Sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to neatly sum up what’s happened that day. Sometimes, the day just…ends. – Aaron Hotchner, Criminal Minds

Wisconsin 0
Peoria 6
Boxscore | Game Story

Saturday was the third time Wisconsin has been shutout, but the first time they have been shutout in a nine inning game.  The previous two times had happened in a seven inning game as part of a doubleheader.

Alfredo Rodriguez now with an eight-game hitting streak and Adam Giacalone now with a six-game hitting streak.  Both went 1-for-4 in the game.

Tyler Wagner had another quality start.  He has four quality starts in seven starts this season.  He walked two, struck out seven, and deserved a better fate.

Rodolfo Fernandez didn’t mess around when he came into the game.  He faced five batters and made sixteen pitches-11 strikes-to retired four of those five batters.

I’m looking through my scoresheet trying to find something else, but the only other positive that I can find is that there is another game tomorrow.

Get ‘em tomorrow.

Enthusiasm is followed by disappointment and even depression, and then by renewed enthusiasm. – Murray Gell-Mann

Nothing to do with tonight’s game. But, to the right is the old fence. To the left is the ribbon board that cut down the distance for a home run to right about five feet.

Timber Rattlers 3
River Bandits 4
Boxscore | Game Story

Max Walla wasted no time getting back into the swing of things.  Just talked to him on the bus and he just said that it’s been a long time.  A double, a single, and a a run scored.  Solid first game back.

The Rattlers didn’t try to steal on Roberto Peña on Friday.  They did try to hit-and-run.  It’s just that hit part was unsuccessful and the run part ended up being a caught stealing.

I think that I covered the first run of the game in enough detail in the game story, but for those of you who missed it or didn’t click on the link…Tyrone Taylor was running on a 3-2 pitch with two outs.  Victor Roache singled to right.  The outfield was shifted well off the line. Taylor kept running and running and Matt Erickson waved him home.  Taylor raced home and easily beat the throw.

I’m saying that Tyrone Taylor is fast.

Quad Cities manager Omar Lopez was ejected in the second inning on a play at third.  Taylor’s grounder rolled up the third base line.  There were runners on first and second with two outs.  Rio Ruiz stood on third, stretched for the ball, and appeared to have the ball roll into the glove in fair territory for the force out to end the inning.  The ball was ruled a foul ball and Lopez…disagreed.  The slow burn started on a check swing call that went against the River Bandits earlier in the inning.   This call set him off.

That leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth almost didn’t happen if Ariel Ovando had anything to say about it.  Eric Semmelhack threw a really nice pitch on the outside corner on a 1-2 pitch.  Ovando dropped the bat off his shoulder in a dejected manner and started to walk to the Quad Cities dugout.  But, the pitch was ruled a ball.  The at bat continued. He walked.

That started a chain of events that happen in baseball and bad fiction:

Teoscar Hernandez pinch-ran for the right fielder and eventually scored the go ahead run on a passed ball.
Teoscar Hernandez went in to play defense and took over in center as Jordan Scott moved to right field in the top of the ninth.
Teoscar Hernandez made a spectacular running catch with his back to the infield on a deep fly ball off the bat of Chris McFarland to end the game with the tying run racing for home plate.

None of that happens without the walk to Ariel Ovando that he thought was a strikeout.

One play that has me puzzled…A lot….  Adam Giacalone singled to start the top of the ninth.  Jose Sermo came on to pinch run.  Parker Berberet was at the plate.  The Bandits were expecting a bunt…Well, most of the Bandits were expecting a bunt.  Ruiz charged from third.  Miles Hamblin, the first baseman, charged from first.  Daniel Minor, the pitcher,….he whirled and threw to Hamblin?  Hard. Had Hamblin not got his glove up in time the ball would have got him in the face.  There was a long conference on the mound about defensive signals.  But, while that happened, Matt Erickson was talking things over and wondering why there was no balk called.  The throw was not to the base.  I don’t have my rule book handy and I may need to look it up later, but I’m pretty sure that the throw needs to go to a base in that spot.   The reason Matt got for no balk call was that the throw was towards a base?

