Game 3 - Marlins vs. White Sox

Setting the Line-Up
Steve and I met around 2 hours before the game. Originally we were going to go right to breakfast but I suggested we do the lineups on the computer, as we normally do, and then grab breakfast. Steve agreed we had ample time to do it this way and so we sat down and hammered things out. The important parts:

*We decide to have Trey scheduled to pitch the 5th and 6th leaving him in reserve for when we feel it would be best to use him
*Steve had made a push to still use Brendan as a catcher, arguing that we didn’t really have choices. Whether or not to use Brendan, despite his poor form and missing of practice, was decided when Steve was reminded I had talked to Trey about catching an inning and had been OK with it. So we decided not to use Brendan as a catcher. Furthermore, when doing the schedule one person would have to sit twice. This person was to be Brendan. Steve and I agreed as a general practice if somebody misses a game or practice without telling us, that this will be the consequence.
*The pitching/catching batteries are tentatively set to be: Everett/Jesse, Avi/Trey, Jim/Everett, Percy/Everett, Trey/Jesse, & Trey/Jesse. When using Everett as a catcher we agreed that using him as a pitcher before having him catch was important and so it is likely that Everett will start many games for us. Avi was given the second inning as we’d promised he’d pitch and so we wanted to do it early to send the right message. Deciding between Percy and Bobby was a coin flip. I made the call to use Percy as I have been working with Bobby and would like to have him be in good form before he throws again, with him knowing that’s the goal.

Pre-Game

After a great breakfast and a quick stop at Walgreens we get to the field about an hour before the game. There is a Triple A (the league below us) game going on when we get there. Steve and I throw to each other a bit. Now remembering that we had stressed 20 minutes at practice, our first show was Trey. I inform him that he’ll be catching an inning and throwing 2. Trey is still clearly uncomfortable with this. But he nods.

The players slowly trickle in with only Trey, Bobby, Percy, and Jesse being on time, however almost all of the players were there by a quarter to, so it’s a definite improvement. I think if Steve and I keep stressing the importance this rate will go up.

When Bobby arrives I immediately pull him aside and start working with him on the 3 second delay rotation. And there’s been a huge difference. I ask him if he’s been practicing, and he claims not, so I’m not sure why it’s suddenly clicking, but it did. After doing this about 6 times in a row successfully I setup as catcher and have him throw to me. Out of the 10 pitches I had him throw he had the proper footwork for 8 of them. It was just a huge improvement. If he’s able to do this again on Tuesday at practice we can start to work on his actual throwing mechanics. Very exciting. Bobby was sitting out during the second inning and he asked if we could do some more practice. I told him I had to focus on the game, but loved his work ethic.

After this I pull aside Percy and have him throw me some pitches. After a couple of off pitches he settled down nicely and threw well. I told him that if he can do this without a batter, he can do it with a batter. He made some excuses about it just being a bad day on Tuesday. I don’t really buy it, and keep on the upbeat message of just thinking about it like there’s no one there. I hold out hope that the 4th inning won’t be completely disastrous.

As we gather around the bench and put up the lineup, Trey finally coughs up what has been bothering him, when I tell him he’s catching Avi. It turns out last year, in the lower league, the coach was having him catch for the best pitcher on the team and he just couldn’t do it. He felt good about the fact that it was Avi because he knew that Avi didn’t pitch all that quickly. This explains his reaction as he was clearly reluctant to do it, but since I was the coach he was going to do it, and without complaint. It was a good reminder of the power as a coach you can have. I am glad though we got the anxiety out there in the open and it gave me a chance to reinforce the idea that my goal for him was not to be catching every ball, simply to keep it in front of him. I had been saying this from the time I first told he was going to catch, and when I said it at this point it was likely the 5th time I had said it. It seems like it was at this point that it sunk in though as he clearly was realizing that he could do what I was asking of him.

