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...
