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Matt Campbell won't leave the night with a perfect five wins in five starts this season. He was roughed up in the sixth, starting with Ramirez's line drive pushed by plenty of velocity that got past a diving Steve Boggs to allow the lumbering Ramirez to take third base on the trackdown. Kaplan cracked an RBI single and Chris Klemm followed up with an RBI double before Parent decided to go with John Jefferson out of the bullpen.
If the Outlaws wrap this up (still 4-4 in the top of the 6th with Steve Boggs on first base after his one-out single), they will stay in their Long Beach hotel tonight so they only have to waste one night of having paid for their rooms unil Sunday instead of two. Maybe, just a possibility, they'll celebrate a little bit in the meantime. Just a possibility, though.
As has become custom for the Outlaws in this series — they came into the game with a gaudy .687 batting average (11-for-16) when trailing or tied on the scoreboard — the early deficit was
swept aside with three runs in the fourth inning on Eric Pringle's leadoff double, Steve Boggs' ensuing RBI single and Jesse Kovacs' well-struck home run in pitcher-friendly Blair Field.
It marked the third time in three games that sequence had taken place, but in a first, the Armada responded to take a lead of their own in the fourth when Matt Campbell allowed a Kirk Gross single, put Ramirez on with a hit-by-pitch, gave up a run on a Jorge Araiza single and two more on Johnny Kaplan's btriple deep to right field, putting the score at 4-3.
Surely enough, Chico performed its come-from-behind routine with a little help from pitcher Dustin Gober a few minutes ago when Craig Kuzmic reached base after he was hit by a pitch, advanced to second with a Daniel Nava walk and then third with a walk to Scott Dragicevich. Adam Nikolic was brought in for his third relief appearance of the series and watched Gober's earned run come home on Jason Van Meetren's fielder's choice en route to retiring the side.
Maybe it's the setup of the grandstands or the positioning of groups of fan, but Blair Field is visibly loud tonight. This Game 3 crowd looks comparable to the ones at Nettleton for the first two, but this one has a much louder to pitch to it. Right now, they're celebrating a 1-0 lead after Dan Trumble, who reached second base on what should have been scored an error on Daniel Nava (the right fielder appeared to lose a routine flyout in the bright, bright lights here at Blair), ended up scoring after Jorge Araiza hustled to beat an inning-ending double play for a fielder's choice RBI.
The lineups on the night that could give the city of Chico its first professional sports championship since the Chico Heat won the Western Baseball League in 2002 (same as :
Chico
LF Boggs
SS Kovacs
C Kuzmic
RF Nava
3B Dragicevich
1B Van Meetren
DH Gossage
CF Matteucci
2B Pringle
Long Beach
CF Kaplan
RF Klemm
1B Martinez
DH Wakeland
LF Trumble
SS Mayorga
3B Gross
C Ramirez
2B Araiza
Here's a link to the Enterprise-Record story about what was stolen from the Armada clubhouse:
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_6770585
From down here in Long Beach, the updates on what exactly was stolen from the Armada clubhouse at Nettleton seems to be minor.
Scott Dragicevich, who is 5-for-8 with four runs, two home runs and three RBIs in the series, appears to be infected with the same nagging cold that pitcher Greg Bicknell has been battling this week but will still start again tomorrow. Dragicevich was the most bundled up of all the Outlaw players on the team bus, which regularly uses its air conditioning to do a mean impression of Antarctica.
A concessions worker at Nettleton Stadium told me as I left that his crew went through 16 kegs at tonight's game.
The Outlaws held on to win what was a game wicked from so many angles. The pitching was less than spectacular as both teams combined for 32 hits and 17 walks. The Evans saga was jagged, too, because, on one hand, a fan had to be that stupid to go over to where he's not welcome to stir up something totally avoidable and, on the other side of the coin, Evans made such an issue of it during game action that it further riled up a boisterous crowd not cut off from alcohol sales until the seventh inning was mercifully halfway done around 10:30.
But what might end up really tarnishing what — let's not lose sight of it — was a thoroughly solid win for the Outlaws are the reports that came over the Enterprise-Record police scanner that several items were stolen by thieves ransacking the Long Beach clubhouse (an iPod, in one instance) during their loss. I was not made aware of these reports until returning to the office after the game, so obviously more follow-up should be available tomorrow.
More details on that whole fan fiasco later, but it's worth noting for those still up and at'em the Outlaws' seemingly unbreakable game-long lead — now 12-8 — is being threatened one last time with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth and Mayorga at the plate with two outs, closer Todd Gelatka pitching.
The whole hot dog thing has flared up like no other. LB manager Darrell Evans called timeout in the sixth inning about 10 minutes ago, made his way over to GBL CEO David Kaval standing next to the Outlaw dugout and made a point to demand more fan control. Things seemed relatively tame around the time the Armada made their major complaint and witnesses say Evans was pertrubed by what was just some good ole' fashion taunting.
Several Outlaw stadium officials were called to the Armada dugout during the bottom of the fifth — a three-run rally for Chico giving it a 7-3 edge — after Long Beach coaches angrily reported a spectator had been throwing hot dogs into the team's dugout.
Time for the blog to catch up live here big-time just like the Outlaws have done for a second straight night. Tuesday, it was back from a 3-0 first-inning deficit that was erased with the five runs in the bottom half of the first.
Tonight the team fell behind 2-0 after Derrick Loop surrendered four singles in the first. It took Chico a little longer this time, but surely enough Jason Van Meetren led off the second inning with a single, moved to third base on Toddd Gossage's double and scored on Jason Matteucci's groundout to second base. Eric Pringle followed up with an RBI single and two batters later scored on Jesse Kovacs' home run.
When they are trailing in this series, Outlaw hitters are 10-for-15 with seven RBIs.
The Outlaws ended up holding on for the 10-4 win in an entertaining opener to take a 1-0 series lead. Not mentioned here until now is how well Bicknell worked after getting beat up pretty good by the Wakeland homer in the first inning.