I really need to look that up.

On the bus to Peoria.  Running out of battery life.  Gotta run.  I may revise and extend this post once we get to the hotel.  I may just go to bed and wake up fresh for tomorrow.  We’ll know in an hour or so.

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started. – Marcus Tullius Cicero

A reminder why we can’t do in game photos at Modern Woodmen Park

Window. Still. Doesn’t. Open.

Wisconsin 7
Quad Cities 4
Boxscore | Game Story | MiLB.com Story

Jorge Lopez with six no-hit innings.  More on that in a bit.  First,  confidence? Did someone say confidence?

“I’m really, really excited, because the last couple starts, my delivery is getting better. I’m confident with all my pitches,” [Lopez] said. “I feel like the last two starts, I am getting better. I had a couple walks, but that happens in this game.”

A couple walks would be five, but… SEVEN strikeouts!  What say you, pitching coach David Chavarria?

“He’s making big strides, from his first outing where he got roughed up a little bit, leaving pitches up in the zone, to now where his mound presence is better. He’s trusting his stuff more,” Rattlers pitching coach David Chavarria said. “It’s just a confidence factor that he knows he belongs, and credit to him, he’s putting the work in every day on it. That’s the big part. Some guys have a little bit of success and they’re feeling comfortable ’cause they had a good outing and they tend to sit back and coast, but this kid keeps working and working and working. We’re real happy with his progress.”

Unofficially, I had Lopez at 96 pitches (53 strikes).  My old high school baseball coach used to call that effectively wild.

But, seriously he worked up and down, in and out, fast and slow.  His back-to-back strikeouts of Teoscar Hernandez and Carlos Correa in the sixth inning were perfect in the way he got them to chase the pitches that they had no chance of hitting.  The strikeout of Correa to end the night for Lopez was a rising fastball on a 3-2 pitch that Correa could not lay off even though it was nowhere near the strike zone.

Not sure on velocity.  There is no pitch speed indicator, but he sounded like he had really good pop on the fast ball…even 90 pitches into the outing.

Final word on Lopez to Chavy:

“Tonight it took a little bit for him to realize why we were taking him out. then he realized, but that’s the look you want from a guy, to want to go out there and have the mentality to finish what he started. Tonight he had that look a little bit in his eye. It was a big stepping stone for him to build on.”

Rodolfo Fernandez did not mess around in the ninth inning.  Seven pitches – five strikes – for a three-up, three-down inning and his second save of the season.

Offense Anyone?

I’ll get to the homer by Victor Roache in a minute.  I want to talk about his double in the third inning.   He got pitched way in, but managed to get the bat around, kept his hands inside the baseball for a ball that went down the left field line for a fair ball and an RBI double.  If he wasn’t correct on his swing technique, that ball hooks foul.   Instead, a line drive double to left.

Roache left the stadium with his home run in the fifth inning.   He left the stadium with a foul ball last night.  But, this one stayed fair and there was a stunned silence in the stadium as he trotted around the bases.  It’s 343′ to left, one of the deeper distances down the line in the MWL and this thing….My god, it’s full of stars….That’s what the baseball said after Roache made contact…I like to think that it felt a little like this:

Alfredo Rodriguez stepped into the leadoff role tonight and he took a five-pitch walk to start the game and scored on the double by Tyrone Taylor.  In the third he singled and scored on a triple by Michael Reed.  Officially, he went 1-for-4, moved his hitting streak to six games, and kept his average at .255.  Plus, he played a solid shortstop as Orlando Arcia got the night off on Thursday.

Clint Coulter had one hit and was robbed of another on a diving catch by Jordan Scott in left field.  But, that one hit pushed his hitting streak to five games and bumped his average to .194….That might not sound like much, but he was hitting .165 before this hitting streak started.

