I sort of fell behind the blogging curve because of being up north, but I’m back now and the Twins are in the heat of their first ever playoff series – not incidentally, they’re also teetering on the brink of disaster.
They wound up coming in seventh, passing Kitchener in the tiebreaker, which turned out to be run differential in head-to-head games. As a result, they drew second place Brantford in the first round. I heard several different descriptions of how the tiebreaker was settled throughout the season; I’m pretty sure that head-to-head run differential was not one of them.
Anyways, even before game 1 was played I saw a bit of a problem with this. I have always argued that a first round match-up with Brantford was the Twins’ best shot because they’ve beaten them and played them tight in the regular season, but my thinking shifted over the last week of the season: Barrie spent the better part of a week on cruise control after clinching; Brantford, on the other hand, have been playing hard to fight for second.
Trying to jump the complacent, cruise-control team and take them by surprise seemed to me, by far, to be a better bet than taking on the Red Sox. Reality, I think, bears me out: Barrie find themselves in a shockingly tight series with Kitchener, up 2-1 but with both of their wins being by a single run. Mississauga, on the other hand, trail Brantford 2-0. I think the Twins are a better team than Kitchener, so had they drawn Barrie it’s not unthinkable that they could have the 2-1 advantage.
But the punchline is that they didn’t – they’re in a hole against Brantford and have their heads in a noose heading into tomorrow (today’s) 8.00 tilt in Brantford. If they lose, the noose is substantially tightened as they’ll trail 3-0 in the series; if they win, they’ll come home with a chance to even the series up before heading back on the road later in the week, where they normally play far better than at home.
There’s some upside for the Twins. The two games that they dropped to open the series have been very tight – the real heartbreaker was a 2-1 loss in extra innings to open the series up on Saturday night (they took a 1-0 lead in the top of the ninth and coughed it up), and today they lost 7-4, and, from what I’ve seen and read, they were right there: it was a 1-run game until Brantford put up 2 in the ninth, and given the Twins’ season it’s very likely that a couple of the Brantford runs shouldn’t have scored and/or that they missed a few chances to punch in extra runs.
Branson Joseph, I’m pretty sure it was, told the Mississauga news today that he felt the first two games of the set were the best the Twins have played all year.
So, the following factors all go in the Twins favour right now, despite how ominous a 2-0 deficit strikes most people as: they have beaten Brantford in Brantford; they’ve come close to beating Brantford at home; they’ve played very well lately; they’ll have an acute sense of urgency that Brantford will not have, being down 2-0; and, most importantly, they play a hell of a lot better on the road than at home.
Like I said, all it takes is a W tomorrow on the road, and they get to come home looking to tie the series. They’ve been very close; tomorrow could well be their day.
I’ll be at the game tomorrow – to make up for missing the 2 o’clock long-weekend Sunday home game – and on Wednesday, and likely the rest of the games from here on out (for the first round, at least).
Take a look at my game story from the Kitchener playoff-clinching win at http://www.mississaugatwins.ca/gamenotes.htm and check back tomorrow night for post-game blogging!
Showing posts with label Kitchener Panthers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kitchener Panthers. Show all posts
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Taking it Home
The Mississauga Twins clinched their first ever playoff berth in my first ever non-Christie Pitts road game, doing so with a 5-4 win over Kitchener. It is now mathematically impossible for the Hamilton Thunderbirds to finish the season tied with the Twins for the eighth seed – and final playoff spot – in the IBL.
The win also means that I’ll be skipping tomorrow’s home finale against Guelph in favour of the cottage – is it that tough of a choice, really? – but I’ll be back for the playoffs!
The game tonight was a bit sloppy – a few runners thrown out on awkward plays where they probably shouldn’t have been running (or obviously shouldn’t have been running, in hindsight), but that applied to both teams. Both teams loaded the bases with nobody out and failed to capitalize one time apiece, as well. Kitchener booted the ball around a bit – with crisper defence, Mississauga wouldn’t have built up the 4-0 lead that it did in the top of the first and we would be looking at an entirely different outcome (and playoff picture) right about now.
Shane Cole was as good as I’ve ever seen him, both in terms of stuff (his ball was both quick and lively) and results – he pitched five innings, only allowing three runs and picking up the W. Adam Banski pitched three awesome innings of relief (including the bottom of the ninth) and he again proved himself to be GM Kelcher’s best mid-season pick up. The Twins would literally have 2 or 3 (maybe as many as 4) fewer wins than they now do without him; giving him a chance to play again after Tommy John surgery was literally a season-saving decision on their part.
Darryl Pui hurt himself early in the game (a pulled hamstring, I’m told) and the Twins will need him back for the playoffs. Jeff Macleod, normally strictly a pitcher, filled in in right field and didn’t look a beat off tune the whole time. He was also smooth with the bat, having extra bases taken away from him by the Kitchener centre fielder late in the game.
His real contribution, though, came in the bottom of the ninth, when he hosed an ill-advised Panther who attempted to turn a single into a double at second base. It was actually a close play – I’m thinking it wasn’t altogether an awful decision by Kitchener to force the issue – and Macleod threw both a rocket and a strike to nail him. Without that throw, Kitchener would have had the tying run in scoring position with no one out and we could well still be playing.
The Twins and Panthers are now tied for seventh. I’m told, however, that Kitchener has the edge in a hypothetical tiebreaker, so if both teams lose tomorrow the seventh seed goes to them and the Twins fall to eighth.
That said, if Mississauga beats Guelph and Kitchener loses to Brantford tomorrow, the Twins finish the year with sole possession of seventh.
I’m not really sure anymore that there’s a real advantage to playing Brantford over Barrie in the first round. Mathematically, though, Toronto and Guelph are both still in the running for second place – so we’ll have to see how it all shakes out.
Oh yes – I didn’t update the blog to reflect some scheduling changes made on Sunday: the Twins did wind up getting in their make-up against Brantford, playing in Brantford on Monday night and losing 7-1. They were sloppy in doing so, making four errors over the course of the game.
The playoff schedule is still very much up in the air – the tentative (home) schedule that I saw had the Twins at home on Monday the 3rd, and then the following Wednesday and Saturday. But tonight there were rumours of a Saturday home game (which will be tougher for me to make, but I just might still do it anyways), so at this point I really don’t know.