He wiggled out of three jams over the next seven innings but only allowed one other run. One thing Outlaw coaches love saying about Bicknell is that he has the proverbial "rubber arm" and tonight he put the darn thing on display. I'll post the 38-year-old's pitch count a little later when I get it officially, but it has to be at or around 100. He froze Long Beach hitters several times en route to striking out seven. Giving up rides like the Wakeland launch might make younger hurlers crumble, but Bicknell stood in and gave his team the type of outing he was brought in for so late in the season.
It was 7-4 Outlaws until the seventh inning when, just now, hot-as-Hades Dragicevich and Dan Nava singled to open the frame and scored on Craig Kuzmic's towering homer to right field — apparently the place to hit tonight. Heaverlo has just been replaced by Adam Nikolic. Heaverlo was soundly outdueled by Greg Bicknell, who has recovered nicely from his first-inning rough patch.
Here's how the Outlaws responded to Long Beach's big start in their half of the first: Boggs single, Kovacs single, Dragicevich walk, Nava two-run single, Kuzmic RBI single, Van Meetren RBI single, two outs and then a Pringle RBI single before Boggs was retired to end the inning.
For good measure, Dragicevich added a blast over the 405-foot fence in center field with one out in the second. Outlaws 6, Armada 3 in the fourth inning as things are finally settling. Make that 6-4, Kirk Gross just made Jesse Kovacs pay for a fielding error on a routine grounder by Gabriel Mayorga, who scored on the Gross double to left.
Several times I've mentioned Scott Goodman's blast at Nettleton Stadium as the longest I've seen over the 330-foot right-field fence and stadium in general. That was until just now when Chris Wakeland launched a two-run shot off Greg Bicknell in the same direction that I never saw make its descent.
Armada 3, Outlaws 0 after 1/2 an inning (Jaime Martinez's single scored Chris Klemm prior to Wakeland's warm welcome to the series)
For some of the pregame hoopla, the game didn't start until 7:15 — up from the scheduled 7:05 start. By the way, here are your lineups:
Long Beach
LF Kaplan
RF Klemm
1B Martinez
DH Wakeland
LF Trumble
SS Mayorga
3B Gross
C Ramirez
2B Araiza
Chico
LF Boggs
SS Kovacs
3B Dragicevich
RF Nava
C Kuzmic
1B Van Meetren
DH Gossage
CF Matteucci
2B Pringle
Why wouldn't the first week of classes at Chico State coincide with Chico's first postseason championship baseball series appearance in five years? Campus and Outlaw officials can ponder that in the next two hours, when a crowd of at least 1,500 is expected to begin pulling into a Nettleton Stadium parking lot right now already three-fourths full with class in session.
I've asked around to see if there were any plans to get around massive dilemmas for both fans and students, but there seems to be a consensus "What else can be done?" reaction. Chico State owns the lot and isn't ready to shut out students in perhaps the most crucial week of the semester for them to have access to spaces and a fighting chance at getting to class on time. On the Outlaws end, the best they can do about the situation is to urge fans to arrive earlier than usual.
There seems to be a consensus among outsiders not involved in this week's Outlaw-Armada title tilt starting tonight that it has the makings of a tough battle worth keeping tabs on, which wasn't really the case last season when a fairly outmatched Fullerton Flyer team struggled from the get-go against the Reno Silver Sox.
"I think it's going to be really interesting," Flyer slugger Scott Goodman, who wasn't acquired until after the organization's appearance in the 2006 championship, said during last week's series with the Outlaws. "I'm going to make sure to get to the Internet to listen to it."
Something seemingly always destined to happen in a championship series format for any baseball league like the GBL version getting underway tonight at Nettleton Stadium is the emergence of some relative unknown who makes a big difference in pushing his team to the title. Long Beach veteran right fielder Chris Klemm feels Armada infielder Kirk Gross, a midseason addition who has been in a bit role up to this point, might be that guy.
"Kirk's really come on for us," Klemm said Monday. "The way he's developed and played over these past few weeks, he's becoming a real asset to us."
Some of the Outlaw players who are big on "bulletin board" material —— displays of team coverage, usually negative, that can be displayed prominently throughout the clubhouse as a motivator -- will have a fresh item on their hands for tomorrow's GBL championship series opener against the Armada. The current results of a poll on the league Web site asking who will win this week's showdown has Long Beach (66.7 %) topping the Outlaws (33.3%).L
When and/or if reliever Paul Wilson faces Armada infielder Jorge Araiza, there will likely be some kind of memory of their last meeting earlier in August when the pair of Saddleback Junior College teammates hooked up for a hit-by-pitch in the box score on the same day they went to lunch together in Chico. And Araiza didn't react kindly to it (caught him in the wrist area), prompting a confidant of Wilson's to state, "I don't think they'll be going to lunch again."
I'm away from Chico this weekend but can sense the tension on the some Outlaw players' behalf over the way the Armada approached last night's opener to this weekend's four-game series (you can read more about it in the game story, but basically a day after clinching the second-half championship Long Beach manager Darrell Evans got through the night by putting a slew of pitchers in lineup positions and vice-versa.)
Some Outlaws players may view that as disrespectful -- why, they can argue, waste time playing if that's the way we're going to do this? -- but if that's the way Long Beach wants to play this bizarre series between the two teams that lacks meaning before they do it for real in next week's league championship series, that's one team's theory of how to handle it.The Outlaws have maintained they will handle it in the context of whatever it takes to build momentum because that will be the key in preparing for next week -- in other words, play to win. They've been probably the most streaky group in the GBL this season and see it fit to go down that route.
So who is handling this situation the right way? We'll have to wait and see next week when both teams will show what kind of impact these decisions make in the postseason finale.
