Eyewitness Report - 7/27/13 - Pulaski Pulls Out Two Wins From G-Stros

In what could be a potential play off preview, the Pulaski Mariners pulled out two late comebacks to defeat the Greeneville Astros twice Saturday night.  The first game was the conclusion of Friday's suspended game.  The Mariners scored four runs in the in the seventh to take a 5-4 decision.  Then in the seven inning night cap, they got a two run homer in the sixth to secure a 2-1 win.  Here is a closer look at what I observed last night.

Game 1 - Pulaski 5, Greeneville 4

The game picked up with Greeneville up 2-1 in the bottom of the 2nd.

On the Mound

Christian Garcia threw three very effective innings.  His fast ball sat in the upper 80's but he mixed speeds well and keep batters guessing.  He fanned five in the three innings and retired the first 8 batters he faced.  He had a walk and a hit batter but no base hits.

Sidewinder Ryan Connolly came in next and was effective in the 6th before the wheels came off in the 7th.  He struck out a batter to start the 7th but then a short hop couldn't be handled by Tyler White at third for an E-5.  The next three batters followed with a triple, a single and a triple.  An inning that started as a 4-1 lead ended with a 5-4 deficit.

Tyler Brunnemann finished off the game.  I was pleased to see that some improvement in his mechanics.  When I saw him earlier in the year, he would touch the ground with his glove on his follow through.  Now he tucks the glove to his chest as he follows through.  He is not repeating the tuck perfectly as it was sometimes at his chest and sometimes at his hip but it shows improvement.  He only had one strike out but induced three ground balls and two pop outs to short.  He gave up one hit, a double.

At the Plate

Brett Phillips started the third off with a hard ground ball inside the bag at third for a double.  It is fun to watch him run.  He is fast! He also reached on a walk.

Edwin Gomez reached base three times with a walk and two singles.  However he was .500 in getting out of base running goofs.  In the third, with the bases loaded, Tyler White hit a fly ball to shallow right field.  Phillips was tagging on the play but did not try to advance.  However, Gomez took off from second and was almost to third when the throw reached the catcher.  The catcher threw to second to try to get Gomez coming back to the bag but the ball ended up in center and both Phillips and Gomez scored.

He wasn't as fortunate in the seventh.  He scorched a ball that appeared to be leaving the yard but bounced off the top of the fence.  He was nabbed at second with a great throw from the left fielder.  Some people sitting around me said Gomez had started his home run trot, I don't know if this is accurate because I was trying to follow the trajectory of the ball.  If he was, I am sure the coaching staff will let him hear about it.  If not, it was a great play by the Mariners.

Those three were the only players with hits for the continuation portion of the game.  Ariel Ovando and Darwin Rivera both took walks but no one else reached base.

In The Field

Other than the error by White on a tough play coming in on a short hop, the defense looked pretty good.  Darwin Rivera was at 2nd and looked pretty comfortable there.  More so than he has looked at third. 

Game 2: Pulaski 2 - Greeneville 1:

This game was a seven inning game due to the completion of the suspended game.

On The Mound

Chris Lee was impressive last night.  Lee's fastball was sitting in the 93-95 range (thanks to the scout two rows in front for holding his radar gun in a position so I could peek) and his slider was getting a great many swings and misses.  His delivery was smooth and effortless.  I had him at 78 pitches when he was pulled with one out in the sixth with 53 being for strikes (68%). I also had him with first pitch strikes to 17 of the 24 batters he faced (71%).

He led off the second striking out the Pulaski clean up hitter on three pitches. The final pitch resulted in the Pulaski hitter winding up on the seat of his pants after an unsuccessful attempt to check his swing. He ended up striking out five batters on the night.  All of them swinging.

He was helped by the ground rules in the fourth.  After striking out the first two batters, the next batter reached on a hit to short stop.  Thomas Lindauer made a nice backhanded play on a sharply hit ball but couldn't recover for the throw.  The next batter hit a ball into the right field corner that went under the gate for a ground rule double.  If not for the gate being there, it would have been an RBI triple - Pulaski's third of the evening.

In the sixth, Lee had a different kind of luck. After hitting the first batter, he induced a ground ball to second. Marc Wik had to come in to field the ball and made a swipe at the runner going by before throwing to first.  The umpire ruled Wik didn't tag the runner going to second.  Both Wik and Lindauer were adamant the tag had been made.  From my angle, it appeared the umpire made the safe sign before Wik even attempted the tag. 

Lee had the next batter in a 1-2 count and left a pitch up in the zone that was sent over the left field wall.  After giving up a bunt hit to the next batter, his night was done.  He deserved a better fate than taking the loss.

Gonzalo Sanudo came into finish off game getting five straight outs.  Four of them were air outs and three went to the outfield.

At The Plate

When you get three hits as a team, there is not too much to write about here.

Thomas Lindauer had the big hit of the night, a RBI double to left that scored Wallace Gonzalez from first.  

