Game 12: Riversharks 9-5
May 7, 2008 by Jason Guarente
 |
Eric Ackerman 0-0, 1.80 ERA |
| Chris Young 1-1, 5.59 ERA |
|---|
The Barnstormers are going for their first three-game sweep of the season. The last time they were in this position, on April 27, they lost to Bridgeport and proceeded to lose the following six games. No one expects that to happen again, but a sweep would be nice heading into a four-game series at Newark.
Eric Ackerman looks to continue his early-season success. Even though he has yet to earn a win, he has allowed just two earned runs in 10 innings. As we saw with Zack Parker Monday, Camden’s lineup is a good matchup for a lefty starter. It had four lefty batters in place for the first two games of this series.
The Riversharks had the best record in the league at 8-2 when they arrived at Clipper Magazine Stadium. Success is fragile in this league. They lost OF Nic Jackson and C-1B Jason Phillips to injury and the lineup isn’t quite the same. That’s why it’s important not to get too caught up in early results.
The new guy: Von Hayes offers his scouting report on Jeff Muessig, who was acquired from the Joliet Jackhammers in exchange for future considerations following Tuesday night’s game.
“He’s got good stuff,” Hayes said. “He throws heavy sinkers and has a real good slider. He’s coming in here stretched out to 75-80 pitches. We’ll use him as a starter initially. He’ll probably only make one start and then I’ll use him in the pen.”
Muessig will join the Barnstormers in time to start Thursday. Joliet didn’t have room for the 6-1, 218-pound righthander because the Northern League places a limit on the number of veteran players per team.
Muessig’s addition is not the end of Lancaster’s pitching search. The Barnstormers are still looking for a fifth starter to fill out the rotation long-term. That could also happen quickly. They are working out another pitcher today and Yamel Guevara, a Cuban defector who worked out Tuesday, remains a possibility.
One reason the Barnstormers didn’t panic during their seven-game slide is they’re a confident group. They believe they’re going to be successful over the long haul. So says Mike Woods …
“I love this team,” he said. “As a player, you couldn’t ask for anything more. Everybody can play. We’ve got guys who can hit, guys with speed, guys with power. We’re pretty balanced. We have good team chemistry.”
Links:
*Standings: No one is running away in the Freedom Division. How balanced is the league so far? Only Camden is more than one game over .500.
*ALB.com has details about a nasty collision involving OFs Michael Ryan and Jeff Duncan in Somerset. Ryan ended up in the hospital with a concussion, but has since been released.
Lineups …
(8-4) |
(4-7) |
|---|---|
| Chris Walker, CF | Mike Woods, LF |
| Gary Cates, SS | Lloyd Turner, 3B |
| Brett Bonvechio, 1B | Brian Stavisky, RF |
| Josh Rabe, DH | Ian Bladergroen, 1B |
| L.J. Biernbaum, RF | Lance Burkhart, C |
| Richard Lewis, 3B | Danny Gonzalez, SS |
| Ron Davenport, LF | Jutt Hileman, CF |
| Gabe Suarez, 2B | Manny Mejia, DH |
| Erick San Pedro, C | Juan Francia, 2B |
Scoring summary …
| Riversharks | 000 | 013 | 302 | 9 | 12 | 0 |
| Barnstormers | 110 | 300 | 000 | 5 | 10 | 2 |
FINAL: Riversharks 9, Barnstormers 5
Stormers 1st: Bladergroen’s double scores Stavisky.
Lancaster leads 1-0.
Stormers 2nd: Mejia hits solo home run.
Lancaster leads 2-0.
Stormers 4th: Woods’ single scores Hileman and Mejia. Turner’s single scores Francia. Lancaster leads 5-0.
Sharks 5th: Davenport hits solo home run.
Lancaster leads 5-1.
Sharks 6th: San Pedro scores on Ackerman’s throwing error. Bonvechio’s groundout scores Walker. Rabe’s single scores Cates.
Lancaster leads 5-4.
Sharks 7th: San Pedro’s home run scores Suarez. Walker hits solo home run.
Camden leads 7-5.
Sharks 8th: San Pedro scores on Rob Averette’s throwing error. Walker scores on Bonvechio’s sacrifice fly.
Camden leads 9-5.
RECORD: 4-8
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Erick San Pedro (2-run homer in the seventh inning completed Camden’s comeback.)
Usually when you’re facing the Riversharks, Randy McGarvey is the catcher you need to worry about. San Pedro got the start because Lancaster was throwing a lefty starter and the backup delivered. In addition to his homer, San Pedro singled, doubled and scored two runs.
