Beyond the Box Score II: Anatomy of a Rock Cats Loss




The Battery: Brett Jacobson and
Chris Herrmann going over
details before the game

  I stayed for all 12 innings of last night's 3-2 loss to the Akron Aeros. It was a picture-perfect night for baseball, but by hour 4 of baseball, the crowd was probably only 100 in number. If there's one takeaway from this game -- one reason New Britain lost -- it's simply a result of an almost complete failure to drive in runners in scoring position. Despite the fact that the Rock Cats tallied 14 hits in the contest, they scored only 2 runs, and most glaringly, they were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Yes, there were some hard line drives that were caught, and some smashed grounders that just failed to make it past the Akron infielders, but mostly this team just couldn't get a base hit when it mattered.

Brett Jacobson had a solid start. He allowed 2 runs in 5 and 1/3 innings. His control was very good up until he tired. Notably, Jacobson struck out 6, including the side in the second inning. He had walked only one going into the 6th inning, but then quickly unraveled after recording one out in the 6th. After he walked two consecutive batters, that was it for him. He must have been on a pretty short leash. In all honesty, though, after looking fine in the 5th, he looked gassed in the 6th. The stadium radar gun had his fastball around 92, and I saw it register at 93 a couple times. His curveball was effective tonight, as well. Bobby Lanigan was good out of the bullpen, allowing no hits in 2 and 2/3 innings. Bruce Pugh was wild, walking 2 in 2 innings, but he didn't allow a run. Although he didn't pitch badly, Luis Perdomo took a tough loss: a single, stolen base, and another single scored what would turn out to be the winning run for Akron in the top of inning 12.

Player of the Game: Minnesota's Own
Nathan Hanson, who dramatically
raised his batting average last night

The Rock Cats' offense was a mixed bag. Let's start out with the star performer last night, Minnesotan Nathan Hanson. He was 5-for-6, and was a home run away from the cycle. Hanson is now batting a respectable .274 on the year. In the bottom of the 10th, with one out, Hanson hit a long fly ball to left field. In many ballparks this might have been a home run. At New Britain Stadium, though, where the wall is approximately 15 feet high all the way around, this resulted in a triple after it hit about 10 feet high on the wall. Hanson was at third, and represented the winning run, with only one out. Unfortunately, Chris Colabello -- who actually is leading the entire Eastern League in RBIs -- grounded out to the pitcher, and after Chris Herrmann was intentionally walked, Mark Dolenc took a called third strike to end the threat.

The other "problem" -- if you can call it that, is that, aside from Hanson's double and triple, there were no extra base hits. The Rock Cats have several players capable of hitting home runs and doubles at any given time, but the team couldn't get big hits, especially hits that would have cleared the bases, when it counted. Deibinson Romero did have 2 hits, as did Rene Tosoni. Tosoni, however, is only batting .210 thus far on the season for New Britain. Australian prospect James Beresford had a single in 5 trips, and is batting .286 on the year.

James Beresford bats in the 2nd inning

The Rock Cats finish up a week-long homestand this weekend, playing a series against the Erie Seawolves, the Tigers' affiliate. After losing 2 of 3 to the Aeros, who own the best record in the Eastern League, the Rock Cats are in 3rd place, but are just 2 games back of the Trenton Thunder, who currently sit atop the division. This would be a good weekend for New Britain to pick up some ground at home, before the team hits the road again. The weather is supposed to be great this weekend, so I would expect big crowds at the ballpark.

Rock Cats Lose 4th Straight

Thanks, Google Image search!

Every Wednesday evening, I write a recap of all the Twins minor league action, which you can find at TwinsDaily. Take a look if you haven't already. Here's what I wrote about last night's Rock Cats game:

NEW BRITAIN 4, AKRON 6
Starter Brett Jacobson allowed too many hits tonight -- 10 in 4 and 1/3 innings. He gave up 5 runs, striking out 1 and walking 1. Out of the bullpen, Daniel Turpen pitched 1 and 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out 1. Bruce Pugh struck out 2 in an inning of relief. Luis Perdomo gave up 1 run in the 8th inning, striking out 2, walking 2, and giving up a single.
The Rock Cats scattered 9 hits tonight. James Beresford had 2 singles, Rene Tosoni had a solo home run (his first of the season at AA), Chris Herrmann had 2 hits, and Matt Rizzotti, Deibinson Romero, Shawn Roof and Evan Bigley each had singles, as well. Beresford, Tosoni, Bigley, and Minnesota's own Nathan Hanson had RBIs tonight. The Rock Cats did walk 6 times in this game, so at least that was encouraging.