I’ll try to update the blog to inform ya’ll of the dates and times of the Twins’ home games once they are confirmed, though!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Scheduling the Twins
The most important day of the Mississauga Twins’ season came and went without a single game being played that affected them. There were six games on slate for Sunday in the IBL – an absurd number for a nine team league – and only two were played; that was a doubleheader at Christie Pitts, where the Maple Leafs beat the just-clinched pennant champion Barrie Baycats twice.
All of the rained out games directly impacted the Twins in some way: Brantford-Kitchener was cancelled, and the Twins need Kitchener to continue losing if they are to have a shot at seventh place; both of the Twins’ games, including a pivotal contest against Kitchener that will determine whether or not the Twins even have a chance at the seventh spot and a rained out home game against Guelph that was only being played in Guelph due to diamond availability, were scrapped; and, lastly, the Hamilton/London game, in which a Hamilton loss would assure the Twins of a playoff spot and a Hamilton victory would force them to win at least one of their remaining games to not finish the season in a tie for eighth was also a wash.
The Hamilton-London contest will be played tomorrow, Monday, as the only game on the IBL slate, and its outcome will certainly dramatically alter, one way or another, the tone of the Twins’ final three games: there will be a big difference between playing for a playoff spot and playing with a playoff spot guaranteed and only the luxury of moving up in the standings hanging in the balance.
Mississauga’s schedule the rest of the way out is not entirely clear just yet, in part due to what appears to be an administrative error by the league. What we do know is that the Twins play Kitchener in Kitchener on Tuesday; however, the IBL website lists the Twins playing Guelph twice on Wednesday. The problem with this, of course, is that the Twins only have one game left against Guelph – their other remaining home game is a make-up against Brantford.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on – maybe there wasn’t an administrative error and the Twins actually are playing Guelph twice on Wednesday, instead of Guelph once and Brantford once. Brantford are in Kitchener Wednesday night, so it would obviously be very hard for them to play in Mississauga earlier in the day and get up there for a 7.30 start. In this case, they would have changed the schedule, obviously, having Guelph take Brantford’s place in a game against Mississauga, and while that seems highly improbable, the IBL are desperate to wrap the regular season up and it’s tough to imagine the season extending beyond Wednesday. Of course, it’s equally tough to imagine that they’d just substitute one team for another in the schedule, so I really have no idea whatsoever.
I’ve sent a couple of emails and I’ll probably follow them up with phone calls tomorrow if necessary to get concrete answers. If I do get a reply tonight that contains important information, I’ll put it up here and fire off a news post for the website.
One more thing before I go – looking at the standings, a very interesting development has cropped up: Toronto is now tied for second place with Brantford, each of them two games back of Barrie. The kicker, though, is that Brantford has played two games less than Toronto has – all the more reason to think, given that they’re now in a tie, that they absolutely must get that rain-out against Mississauga in.
Beyond that, though, the exciting part is the possibility of Mississauga finishing in seventh and Toronto second – that would set up a Battle of the GTA first round, and I’m sure it would be a lot of fun for everyone. It’s certainly an angle I’ll keep an eye on as the next few days play out!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Where We Are
The Twins have dealt with two consecutive rainouts in the past two nights, and there’s a real possibility tomorrow’s game against Brantford could be a wash as well. It’s going to be a problem because there simply aren’t enough days left in the regular season to make them up. The season officially ends Sunday; the Twins, though, play in Kitchener to make up the Wednesday rain-out and then need to play into next week to get in the Guelph game. Word right now is either Monday or Wednesday, and possibly in Guelph (despite it being a home game).
The problem is that they want to wrap things up ASAP so they can have the maximum amount of time possible to rest up for the playoffs – presumably, if they play Monday they could start the playoffs Wednesday or Thursday, and if they play Wednesday they’d have to start Thursday. Maybe they’d start as late as Friday, but I doubt it.
And what happens if the Twins finish the year tied for eighth with Hamilton and require a sudden death, one game playoff after all of the regular season games have been completed? That pushes everything back further, since that game would obviously be absolutely necessary.
Speaking of which, let’s revisit the Twins’ playoff arithmetic:
Hamilton lost tonight in London; it was as close as could possibly be with a 1-0 final. The Thunderbirds now sit two games back of the Twins for the final playoff spot – but the problem is, one of those games is composed of two half games from games which Hamilton has played that Mississauga has not.
Mississauga has three games remaining; Hamilton has one. In order for the two teams to finish in a tie, the Twins need to lose all three of their remaining games and Hamilton needs to win their last game, at home against London on Sunday. The problem is, though, that Hamilton has been playing well as of late. Earlier in the season, they were as far back of the Twins as five and six games; of the past month and a half or so, they’ve narrowed that to one game (in real terms, anyways) and recently have played Brantford to within one run (losing 8-7 earlier in the week) and also lost games by a single run to Mississauga and, tonight, London.
Coupled with all the games they’ve won recently that the Twins haven’t, there’s a very credible chance that they could upset London at home on Sunday, inasfar as the chances of upsets can be credible.
The good news, though, is that the Twins clinch a playoff spot by winning one of their remaining games. At that point, they’d the most ground they could lose to Hamilton is the two games (which are actually worth one in the standings) that are made up of games Mississauga has in hand.
The one that they really want to win is against Kitchener on Sunday. It would pull them even with Kitchener for the seventh spot, and to overtake them they’d need to win one more game than Kitchener loses. Other than the game against each other, both teams have two games remaining: Kitchener plays Toronto tomorrow and Brantford Sunday, before they play Mississauga, and Mississauga, as we know, plays Brantford tonight (Saturday) and Guelph at a yet to be determined date.
There’s a good chance that Kitchener loses to both Toronto and Brantford – both teams are good, and they’ll be playing to kill because they’re very much fighting for leverage in the standings. The problem is that the same thing could be said of Mississauga’s chances against Brantford and Guelph. Twins’ fans can take heart in the fact that the Twins almost beat Guelph on Tuesday, in a game everyone says they should have won, and have already beaten Brantford earlier in the year and played them very close on other occasions. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that they’ll pick off one of those games.