I couldn't get to the blog much tonight trying to nail down some things before getting ready for a vacation home to Southern California tomorrow, so just now I was going to try and recap the vibe from tonight's victory for the Outlaws, who obviously came in having already clinched a spot in the GBL championship in July, against the Flyers, who had a few players on the roster admit to me in batting practice today this might be the most frustrating week of the season considering they are playing for nothing more than second place in the second-half standings and a chance at a winning overall record.
But esteemed Enterprise-Record photographer Jason Halley captured the game's, um, tenacity all in ways words can't — and here is pretty much how the Outlaw coaching staff is handling the challenge of staying loose in the GBL dog days, and let's just say those are a little bit more dogged than the rest (and for those feeling better caption ideas coming on, post away):
Mark Parent doing his impersonation of my reaction to Outlaw fans ripping me for "negative" coverage? Not likely, but still spot-on. That's pitching coach Alex Carbajal on the left playing along.
This is probably the only way to keep Parent off the field following a disputable call made by one of the many GBL umpires on his Christmas card list. Hitting coach Jon Macalutas is doing the restraining, which, no joke, might actually be a rehearsal of any no-ejection policy the team is planning to implement for next week's championship series (unofficially, because I don't have the numbers in front of me at the moment, Parent is up to four this year.)
I guess once scheduled Orange County starter Daniel Arizmendi didn't get out to the mound after warming up as close as five minutes before game time, this night at Nettleton Stadium was doomed for everyone. There were seven errors — Jesse Kovacs committed three of them — and the laptop that serves as the official scorebook for all games at Nettleton malfunctioned so heavily that team officials are still trying to get the box score situated and it's been 45 minutes since the game ended.
By the way, not a bad job in the ole' emergency start for Howerton — six innings, six hits, three earned runs, no walks, one strikeout. His record is now 2-2.
The Outlaws are down 9-5 in the top of the ninth inning (OC pitcher Andrew Soto just struck out the side in the eighth), but one of their supporters in the crowd brought his A-game. You really did have to see the guy, who looks college-aged, do the YMCA. He was doing it with so much venacular that they let the song play through the entire break and Flyer players came out of the dugout to watch him go at it. Once the dhow was over, the 1,031 in attendance gave him a standing ovation.
Scott Goodman hit his fifth home run of the season at Nettleton Stadium — he has 11 on the year — in the first inning. This one was to right field and as low a home run as you can hit, which is a far cry from his blast in the same area off Tyler Pearson in June that might have easily cleared 400 feet if it didn't blister the upper part of the oak tree (it's probably about 70 feet high) beyond the right-field fence. Unofficially, though there's not much debate, it is the longest one of the season smacked here.
The Rooks took the National Premier Soccer League season off, but they are in uniform and scrimmaging the Chico State men's soccer team next door at University Soccer Stadium in full view from the Nettleton Stadium press box.
Maybe Mark Parent will take a page out of Reno manager Les Lancaster's book from last season, when Lancaster traded for Outlaw stalwart Nick Singleton to pitch just for the GBL championship series for a player to be named later. That player to be named later was Singleton, who returned to the Outlaws for a second season.
An appealing option for such a move: Orange County Flyers pitcher Mike Natale, who is 2-1 with a 2.78 ERA in five appearances (four starts) against second-half frontrunner Long Beach with 39 strikeouts and only 10 walks. Interestingly, the Flyers and their impending mathemetical elimination from second-half championship contention arrive tomorrow in Chico for a three-game series. Most GBL trades take place between two teams when they are crossing paths.
OK, so maybe there are only eight recognized independent leagues in progress (but prolly another 492 semi-pro conferences trying to claim they are, too) but here are the second-half standings for each as August boils to a halt:
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
DIVISION STANDINGS LAST LAST
NORTH DIVISION W L PCT GB STREAK 10 SOUTH DIVISION W L PCT GB STREAK 10
ST. PAUL 24 17 .585 L 2 4- 6 FORT WORTH 25 15 .625 L 3 6- 4
SIOUX CITY 23 18 .561 1.0 W 2 5- 5 *EL PASO 23 17 .575 2.0 W 1 7- 3
*LINCOLN 19 20 .487 4.0 L 1 5- 5 COASTAL BEND 17 20 .459 6.5 L 1 5- 5
SIOUX FALLS 19 22 .463 5.0 W 2 4- 6 SHREVEPORT 17 23 .425 8.0 W 2 7- 3
ST. JOE 18 23 .439 6.0 W 1 6- 4 PENSACOLA 15 25 .375 10.0 L 6 2- 8
* - FIRST HALF WINNER + - SECOND HALF WINNER @ - FIRST AND SECOND HALF WINNER
ATLANTIC LEAGUE
DIVISION STANDINGS LAST LAST
NORTH DIVISION W L PCT GB STREAK 10 SOUTH DIVISION W L PCT GB STREAK 10
LONG ISLAND 23 11 .676 L 1 6- 4 YORK 21 13 .618 W 3 5- 5
*NEWARK 19 15 .559 4.0 W 3 5- 5 SOMERSET 19 15 .559 2.0 W 1 5- 5
