Tough, yet encouraging, start

Even though our record stands at 3-5, on some level, I feel good about the start we've had. In our opening series with Cincinnati, we split, and even had a good shot at taking three of four. Against the class of our division, that is huge. Since we played them, Cincinnati has rattled off four straight wins. In our next series, we did drop two to Trenton, but it could have easily gone the other way. While our record isn't where we'd like it, we feel that we can compete in-division.

Last night's game was a bit of a disappointment. After being pretty well shut down for the first seven innings against former Hitmen prospect Pedro Cruz, we finally broke through against another former Hitmen prospect, Augie Wang. After Endy Flair struck out to lead off the inning, Lyle Lindsey came on as a pinch hitter for David Matos (who pitched a brilliant game, by the way). Lindsay came up big with a single to get on with only one out. Robert Daniels followed up with another single and Hipolito Castillo walked to load the bases. Skeeter Wilkinson came up with the bases loaded, but before he could do anything, Wang let loose a wild pitch, allowing Lindsey to score and put us ahead late. Skeeter followed up with a sacrifice fly to plate Daniels, before Pete Benes popped out to end the inning. Up by two late, we felt pretty good about things.

On came closer Rod Sweeney. He had converted his first two saves of the year, so we felt good about him picking up a third. Unfortunately, he started off by allowing two straight singles to Walter Jordan and Richie Rivers before striking out Sting Crosby. Up next, Quinton Hall came up as a pinch hitter for Dale Hollandsworth and delivered by hitting a single to drive in Jordan. Still, the Hitmen led by one with only two outs to go. First and third, Sweeney fired, and Paul Heredia turned it around for a 3-run walk-off home run.

A discouraging loss. Sweeney saw his ERA balloon to a 10.80. I should note, however, that Sweeney is in no real danger of losing the closing job at this time. The only other real option is D'Angelo Rivera, but we prefer him in the set-up role right now.

The problem for us right now is that Trenton is playing so well (only loss so far was against us) and so is Cincy (only two losses so far were against us). Our schedule is softening up a bit, but that's why it's crucial to win these series' against teams like Salem. Still, if we can take the next two from them, we'll be in good shape, but that's a lot of pressure, even against a poor team.

As for top individual performances, Kevin Aldred is off to a hot start, already hitting 3 HRS and 9 RBIs in just 24 ABs. Billy Ray Sewell is playing well, with just a 0.64 ERA and 2-0 record after two starts. Finally, D'Angelo Rivera is doing a great job out of the bullpen, working 5.2 scoreless innings in five appearances.

On the other side of the coin, Pete Benes is hitting just .095 with no home runs or RBIs, while Ted Reith is hitting .150 with only two RBIs, despite many chances. Finally, Troy Stargell has posted a 14.85 ERA after two starts. Yikes!

First pitch for our next game is in about 45 minutes. Hopefully we can get things back in order.