I was at the park tonight and all the players and everyone was there, but even after the game was called I didn’t bother doing any story-chasing. If tomorrow’s game is cancelled, and that would create a huge mess for everyone, I’ll likely be at the park until it’s officially off because they’ll do everything they can to get it in. When I am, I’ll try to tie down some pre-playoff loose ends I’ve been trying to pin down – conversations with newcomers, like Banski and Dickson, as well as getting injuries updates on Asis and Pui. The Twins will need them to be hot to have a fighting chance in any playoff series.
Blog at you after the game tomorrow!
PS -- I almost forgot! Jake Eliopolis, who was drafted by the Blue Jays this past June (and who is younger than me -- my God) is supposedly still with the Red Sox right now, and I've been planning on trying to chat with him for a long time but I haven't seen the Red Sox play since May 23rd, prior to his being drafted. I'm not sure if I'll do a feature on him if I get the chance to talk, due to the lack of a place to publish it (although I may well shop it around -- who knows?) but if I do talk to him, I'll definitely either paraphrase or quote what he had to say on the blog.
I've also wanted to talk to Rick Johnston, a Red Sox coach/executive who has been around Baseball Canada, the Blue Jays & really everything else baseball in Canada for quite some time. The big thing I wanted to chat about was the future of the national team -- and Ernie Whitt's future as manager -- after that debacle in March, but I was also curios to get his thoughts on what's going on with the Blue Jays right now, since I'm pretty sure he guest-coached at spring training during the Gaston Era I. Anyways, nothing against Rick, but I kind of doubt that there's a market for an article about that conversation, but it'll definitely go up here because I'm sure it'll be very interesting stuff!
The problem is that they want to wrap things up ASAP so they can have the maximum amount of time possible to rest up for the playoffs – presumably, if they play Monday they could start the playoffs Wednesday or Thursday, and if they play Wednesday they’d have to start Thursday. Maybe they’d start as late as Friday, but I doubt it.
And what happens if the Twins finish the year tied for eighth with Hamilton and require a sudden death, one game playoff after all of the regular season games have been completed? That pushes everything back further, since that game would obviously be absolutely necessary.
Speaking of which, let’s revisit the Twins’ playoff arithmetic:
Hamilton lost tonight in London; it was as close as could possibly be with a 1-0 final. The Thunderbirds now sit two games back of the Twins for the final playoff spot – but the problem is, one of those games is composed of two half games from games which Hamilton has played that Mississauga has not.
Mississauga has three games remaining; Hamilton has one. In order for the two teams to finish in a tie, the Twins need to lose all three of their remaining games and Hamilton needs to win their last game, at home against London on Sunday. The problem is, though, that Hamilton has been playing well as of late. Earlier in the season, they were as far back of the Twins as five and six games; of the past month and a half or so, they’ve narrowed that to one game (in real terms, anyways) and recently have played Brantford to within one run (losing 8-7 earlier in the week) and also lost games by a single run to Mississauga and, tonight, London.
Coupled with all the games they’ve won recently that the Twins haven’t, there’s a very credible chance that they could upset London at home on Sunday, inasfar as the chances of upsets can be credible.
The good news, though, is that the Twins clinch a playoff spot by winning one of their remaining games. At that point, they’d the most ground they could lose to Hamilton is the two games (which are actually worth one in the standings) that are made up of games Mississauga has in hand.
The one that they really want to win is against Kitchener on Sunday. It would pull them even with Kitchener for the seventh spot, and to overtake them they’d need to win one more game than Kitchener loses. Other than the game against each other, both teams have two games remaining: Kitchener plays Toronto tomorrow and Brantford Sunday, before they play Mississauga, and Mississauga, as we know, plays Brantford tonight (Saturday) and Guelph at a yet to be determined date.
There’s a good chance that Kitchener loses to both Toronto and Brantford – both teams are good, and they’ll be playing to kill because they’re very much fighting for leverage in the standings. The problem is that the same thing could be said of Mississauga’s chances against Brantford and Guelph. Twins’ fans can take heart in the fact that the Twins almost beat Guelph on Tuesday, in a game everyone says they should have won, and have already beaten Brantford earlier in the year and played them very close on other occasions. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that they’ll pick off one of those games.
I was at the park tonight and all the players and everyone was there, but even after the game was called I didn’t bother doing any story-chasing. If tomorrow’s game is cancelled, and that would create a huge mess for everyone, I’ll likely be at the park until it’s officially off because they’ll do everything they can to get it in. When I am, I’ll try to tie down some pre-playoff loose ends I’ve been trying to pin down – conversations with newcomers, like Banski and Dickson, as well as getting injuries updates on Asis and Pui. The Twins will need them to be hot to have a fighting chance in any playoff series.
Blog at you after the game tomorrow!
PS -- I almost forgot! Jake Eliopolis, who was drafted by the Blue Jays this past June (and who is younger than me -- my God) is supposedly still with the Red Sox right now, and I've been planning on trying to chat with him for a long time but I haven't seen the Red Sox play since May 23rd, prior to his being drafted. I'm not sure if I'll do a feature on him if I get the chance to talk, due to the lack of a place to publish it (although I may well shop it around -- who knows?) but if I do talk to him, I'll definitely either paraphrase or quote what he had to say on the blog.
I've also wanted to talk to Rick Johnston, a Red Sox coach/executive who has been around Baseball Canada, the Blue Jays & really everything else baseball in Canada for quite some time. The big thing I wanted to chat about was the future of the national team -- and Ernie Whitt's future as manager -- after that debacle in March, but I was also curios to get his thoughts on what's going on with the Blue Jays right now, since I'm pretty sure he guest-coached at spring training during the Gaston Era I. Anyways, nothing against Rick, but I kind of doubt that there's a market for an article about that conversation, but it'll definitely go up here because I'm sure it'll be very interesting stuff!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Cooking the Birds
(pre-post aside: sorry about the lack of coverage of the London doubleheader; it was one of those things where they lost both and there wasn’t a ton to say, other than that the real focus shifts to tonight’s game against Hamilton – which everyone already knew, anyways. There will be a game story on the Twins’ site for the doubleheader, though!)
Tonight was one of those rare nights where things played out about as well as they could have for the Twins – it’s true, a couple different bounces this way or that way, and the outcome could have been disastrous, and perhaps ‘as well as they could’ means pounding your opponent 25-0 and never having any real competition, but it’s really tough to complain at all about a walk-off win in a game that amounted to single elimination in front of the home fans.
