Nine after 9 for June 25, 2012

River Bandits 4
Timber Rattlers 1
Boxscore | Game Story

1. Take a look at the highlights.  Those are some nice defensive plays in there.
2. You will also notice that both of the triples by Chadwin Stang and Yadiel Rivera went to the opposite field.  Both were line drives.
3. By the way, Stang now with a three game hitting streak (5-for-10).
   
4. Ben McMahan got robbed twice on Monday night.  Luis Mateo speared a line drive up the middle with a back handed catch in the fifth.  Virgil Hill made a leaping catch against the centerfield wall in the seventh.
5. Mitch Haniger got to show off his arm a little bit on Monday.  He hosed Anth0ny Garcia at the plate in the fourth inning.  Haniger plays a shallow center and it paid off for him when he came in on the single by David Medina  and threw a strike to the plate in the fourth.  Haniger also singled in the ninth and scored.  He has a three game hitting streak, too.
6. Mark Williams was fine through four innings and allowed just one run.  But, the back-to-back walks to a pair of .190 hitters in the fifth seemed to throw him off a bit.  Then, Matt Williams hit his home run and – the way that Dail Villanueva was pitching on Monday – that was more than enough.
7. Nice work by Kevin Shackelford and Stephen Peterson out of the bullpen.  They retired the final 13 River Bandits in a row with four strikeouts.  Watch for the innings for the relievers to go up a bit in the second half as the number of tandems start to go down.  The bullpen will be a key in the second half for the Rattlers.
8. If you saw the Rattlers lineup on Monday, you noticed that all of the players were right-handed hitters to face the left-handed Villanueva.  Heading into Monday’s game, the nine Rattlers in the lineup were a combined 123-for-418 (.294) against lefties.  Heading into Monday’s game, right-handed hitters had an average of .284 against Villanueva.  In Monday’s game, Wisconsin managed three hits in 24 at bats against Villanueva.  Sometimes I really hate baseball.
9. There’s another game tomorrow. That’s what I really love about baseball.