ROAD WARRIORS 12 21 .364 10.5 W 1 4- 6 LANCASTER 15 17 .469 5.0 L 1 8- 2
BRIDGEPORT 12 21 .364 10.5 L 2 3- 7 *CAMDEN 13 21 .382 8.0 L 5 3- 7
* - FIRST HALF WINNER + - SECOND HALF WINNER @ - FIRST AND SECOND HALF WINNER
CAN-AM
W L PCT GB STREAK LAST 10
NORTH SHORE 21 10 .677 L 1 5- 5
ATLANTIC CITY 19 12 .613 2.0 L 1 7- 3
NEW HAVEN COUNTY 18 13 .581 3.0 W 1 6- 4
GRAYS 17 14 .548 4.0 W 1 5- 5
NASHUA 16 15 .516 5.0 L 1 6- 4
BROCKTON 15 15 .500 5.5 W 2 7- 3
QUEBEC 13 18 .419 8.0 W 1 2- 8
*NEW JERSEY 13 18 .419 8.0 W 1 4- 6
WORCESTER 12 19 .387 9.0 L 1 4- 6
SUSSEX 10 20 .333 10.5 L 2 4- 6
* - FIRST HALF WINNER + - SECOND HALF WINNER @ - FIRST AND SECOND HALF WINNER
FRONTIER LEAGUE
EAST DIVISION W L PCT GB CENTRAL DIVISION W L PCT GB WEST DIVISION W L PCT GB
WASHINGTON 45 34 .570 WINDY CITY 55 25 .688 GATEWAY 54 25 .684
CHILLICOTHE 39 41 .488 6.5 KALAMAZOO 44 33 .571 9.5 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 40 40 .500 14.5
FLORENCE 36 44 .450 9.5 ROCKFORD 41 35 .539 12.0 RIVER CITY 33 47 .413 21.5
SLIPPERY ROCK 22 57 .278 23.0 TRAVERSE CITY 35 45 .438 20.0 EVANSVILLE 31 49 .388
GOLDEN LEAGUE
W L PCT GB STREAK 10
LONG BEACH 22 7 .759 W 1 6- 4
YUMA 18 11 .621 4.0 L 2 4- 6
ORANGE COUNTY 15 14 .517 7.0 W 1 5- 5
*CHICO 12 17 .414 10.0 W 2 6- 4
ST. GEORGE 10 19 .345 12.0 L 1 5- 5
RENO 10 19 .345 12.0 L 1 4- 6
* - FIRST HALF WINNER + - SECOND HALF WINNER @ - FIRST AND SECOND HALF WINNER
NORTHERN LEAGUE
NORTH DIVISION W L PCT GB STREAK 10 SOUTH DIVISION W L PCT GB STREAK 10
FARGO-MOORHEAD 22 11 .667 L 2 5- 5 KANSAS CITY 19 14 .576 W 2 5- 5
WINNIPEG 16 17 .485 6.0 L 1 5- 5 SCHAUMBURG 16 17 .485 3.0 L 1 5- 5
*CALGARY 16 17 .485 6.0 W 1 6- 4 JOLIET 15 17 .469 3.5 L 1 4- 6
EDMONTON 12 21 .364 10.0 W 1 4- 6 *GARY 15 17 .469 3.5 W 1 6- 4
* - FIRST HALF WINNER + - SECOND HALF WINNER @ - FIRST AND SECOND HALF WINNER
SOUTH COAST LEAGUE
W L PCT GB STREAK LAST 10
MACON 21 11 .656 W 5 8- 2
*SOUTH GEORGIA 20 13 .606 1.5 L 4 5- 5
BRADENTON 18 16 .529 4.0 W 1 4- 6
ANDERSON 18 17 .514 4.5 W 1 6- 4
AIKEN 16 19 .457 6.5 L 1 6- 4
CHARLOTTE COUNTY 8 25 .242 13.5 L 1 2- 8
UNITED LEAGUE
W L PCT GB STREAK 10
+ALEXANDRIA 32 12 .727 W 1 6- 4
SAN ANGELO 21 22 .488 10.5 L 1 3- 7
*RIO GRANDE 20 22 .476 11.0 W 4 8- 2
AMARILLO 20 23 .465 11.5 L 3 3- 7
LAREDO 19 24 .442 12.5 W 2 5- 5
EDINBURG 17 26 .395 14.5 W 1 4- 6
* - FIRST HALF WINNER + - SECOND HALF WINNER @ - FIRST AND SECOND HALF WINNER
Danny Nava, already the easy pick for team MVP going into this road trip, could get lost in one of the casinos on the Reno strip this weekend, miss both games against the Silver Sox and still be MVP for the six-game stint. He wrapped up the Yuma series last night with 10 hits in 15 at-bats and six RBIs, six runs, two doubles and three home runs.
Perhaps his most compelling contribution, however, has been allowing the Outlaws and their drag-along pitching woes to be lifted by the emergence of Campbell. The poised 22-year-old rookie lefty, now 2-0 with a 3.55 ERA in two starts and a relief appearance, was first tipped off about a chance to land a spot on the Chico roster by Nava, a friend and summer ball teammate. Nava urged him to contact pitching coach Alex Carbajal, was invited up for a tryout and now looks like he may be a significant player in the team's hopes to barrel into that GBL championship series with some momentum.
"I knew he could help us quite a bit," Nava told me last week after Campbell's win last Saturday in his Outlaw debut. "He's going to be a nice addition. When I found out he was interested in playing somewhere, it just clicked right away (that he could join the team.)"
Matt Campbell, tonight's Outlaw starter on the mound, has been good for his new team in two starts over the past week, but not nearly as dominant as he was during his time with the San Jose Rednecks.
The Outlaws are in the middle of a five-game road losing streak, something a lot of fans might be quick to attribute to the hours-long bus rides the team takes to other GBL destinations. That excuse may have been acceptable last season, but not this year — something I found out while talking to Dr. Mike Metzger, the team's massage therapist. Metzger said he found all kinds of lower back problems needing tending to when the Outlaws came home from road swings in 2006. But a change in buses over the offseason, he said, took care of that.
"It's kinda weird, I don't see too many of the same issues this season," he said. "It's definitely the new bus. I see a few (lower back) problems on occasion when they get home, but not nearly as many as last season."
Long Beach leadoff dynamo Johnny Kaplan's hitting streak reached 25 games last night. He now only trails Desi Wilson's 30-game run last season on the all-time GBL record list.
I've lost track of how many times pitching coach Alex Carbajal has held formal meetings with members of his staff and I'm betting he has, too. Nevertheless, another one was in session after last night's most recent debacle.
"I don't think he flattered them much in this one," Parent said tonight of Carbajal's gathering.
Mark Parent will need a four-man rotation for the GBL championship series and, especially if it's the pitching-rich Long Beach Armada the Outlaws end up playing, he has to be concerned about his quest to find the three wins among the group needed to win the title.
