April 21 was an Off Day
April 22 thru 25
- Lugnuts 3 games, Battle Cats 1
- Lugnuts are 11-9 (.550)
- Second place, 1 game behind the Whitecaps. The division’s still packed into 2 1/2 games.
- Quinn, Beltran, and Kaysner on the DL.
Manager Brian Poldberg’s lineups continue to be designed around injuries. Beltran’s knee injury appears fairly serious; Quinn’s shoulder injury apparently isn’t.
The Nuts cut down the error rate during this series; perhaps the problem was the weather. We should have lost on Monday; trailed by two with two out and none on in the ninth. Tuesday was really very cold, as were the relief pitchers for both teams. Wednesday’s game was a Cats blowout as the middle relief failed again. Our guys blew them away on Thursday. I watched the series with my sister, Debbie, who roots for the Cats.
Tuesday’s game was interesting. Both teams played well until late in the game, then both relief staffs failed. Debbie was counting pitches on her scorecard and says there were about 75 pitches thrown in the tenth inning; essentially, neither staff was throwing strikes. Neat crowd that night, loud and involved in the game, even though it was really cold.
Jose Cepeda’s a joy to watch. Real consistent; he makes the plays at third and gets his daily hit. This guy’s not flashy, but he does what needs doing. I could watch him all day. He visibly dislikes the weather, though.
The pitching’s been mostly extreme. Blaine Mull’s looked very good as a starter, and Jose Santiago’s been very effective in relief (3 wins, 2 saves, 1.10; not bad for sixteen innings pitched). Starters Manuel Bernal, Michael Robbins, Todd Thorn, and Modesto Villarreal have passable numbers but collectively have one win. The rest of them are pretty scary, so far. Likely some will improve. I hope this occurs soon.
The crocuses are glorious. I’m beginning to get tulips. And it’s supposed to snow.
Context: The Michigan Battle Cats were Battle Creek’s team. The team’s name didn’t make that particularly clear. Later they were the Battle Creek Yankees, which was far better, and the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays, which really wasn’t. (Then they moved to Midland, and became the Great Lakes Loons. Sheesh!)
This is pretty much how I imagined the journal: There’s a summary of the series, some comments on an interesting game, and some notes about the progress of the players.
I’ll have more to say about Cepeda in a few days.
I notice the spring flowers were even later in 1996 than they’ve been this year.
In the event you’ve just stumbled onto this entry, here’s an explanation of what I’m up to.