The Twins came into tonight tied with Hamilton for the final playoff spot, and this was the final meeting between the two teams. A win and they move a comfortable game ahead; a loss and they’re behind the eight ball in a very big way. They nailed the win, and now the bigger question becomes whether or not they can leap-frog Kitchener for the seventh spot.
The game tonight was the sort of Jekyll and Hyde bipolar baseball that has characterized the Twins’ season so far – they jumped all over Hamilton to stroll to an 8-3 lead early on, and it looked like the coaching staff’s biggest decision of the evening would be the ethics of running up the score against a helpless opponent (the answer, of course, is to keep the foot on the pedal – as shown by Toronto hammering out 22 runs once upon a time against Mississauga). But starter Mike McGilvray faltered – or maybe Hamilton just started hitting better, it’s tough to say – and after an ugly six run fourth the visitors had a one run lead and seemingly all the momentum.
Mississauga, to their credit, tied it up in the bottom of the fourth, and it remained knotted at nines until the Good Guys took the lead back in the bottom of the seventh. That lead, of course, was promptly squandered in the tenth thanks to an Adam Banski throwing error, but that just set the stage for Zach Dickson’s bottom of the ninth heroics.
Anyways, the minute details of who walked who and who advanced to which base on what pitch in the dirt will all be featured in the game story, which will be up on MississaugaTwins.com soon, but there’s a few bigger stories that are worth looking at right about now:
The biggest, I think, is the performance of Adam Banksi. Don’t let the above tidbit about his throwing error fool you – he’s been an absolute godsend for the Twins since they gave him a chance to re-start his career after Tommy John surgery. He’s been about as clutch as possible, working in relief in a handful of games since debuting. He picked up the win in his first ever appearance as a Twin against Oshawa several weeks ago; he also got the win tonight, working more than three innings in outstanding relief.
I said as soon as he signed that anyone who was good enough to have been expected to contribute to Barrie’s pitching staff last year – that’s where he played before needing the surgery – would help the Twins immeasurably, and he has. He has tremendous stuff – a ‘plus’ fastball and downright nasty breaking pitches, and the Twins would be extremely lucky to have him as an anchor of their pitching staff heading into next year and beyond. With the way he has pitched so far, he is certain to command interest from other teams, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
I tried to talk to him tonight, but he left by the time I was done with coach Held’s media scrum – I might be at the game in Kitchener on Thursday, and I hope to catch up with him then.
Another pitcher who has shown great stuff is Jeff Macleod – he was cut by Barrie earlier in the year, and he’s been a reliable, veteran (although I’m not sure of his age)-type player for Mississauga thus far. He got himself into huge trouble in the top of the ninth, putting two on with no one out (including a dicey runners-on-second-and-third-with-one-out situation), but he was unfazed and worked out of with near-superhuman poise. He’s certainly commanded the coaching staff’s confidence as much as any other pitcher, and he should be a go-to guy in tough situations in the homestretch and the playoffs.
Zach Dickson has been a bonafide superstar since arriving from the States several weeks ago. He has consistently been an impact player, hitting near the top of the line up and turning in exemplary at-bats. He can work a pitcher and foul off multiple pitches with unfathomable ease, and he has the kind of inside-out swing that batting coaches dream about. He has been a lead-off hitter under both Calcagni and Held, but Held seems to have moved him into the number two slot – I think that’s a great position for him to hit out of, provided an adequate lead-off hitter can be found. Dickson can handle the bat really well, so you could use him to hit and run, play for contact, or bunt, as the situation calls for. Emmett was just fine in the lead-off slot tonight, so I think that Zach will be a big part of the offense hitting second.
So, this is getting long and I would like to knock off a few game stories before I turn in for the night. Let’s just take a brief look at the Twins’ prospects for the rest of the season first, though:
They sit a game and a half ahead of Hamilton for the final playoff spot right now. If they can win the game that they have in hand over Hamilton, that’ll jump to a two game lead; if they lose it, it’ll fall to a single game lead. Mississauga has four games remaining: tonight (Tuesday) in Guelph; Thursday in Kitchener; Friday at home against Guelph, and Saturday at home against Brantford. Hamilton has three games to go – once in Brantford and twice against London.
To overtake the Twins, Hamilton needs to win at least one of their remaining games, which seems unlikely given the way that their season has gone. Even if they can manage a single win, the best it would do is pull them into a tie with the Twins and force a sudden-death playoff game.
Mississauga, on the other hand, stands a fair chance of beating Kitchener – doing so would effectively eliminate Hamilton, since there’s just about no way that they’ll win two of their final three, which is what would need to happen if the Twins beat the Panthers. Even in the Twins lose all of their remaining games, though, it’s still very tough for the Thunderbirds to catch them in the standings, all things considered. In short, it would take the baseball equivalent of an ice fishing trip in Hell – and I’m told that those things do happen on occasion, as they have the last two years when the Mets collapsed in September – for the Twins to altogether miss the playoffs.
More exciting, though, is the arithmetic surrounding the possibility of the Twins jumping into the seventh spot. The Panthers have three games left – one each against Mississauga, Toronto, and Brantford. Unless they beat Mississauga, they’re very likely to go 0-3.
Right now, Kitchener is a half-game ahead of the Twins, and that half-game is because of the fact that they’ve played one more game than the Twins, which they happened to win.
If they beat the Twins Thursday, they’ll jump to a game and a half ahead of the Twins, and it’ll then become very difficult for the Twins to overtake them.
But, if the Twins win, they’ll slip a half-game ahead of Kitchener, and a full game ahead if they can win one of their remaining games (to make up for the game in hand). If Mississauga beats Kitchener and loses the rest of their remaining games, they’ll finish tied with Kitchener for the final spot – provided that Kitchener doesn’t upset Brantford or Toronto. I’ll have to do some research on seventh-place tie breakers and get back to you guys about how that’ll work.
So, this is how it sits for the Twins right now:
Sole possession of seventh: beat Kitchener Thursday and win one other game
Tie for seventh: beat Kitchener Thursday and lose all the other games
Sole possession of eighth: lose all remaining games, Kitchener included.
Wow, that’s a lot to process for one night! I’m off to try to tackle some game stories – I’m likely to attend the game in Kitchener, so I’ll blog on it after. Comments are always welcome and will be responded to!