The pitchers:
*Eric Ackerman’s potentially great outing became merely decent when he allowed three runs in the sixth inning. The lefty’s throwing error contributed to Camden’s rally. Ack’s line …
| 6 IP | 6 H | 4 R | 3 ER | 0 BB | 2 K |
The good news: No walks. The better news: Ackerman’s transition into the rotation continues to go well. This is the second consecutive start he went six innings and his ERA is 2.81 – second behind Zack Parker among the team’s starters.
Manager Von Hayes gave the performance mixed reviews. He said he was happy …
“For the most part. (Ackerman) got in there in the sixth inning and fell apart a little bit. He only had 50-something pitches. He should have still been very on top of his game. He shouldn’t have struggled through that inning like he did.”
*Ross Peeples couldn’t hold a one-run lead in the seventh. He surrendered a two-run homer to San Pedro and a solo shot to Chris Walker – the 9 and 1 hitters in the lineup. San Pedro’s was a Clipper short-porch special. Walker’s was a rocket to left. Peeples only retired one of the four batters he faced.
*Judd Songster threw 1 2/3 scoreless against the team that didn’t have room for him at the end of spring training. He struck out three and looked sharp.
*The bullpen, in general, continues to struggle.
“We’re going to make some changes, no doubt,” Hayes said. “We can’t sit there and watch our starters throw a decent game and then every time we bring in somebody in the sixth or seventh go through that.”
*The staff isn’t holding runners well. Opposing teams are 11-for-14 in stolen base attempts. Camden had two steals in this game.
*The Barnstormers signed Yamel Guevara. The righthander has not played professionally since winter ball in Nicaragua in 2006-07. He will start out in the bullpen and work up his pitch count before joining the starting rotation. At this point, the plan is for his first start to be May 17.
The hitters:
*The Barnstormers played lousy defense. They committed two errors on routine sacrifice bunt plays and misplayed two fly balls that turned into hits.
“We come out here and do our early work,” Hayes said. “We run through our bunt defenses and things like that. You get what you put into it. That’s something I’m trying to stress with these guys. Sure, they’ve worked on those plays 100 times, but if you work on them in slow motion, that’s what shows in the game. We need to start pushing some people a little harder or get them out of here.”
*Manny Mejia made the most of a last-minute start. The DH hit his first home run to the opposite field in the second inning. He’s got power when he connects. Mejia was in the lineup in place of Vasili Spanos, who was a late scratch because of a stiff back.
*Part of Lance Burkhart’s value as an offensive player is he gets a ton of extra-base hits. His double in the fourth gave him a team-high eight this season. He’s sporting a .658 slugging percentage.
*Ian Bladergroen’s run-scoring double in the first raised his team-leading RBI total to 12.
*Mike Woods’ hitting streak was extended to 10 games with a single in the fourth.
*The team leader in walks is … Danny Gonzalez with 10.
*Juan Francia went 0-for-4 with a run scored in his first start.
*It was a makeshift lineup. In addition to Spanos not being available, OF Jarred Ball was out with a sore quad.
*The Barnstormers blew a 5-0 lead and a chance for a three-game sweep. No one in the Freedom Division has a winning record.
“It’s unbelievable,” Hayes said. “To play as bad as we’ve played, I don’t consider us to have come close to playing up to our potential yet, and we came into this game one game out. So, yeah, that’s all well and good. But I’m tired of waiting for us to start playing better baseball.”
Off to Newark for four games. Where else would one rather be?
GOOD LUCK ERIC AND GO STORMERS!!!!!
Go Stormers!
Speaking of Jose Cabrera, is that the same Jose Cabrera that pitched for the Braves back in 2002?
I don’t see his career link on the roster page.
Thanks.
I think pitching is the unknown tonight. Hopefully Ackerman puts in a good performance but what then?
José Cabrera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Have questions? Find out how to ask questions and get answers. •Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see José Cabrera (disambiguation).
José Alberto Cabrera (born March 24, 1972 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic) is a former middle-relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from 1997 through 2002. Listed at 6′0, 200 lbs., he batted and threw right-handed.
Cabrera entered the majors in 1997 with the Houston Astros, playing four years for them before joining the Atlanta Braves (2001) and Milwaukee Brewers (2002). His most productive season came in 2001 with the Braves, when he posted career-highs with seven wins (7) and a 2.88 ERA in 55 appearances coming out of the bullpen. Before the 2002 season, he was sent by Atlanta along Paul Bako to Milwaukee in the same transaction that brought Henry Blanco to the Braves. He went 6-10 in 50 games, including 11 starts, and set career-numbers in strikeouts (61) and innings pitched (103 ⅓).
