The most notable feature of tonight's game was Kevin Rivers - he hit a 2 run homer in the first and a 3 run homer in the 3rd. Both of them no-doubt line-drives over the scoreboard in right center. He was the Northwest League's player of the week last week and is still very hot. Interestingly, he was an undrafted free agent that the Mariners signed in 2009. We'll see if he can continue to hit.
We ran into Steve Smith at the game - always nice to see Steve - and he has the same ticket package as we do, so hopefully we'll see him more often. Also ran into Denny and Dick from the WWDXC ham radio club. And this on a night when there were only 1,678 fans in attendance!
But back to the game...
The starting pitcher for the Aquasox was Chris Sorce who we saw in the pre-season game against the Everett Merchants. He was the starter there and went two innings giving up a run on two hits and a walk while striking out three (two of them in the first inning).
In tonight's game against Salem Keizer he also started the game off with 2 strike outs and ended up pitching 6 innings with a fastball at 90mph.
The problem inning for Sorce came in the second. The Aquasox scored two runs in the first (Kevin Rivers' home run, remember?) and when Sorce came out for the top of the second with this nice 2-0 lead he promptly walked the leadoff hitter on 4 pitches. Then he walked the next batter. And then the next to load the bases. ARGH! A fly ball to shallow left field then led to a run when the throw from Robbie Anston bounced several times on it's slow path to the plate. I wrote "Anson - no arm" on my scorecard... (Jay Yencich from ussmariner.com described Anson as "a poor man's Johnny Damon" and remembering how poor Damon's arm is, I guess he was more right than he might have imagined).
A fly out to right followed by a sharply hit single up the middle by Julio Izturis of the Volcanoes meant we had a tied game. Sorce's control came back and as it turned out those three walks were the only ones he gave up during his six innings. Strange.
Sorce was followed by Jonathan Arias who pitched 2 innings and gave up 2 runs on 5 hits. Fastball at 89mph.
Arias was victimized by some poor defensive play by the Aquasox. After giving up a single in the 7th a passed ball moved the runner up to second and a single to right scored him. Unfortunately, the throw from Kevin Rivers in right field was a strong one, but our catcher Jimmy Jacquot played it poorly and was out of position to make the tag. We also noted that Jacquot has a tough time catching throws to him.
In the 8th inning a one out single was followed by a double over the head of left fielder Robbie Anson. Anson's throw to second was a very weak arc in the general direction of second (another note about Anson's poor arm went onto my scorecard). The throw got away from the infielders and the runner who had stopped at third ended up scoring.
Speaking of defense... After the Aquasox appearing to know their way around the cutoff man and generally playing competently in the previous game we attended, this game was a lot sloppier. There was a play where the center fielder threw to second with everyone lined up for a throw to third (the ball went through the infield and caused no harm). There was also a play to end the eighth inning on a ball between the pitcher and first baseman where no one was covering first. Fortunately for the Aquasox, the batter had tied himself up some much in the swing that he didn't get out of the batter's box well and Arias was able to take the ball to first to get the putout unassisted. Overall, the defensive look of this team isn't impressive right now. I suppose this is probably also a good point to mention Anthony Phillips rounding first base too far on a single to right and getting easily picked off in the 4th inning for the third out. Not sure what he was thinking (there was a man on first and maybe he thought they would throw through to third is the only thing I could guess). Work needs to be done both defensively and on the basepaths.
The third, and final, pitcher for the Aquasox was Willy Kesler the blond fireplug. He pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save. His fastball was 91mph.
On the hitting side (other than the aforementioned Kevin Rivers) Kevin Mailloux has cooled off a bit but was 1-3 tonight with a walk.
Noodle armed Robbie Anston walked and had a nice double the other way down the third base line. He also stole two bases (once on the front of a double steal).
First round pick in 2010 (#33 overall) Steve Baron was the DH for this game (he was catching the other night and showed some excellent skills). He's ended the game batting .178 after going 0-4 with 4 swinging strikeouts. He doesn't look very good at the plate at all.
Nothing else remarkable to report.
The Herald article is here
The Boxscore is here
Friday, July 2, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
June 24, 2010 - Everett 4 - Yakima 3
After sitting through 13 fun innings in the front row of the bleachers (section 195) at Safeco - only to see the M's come up short in the end (notably due to 10 strikeouts with men in scoring position! YOW!), I headed to Everett for the first game in our Thursday/Saturday 10 game package. Nothing like a day/night Majors/Short Season A Ball doubleheader!
We were surprised with this opening winning streak since we saw the Aquasox lose to the Everett Merchants last Wednesday in a pretty poor showing all around. And with the first three games of their season on the road at recent powerhouse Salem Keizer, we didn't think their prospects didn't look good last Wednesday as we drove home...
The NWL can be funny with teams getting off to big winning or losing streaks and then suddenly turning everything around when they hit a hot or cold opponent since many of the homestands are 5 games.
What we saw last night was impressive. I'm not an expert on hitters' approaches or pitchers' arm angles, but the team was a lot of fun to watch.
The Aquasox made the usual 9 strike outs (at this level it seems like strike outs come easy - the Yakima Bears had 10) but the Sox also had 4 walks (which often don't come as easy to our free swingers).
On the pitching side lefty Anthony Fernandez pitched five innings and hit 93 on the speed gun. 4 strikeouts and 1 walk was a nice ratio. He got in trouble in the 4th inning and gave up 3 runs on a couple singles, a double and a wild pitch. 7 ground balls and 3 in the air for outs on my score sheet. He just turned 20 years old.
