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.