The First Couple of Inning
As we take the field, it becomes apparent that Kelvin is not present. This obviously annoys me, especially as he was scheduled to play 1st in the first. I quickly plug in Trey, who had been scheduled to sit. Everett strikes out the first two in short order. The heart of their order comes up and scores 3 runs, including a stupid play by Jesse. Everett threw a ball in the dirt and it got by Jesse. Everett comes jogging in, as the runner isn’t going, and Jesse sees some reason to flip it to Everett. You can predict what happens next: Everett misses, and Ethan, at second base, is not backing up Everett, despite having been reminded and sure enough then the run DOES score. Anyhow they get 3 which includes Everett striking out a batter with runners on second and third. After Everett struck out the first two batters I had hoped we were in for a good day, but 3 runs was fine, all things considered.

With Kelvin not being there, Jim is the first up. He walks. Trey is then hit by a pitch, which brings Everett up. Everett promptly rockets the ball into the gap in right center scoring Jim and Trey for a nice double. Brendan strikes out, Jesse gets a solid infield hit, but Percy and Bobby both ground out to the pitcher to end the inning. Still 3-2 is just fine.

Avi is now pitching to Trey. The whole thing went great. Trey didn’t really have any problems catching the ball. Most importantly Avi got a weaker part of their lineup to strike out, and then hit two back to him at the mound. He fielded both of them perfectly. The first one was hit pretty quickly, so he took his time, ran over towards first and then underhanded it to Jesse for the out. The next play was a slow roller and he did a great job picking it up and getting an accurate throw for an easy out.

In the bottom of the inning despite Avi and Ethan getting on with a walk and hit batter, we can’t get anything going as Jim and Trey were both absolutely smoked by the pitcher. Still at the end of 2 we’re looking at a 3-2 ballgame.

The Last 3 innings
Which is, of course, when the wheels come off. Jim’s mechanics were just terrible. He was repeatedly dropping his glove arm and his balls were coming up short, or being thrown wildly to the side. Things weren’t helped when Percy made a silly mental error costing us an early out by not knowing which base to throw the ball to. Jim only ended up walking 1 batter despite only throwing 4 strikes to 8 batters. Jim was clearly frustrated on the mound and while it was going on it seemed much worse then the 5 runs it turned out to be. The first of the two controversial calls also occurred this inning. After Jim let up his walk, Jesse caught the batter cheating too far down the line at 3rd and threw the ball down to Avi who caught the ball and made a nice tag getting the batter by more then a step. But he was called safe. Avi immediately started to complain and I very loudly and forcefully had to cut it off. This out turned into a run as well which makes the whole thing even more unfortunate. We’re now looking at an 8-2 game where your are maxed out at 7 runs in an inning.

Things do look a little better when Everett and Brenden are hit by pitches. We manage to get both of them home, but it’s basically by trading a run for an out, which when considering how far we’re down is not the goal. During this inning I look at my watch and we’re rapidly approaching the 1 hour mark. Steve and I discuss, and basically he leaves it up to me to decide whether or not it’s time to bring Trey in. I decide it is. Just as the inning ends I find out that Ethan has to leave. Did Ethan tell either of us he was leaving early? Of course not. This now means that we have no one sitting on the bench. I scramble a little to get people in reasonable positions and basically use the 5th inning lineup positions in the 4th inning.

My thinking is if Trey can keep it 8-4 we stand a good chance. So of course my dreams are crushed as the weaker part of their order just wails on Trey. There were a couple of bad fielding plays, including one by Trey himself, which did not help the situation. In the end Trey faces 10 of 12 batters but manages to hunker down against the good part of the order and gets away with only allowing 3 runs.

I feel some hope as we have the top of order come up and their pitcher is clearly not a very good pitcher. His arm mechanics are just terrible and it’s clear he’s trying to “aim” every pitch. Avi leads off with a walk. As Jim bats I let Trey know that this pitcher is aiming his pitches and so he should wait because he’ll either get no pitches or a great pitch to hit. Jim walks. Trey comes up and on his first pitch hits a screamer into center. I thought for sure it was going to drop and send Jim. The centerfield makes a great shoestring catch, however, and Jim is forced to hustle back to the bag and there’s no real chance of a double up as he ran the play well. This now brings Everett up to the plate. Everett hits a screamer through the gap in right center and we’re off to the races. ES is running his heart out and by the time Jim has reached 3rd Everett is less then half a base path behind him. Steve waves in Jim, a move I absolutely support. Jim is clearly flagging as he makes the turn and he looks back at the ball two or three times. In the end the relay from the second baseman is a perfect throw to the catcher. Jim slides in, as they go to tag him and he’s called out.

