Mike Kaffee
Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]
With threats of inclement weather in the forecast, today’s scrimmage was moved up to 11 AM. The smell of the early morning dew must be invigorating to the batters because the dominance of pitching dominating spring training is no more. The bats were warming up yesterday, but today they exploded for 16 hits, 10 for extra bases. Strikeouts were down from 22 on Wednesday to 10 today. A caution flag is being figuratively waved from the dugout with the slogan: “Pitchers Beware, The Bats Are Here”. Of the 10 for extra-base hits 3 went for Yard, and two recorded as triples. The thaw appears over. At least, let’s hope so. On the other side of the coin, some of our pitchers are feeling the bite, including one of our weekend starters. Jake Garland like Alex McFarlane yesterday found out that there are no guarantees. Both will have to show a convincing turnaround if they are to hold onto a possible weekend starting role. That being said, the question is WHO is going to challenge them to fill an apparent void. Obviously, Palmquist is being looked at for Friday night or possibly Saturday, but I have seen no one who can replace him as a sure-fire CLOSER.
Speaking of Carson, he along with Jake Garland opened this morning’s scrimmage each throwing 3 innings. Let’s talk about Jake and the realization that the Bats are Back. They laid the big hurt onto him king-size starting in the first inning. Faced 5 batters without recording a single out. Dorian Gonzalez, who would go on to have an awesome day, led off with a single. Advances to 2nd on a PB. Ariel Garcia walks setting up the first run in the game. CJ Kayfus RBI double started the bats singing. With runners on 2nd and 3rd Max Romero singles bringing across two more runs. Mike Rosario the 5th batter to come to the plate continues the hitting barrage with a single of his own. Enough seen for one inning and possibly enough seen to deserve reconsideration on where he fits into the pitching rotation. The second inning just added more to his woes with Jacob Burke leading off and saying sayonara over the left-field fence. This would be the first of 3 HRs to go Yard convincingly over the course of the day. Lorenzo Carrier would single two batters later and would steal 2nd. If not for the catch by Zach Levenson over his head at the RF fence just missing the 2nd yard of the inning, another 2 runs would have added to the 4 Jake has already given up. Managed to survive the 3rd inning without a run but still showed flaws in his pitching giving up a two-out double to the opposite field by JP Gates, who called for a balk before retiring with a strikeout to Dominic Pitelli. Like McFarlane, a day not considered being their finest hour.
Carson is a whole different story. He continues to show that he will be needed more in a starting role than closer. My concern is whether he will have enough in his tank to go deep into the game. Dominic’s single to open Carson’s day was quickly forgotten getting picked off extending his lead from first. Jacoby Long went down the same road reaching first with a walk and like Dominic gets picked off. Enough reaching first, so Carson reverts to doing what he does best; the strikeout. Carson picks up two more Ks in the second for the 4 batters faced. In the final inning, Gino opens the inning placing a runner on first. Henry Wallen SAC did not go as planned being turned into a 1-6-3 DP. Wraps up his day with the 4th K of the day.
Jordan Dubberly and Jamar Fairweather are next in rotation for a pair of innings. Hoping for a similar performance that he had on Wednesday with 5 Ks for two innings, was not to be. Back-to-back doubles by Zach Levenson and Dorian Gonzalez put up pair of runs. The 5th inning 1st and 2nd had pre-positioned runners to begin the inning. Villegas executes an excellent SAC moving the runners over a base. CJ on 3rd makes a miscalculation about how far the ball gets by the catcher and attempts to make it home only to face Romero waiting for him at home plate.
Jamar’s day was a day to be forgotten. Opens the 4th with a triple to Long, walks Renzo Gonzalez, balks which brings in Long, advancing Renzo to second, and finally Zach doubles for the second run before posting the final two outs via the K. For his second inning, Gino pre-positioned a runner on second. Sort of becomes irrelevant with Mike Rosario going yard followed two batters later with Dorian Gonzalez making his way around the bases with a Yarder of his own. As I stated earlier, a day worth forgetting and time to move forward.
Ronaldo Gallo and David Rossow finished the day by throwing two innings apiece. Ronaldo completes a scoreless 6th with a pair of strikeouts but contributed to the defensive play of the day. Popup behind the back of the home-field dugout, CJ playing 1st makes a run for it, falling over the fence out of sight of everyone only to come out holding the ball in his glove. The hi-lite of the game. In the 7th, pre-position runner on second. Long fly to deep left by CJ advances the runner to 3rd. A similar shot by Max was more than enough for the runner to trot on home. Both shots by CJ and Max were that close to going Yard. Either our batters have the read on our pitchers from seeing them so much or their bats are just sizzling.
David’s 6th went like Ronaldo without a run being put up on the board. Opened with a K, walking Henry Wallen who gets caught stealing second, then hits Burke who successfully steals second. Final inning, the runner pre-positioned on 3rd. Walks Jones to put runners on the corners. JP working the positioning of the IF once again goes opposite field down the LF line. What appeared to be a sensational diving catch by Gaby Gutierrez comes out of his glove hitting the ground. The fall shook Gaby up and was taken out of the game without any assistance on returning to the dugout. The ball was ruled fair and recorded as an RBI triple. Renzo Gonzalez walks and with runners, on the corners, Yoyo flies out to right ending today’s scrimmage.
Offensively, as earlier stated in the opening paragraph it was a show of force pounding out 16 hits, three going Yard (D Gonzalez, Rosario, and Burke) with a pair of triples (Long and Gates). Backing this up were 4 doubles( D Gonzalez, Kayfus, Levenson and Gates) Dorian Gonzalez looking more and more like or starter at second just missed the cycle (triple). Three players with multiple hits: JP Gates 2-4 (double,triple); Mike Rosario 2-3(HR); Dorian Gonzalez 3-4(double,HR) It was one impressive showing of what we are capable of doing but have been dormant up until now. They just need to keep at this pace and provide the support to our pitchers giving them the runs they need to take us to the Promise Land.
Defensively, we continue to look good not making any dumb mental mistakes and executing well. With two weeks before opening day, the grass is looking greener and the skies brighter.
Tomorrow, we wind up week two of the preseason with a start time of 1145.