Tonight was one of those rare nights where things played out about as well as they could have for the Twins – it’s true, a couple different bounces this way or that way, and the outcome could have been disastrous, and perhaps ‘as well as they could’ means pounding your opponent 25-0 and never having any real competition, but it’s really tough to complain at all about a walk-off win in a game that amounted to single elimination in front of the home fans.
The Twins came into tonight tied with Hamilton for the final playoff spot, and this was the final meeting between the two teams. A win and they move a comfortable game ahead; a loss and they’re behind the eight ball in a very big way. They nailed the win, and now the bigger question becomes whether or not they can leap-frog Kitchener for the seventh spot.
The game tonight was the sort of Jekyll and Hyde bipolar baseball that has characterized the Twins’ season so far – they jumped all over Hamilton to stroll to an 8-3 lead early on, and it looked like the coaching staff’s biggest decision of the evening would be the ethics of running up the score against a helpless opponent (the answer, of course, is to keep the foot on the pedal – as shown by Toronto hammering out 22 runs once upon a time against Mississauga). But starter Mike McGilvray faltered – or maybe Hamilton just started hitting better, it’s tough to say – and after an ugly six run fourth the visitors had a one run lead and seemingly all the momentum.
Mississauga, to their credit, tied it up in the bottom of the fourth, and it remained knotted at nines until the Good Guys took the lead back in the bottom of the seventh. That lead, of course, was promptly squandered in the tenth thanks to an Adam Banski throwing error, but that just set the stage for Zach Dickson’s bottom of the ninth heroics.
Anyways, the minute details of who walked who and who advanced to which base on what pitch in the dirt will all be featured in the game story, which will be up on MississaugaTwins.com soon, but there’s a few bigger stories that are worth looking at right about now:
The biggest, I think, is the performance of Adam Banksi. Don’t let the above tidbit about his throwing error fool you – he’s been an absolute godsend for the Twins since they gave him a chance to re-start his career after Tommy John surgery. He’s been about as clutch as possible, working in relief in a handful of games since debuting. He picked up the win in his first ever appearance as a Twin against Oshawa several weeks ago; he also got the win tonight, working more than three innings in outstanding relief.
I said as soon as he signed that anyone who was good enough to have been expected to contribute to Barrie’s pitching staff last year – that’s where he played before needing the surgery – would help the Twins immeasurably, and he has. He has tremendous stuff – a ‘plus’ fastball and downright nasty breaking pitches, and the Twins would be extremely lucky to have him as an anchor of their pitching staff heading into next year and beyond. With the way he has pitched so far, he is certain to command interest from other teams, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
I tried to talk to him tonight, but he left by the time I was done with coach Held’s media scrum – I might be at the game in Kitchener on Thursday, and I hope to catch up with him then.
Another pitcher who has shown great stuff is Jeff Macleod – he was cut by Barrie earlier in the year, and he’s been a reliable, veteran (although I’m not sure of his age)-type player for Mississauga thus far. He got himself into huge trouble in the top of the ninth, putting two on with no one out (including a dicey runners-on-second-and-third-with-one-out situation), but he was unfazed and worked out of with near-superhuman poise. He’s certainly commanded the coaching staff’s confidence as much as any other pitcher, and he should be a go-to guy in tough situations in the homestretch and the playoffs.
Zach Dickson has been a bonafide superstar since arriving from the States several weeks ago. He has consistently been an impact player, hitting near the top of the line up and turning in exemplary at-bats. He can work a pitcher and foul off multiple pitches with unfathomable ease, and he has the kind of inside-out swing that batting coaches dream about. He has been a lead-off hitter under both Calcagni and Held, but Held seems to have moved him into the number two slot – I think that’s a great position for him to hit out of, provided an adequate lead-off hitter can be found. Dickson can handle the bat really well, so you could use him to hit and run, play for contact, or bunt, as the situation calls for. Emmett was just fine in the lead-off slot tonight, so I think that Zach will be a big part of the offense hitting second.
So, this is getting long and I would like to knock off a few game stories before I turn in for the night. Let’s just take a brief look at the Twins’ prospects for the rest of the season first, though:
They sit a game and a half ahead of Hamilton for the final playoff spot right now. If they can win the game that they have in hand over Hamilton, that’ll jump to a two game lead; if they lose it, it’ll fall to a single game lead. Mississauga has four games remaining: tonight (Tuesday) in Guelph; Thursday in Kitchener; Friday at home against Guelph, and Saturday at home against Brantford. Hamilton has three games to go – once in Brantford and twice against London.
To overtake the Twins, Hamilton needs to win at least one of their remaining games, which seems unlikely given the way that their season has gone. Even if they can manage a single win, the best it would do is pull them into a tie with the Twins and force a sudden-death playoff game.
Mississauga, on the other hand, stands a fair chance of beating Kitchener – doing so would effectively eliminate Hamilton, since there’s just about no way that they’ll win two of their final three, which is what would need to happen if the Twins beat the Panthers. Even in the Twins lose all of their remaining games, though, it’s still very tough for the Thunderbirds to catch them in the standings, all things considered. In short, it would take the baseball equivalent of an ice fishing trip in Hell – and I’m told that those things do happen on occasion, as they have the last two years when the Mets collapsed in September – for the Twins to altogether miss the playoffs.
More exciting, though, is the arithmetic surrounding the possibility of the Twins jumping into the seventh spot. The Panthers have three games left – one each against Mississauga, Toronto, and Brantford. Unless they beat Mississauga, they’re very likely to go 0-3.
Right now, Kitchener is a half-game ahead of the Twins, and that half-game is because of the fact that they’ve played one more game than the Twins, which they happened to win.
If they beat the Twins Thursday, they’ll jump to a game and a half ahead of the Twins, and it’ll then become very difficult for the Twins to overtake them.
But, if the Twins win, they’ll slip a half-game ahead of Kitchener, and a full game ahead if they can win one of their remaining games (to make up for the game in hand). If Mississauga beats Kitchener and loses the rest of their remaining games, they’ll finish tied with Kitchener for the final spot – provided that Kitchener doesn’t upset Brantford or Toronto. I’ll have to do some research on seventh-place tie breakers and get back to you guys about how that’ll work.