Willy Kesler, a blond fire plug at 6' 225 pounds (if you believe the press guide) was impressive in relief. He hit 91 mph and had 3 strikeouts in 2 innings and gave up 1 double that scored on an error (wild throw in the general direction of first by second baseman Fred Bello). Kesler will be 23 in August.
And then Chris Kissinger pitched the final two innings and looked very good with 3 strikeouts and one walk. He was throwing in the mid 80s and turned 24 a couple weeks ago. His 9th inning was especially nice - two ground balls to first that were outs unassisted and then a swinging strikeout to end the game.
Anthony Phillips at shortstop has always been a favorite and it was nice to see him get a line drive double the opposite way when batting left handed in his first at bat. He made outs in his next three... We'd also like to see him not tap the ball in his glove every time he makes a play on a grounder. Like my seatmate Bob said, "Ichiro and Ellsbury would make him pay for that..." And of course, we'd like to not see him at all if he could only get a handle on hitting and move up in the organization. But he's still only 20 years old.
Steven Baron at catch showed off a rocket arm (as did the Yakima catcher Henry Zaballa when he caught Kevin Rivers trying to steal second). Baron had a triple to the right field corner (does the field slope down out that way and extend into another dimension? It always seems like it takes any rightfielder forever to get to the ball...). But he also had 2 strikeouts and a passed ball (though catching at this level can be an adventure with pitchers trying to throw curveballs and changeups on a more frequent basis than they ever have).
Kevin Mailloux, possibly the hottest hitter coming into the game had 2 strikeouts in an 0-3 night that included a walk. He appeared comfortable at third, which is a new position I think.
Kevin Rivers, hitting clean-up, had 3 singles on the night and hit the ball sharply each time.
And Jose Rivero in centerfield showed a very impressive arm on a throw to the plate that was just late.
In general the infielders looked adequate defensively, but no spectacular plays were made. They showed good form on fundamentals when moving for cutoffs and backing up bases. The outfielders also seemed to understand the idea of a cutoff man (something that often is an alien concept in Everett...).
It sure is nice to have a 7-0 team in Everett after the first week. Let's hope they can return from this 5 game trip to Spokane still in winning mode...
We were surprised with this opening winning streak since we saw the Aquasox lose to the Everett Merchants last Wednesday in a pretty poor showing all around. And with the first three games of their season on the road at recent powerhouse Salem Keizer, we didn't think their prospects didn't look good last Wednesday as we drove home...
The NWL can be funny with teams getting off to big winning or losing streaks and then suddenly turning everything around when they hit a hot or cold opponent since many of the homestands are 5 games.
What we saw last night was impressive. I'm not an expert on hitters' approaches or pitchers' arm angles, but the team was a lot of fun to watch.
The Aquasox made the usual 9 strike outs (at this level it seems like strike outs come easy - the Yakima Bears had 10) but the Sox also had 4 walks (which often don't come as easy to our free swingers).
On the pitching side lefty Anthony Fernandez pitched five innings and hit 93 on the speed gun. 4 strikeouts and 1 walk was a nice ratio. He got in trouble in the 4th inning and gave up 3 runs on a couple singles, a double and a wild pitch. 7 ground balls and 3 in the air for outs on my score sheet. He just turned 20 years old.
Willy Kesler, a blond fire plug at 6' 225 pounds (if you believe the press guide) was impressive in relief. He hit 91 mph and had 3 strikeouts in 2 innings and gave up 1 double that scored on an error (wild throw in the general direction of first by second baseman Fred Bello). Kesler will be 23 in August.
And then Chris Kissinger pitched the final two innings and looked very good with 3 strikeouts and one walk. He was throwing in the mid 80s and turned 24 a couple weeks ago. His 9th inning was especially nice - two ground balls to first that were outs unassisted and then a swinging strikeout to end the game.
Anthony Phillips at shortstop has always been a favorite and it was nice to see him get a line drive double the opposite way when batting left handed in his first at bat. He made outs in his next three... We'd also like to see him not tap the ball in his glove every time he makes a play on a grounder. Like my seatmate Bob said, "Ichiro and Ellsbury would make him pay for that..." And of course, we'd like to not see him at all if he could only get a handle on hitting and move up in the organization. But he's still only 20 years old.
Steven Baron at catch showed off a rocket arm (as did the Yakima catcher Henry Zaballa when he caught Kevin Rivers trying to steal second). Baron had a triple to the right field corner (does the field slope down out that way and extend into another dimension? It always seems like it takes any rightfielder forever to get to the ball...). But he also had 2 strikeouts and a passed ball (though catching at this level can be an adventure with pitchers trying to throw curveballs and changeups on a more frequent basis than they ever have).
Kevin Mailloux, possibly the hottest hitter coming into the game had 2 strikeouts in an 0-3 night that included a walk. He appeared comfortable at third, which is a new position I think.
Kevin Rivers, hitting clean-up, had 3 singles on the night and hit the ball sharply each time.
And Jose Rivero in centerfield showed a very impressive arm on a throw to the plate that was just late.
In general the infielders looked adequate defensively, but no spectacular plays were made. They showed good form on fundamentals when moving for cutoffs and backing up bases. The outfielders also seemed to understand the idea of a cutoff man (something that often is an alien concept in Everett...).
It sure is nice to have a 7-0 team in Everett after the first week. Let's hope they can return from this 5 game trip to Spokane still in winning mode...
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