daily fog: saving the day

Friday, June 20, 2008

daily fog: saving the day

Three of Hyannis' five games have ended with Russell Brewer (Vanderbilt) on the mound.

And that's a good thing.

The Mets are 3-2, and all three of their wins have been saved by Brewer, the league leader in that category. Last night, he notched his first two-inning save as Hyannis beat Y-D 6-4. It must have felt like a breeze, though, because Brewer's first two saves came with one-run leads.

Brewer has done it all without blinking. He has faced two batters over the minimum in his four innings of work and has struck out three.

Sometimes, guys who close in the Cape League aren't closers by trade. Remember Tim Lincecum? But Brewer is no stranger to the ninth inning. A redshirt freshman, Brewer spent much of the spring as Vanderbilt's closer, and he put some impressive numbers. He finished the year with eight saves, a 3.52 ERA and 52 strikeouts against 10 walks in 46 innings.

For Hyannis, Brewer is at the back of end of what's been a very strong bullpen. As a staff, Mets' pitchers have allowed 16 earned runs this summer. The eight guys who have pitched out of the bullpen have allowed four of them. That's one-fourth of the runs, and they've come in exactly one-half of the innings. In addition to Brewer, Drew Muren (CS Northridge) and Ashur Tolliver (Arkansas-Little Rock) have been standouts. Muren has 11 strikeouts in six innings, while Tolliver got the win last night.

Elsewhere

Hyannis also got some strong performances at the plate last night. Catcher Dale Cornstubble (Central Michigan) broke out of a slump with a 3-for-3 day, his first three hits of the season. Michael Glantz, who plays for Hyannis coach Rick Robinson at Young Harris College, had a three-run double. For Y-D, Greg Miclat (Virginia) and Nick Liles (Western Carolina) had two hits apiece. Liles now leads the league with a .476 batting average.

Brewster's Nate Lape (Marshall) finally hit something that wasn't a home run. Heading into Thursday, he had two hits and both were home runs. Thursday, he had two more hits, one a double and one a single. He also had two RBI to help power Brewster past Bourne 8-2. An RBI triple by James Meador (San Diego), his first hit in 19 at-bats this summer, broke the game open.

Falmouth got another strong performance from the top of its lineup to edge Chatham 7-6. Leadoff hitter A.J. Pollock (Notre Dame) and two-hole hitter Joey Wong (Oregon State) each went 3-for-5. Pollock is now hitting .429 while Wong is at .353. Both were in the middle of a six-run fifth-inning that accounted for most of Falmouth's offense.

All in all, it was pretty fitting that I started this thing with a closer. It was a rough night for starters. In the three games, six starters combined to allow 20 earned runs.

What to Watch For Tonight

Oregon State's Jorge Reyes will make his first start of the year for Falmouth. Last spring, Reyes was the toast of the town in Corvallis when he led the Beavers to their second straight national championship as the College World Series MVP. But this spring, he struggled to a 7.08 ERA. Tonight at Harwich, he'll have his first chance to bounce back.

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as the fog settles in

The left-field sunset has faded. It is chilly now. You slip a sweatshirt on. The stat sheet you hold in your hands almost feels wet, the air is so damp. But the ink doesn't run. You can read it. That kid from LSU is still leading the league in home runs. That pitcher who they say throws 95 -- he's way up on the list in strikeouts.
The game is close, 3-2 through seven innings. You're staying till the end.
You look out at the field. Some fog has slipped in. It settles like smoke, just off the grass in front of the right fielder, like a cloud. When he runs through it to catch a fly ball, it looks almost magical, maybe even spiritual, like he's playing baseball in heaven.
Maybe he is.
The baseball is pure here. The players eager. The fans, maybe some of them don't know what they're seeing, maybe they just heard it was a fun night out, good for the family and everything -- but they know. They know somehow that this thing, this Cape League, is special.
Really, there's nothing like it.
I'm going to try and keep up.

Stop waxing poetic

The Cape Cod Baseball League is the top college summer league in the nation. Plenty of other leagues have cropped up of late, and some are having success, but the Cape League is still the model -- and the pinnacle. In 2006, 198 Major Leaguers had spent time in the Cape League.
The rosters are like a who's who of the best college baseball players. All the top prospects want to spend their summers on the Cape. The only better opportunity is Team USA. There are 10 teams in the league, divided into two divisions. Over the course of two months, they play 44 games. Scouts will watch many of them. They come because of the combination of talent and wood. Unlike college baseball, the Cape uses only wooden bats, providing an accurate picture of what players might do at the next level.
What else? Players live with host families. Some have part-time jobs (Jeff Bagwell worked at Friendly's). There's no admission charge at games. The level of baseball has been compared to Single A.
That should sum it up. If you have never experienced Cape League Baseball, you have missed out.

Friday, June 20, 2008