So, this is how it sits for the Twins right now:
Sole possession of seventh: beat Kitchener Thursday and win one other game
Tie for seventh: beat Kitchener Thursday and lose all the other games
Sole possession of eighth: lose all remaining games, Kitchener included.
Wow, that’s a lot to process for one night! I’m off to try to tackle some game stories – I’m likely to attend the game in Kitchener, so I’ll blog on it after. Comments are always welcome and will be responded to!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Kicking the Skid
The Twins snapped a nasty seven game skid tonight at home against the Kitchener Panthers – fittingly, more or less everything that went wrong for them during the streak went right tonight, and the players’ relief was quite apparent after the game when I did my interviews.
The final score was 7-3, so one could fairly call it a decisive win. They got a stellar outing from Luis Castillo – exact numbers in my game stories, which should likely be up early in the week – and Shane Cole came in to shut Kitchener down. Castillo, if memory serves, only walked two Panthers, and if memory serves further, starters walking south of five guys per game was a huge problem during the streak.
The Twins were stellar in the clutch tonight – several big hits with runners in scoring position; they busted it open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, including an RBI double that Henry Duke absolutely crushed off the wall. Duke, by the way, went on to add a two run homer in the seventh to put things out of reach. George Mensah also had a bomb for the Twins in the bottom of the second; it answered the Panthers’ first inning solo shot and knotted the game at one.
Unlike games past, I spoke to a couple of players in addition to coach Calcagni afterwards. I talked to Duke, which seemed fitting after his big offensive night, and he provided some interesting and insightful thoughts on his hitting – apparently, he had been killing the ball of late, but right at the centre fielder, which led to several 0 for’s with a bunch of loud outs. He forced himself to make the adjustment and start hitting to the left and right side, and the results spoke for themselves.
I also chatted with Castillo, who seemed relaxed and relieved after the W. He told me his curveball wasn’t working properly – and it’s true, a lot of pitches stayed up, above the chest, that looked like they were meant to break downward – but that his cutter compensated. Whatever it was, it wound up working fabulously and Castillo’s effort tonight is a big reason why the Twins are looking to start a streak in the other direction rather than break out of what would be an eight game death spiral.
I really like talking to the players – they’re all very media-friendly – and the reason I haven’t been talking to them lately has a lot more to do with the fact that they usually disappear pretty quickly after the games than a lack of interest on my part. I will certainly be trying to make players’ comments a regular part of my coverage from here on out.
Everyone I talked to seemed very relieved to have picked up the win – not that anyone is ever unhappy after a win, but you could tell it was a big one for them. The manner in which they came out and pasted a team that had beaten them by a single run in a game they should won at the height of their losing streak goes a long way to confirm what I – and most other people – have been saying all along, which is that they are far better than their record AND more than capable of hanging with every team in the league. Frankly, I think they are a far better team than Kitchener and I think it would take a bad game on the Twins’ part to see them lose to the Panthers again.
Coach C told me that as a team they’re trying to be a bit more aggressive – especially when it comes to solid secondary leads – and I think that came through tonight. An impressive first to third caught my eye, as did a steal of home on a passed ball. Aggression is obviously a good addition to any team; with the Twins being really young, you’d think they’re predisposed to be a fast team and it will be interesting to see if adding that element to their game can put them over the top.
Guelph is up next – it’ll be a good test; as you may remember, the Twins were slaughtered in Guelph by a count of 9-0 during that skid. It was an awfully played game by the Twins, and Guelph was tied with Kitchener in the standings going into tonight’s action, so we’ll see how the Twins handle them tomorrow. Look for more post-game bloggage around this time tomorrow!
The final score was 7-3, so one could fairly call it a decisive win. They got a stellar outing from Luis Castillo – exact numbers in my game stories, which should likely be up early in the week – and Shane Cole came in to shut Kitchener down. Castillo, if memory serves, only walked two Panthers, and if memory serves further, starters walking south of five guys per game was a huge problem during the streak.
The Twins were stellar in the clutch tonight – several big hits with runners in scoring position; they busted it open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, including an RBI double that Henry Duke absolutely crushed off the wall. Duke, by the way, went on to add a two run homer in the seventh to put things out of reach. George Mensah also had a bomb for the Twins in the bottom of the second; it answered the Panthers’ first inning solo shot and knotted the game at one.
Unlike games past, I spoke to a couple of players in addition to coach Calcagni afterwards. I talked to Duke, which seemed fitting after his big offensive night, and he provided some interesting and insightful thoughts on his hitting – apparently, he had been killing the ball of late, but right at the centre fielder, which led to several 0 for’s with a bunch of loud outs. He forced himself to make the adjustment and start hitting to the left and right side, and the results spoke for themselves.
I also chatted with Castillo, who seemed relaxed and relieved after the W. He told me his curveball wasn’t working properly – and it’s true, a lot of pitches stayed up, above the chest, that looked like they were meant to break downward – but that his cutter compensated. Whatever it was, it wound up working fabulously and Castillo’s effort tonight is a big reason why the Twins are looking to start a streak in the other direction rather than break out of what would be an eight game death spiral.
I really like talking to the players – they’re all very media-friendly – and the reason I haven’t been talking to them lately has a lot more to do with the fact that they usually disappear pretty quickly after the games than a lack of interest on my part. I will certainly be trying to make players’ comments a regular part of my coverage from here on out.
Everyone I talked to seemed very relieved to have picked up the win – not that anyone is ever unhappy after a win, but you could tell it was a big one for them. The manner in which they came out and pasted a team that had beaten them by a single run in a game they should won at the height of their losing streak goes a long way to confirm what I – and most other people – have been saying all along, which is that they are far better than their record AND more than capable of hanging with every team in the league. Frankly, I think they are a far better team than Kitchener and I think it would take a bad game on the Twins’ part to see them lose to the Panthers again.
Coach C told me that as a team they’re trying to be a bit more aggressive – especially when it comes to solid secondary leads – and I think that came through tonight. An impressive first to third caught my eye, as did a steal of home on a passed ball. Aggression is obviously a good addition to any team; with the Twins being really young, you’d think they’re predisposed to be a fast team and it will be interesting to see if adding that element to their game can put them over the top.