At this point Jim just loses it. He throws off his batting gloves and immediately starts to break down. I go over and calm him down. Jim insists that he slid under the tag, but it was a close play made so because Jim kept looking back which slowed him down just enough to make it a close play. When I talked to him he insisted that he didn’t understand what Steve was telling him to do, which I just can’t believe to be true. Anyway the play completely deflates our inning, and while we get two runs, it could have been a much bigger inning if we had that run and out back.

Tre comes and pitches his second inning, allowing a leadoff single and a double that turns into a triple because of poor fielding. He then gets it under control and we only lose 1 more run and we’re standing at 12-6 going into the last inning. Trey was clearly not as sharp as he had been before. I was talking during the game to his father and he says that basically Trey is out of baseball shape but should be getting back into shape soon based on all the baseball that he’s doing. I wonder if it was just an off day or if the inning he did at catcher weakened him enough to make a difference. Having him in reserve should have made a big difference as if he had clamped down, liked we hoped he would, and allowed say 2 runs instead of 4 during his 2 innings, it’s a different ball game.

They have yet another new pitcher up there and it’s yet another guy we can hit. And we come out and do our thing. Percy and Jesse get on base on walks. Bobby grounds one to the pitcher. Fuller then comes up and has what is, without an exaggeration, a 10 pitch at bat. In the end he gets a single. The right fielder, a travel player, tries to get the out at first but instead throws the ball out away, not to mention Fuller would have been safe anyway. The ump then makes a bad call in our favor. Jesse had advanced to third on the hit, and Percy to second. Once the ball was overthrown, Jesse should have gotten home and Percy 3rd, but instead as we had them running anyway, the ump gives Percy home on the overthrow. Avi walks to give us runners on first and second. The momentum is clearly on our side. The pitcher is tiring. We’re about to hit the best part of our lineup. Jim works a couple of pitches and then hits a ball to the first basemen. And Avi, instead of running to second, goes back to first. Bam before you know it, there’s a double play and the game’s over. Evidently Jim said something not too nice to Avi at this point that I did not hear. I did hear Bobby start to say something and immediately put the kibosh on that. It was an incredibly dumb play, but we don’t need the already least popular kid on the team being further ostracized because of it.

Post Game and Looking Forward

We give a pretty good post game speech. I talk about how we are all feeling so rotten because we played so well and we left so much on the field and other things along these general lines. Bobby gets the game ball for an amazing catch he made at short during the 5th. It was going to go to Avi but we had to make a last minute change based on the last play of the game.

As people filter away I grab Trey to talk with him. I stress to him the importance of not moping, as he did some of that on the mound, even when things aren’t going as well as they normally do. Simultaneously Steve is talking to Jim. We finish our talks at about the same time and then see Avi crying as he leaves. We both grab him and reassure him. It’s at this point that I learn that Jim said something not too nice. As we are talking, Jim even comes over and apologizes for what he said to Avi. We remind Avi about all the good things that happened during the game and to try and not let 1 play or comment ruin a good day. He definitely calms down by the end though he is clearly still not very happy.

All-in-all, it was our best game. We are still having lots of trouble having a big inning and preventing the other team from taking what should be a 1 or 2 run inning and making it into a 4 or 5 run inning. At practice on Tuesday we will once again be focusing on groundballs, do a drill to promote situational awareness, and some sort of nebulous team building exercise that Steve and I need to find to make sure we continue to bond as a team in response to the dynamic that manifested itself at the end of the game. JMessetold me that he felt Avi was better this game, and I agree, so it’s too bad we had that one moment at the end which unraveled things a bit. While we still lost I was heartened at the progress we made. We play the Orioles on Wednesday a team I have heard nothing about so I have no idea as to what kind of opposition they’ll be. If we can play another good game though I will be very happy, especially if we can show more improvement after the practice.