Mitch Haniger played 14 games with the Timber Rattlers in 2012.  He played 41 games with the Timber Rattlers in 2013.  He was promoted to Brevard County early on Thursday.  His time with the Rattlers was brief but you can’t help but pull for him to do well as he moves up the ladder.  Especially after seeing this tweet from earlier today:

Couldn’t ask for better teammates,Coaches, and fans with the #TRats. Good luck the rest of the way I will be following closely!

— Mitch Haniger (@M_Hanny19) May 23, 2013

We’ll be following and pulling for you, too.

Rattlers are back at .500.  They are 21-21.  Here’s the link to the current standings through Thursday’s action in the MWL.  Cedar Rapids and Beloit in the top two spots.  Beloit has won six in a row.  Quad Cities has lost six in a row.  Wisconsin is 4-1/2 games behind Beloit and 7-1/2 games behind Cedar Rapids.  There is Peoria, Clinton, and Quad Cities standing between the Rattlers and Beloit.  There 25 games left in the half. 

Games remaining in the half for the Rattlers:
QC: Away 1
PEO: Away 3, Home 4
BEL: Away 6, Home 3
CLN: Home 3
KC: Away 5

Oh, you really want to see what a photo of the field looks like from the radio booth during the game.

Pay no attention to the be camera lens in the reflection.

The triple is the most exciting play in baseball. Home runs win a lot of games, but I never understood why fans are so obsessed with them. – Hank Aaron

I may need to add a 12th inning…Don’t JUDGE my handwriting!

Timber Rattlers 12
River Bandits 5
FINAL – 11 Innings
Boxscore | Game Story

You never know when history is going to occur.  Michael Reed had three triples in Wednesday’s game.  That is only the fourth time in Midwest League history a player has had three triples in a single game.  According to the MWL Media Guide & Record Book, they are:

• Andrew Smith – Mattoon Indians (May 14, 1950)*
• Oscar Flores – Quincy Giants (August 18, 1960)
• Jason Smith – Rockford Cubbies (September 2, 1998)
• Michael Reed – Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (May 22, 2013)

Keep your eye on MiLB.com. Ashley Marshall called to talk to Reed after the game.  There may be an article up by the time I have this post done. (UPDATE: Here is that article)

*-The 1950 Mattoon Indians roster at Baseball-Reference does not list Andrew Smith.  The 1949 Mattoon Indians roster at Baseball-Reference DOES list Andrew Smith.  I would go deeper into this, but…it’s been a long day.

Before getting into the hitters:

Austin Blaski 6IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 4K.  One of the runs he gave up was a home run over the ridiculously short porch in right field by Austin Elkins. I thought that Blaski made a pretty good pitch, but…have I mentioned the ridiculously short porch?

Jono Armold picked up his first professional win with two scoreless innings.  He needed a little help from some weird base running by the River Bandits in the tenth.  They had runners at first (Jesse Wierzbicki) and second (Carlos Correa) with no outs.  Rio Ruiz sent a fly ball to center.  Mitch Haniger looked like he made a sliding catch. Correa was going back to second, but Wierzbicki took off for second.  The umpire ruled that Haniger trapped the ball.  After a moments hesitation, Haniger threw the ball  into second.  BUT, the ball trickled away from Alfredo Rodriguez and Wierzbicki made it safely to second.  BUT, Rodriguez had time to throw to third and get the force out on Correa.  Armold got the final out of the inning.  Then, the Rattlers went to work…oh, boy, did they!

Seven runs on seven hits with a pair of walks and eleven men batting in the eleventh inning.  In the eleventh inning alone:

• Reed had his third triple
• Victor Roache drew his second walk of the game and scored his second run of the game
• Alfredo Rodriguez had his third hit of the game
• Clint Coulter has his second hit of the game and drove in his third RBI
• Tyrone Taylor walked, doubled, and drove in two runs

Coulter had his second straight multi-hit game and hit his first home run since April 13.  This was a monstrous shot.  I’ll need to get a shot from the place it landed for the pregame post on Thursday.