Guelph is up next – it’ll be a good test; as you may remember, the Twins were slaughtered in Guelph by a count of 9-0 during that skid. It was an awfully played game by the Twins, and Guelph was tied with Kitchener in the standings going into tonight’s action, so we’ll see how the Twins handle them tomorrow. Look for more post-game bloggage around this time tomorrow!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Riding the Skid
It's been a while off the beat, but it looks like I’ll be back in a big way for the next little while – as it stands, I think I should be at the next five Twins’ games, so that should provide a chance for some consistent coverage and I can sharpen my understanding of the team as they hit the homestretch.
They are certainly scuffling – after beating Brantford in Brantford, they went on to drop seven straight and that streak is very much alive heading into tomorrow’s home game against Kitchener. That, of course, would be the same Kitchener team they lost to by a single run two weeks ago.
After that, they host London on Saturday and head to Christie Pitts to play the Maple Leafs on Sunday. The Leafs, surprisingly, are at 10-6 and only two and a half games out of first place; many of the Leafs’ devoted perennial followers seemed to think they were a weaker team this year than in years past when I spoke to a few the last time they played the Twins.
Before I get too far, I should selfishly and shamelessly plug a Jays article I wrote for U of T’s paper recently:
http://thevarsity.ca/article/19318
Anyways, back to the Twins (and things). At 5-11, they presently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. Hamilton is four and a half games out; interestingly, the low point of the Twins’ skid thus far came when they fell to the Thunderbirds in Hamilton, giving the T-Birds their first (and to date only) win of the season. I still don’t think the Twins need to be genuinely concerned about the possibility of being overtaken by the lowly Birds, but if their losing streak continues and Hamilton can string a few together (that being, by the way, far less probable than the Twins continuing to lose, as far as I can see) it could certainly be tight heading into the homestretch.
That said, there are four teams within four games of the Twins, and as the season develops I fully expect a few of them will drop a bit and a few will rise. Conversely, I am near certain that the Twins are far better than that sub-.333 winning percentage, and they should pick up a few games against a couple of the teams above them. All in all, I still think the Twins will do better than eighth place – but hey, sometimes the whole expansion team thing is just too much to overcome and a team scuffles all year. We’ll see, obviously.
That attempt to climb in the standings begins tomorrow against Kitchener, who sit three games up on the Twins. London is actually tied with Kitchener, and it would be meaningful if they could pick up games against both teams this weekend.
I’m awfully tired tonight, so this is as long as it gets, I think. Look for post-game bloggage tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday night! I have a few general and a few specific things to say about the team that I haven’t gone into tonight, so my blog posts throughout the weekend will have that stuff scattered throughout.
And you’ll all be heartbroken to learn that I’ve yet to write those feature pieces for an insert in the Twins’ published-once-a-year program. Rightly or wrong – probably wrongly – I’ve felt swamped for the past little bit, not to mention having been out of town for four days out of the past week, so I just haven’t gotten around to them. I’m trying to settle down and focus on doing some substantive writing over the next little while, so they should get done soon.
They are certainly scuffling – after beating Brantford in Brantford, they went on to drop seven straight and that streak is very much alive heading into tomorrow’s home game against Kitchener. That, of course, would be the same Kitchener team they lost to by a single run two weeks ago.
After that, they host London on Saturday and head to Christie Pitts to play the Maple Leafs on Sunday. The Leafs, surprisingly, are at 10-6 and only two and a half games out of first place; many of the Leafs’ devoted perennial followers seemed to think they were a weaker team this year than in years past when I spoke to a few the last time they played the Twins.
Before I get too far, I should selfishly and shamelessly plug a Jays article I wrote for U of T’s paper recently:
http://thevarsity.ca/article/19318
Anyways, back to the Twins (and things). At 5-11, they presently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. Hamilton is four and a half games out; interestingly, the low point of the Twins’ skid thus far came when they fell to the Thunderbirds in Hamilton, giving the T-Birds their first (and to date only) win of the season. I still don’t think the Twins need to be genuinely concerned about the possibility of being overtaken by the lowly Birds, but if their losing streak continues and Hamilton can string a few together (that being, by the way, far less probable than the Twins continuing to lose, as far as I can see) it could certainly be tight heading into the homestretch.
That said, there are four teams within four games of the Twins, and as the season develops I fully expect a few of them will drop a bit and a few will rise. Conversely, I am near certain that the Twins are far better than that sub-.333 winning percentage, and they should pick up a few games against a couple of the teams above them. All in all, I still think the Twins will do better than eighth place – but hey, sometimes the whole expansion team thing is just too much to overcome and a team scuffles all year. We’ll see, obviously.
That attempt to climb in the standings begins tomorrow against Kitchener, who sit three games up on the Twins. London is actually tied with Kitchener, and it would be meaningful if they could pick up games against both teams this weekend.
I’m awfully tired tonight, so this is as long as it gets, I think. Look for post-game bloggage tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday night! I have a few general and a few specific things to say about the team that I haven’t gone into tonight, so my blog posts throughout the weekend will have that stuff scattered throughout.
And you’ll all be heartbroken to learn that I’ve yet to write those feature pieces for an insert in the Twins’ published-once-a-year program. Rightly or wrong – probably wrongly – I’ve felt swamped for the past little bit, not to mention having been out of town for four days out of the past week, so I just haven’t gotten around to them. I’m trying to settle down and focus on doing some substantive writing over the next little while, so they should get done soon.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
On a Chilly Saturday...
The Twins were edged on Saturday night by the Kitchener Panthers – the final score was 6-5, and, mercifully, it was a bit more exciting than the Friday game. I’ve put off writing my game stories until tomorrow or so, and I don’t have my notes in front of me, nor do I care to go get them, so I’ll see what I remember.
The big story – I think – was that the Twins were a hell of a lot more aggressive on the basepaths than I have ever seen them be. By any standard, they were very aggressive. A couple of double steals; a straight steal of third; a steal of second to put the tying run in scoring position with two out in the bottom of the eighth. Matt Calcagni – who just joined the team after being released by a Northern League squad – had a really great at-bat in I think the fifth or so. He wound up striking out, but he fouled off about four or five pitches with a full count. Funny thing is, there were guys on first and second and they ran on each full count pitch, so they got their work in. And despite the strike out, the double steal was successful!
Coach Calcagni told us afterwards that as a team they want to be a bit more aggressive on the basepaths, and that the steals were called by him. I don’t think they lost any baserunners to over-aggression last night, so he certainly picked his spots. There will be some more precise comments from him about that part of the game in my story, whenever it is eventually written.