Right now, the only somewhat dependable member is left-hander Derrick Loop, who pitches tonight against the Scorpions, has been rock-solid at times and not porous when things go bad (a weakness many of his young colleagues on the Outlaw pitching staff have.)
The jury is still out on Matt Campbell, the rookie left-hander out of San Carlos acquired last week who looked good in his debut last Saturday and goes at it again tomorrow in Yuma, and Greg Bicknell for that matter as the 38-year-old — given the benefit of the doubt — can't be dismissed by the one bad start Tuesday in his first GBL trip to the mound. Nick Singleton is a major question mark coming off a finger injury (he pitches for the first time in three weeks on Saturday) and Daniel Howard already looks too all over the map to be leaned on in a championship game. John Jefferson starting in one of the two home games (Games 1 and 2) is appealing because he has been smooth as they come in his last two starts at Nettleton.
But because this picture is so muddled and the series is set to start in 12 days, Parent and pitching coach Alex Carbajal adding one more arm, if not two, to the staff can't be ruled out.
Looks like Desi Wilson won't be making any surprise appearances for the Outlaws, which had been brandied about last week.
Mark Parent has used these past few weeks to test out different combinations in the pitching rotation and batting order. Sunday's was lineup was pretty intriguing:
S.Boggs LF
D.Pierson 2B
C.Kuzmic 3B
D.Nava DH
S.Dragicevch 1B
J.VanMeetren RF
B.Ungricht CAT
J.Matteucci CF
E.Pringle SS
We'll see if he sticks with that same idea in tonight's series opener in Yuma, but (with Jesse Kovacs getting into this mix at shortstop and Pringle going back to his regular spot at second) it certainly has a little more pop offensively than the traditional group Parent usually goes with. Ungricht's bat is an added bonus, though Parent prefers defensive mindedness at that spot and Kuzmic gives it to him along with an offensive presence. But the biggest thing is getting Nava into the DH slot to offer the rampant production he has recorded all season while getting that solid extra bat out into the field in the process.
Mark Parent seems to be taking a liking to newly acquired outfielder Tyler Dean. Of course that's going to be the case after the 22-year-old rookie came through with a clutch two-run single that flowed along last night's game-winning rally (Dean's first professional hit, incidentally.) But when center fielder Jason Matteucci had to leave Friday's win after a fastball caught him in the forearm, Parent was more than willing to throw Dean in the lineup barely three hours after he had arrived in town to sign a contract.
"I asked him if he had fun out there and he said he had a blast," Parent said. "It's like (longtime major league manager) Jim Leyland used to do when I was with the Pirates. You play on your first day in uniform, no matter what. I got (to Pittsburgh during the midseason in 1995) and I was in the lineup right away. That was Lealand's thing. The newest guy on the roster starts."
The Outlaw bus is probably pulling into Yuma about now, but the Outlaws can take heed in the fact today is their last day off until Monday, Aug. 26, which is the day before the GBL championship series starts.
John Jefferson almost sounded apologetic while sticking up for his teammates, who fumbled away his stellar pitching performance last night before coming back to grab the 9-8 come-from-behind win.
"There's no other closer I'd want to give the ball to more than Todd Gelatka," Jefferson said afterward of the Outlaw closer whose struggles to earn saves continued in the win. "I have complete confidence in him still. There's no better closer in the league out there and he's the best you could ask for in that situation. He's a huge asset to this team.
"I always have complete faith in our hitters. What they're able to accomplish in tight games like this speaks volumes about their approach everyday.
"I thought the biggest (at-bat) of the rally was actually Danny Nava beating the throw on that double play that would have ended it. He legged it out when he didn't necessarily have to, because that was routine. That shows you right there, with this team doing that type of thing with virtually nothing on the line (after clinching the first-half championship), going for it until that last out gets recorded, what this team stands for."
Following tonight's 9-8 six-run comeback, I can hear the voice of some Outlaw players over the drone of the team bus set to depart for Yuma, but not a whole lot of vibrancy on the whole.
Let's see here, it's only been five hours of John Jefferson taking a no-hitter and 2-0 lead into the eighth inning, GBL saves leader Todd Gelatka blowing it, reliever Tyler Pearson increasing the deficit with a similarly rough appearance and then the six-hit, two-walk rally to finally haul the victory in.
Maybe everybody is feeling like Mr. Jefferson, who isn't involved in the decision after a 7 1/3-inning appearance with just two hits and three walks in it.
“Baseball can be such an emotional game and I’m feeling the effects right now,” he said while sitting hunched over at his clubhouse locker about an hour ago. “This was a game of emotions and I’m completely drained because of it.”
If you weren't in the announced crowd of 3,508 tonight and want to know what the local energy felt like for the Heat tribute, take a look at the photo gallery compiled by E-R photographer Jason Halley that appears here and on the Enterprise-Record Web site.
If you're chalking up my absence to the world's greatest football team losing its season opener today, you're wrong. But great guess.
On this busy "Remember the Heat" night, an estimated 4,000 fans are watching the Outlaws hold a 6-2 lead over the St. George RoadRunners in the sixth inning. The much anticipated pregame show electrified all those coming out to see it, but the feel from up here is that the 25 Heat alumni who returned to be a parrt of it have had a better time spending the past three hours catching up with eachother while a baseball game just happens to be taking place in front of them.
There was quite a scene during the Armada's batting practice before tonight's game. It was your typical professional baseball BP session — all kinds of aimless activity taking place in pockets around the field — until virtually the whole team stopped what it was doing and demanded undivided attention to left field. There, a member of the Nettleton Stadium crew was fiddling with the Feather Falls Casino promotional balloon beyond the 330-foot fence.
"Is he taking Eragon!?!" Manager Darrell Evans called out. "You better not let him take it!"