Rodriguez continues to hit the ball hard and now the ball is falling in for him.   His average is up to .255 from .211 on May 15

Want to hear about bad luck?  Adam Giacalone hit the ball hard four times and probably should have had four hits on Wednesday.  In the second inning Rio Ruiz robbed him blind with a a diving play to his left.  In the fourth, Roache was running on a hit-and-run.  Giacalone, a left-handed hitter, is trying to hit the ball to the spot the shortstop vacates to cover second.  But, Correa did not go to cover second and the ball was hit right to him. Ridiculously bad luck.
Roache has walked 19 times and scored 19 runs.  His OPB is .347.  Only a matter of time before that AVG starts to rise, too.  Plus, my gosh, he hit a long, loud foul ball that had the pitchers in the Quad Cities bullpen turning around to see if they saw where it left the stadium right the first time well after it happened.

Your weird random stat of the night: Heading into Wednesday’s game, the Timber Rattlers had been outscored 10-5 in extra innings.  After Wednesday. the Timber Rattlers have outscored opponents 12-10 in extra innings.

Things are so hard to figure out when you live from day to day in this feverish and silly world. – Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll

The Timber Rattlers lost their second straight game with a 6-4 defeat at the hands of the Bees on Sunday.

Timber Rattlers 4
Burlington Bees 6
Boxscore | Game Story

The Timber Rattlers did something today that they hadn’t done since the game against the Bees on May 12. They scored first. That’s five straight games.

However, the Bees did something today that they have done in the last four meetings between the Timber Rattlers and the Bees. They scored in the first inning. They scored three runs in the first inning. They have outscored the Timber Rattlers 7-1 in the first inning over those four games. BUT, the Rattlers are 2-2 against the Bees despite digging those early holes.

Tyler Wagner gave up three runs in the first inning today. He had allowed three earned runs in his last 23 innings pitched before today. His control looked off in the first inning as he walked the leadoff batter on four pitches and it never got better. I am confident that Wagner will bounce back.

Mike Strong walked three and hit a batter in the sixth inning, yet he did not let in a run. It was a bit of a struggle at times, but he kept the Bees from scoring in three innings>

Martin Viramontes with two solid innings out of the bullpen. Looked like good velocity and good movement.

There were no RBI hits for the Timber Rattlers on Sunday. Here are how they scored their runs:

• 6-4-3 double play with runners on the corners and one out
• RBI grounder to second with a runner on third
• Runner scores from second on an infield single/throwing error
• Wild Pitch with a runner on third

This was the second loss in a row in which the Timber Rattlers outhit the Bees.  They are just one big hit away from breaking things the right way for them.

This is something that you are getting used to hearing, “Orlando Arcia had a multi-hit game.”  He singled and doubled.

Math? I LOVE MATH!  Well, no I don’t but this one is for you inclined to see things through the prism of the Pythagorean Winning Percentage.

• The Timber Rattlers are 19-21 this season.
• The Timber Rattlers have been outscored 197-173 in 40 games
• Plug the appropriate numbers into the proper calculator
• The math says the Timber Rattlers should be 18-22
• The Timber Rattlers are outperforming MATH by one win

So, THAT’S something!

To leave you with a good feeling, Weiner Dog Race Day in Burlington:

One of the ten racers

The white streak is Ruby, who won the race for the second year in a row and for the fourth time. There was really only one other dog interested in racing…

The other eight were just enjoying their day at the stadium.

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future. – Plutarch

Let’s call it about 10′ above the white sign on the light tower….That’s where Orlando Arcia’s ball hit for his first Timber Rattlers home run.

Wisconsin 5
Burlington 6
FINAL 11 INNINGS
Boxscore | Game Story
The end of the game…ugh. Read the game story if you want to relive it. I am going to focus on the positives from this game.