In terms of pitching, this time Brian Speck came out of the’ pen to do some long-relief work – he picked up Benson Merritt, who was pretty mediocre. As I remember it, both guys walked far too many batters. Anyways, this was a case of Speck being sent to the ‘pen to work out whatever issues kept him from being dominant as a starter. On the balance, he was fine – he certainly kept the Twins in the game, but the Panthers put up a crooked number on him late in the game to give themselves some breathing room, and obviously that wound up being the difference.
Another pitcher who really impressed me was Adam Zorzit – he worked a single inning of relief, and he has great stuff. It doesn’t break ten to twelve inches the way Mike McGilvray’s stuff does, but it buzzes and is pretty electric. He picked up the save in their first ever game in Hamilton, and even though I haven’t seen a lot of the Twins’ pen, I have to think I would be pretty comfortable putting him in for most save opportunities. When it’s up, I’ll take a look at tonight’s boxscore and see if he was put in to protect the one run lead, and now that I think of it I may as well check some of their previous wins and see what his role has been. If he isn’t the closer, the closer is pretty good – I’ll say that much!
To look at some long-term prognosis stuff: the Twins, having won a make-up game tonight in Oshawa by a count of 3-2, sit at 5-6. Not ideal, but far above anything that could have reasonably been expected of an expansion club. A few people have told me that they think the record is what it is because it’s a really young team that just needs to grow into hanging with some of the teams that have been together for years and years, and I think that theory may have some truth to it, as far as accounting for the actual wins and losses goes. Coach C said – and this will be in either the game piece or something else (more on that later) – he’s thrilled with where the team is, and if I were in his position I would probably feel the same. Baseball being baseball, as long as you know you can hang with anyone in the league – and the Twins now know that – it’s all about executing once you get into a short playoff series.
Anyways, we’ve been talking about some vague journalistic plans for my coverage of the team for a while now, and they’ve sort of materialized: we’re hoping, subject to executive approval, to run an insert in the programs given out at games with a feature piece (written by me, of course!) about the success of opening day/the arrival of the Twins in Mississauga/the results thus far/some kind of encouraging spin on the future and a feature player profile on Ryan Assis. I’ve always liked his story – because he left the BayCats specifically to play for his hometown team – and I finally got to talk to him after the Saturday game. The hope (at least on my end) is to turn that insert into a regularly changing feature – probably more general pieces about the overall direction of the team, organizational news and so on, and then one or two player profiles per issue.
I think that’s all I have to say. I’m not sure when I’ll be back on the beat – two weeks, maybe? I’ll see about contacting coach C to get enough material to do game pieces for the away ones I miss. I’ll probably blog mid-week or something with some Blue Jays material and misc. Twins news/comments!
The big story – I think – was that the Twins were a hell of a lot more aggressive on the basepaths than I have ever seen them be. By any standard, they were very aggressive. A couple of double steals; a straight steal of third; a steal of second to put the tying run in scoring position with two out in the bottom of the eighth. Matt Calcagni – who just joined the team after being released by a Northern League squad – had a really great at-bat in I think the fifth or so. He wound up striking out, but he fouled off about four or five pitches with a full count. Funny thing is, there were guys on first and second and they ran on each full count pitch, so they got their work in. And despite the strike out, the double steal was successful!
Coach Calcagni told us afterwards that as a team they want to be a bit more aggressive on the basepaths, and that the steals were called by him. I don’t think they lost any baserunners to over-aggression last night, so he certainly picked his spots. There will be some more precise comments from him about that part of the game in my story, whenever it is eventually written.
In terms of pitching, this time Brian Speck came out of the’ pen to do some long-relief work – he picked up Benson Merritt, who was pretty mediocre. As I remember it, both guys walked far too many batters. Anyways, this was a case of Speck being sent to the ‘pen to work out whatever issues kept him from being dominant as a starter. On the balance, he was fine – he certainly kept the Twins in the game, but the Panthers put up a crooked number on him late in the game to give themselves some breathing room, and obviously that wound up being the difference.
Another pitcher who really impressed me was Adam Zorzit – he worked a single inning of relief, and he has great stuff. It doesn’t break ten to twelve inches the way Mike McGilvray’s stuff does, but it buzzes and is pretty electric. He picked up the save in their first ever game in Hamilton, and even though I haven’t seen a lot of the Twins’ pen, I have to think I would be pretty comfortable putting him in for most save opportunities. When it’s up, I’ll take a look at tonight’s boxscore and see if he was put in to protect the one run lead, and now that I think of it I may as well check some of their previous wins and see what his role has been. If he isn’t the closer, the closer is pretty good – I’ll say that much!
To look at some long-term prognosis stuff: the Twins, having won a make-up game tonight in Oshawa by a count of 3-2, sit at 5-6. Not ideal, but far above anything that could have reasonably been expected of an expansion club. A few people have told me that they think the record is what it is because it’s a really young team that just needs to grow into hanging with some of the teams that have been together for years and years, and I think that theory may have some truth to it, as far as accounting for the actual wins and losses goes. Coach C said – and this will be in either the game piece or something else (more on that later) – he’s thrilled with where the team is, and if I were in his position I would probably feel the same. Baseball being baseball, as long as you know you can hang with anyone in the league – and the Twins now know that – it’s all about executing once you get into a short playoff series.
Anyways, we’ve been talking about some vague journalistic plans for my coverage of the team for a while now, and they’ve sort of materialized: we’re hoping, subject to executive approval, to run an insert in the programs given out at games with a feature piece (written by me, of course!) about the success of opening day/the arrival of the Twins in Mississauga/the results thus far/some kind of encouraging spin on the future and a feature player profile on Ryan Assis. I’ve always liked his story – because he left the BayCats specifically to play for his hometown team – and I finally got to talk to him after the Saturday game. The hope (at least on my end) is to turn that insert into a regularly changing feature – probably more general pieces about the overall direction of the team, organizational news and so on, and then one or two player profiles per issue.
I think that’s all I have to say. I’m not sure when I’ll be back on the beat – two weeks, maybe? I’ll see about contacting coach C to get enough material to do game pieces for the away ones I miss. I’ll probably blog mid-week or something with some Blue Jays material and misc. Twins news/comments!
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