A few Armada players rushed to the scene beyond the fence and retrieved a small dragon doll. Turns out they had nestled it in the balloon to watch batting practice. No joke — this was confirmed by several players. There was some bitterness that it was almost taken away but satisfaction that "Eragon" (named for the movie) would return to his regular place in the team's dugout. I couldn't confirm when the doll first joined the team, but I'm guessing it was sometime around the start of the GBL's second half that the Armada have dominated with 18 wins in 22 games. Heck, Evans seemed to be one of the most pertrubed about its potential abduction.
For all the teams struggling to beat LB, might be worth noting. Put it this way: I haven't seen a more poised group on the field in the GBL this season, and they were downright frazzled about this incident.
The Outlaws pick up a feel-good 8-0 win tonight. It snaps the season-long five-game losing skid, prevents them from being swept in a series of more than two games for the first time this year and shows the Long Beach Armada, their likely opponent in the GBL championship series later this month, there's some fight left in the dog — something Mark Parent questioned earlier this week.
The MVPs? On most nights, it could have been Scott Dragicevich (3-for-4, two RBIs, two runs) or Jesse Kovacs (big second-inning homer, two hits, two runs). But the unquestioned star was Daniel Howard (Yes, the "Duck" — see the "Duck Down" entry below for more details.) The 22-year-old righty from Tennesseee went seven innings, allowed just six hits, walked three and struck out two in a real nondescipt scoreless outing. For Howard, "nondescript" is so much better than "awful," which he will be the first to tell you is the best way to describe his nightmarish 27.00-ERA Outlaw debut in St. George last week.
Maybe Desi Wilson will follow Craig Kuzmic's lead and jump on the Outlaw bandwagon for one final surge. A look at the latest South Coast League standings shows his Anderson Joes continue to struggle as the pennant race winds down despite Wilson's success at the plate since activating himself from the manager's position last month.
Who says the "Rally Train" is simply a pyschological ploy to get the Outlaw offense fired up? Outfielders at Nettleton Stadium already have a hard time picking up the flight of the ball off the bat because of the way the bleachers are set up and tracking hits becomes that much harder when the 9 o'clock Northbound comes rolling through — as evidenced here by Chico center fielder Jason Matteucci yearning for a break from the deafening whistle during last night's game.
Jason Van Meetren's RBI single with two outs in the fifth put the Outlaws in a 5-5 tie, but after Kuzmic's throwing error, the only runner to reach base for Chico was Dan Nava on a walk.
Interesting aside on the Kuzmic error, by the way: during Armada batting practice before the game, Kuzmic let on to Outlaw first base coach Indrick Wilson he might try to gun down Kaplan if Kaplan tempted him enough to do so. Wilson talked about how Derrick Loop's pickoff move has been lethal this season, but Kuzmic seemed unwavered and discussed further the chance to throw out a runner from behind the plate. But the error shows why Parent loves Kuzmic, who was trying to make a play in an important situation and just didn't finish it off with the same gusto.
“He was moving back-and-forth, he had his head down and I tried to get him on a side-armed throw,” Kuzmic said, describing his cat-and-mouse game with Kaplan. “I had it planned, I had the stall and then made a throw in the (wrong spot). It was a bad throw, that’s all there is to it.”
So here's what happened with Martinez at the plate: Craig Kuzmic tried to gun down Kaplan, the GBL leader in stolen bases with 40, at first base and overthrew Van Meetren, allowing Kaplan to take third base. Martinez then punched a two-out RBI single, putting the Armada up 6-5. Loop retired Chris Wakeland to end the inning, but has been just been replaced by Jesse Oster to start the seventh. He now can't extend his league-best win total to eight, only get the loss or a no-decision.
Jason Van Meetren cracked an RBI single in the fifth to lock the game up in a 5-5 tie. Derrick Loop has just taken the mound in the sixth and recorded the first out, but now he faces the top of the LB order, which has pulverized Outlaw pitching this season. It was Jaime Martinez, No. 3 in the order, who had a three-run RBI that gave the Armada a 5-4 lead. For the umpteenth time, Mark Parent isn't thrilled with the way his staff has been unable to hold leads and/or ties the past few weeks.
We'll see if Loop can prevent that — he walked John Kaplan and got Chris Klemm to fly out. He's one out away from getting out of the inning unscathed with Martinez at the plate.
During our conversation before tonight's game, Long Beach Armada pitching coach Jon Warden — without being asked — mentioned why he felt Craig Kuzmic was the top player in the GBL last season.
"You give me any guy in the league to start a team with and he's the first guy I take," Warden said. "I mean, I'm talking about (Kuzmic) over any guy, Peanut (Williams, the 2006 MVP), whoever. The way he hits, plays behind the plate, handles a pitching staff, his approach to the game. He's a real asset."
So here's the Madison Bear alteration at Nettleton mentioned on the blog yesterday. This isn't meant to glorify what took place whenever it did (Outlaw officials say the missing head wasn't first spotted until a grounds crew member arrived to open the stadium yesterday and campus police officials didn't seem to have too many more answers for the team, though I am yet to speak with them about it.) I'm not sure what there is to glorify anyway about someone who waits until the still of night to perform any such task, which is obviously something they didn't feel proud enough about to execute and take credit for within public view.
I was able to catch up with Long Beach's Chris Klemm last night to talk about his fourth-inning home run off Tyler Pearson, which has already been identified here as a the turning point of last night's loss for the Outlaws.
"He had thrown me two straight fastballs and I decided at that point I was going to wait for something offspeed," Klemm said of his matchup with Pearson. "I basically kept my back foot stationary, dug in and was basically going to foul off fastballs until I got something offspeed. But he threw me a slider right away and I was ready for it and got a hold of it."
I'm curious if this falls in line with something that has bothered Parent and pitching coach Alex Carbajal profusely about their pirchers over the past few weeks. They've been adamant that the pitchers stick with their fastball more instead of losing confidence in it midway through counts and then throwing a wayward slider (or other offspeed pitch) hitters can feast on. Outlaw pitchers lead the league in home runs allowed.
