A nice end to the week, finishing off a sweep of the Titans. Got off to another fast start with 3 runs in the first, on 5 singles. Yanes went out and gave up a solo shot in the first, but then shut down New York, scattering 4 hits over the remaining 8 innings, and striking out 11.
Notes after week 1:
Byers - .400, 1HR, 2RBI, 5 Runs
Mateo - .450, 3RBI, 5 R, and 7BB
Surface - 5-for-8 in a platoon role, and is a sure start against righties. Bruised his heel on Saturday, but seems OK.
Kittredge - .391, but only 2RBI and only 1 run scored. Might need to move him up in the lineup a bit.
Crampton - .208, 5-for-24 with 7K's, but... also 7RBI. A great clean-up hitter, and protection for Mateo, but I'd love to see a little more patience.
Cox - .333. Strong performance and better fielding than Surface has earned him more starts, for sure.
Erickson - .087 with 11K's. By far the worst start on the team. I had him leading off against lefties, but I think I'll try leading off with Byers against R and L, and put Greg at the bottom and get some pressure off of him.
As a team, we lead the league in batting at .288, but are last in HR (3) and have yet to successfuly steal a base. (This is partly because of some good success with the hit-and-run, though.) We also have the fewest strikeouts (50) but this still seems like a lot for 6 games.
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Yanes - Wow. 2 starts, 2 CG, 8 hits, 4 walks, 20K's, 1.00ERA, .133 OAVG and 2 wins. Outstanding.
Qualls - Never looked commanding, but only gave up 1 run in 5.1 innings and earned the win.
Chenoweth - I sent him out in the 3rd after an hour-long rain delay and he got pummeled for our only loss. My bad. The jury is still out.
Cullens - Gave up 4 runs in 6 innings in a no decision. 5 K's and no walks though. He held 'em enough for us to win it.
Wood - Chalked up a 6.75 ERA, largely because I kept him out longer than I would have. He did not have great stuff, but we gave him such a huge lead I decided to take advantage of his great endurance and just let him tough it out. He earned his W the hard way.
Gardner - 2 monster appearances for 2 saves, and one 3 inning stint where he gave up 2 runs. (Eric put him out there while after I got tossed. Not sure why he wasted him like that, but no harm done.)
Loch - A win and a save in 2 appearances. He definitely wants the closer job. I'm still going to go on a day-by-day basis. Gardner from the left and Loch from the right makes an outstanding set-up/closer combo either way. I'm gonna keep playing the matchups until it backfires on me.
Team pitching is middle of the road, 3.86ERA, .233 OAVG.
Team W L
BAL 5 1
BOS 5 1
PHI 2 4
NYT 0 6
STL 5 1
BUF 4 2
CLE 3 3
CHI 0 6