Orlando Arcia: 2-for-4, BB, 2RBI, SB, First Midwest League Home Run.  If you have been reading this post, you are aware of Arcia’s ability to NOT strike out and to hit the ball well on two-strike counts.  It seems appropriate that he hit his home run on a 2-2 pitch.   He also drew a walk after falling behind 1-2 in the top of the ninth inning.  The only thing he did wrong tonight was hitting the ball up the middle on a hit-and-run play in the fifth inning.  The play wound up being a 4-3 double play.  But, there were a couple of “WOW!” plays in the field that he made.

Clint Coulter with a 2-for-5 night. Yes, three strikeouts and another passed ball…BUT, two more hard hit baseballs and a clutch 2-out RBI single in the eighth to tie the game. 

I noted the distance of Arcia’s home run.  Mitch Haniger’s home run I could not note except to say that it went really, really, really far and covered that distance really, really, really fast.  To left field. I think. 

Alert base running by Alfredo Rodriguez and Arcia in the top of the seventh.  There was an 0-2 pitch in the dirt to Tyrone Taylor that he checked his swing on for a 1-2 count.  The Bees thought it was strike three easy.  But, when the plate umpire didn’t call the pitch a strike, they took their time to appeal to the base umpire.  While they were doing that, the runners broke for the next base and made it without a play when the base umpire called it no swing.

I liked the way Eric Semmelhack competed tonight.  Sometimes it’s easy to just say “To Heck with this” after it’s 4-1.  But, he did the job and kept the Rattlers within striking distance.  Semmelhack wound up with a no decision and a quality start.

Preston Gainey deserved a better fate.  Both runs scored against him were unearned.  The passed ball by Coulter in the seventh inning set up the RBI by Soto that gave the Bees their 5-3 lead.  The eleventh inning unraveled after the dropped popup to start the inning.  Gainey walked three, struck out three, and battled.  Get ‘em next time.

Next time for the team is Sunday at 2pm.  Tune in as Tyler Wagner and Mike Strong try to get the 19-20 Rattlers back to .500.

Each man delights in the work that suits him best. ― Homer, The Odyssey

Taylor Wall strikes out Andrew Ray for the final out of the fifth inning.

Wisconsin 8
Burlington 4
Boxscore | Game Story

In case you lost track during that long homestand, the win tonight is the sixth straight road victory for the Timber Rattlers – last two at Lansing (May 2 & 3), all three at Great Lakes (May 4-6), and May 17 at Burlington.

Great to see Alfredo Rodriguez get a couple of hits on Friday night. He has been putting together some quality at bats, but hitting balls right at defenders or having defensive gems turned against him. Not tonight.  Two hits, a run, and two RBI.

Clint Coulter hit the ball hard three times and drew a walk on Friday. He’s starting to heat up a bit.

Oh, look! Two more Victor Roache walks. He keeps getting on base.

Ryan Gibbard is 3-0 in three starts this season. He has allowed three runs in 16-2/3 innings as a starter this season. Tonight, he mixed it up and when he really needed a strike he was getting the off speed stuff in for strikes. Granted five walks isn’t perfect, but he also got five strikeouts when he really needed them.

Keep in mind the plate umpire tonight was the same plate umpire from Sunday’s game that featured all four of the scheduled pitchers (Scoggins & Boyd for Burlington and Gibbard & Lopez for the Rattlers). Sundays game had 20 walks. This one had….thirteen. Better.

Speaking of better. Jorge Lopez struck out six over three innings – two in each frame of relief – and walked two. In two relief outings this year, he has allowed two runs over eight innings. Someone needs to convince him that it’s the 6th inning when he makes his next start…(Scheduled for 5/22 @Quad Cities)

It might sound unusual to bring the closer in with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning with a three runs lead. But, a benefit of the tandems allows you to do exactly that. It may not have been a save on the stat sheet, but Taylor Wall keeps getting the job done. Tonight was his tenth relief appearance of the season. He has allowed no runs in eight of those outings.

Oh, and he has now inherited 13 base runners…He has allowed two of those 13 inherited runners to score.

One down, 12 more to go on this trip.