Carbajal has also tried to work with Pearson to develop a change-up, which also might have come in handy in this at-bat for Klemm. Hard to tell for sure, but maybe the change-up isn't as easy for him to drive at that point as the slider. That's worth pointing out because Carbajal's reasoning for adding the change-up was to have one more pitch for Pearson's hitters to worry about, instead of knowing to simply be ready for the fastball or slider.
The aspect of the slump that seems to be bothering Parent most at this point is the team's inability to prevent game-changing barrages.
On Sunday, in a loss to St. George in Utah, the Outlaws had three leads they failed to protect, the last in the 10-8 defeat leaving on a three-run RoadRunner rally. Tonight, the Outlaws had Long Beach right where they wanted with the 2-1 score going into the fourth but Pearson could not pin the Armada down, deflating any momentum garnered by the Matteucci double.
"That's the way it was (in St. George)," Parent said. "We go out and score runs and then give up a few. We can't gain ground when we need to.
“We have a good inning (tonight), get down to within one run right there and then we go out and give up three like that. I need someone who keeps us in the game right there. We can’t have that.”
Mark Parent believes his team is sloughing mentally after they dropped tonight's game against the Armada and fell to a fourth straight loss for just the second time this season.
The turning point came in the fourth inning after they had connected for a well-exeucuted hit-and-run on a Jason Matteucci double scoring Todd Gossage to trim Long Beach's lead to 2-1. Tyler Pearson got the first out of the Long Beach fourth but then gave up back-to-back doubles to Jorge Araiza and John Kaplan before Chris Klemm homered in the second and third runs of the inning.
“We have no swagger at all out there," Parent said. "We’re the little guy shivering up over in the corner getting his (butt) kicked.
“I can only work with the guys that are here or the guys that aren’t that we can bring in to not have this happen. You can live with the devil who’s around or the devil who’s not and at some point I’m going to want to try the other one out if this keeps up."
“I’m getting tired of talking about (the first-half championship). It’s hard for me to watch the way we’ve been playing lately, let alone manage it.”
"We just brought a guy in here, Craig Kuzmic, and he's (annoyed) about striking out in the ninth inning there when we tried to get something going. He probably shouldn't be but he you can see it's bothering him and he's been here one game. If I need to look outside the roster to get that sort of thing, so be it."
The Madison Bear Garden advertisement in left field, the king of all outfield signs at Nettleton Stadium in recent seasons, lost a major part of its swagger while the Outlaws were on their eight-game road trip. The top portion, which featured the Madison Bear holding aloft a fish net designed for home run hitters to swing for and earn a designated prize, was lopped off in what apparently was a fit of vandalism on someone's behalf.
I can just picture that smiling Bear and fish net to boot now on the wall of some 19-year-old's off campus apartment — the equivalent of a bustling moosehead for members of the MySpace generation.
A look at Kuzmic's career numbers, including last season's tear which had him pegged as a strong GBL MVP candidate before the Blue Jays came calling for the 30-year-old utility man's services.
Craig Kuzmic, who is set to return to the Outlaws after almost a year away, makes his 2007 debut tomorrow night against the Long Beach Armada after finalizing the details of his contract Monday. Had a chance to talk to Craig about an hour ago after he completed a hitting session with hitting coach John Macalutas. One thing was pretty clear during the conversation: the Outlaws wanted him at just about every cost...
Kuzmic, who played in the Italian Baseball League all summer and flew back home to Orange County from overseas last week, had been intent on leaving his 10-year minor league baseball career behind but fell victim to a well-executed sell job by friend and now manager (again) Mark Parent.
“I had been in contact with a few friends who were wanting me to come back and play in similar situations and told every one of them no, including Parent initially,” Kuzmic said. “I was ready to hang it up for good. I was set on not playing, on getting ready to go back to school and getting established with a full-time job. But I consider him a good friend, he kept calling me, Macalutas is another good friend of mine and he was calling me, and now here I am. You do things like that for a guy like Mark.”
“I saw (Italy) as a situation where my wife and I would have a lot of time to see places we’ve never been, just do the baseball a couple days a week and go out and see the country with all the time off. Only two things have brought the cleats back off the shelf for me: Italy was one and now Parent getting me to come back to Chico.”
“Getting back up (to the major leagues) definitely remains my focus as long as I’m playing. I didn’t come here specifically for the purpose of helping (the Outlaws) win the championship. The mission while I’m here is to show scouting directors I’m still a guy who can play affiliated ball.”
With a field goal at the last second, last night's game between the Armada and Silver Sox took down the crazy Outlaw-RoadRunner affair.
Wish I could have provided live blogging for last night's 18-14 exhilarator in Utah, though not sure if I would have been able to keep up proficiently. But here is the box score.
Outlaw records that fell:
*Most individual hits (Jason Matteucci, five)
*Most combined runs (32)
*Most combined hits (36)
*Longest game (Four hours, seven minutes)
Somewhere between leaving Long Beach early in the evening last night, stopping to sleep (possibly) on the team's overnight stay in Vegas and arriving in Utah for tonight's series opener with the St. George Roadrunners, Outlaw manager Mark Parent decided to start recently acquired pitcher Daniel "Duck" Howard in place of John Jefferson, who will go Sunday. The "Duck" moniker came from one of Howard's coaches at Lee University, apparently a play on his last name — some of you might remember the 1980s flick "Howard the Duck" (the reminder up above may have haunted you already) that might be caught re-airing one of those nights you should end up crashing on the couch overnight for whatever reason.
Anyway, Howard in his GBL debut with Chico since joining from the South Coast League's Anderson Joes started tonight's game by mishandling a Ryan Stevenson bunt, allowing Stevenson to take third base on an errant pickoff attempt, allowing an infield RBI single to Brent Flowers, walking Juan Melo and giving up a three-run home run to Geoff Wagner before retiring the next three hitters in order.
