the BFL to accomplish that in one week!” Julio Mateo and Carlos Silva both had ERAs of 27.00, and Kristin Benson had an ERA of 21.00.

“We’ll do better this week,” Dawn said, “We’re against goesboom of Go Boom! They’re a tough team--but I think our guys are up for the challenge.”