In 198 games, Cabrera had a 19-17 record with a 4.95 ERA, four saves, and a 2.04 strikeout-to-walk ratio (192-to-94) in 271.0 innings.
Following his major league career, Cabrera pitched for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre of the International League during the 2003 season. In 2008, he signed with the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
I knew I saw that name before as a Braves fan. Can’t go wrong there.
Jose Cabrera’s career stats. That doesn’t include his time in Korea.
I see Bridgeport had an attendance of 573 last night and average attendance of 1,380. Hope when school lets out that will rise or we will be seeing the return of the Road Warriors. Unless BASA has a new team in the works.
Can someone tell me what happened out between second & Third last night? I got up to leave and suddenly there was a mass of players leaning over one layin in the dirt.
I know, I know.. I shouldn’t leave a game early but the kiddo’s still have school.
From the “What were they thinking>” file…as I recall it, Burkhart was on 3rd and Err…Gonzalez was on 2nd. There was a hit and Burkhart started for home, apparently realized he wasn’t going to make it and turned back. Gonzalez had started to 3rd and either didn’t see Burkhart coming back or kept going anyway. That led to the inexplicable pile-up on 3rd.
Per #8…MLB attendance seems to be way down, too. I’ve been wondering if this is a transient effect of the weather and lack of time on the part of the fans or it’s a more permanent effect of the economy and gas prices. Time will tell, I suppose.
I’ll beat Berman to it:
“Now pitching, Yamal “Viva Che” Guevara……..”
OK, so it wasn’t that funny, but a patchwork swastika?
Another roster move: The Barnstormers signed Yamel Guevara today. That puts them at 13 pitchers and 12 position players, including Matt LeCroy, who is on the DL.
Can’t make the game again tonight, but hope to make some games in the next couple of weeks.
I wonder what quilt I’ll be assigned tonight????
Can’t be there but it sounds like the offense is there.
back-to-back…yuck-to-yuck
Outta San Pedro late one night,
The moon and the stars were shining bright
Looked in my mirror, red light was blinkin’.
The bullpen’s shaky, that’s what I’m thinkin’.
Could it be that the powers that be……knows offense, but dpesnt know how to pick a reliever???????
Ouch, that sucked. Better luck tomorrow. Hope they find a pitching line-up that works soon.
Recap posted. Some intense comments from the skipper in there.
Yeah, that last one sounds like something I’d say.
Sad news to report from after the game…I was witness to Ross coming out of the clubhouse in a very dejected mood, telling a few of us that he had just been released. He came out of the clubhouse and gave me and a couple others a great big hug and handshakes. Then he told us that they had just released him. Looks like my comments a few days ago were right on the money. Its sad to see him go and he was pretty upset about it. Ross was always a great guy and tonight he was really cool with some of us fans. He did say that he has some bone chips in his elbow and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.
Hi, I just stumbled upon this site
.. WOW. How was the game last night?
“Off to Newark for four games. Where else would one rather be?”
Fighting a pack of wild dogs….uh….watching the Coneheads movie….getting pitching tips from Lance Odem….uh….nude skydiving….hunting with Darth Cheney….uh….
ONe thing that was very unsetting for was: Last three innings 10 batters, one pick off 1st and 5 stikeouts
It was a heck of a loss
I amlost cried watching Ross head in to the locker room… everyone has an off night, right!!! The team needs us here, behind them on this long road trip.
Not sure who the new-be was that got picked off but I thought he had gotten injuried… it sure hurt my knee just seeing him hit the bag.
Camden bullpen was doing their job last night. I think Lancaster just went thru the motions though in the last 4 innings.
First half had good pitching, lots of offense. Ackerman was left in an inning too long and the offense completely disappeared. The end result was a 5-0 lead turning into a 9-5 loss. When Averette attempted a throw to 1st that wound up closer to Prince St than the base, I figured I’d seen enough and headed for the gate.
Until tonite the Barnstormers haven’t played a team in the Freedom division. Tonite’s game against Newark is the first of 14 consecutive games against the division rivals. Let’s hope as Hayes says the team comes close to their potential and starts playing better baseball. I like to see the Barnstormers in first place by at least 1 1/2 games on May 23.
Desmond come home!
The guy that got picked off was Turner right?
Syd you would have for sure cried if you had seen Ross after the game when he found out he was released….he was pretty upset!
Oh, don’t tell me that. I’m in the office trying to work and my husband will laugh at me if he see me crying over a player being released
Any chance Ross will get picked up by another AL team?