Marc Wik singled in the first after fouling off five pitches.  He was in an 0-2 whole and ended up seeing a total of eight pitches that at bat before reaching on a bouncer up the middle.  He was robbed of another single by a nice play by the second baseman to lead off the sixth.

Tyler White had a solid single to left to lead off the fourth but was erased on a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Angel Ibanez hit a ball hard up the middle that the short stop made a nice play on to prevent him from having a hit on the night.

A bit of good news - the Mariners are second in the league in most strike outs by their pitchers.  They came into the games just two K's behind the G-Stros pitchers.  In the 16 innings played in the series so far, G-Stro batters have just five strike outs.  Meanwhile the G-Stro pitchers added 15 to their total. 

In The Field

Lindauer also made the play of the game in the field as well.  He climbed the ladder and nabbed a line drive to end the fifth inning.

Ibanez made a nice play at third in the sixth.  With a runner on third, he fielded a ground ball on a short hop and made a nice throw to catcher Ricky Gingras to get the runner who had been going on contact.

Tyler White made a nice play at first on a hard hit ball in the second inning.  

Overall

After being 10-1 in one run games, they lost two last night.  Just not enough offense to get the job done.  

Eyewitness Report: 6/25/13 Elizabethton 8 Greenevillle 4

Finally made it to Pioneer Park for my first game of the season.  What was a pretty good game for six innings dissolved in the seventh into a rout.  Here are some of my observations from the game:

On The Mound:

Starter Enderson Franco did not get off to a great start.  A four pitch walk to the lead off batter is not the way to start a game.  After a stolen base and a ground out, the runner scored on a two out single to give the E-Twins an early lead.  Lead off walks will kill you every time.

The second inning was when Franco impressed me the most.  After the third baseman booted the first batter's attempt.  The next batter hit a tailor made 5-4-3 double play ball that was dropped by the second baseman.  So instead of two outs. It was runners at first and second with no outs.  Franco induced a 3-1 ground out before walking a batter to load the bases.  He then got a pop to third in foul territory and a strike out to avoid any damage.  However the side effect of giving a team two extra outs in the inning is Franco threw 18 pitches that inning instead of just seven.

In the third, he only faced three batters but threw 20 pitches.  The inning went three pitch strike out looking, eight pitch F8 and nine pitch strike out swinging.

In the fourth, Franco got a lead off strikeout and then allowed three straight singles to the bottom of the line up.  He still got out of the inning with just one run scoring. His night was done after four innings.  By my count, he threw 71 pitches, with 50 of the going for strikes.  He fanned five batters and allowed four hits and two walks.

Franco needs to work on keeping base runners closer. In the first inning both runners who reached stole second and the throw never had a chance.  He has a pretty good size leg kick in his stretch and it allows runners to get a good jump on him.

He was relieved by  Edison Frias.  Frias didn't pitch badly, he just doesn't have an out pitch.  He faced five batters who fouled off at least one ball after a two strike count.  None of those at bats ended in a strike out.  Most of them ended up in base hits.  His breaking pitch was in the dirt and the E-Twins were not swinging at it.  He needs an out pitch.  He threw 74 pitches in 3 2/3 innings with 49 of the pitches for strikes.  He struck out two batters and walked one.  He allowed nine hits with five going for extra bases.

Ryan Connolly got the last four outs for the G-Stros.  He is an extreme side arm pitcher. No balls got out of the infield off him.  One was hit well but a nice play by Borchering at first took care of it.

At The Plate: 

Tanner Mathis did what you want a lead off to do.  He got on base.  He went 1-3 but also reached on a walk and a HBP.

Edwin Gomez had the two big hits for the night for Greeneville.  A RBI triple in the 4th and a two run homer in the 8th.  The home came on the seventh pitch of the at bat with a full count. Both hits were to right center.

Ricky Gingras had two hits, including a double to lead off the fourth.

Juan Santana added two singles.

Ariel Ovando looked very off balance at the plate.  He has a big step in the load of his swing and I believe it makes it hard for him to adjust to off speed pitches.  He was getting a heavy diet of breaking balls. He struck out swinging twice and hit two grounders to first.  The only good contact was on a couple of foul balls.

Bobby Borchering looked out of sorts as well.  He had one good hit that was smothered by the E-Twins 6'7" first baseman.  But otherwise, it was strikeouts and a pop out to short.

In The Field:

Other than the nice snag by Borchering on a line drive at first, there weren't too many stand out plays.  Gingras did a nice job behind the plate keeping the ball in front of him on several balls in dirt from Frias.

For the second straight night defense at third was an issue.  Angel Ibanez made two errors at third.  One on a well hit but routine grounder that got in on him.  The other was a throw on a tough play coming in.  The throw sailed on him and ended up in the seats.

The other error came on a missed catch by second baseman Parker Hipp.  The throw was low to start the 5-4-3 double play but it appeared to catch him in the palm of the glove and he couldn't squeeze it.

The outfield got lots of practice chasing after balls over their head.  Cut off throws were pretty effective and defensive position of cut off men looked sound.

I hope to make it out to another game this week if life doesn't get in the way.