Decatur Donnybrooks (18-12, .600, 3rd TBL) @ Nacogdoches Nibblers (9-21, .300, 10th TBL)
What is there to be said about the Nacogdoches Nibblers? They suck. They are just a really terrible club – I mean they rank no higher than 7th in any of the important statistical categories – and are dead last in runs against, which means that we had better ring them bells while we are in town if we want to maintain or improve upon our place on the table. We’ve stumbled of late – were on the wrong end of a sweep against the lowly Lickers of Lufkin… LUFKIN you guys… have you ever been there? No? OK, cool – don’t go there, it’s terrible. It’s basically a retirement community that has a forestry museum and a few good restaurants. If you do go – I’d recommend that you stop at the Cotton Patch Café – them fried green tomatoes are tip-top. I promise. The only thing that this club has going for it is 2B Adam Kerrigan, who’s OK, I guess – but, if I’m being honest (and I am) – even that is not enough to warrant an appearance at the game, with family in tow, to enjoy some poorly played baseball, poorly poured beers, and poorly made hotdogs… just skip this set, folks. You can thank me later.
31 of 54: Andy Thatcher (1-1, 2.01) @ Bunji Imamura (1-3, 5.28)
Win, 14-8. We got ourselves a slugfest ladies & gents… strike everything I just said about coming to the games in the paragraph above. I was wrong. And, I am sorry. Barrett Hessler went off for us in this one – 3 for 4 with a double, 2 RBIs, and 3 runs – a one-man wrecking ball – and Oscar Segobia finished 3 for 6 with a double, a triple, 4 RBI, and 3 runs. All killer, no filler in game one – even Mendoza brought three across for us here. Off on the good foot with all the bad vibes associated with our sweep at the hands of the Lickers in the rearview… onward and upwards, y’all.
32 of 54: Carlos Guijarro (1-2, 5.54) @ Jaime Ackerman (1-2, 5.09)
Loss, 5-3…Jaime "don't call me Milo" Ackerman goes 7+ and only allows two earned while Guijarro can only manage to complete 3.2 innings before getting yanked after a 2-run homer courtesy of 1B Dylan Ricciardi brings his earned run total up to 5. We manage only six total hits, spread across five guys, Segobia hit a double, Medoza hit a triple, we’d get 9 total bases, but left a total of 8 runners on base – he had our chances and squandered every one of them. We also got caught stealing and committed two errors. Our second baseman, Jonathan Mendoza, had to leave early after getting injured running the bases – we should have an updated status for him soon, but for now, that’s up in the air.
33 of 54: Jason White (3-1, 1.06) @ Kyung-hwan Park (2-3, 4.46)
Win, 14-10… We needed extras to get this one sorted and a 4-run top of the 11th was all we needed to bring this one home – I say that like it’s no big deal… it was. Hernandez and Rivera both hit doubles during the 11th frame, and a Jones-Mendoza-Segobia DP in the bottom of it was all she wrote. Hernandez finished 3 for 5 with a double, a homer, 4 RBIs, and 3 runs… Segobia was right behind him with a 2 for 4 day with a HR, 3 RBIs and 3 runs of his own. As a team, we hit 3 doubles, a triple (KYMANI JONES), and 3 home runs… 30 TBs as a team, the aforementioned DP, 2 OF assists from Hernandez, and three total errors. We were kind of all over the place in this rollicking affair – cool way to end the series against the Nibblers… treating the fans to another slugfest!
Injury update… Mendoza is DtD, so no biggie, but we did also lose reliever David Martinez for the season with a torn rotator cuff. So far this season he was 1-0, 6.38 ERA, with a -0.3 WAR in 17 innings of relief. May his journey back to a sound mind and body be thorough and complete so that he may live to fight for Decatur once again.
Next up... we head to Pampa for a squirmish against the Peaches... we swept them at home the last time we met.