Here's the link to the box score.

A couple additional things I didn't mention in that write-up. First, as I noted yesterday morning, infielder James Beresford is leading the team in batting average. After 2 hits last night -- line drives to center field and left field -- he's up to .282. It's nice to see at least one player on the team inching closer to .300.

Second, the Rock Cats had the bases loaded with only 1 out in the 5th inning, but were unable to plate a run (reminds me a little of recent Twins teams). Evan Bigley struck out and Matt Rizzotti popped out to end the threat. That ended up being their best chance all night.

Third, with last night's loss, the Rock Cats fell into a tie for second place, 1 game behind the Trenton Thunder (Yankees affiliate).

Finally, there have been some suggestions, mostly on TwinsDaily, that first round pick and top Twins prospect Aaron Hicks should be converted to a pitcher. Hicks is 22, is in his first season at AA (being one of the younger players is the Eastern League), and is doing all right. Defensively, he could play center field for the Twins tonight and not be out of his element. Offensively, he's not there yet. But I don't think we should start the crazy talk of converting a speedy outfielder with raw power into pitcher. Most professional baseball players -- especially outfielders -- can probably throw a baseball 90 miles per hour. And yes, Hicks did pitch in high school. If you're a high school baseball coach, and one of your players has the ability to throw 90, you have to have him pitch: high school athletes can't hit a good fastball. But to suggest to Hicks that he should become a pitcher, after not having pitched in 4 years, seems insane to me. Let me reiterate: he's 22 years old. That is still very young for where he is. Don't let Bryce Harper and Mike Trout fool you -- most players don't make the major leagues until their mid-20s, even first round draft picks (heck, something like 40 percent of first round picks never play in a single major league game). Hicks needs a chance to develop as an offensive threat, not a complete re-shifting of his professional career.

New Britain is back in action tonight, as they try to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Aeros.

A Couple Announcements

I love running this blog. I've been doing it now for just over a year, and it honestly has become one of my favorite pastimes. I've especially enjoyed getting to know (at least in the blogging sense) a bunch of other Twins bloggers and fans. This is a really good and fun community to "work" in, and the best thing is that writing about the Twins never really feels like work. Yes, things weren't nearly as fun last season when, for example, Rene Tosoni was leading the charge late in 2011, or we had to learn how to pronounce the word Dumatrait, but there was always stuff to write about, and there was always quality stuff to read. The blog has also served as a good distraction from the mundane aspects of work and life.

The first announcement is that, this past weekend, Twins Fan From Afar surpassed 20,000 page views. Yes, I'm sure that is a laughable number to most of you that operate your own Twins blogs, but let me tell you, it took me a while to get there! First, I am basically a Luddite: I am not the most computer literate person out there (in full disclosure, I just added an RSS feed to this blog, because apparently you are supposed to do that, but I don't know what the hell an RSS feed does), so it took me a while to figure out the relatively easy world of blogging. Second, no one read the blog for the first few months. In February, 2011, my first month of blogging, Twins Fan From Afar had 148 total views. Mom and Dad back in Minnesota, on their home and work computers, probably accounted for 100 of those views; and I was responsible for the other 48, because I had not yet figured out that, as a blog author, you could make your individual page views invisible. Third, it probably didn't help this blog's initial popularity that the Twins were generally just awful last season. Baseball fans were probably searching for information about the teams that mattered, and frankly, the Twins didn't matter. But, over the course of the season, I began to truly enjoy the ritual of writing about baseball, and more people began to read what I wrote. Yes, some posts were better than others, but, much like the ritual of going to the gym, or reading before bed, it's become a nice part of my life. Now that I have this blog -- and regardless of whether more or less people view it in the coming months and years -- it's tough to imagine not doing it.

My second announcement is that, starting later this week, I am going to begin providing content for Through the Fence Baseball, a national baseball website that provides information on all MLB teams. I'll be writing just a couple times a week for them on Twins related topics, and I'm looking forward to reaching a new audience. Nothing will change at Twins Fan From Afar. If you enjoy what you read here, or at least are nice enough to read what I write, please continue to do so. I'll be writing here just as often, but will just be writing some other stuff for TTFB.

So, thanks for 20,000 page views, and I look forward to a full blogging season in 2012. And, hopefully, the Twins can scrape together a considerably better season this year.

Andrew
Twins Fan From Afar