He does come to the Outlaws, however, with a ringing endorsement.
Mark Parent, just as a former 17-year major league veteran catcher should be I guess, has not been tolerant of defensive lapses by Outlaw catchers this season. Ricky Bambino's difficulties behind the plate earned him a release from Parent earlier this season. Brock Ungricht has also struggled throughout — the Outlaws are last in the GBL in the percentage of base stealers thrown out — and last night got another stern reminder of what Parent expects from the position. On a play in the seventh inning of the 5-2 loss, a throw from the outfield had a chance to gun down a baserunner at the plate, but Ungricht left his post to handle the throw before it could get there as a precaution for the remainder of those on base. Ungricht has been among the team's most steady hitters all season but, as has been the case on a few occasions, found himself out of today's lineup in perhaps a message from Parent on the importance of bearing down defensively.
"As a catcher, you have to give throws coming in a chance," Parent said before the game. "You can't cut off a potential out."
The Outlaws received a major break when Long Beach ace Rik Currier showed up to Blair Field this morning with a tight hamstring, prompting manager Darrell Evans to insert Justin Ramsey as a replacement. Currier, who is 3-1 in four starts but hasn't appeared in a GBL game in almost a month, just returned to the team from his brief stint in the heralded Mexican Baseball League. Ramsey is already out of the ballgame and the Armada are on its third relief pitcher with the Outlaws coming to bat in the seventh.
Mark Parent shuffled around the lineup for this afternoon's game and has to be enjoying the results so far. With Jason Van Meetren getting his first day off since missing the first five games of the season to take the LSAT — he tried to talk Parent out of it before accepting a real "nine-inning vacation" — Scott Dragicevich was moved from third to first base, Jesse Kovacs went from shortstop to third, Eric Pringle went from second base to shortstop and David Pierson got the start at at second. In the outfield, Daniel Nava got the day off defensively and filled in as a designated hitter, with Jake Ferris moving into his spot in right field.
And it has been Ferris in particular who has made quite a difference among those affected by the change. The Outlaws are up 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth and Ferris is 1-for-2 with an RBI single (which capped a three-run third inning) to go along with a well-manufactured run he just scored in the sixth. After reaching first on an error, he stole his first base of the season and hustled to score on Jason Alcott's grounder also mishandled by the Armada infield.
Mark Parent mentioned to Rory Miller on the pregame show for last night's game the coaching staff was working out a pitcher and position player to possibly sign onto the team as free agents. It was a similar scene to when the Outlaws were playing the Orange County Flyers in Fullerton while struggling to win games in June. It was then they discovered and eventually signed designated hitter-outfielder Jake Ferris, who was among a host of players working out with the team before the games at Goodwin Field.
Parent has talked before about the luxury afforded to the Flyers and Armada for playing in Southern California amongst a vast array of professional prospects fresh out of college or in between pro stops. This will be Chico's last trip to the greater Los Angeles area and Parent seemed real adamant Wednesday that he doesn't envision the current Outlaw roster as being the finished product for the GBL championship series at the end of the month.
Dustin Gober, tonight's craw in the side of the Outlaws, was the seventh Armada starting pitcher to face the Outlaws in seven meetings between the two teams this season. I don't think it was done by design on LB manager Darrell Evans' behalf, but obviously Outlaw hitters are suffering from the lack of familiarity. Every one has had a quality start for Long Beach, which could easily be 7-0 against the Outlaws instead of 5-2 if its bullpen was anywhere near as effective. A look (with the result of the game preceeding each pitcher's line)...
July 12 — Bud Smith (W, 6-3): 5 innings pitched, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
July 13 — Jeremy Zick (W, 16-0): 8 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 Ks
July 14 — Jeff Heaverlo (L, 1-0): 7.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 10 Ks
July 15 — Rich Fischer (L, 3-2): 6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 Ks
July 30 — Ryan Claypool (W, 5-0): 6 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 5 BB, 0 Ks
July 31 — Andrew Layfield (W, 5-0): 5.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 Ks
Aug. 1 — Gober (W 5-2): 8.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 Ks
And tomorrow the Outlaws face Rik Currier, who has been regarded as the Armada's top talent on the staff.
Hey, what do you know, it's the first day of August. The month of July was kind of a bizarre one for the Outlaws, who closed the first half by battling off the Armada to get that first-half championship three weeks ago but probably won't be too sorry to see it go by in the rear-view mirror:
After going in 16-6 in June, they finished 13-16 in July. Hitting-wise, not much changed. The Outlaws hit .276 in June, .270 in July. They averaged 9.2 hits and 6.3 runs in June, 9.1 hits and 5.1 runs in July.
Pitching was where you can really see why they weren't quite as dominant as June's surge. The 3.83 ERA the team posted in June was far better than the 5.85 mark tagged on in July. Outlaw hurlers gave up two more hits per game on average (8.2 in June; 10.6 in July) and almost two more runs (4.5 in June; 6.4 in July). And after limiting opposing hitters to a .250 average in June, pitchers were hit for a .296 clip this past month.
Individually, if you had to pick team MVPs for the month, second baseman Eric Pringle and pitcher John Jefferson would probably be most ideal for the nods.
Though no offensive effort for the month jumps out too much, Pringle's solid numbers (.304 avg, 24 hits, 15 RBIs, team-high 18 walks from the No. 9 spot in the lineup, seven stolen bases, team-high .436 on-base percentage) and continued efficiency at second (just one error in 18 games, not to mention a slew of key plays in crunch time of big games) were impressive in a month several teammates were extremely up-and-down.
Jefferson, who transitioned as a middle-relief horse at the beginning of July into a member of the starting rotation, finished 3-1 in 10 appearances and 33 1/3 innings pitched and was tacked with a 5.13 ERA, though the .248 average hitters had against him was among the team lows for regulars. He also had a strikeout-walk ratio of 26-10.