The Scouting Report:
The Brewers face three very talented starting pitchers in a good pitcher's park in this series.
Game 1:
Jamil Morales, a 26-year old Israeli-American who was the 8th overall pick of the 1974 draft out of Worcester College, came up to the big leagues in 1975 and pitched that season and the next three in the Falcons bullpen before being traded to Portland mid-season 1978, where he was immediately installed in the rotation. It was a smart move by the Wild Things. Morales is a talented pitcher with a plus changeup and good movement whose only real weakness is a propensity for injury. (Thus far he mostly has suffered from nagging back issues but hasn't experienced any major arm injuries.) And in game 1 the Brewers batters saw the full force of his talent as he held the most talented lineup in the MGL to just 1 run on 4 hits. Tough loss for
Sadahige Kawaski, who went the distance for the Brewers, allowing 2 runs on 8 hits.
Rich White (.286/.344/.448) was 2 for 3 in the game and
Brett Taranto hit the only extra base hit for the Brewers, his 4th triple of the season.
Game 2:
Brad Evans holds the single-season record for walks allowed with 161 bases on balls issued in the 1977 season. Evans is arguably the most control challenged pitcher in the WPK. But he also has one of the most elite curveballs in the game and is a durable groundball specialist with a great work ethic and a humble attitude. And this year he is having the best season of his career (when he's not pitching against us, this is something we applaud). In the middle game of the series Evans combined with the rising young relief star Joey Johnson to hold the Brewers to 1 run on just 3 hits (2 against Evans, as well as the run, unearned). It was
Sekien Hamasaki's turn to suffer a tough loss for the Brewers. He went the distance, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits.
Kirk Patnode (.316/.385/.385) hit the lone extra base hit for Denver- his 13th double.
Antonio Acuna (.368/.427/.611) didn't get a hit but did walk twice, scoring the lone Denver run and stole his 24th base.
Game 3:
If you've been following the WPK at all you have already heard about young Joe Barbour, one of the rising pitching stars in the MGL and the Portland team captain. The Brewers offense woke up a bit against the young right-hander out of Bladensburg, Maryland, as they plated 3 runs on 8 hits against him, but Denver still fell short and the Wild Things got the series sweep.
Jim Atwell gave up 4 runs on 7 hit with 4 walks and 5 K's over his 7 2/3rds innings to take the loss.
Bobby Erbakan (.307/.353/.496) was 2 for 4 in the loss, scoring a run and driving in 2 and he hit his 21st home run of the season.
Antonio Acuna (.370/.428/.615) was also 2 for 4 and hit his 7th triple and also threw a runner out at home for his 9th outfield assist of the year. And
Val Guzman (.314/.402/.508) went 2 for 4, scoring 1 run. Our old friend Ruben "Streak" Souffront drove in what proved to be the winning run with his 8th inning RBI double. It hasn't been a good season for the 34-year old outfielder who is still among the fastest in the league and a fine left fielder but has a slash line of .210/.244/.298 and WAR of -1.2. He is under contract through the 1980 season, is an iron man, and is smart and adaptable, but it certainly seems that he is destined for a bench role before long.
Notes from around the league:
Yet another bit of evidence for the case that the Columbus Whalers have some of magical method for creating great pitchers. Juan Olguin spent much of the past 8 seasons pitching at the back end of the Columbus rotation before joining the Boston Berserkers this past off-season for backup catcher Tommy McCombs. (Interestingly, Olguin was originally drafted by Boston- in the WPK inaugural draft- but was traded to Columbus before he pitched any games for Boston. The Berserkers got superstar third baseman Kasey O'Neil in the deal so that worked out pretty well for them.) And here we are in 1979 with the 33-year old Olguin pitching at the top of the Boston rotation, and quite well. Columbus pitching cast-off's are stars on any other team.
We have reached September 1st so there will be a separate post to update all of the standings, so I'll skip that here.
A few quick notes about
single-season performances and how they measure up against WPK records:
Jamar Clay of Columbus is up to 45
saves as he continues to add to his already record number of saves in a season.
Veteran starter Jesse Hartong of San Antonio is now 18-1 and will likely set a new WPK record for single season
winning percentage.
Mike Lovett and Bud Lindsay are both now batting .387, a bit better than the current single season highest
batting average of .385, set by the great Travis Johnson in 1966.
Mike Lovett's
OPS of 1.101 is on pace to be the best ever, breaking Jesus Casiano's record of 1.078 set in his historic 1970 season.
It appears that Bud Lindsay may break the single season
position player WAR record of 12.98 set by Curtis Horah in 1968.
Two players, both members of the high-octane San Antonio Keys- Bud Lindsay and Zach McClelland- are on pace to break the single season
runs scored record, which is 138 and was set by Nate Bennett in 1977. (Lindsay is on pace for 155 and McClelland, 152.)
McClelland and Lindsay are also both on pace to break the single-season
hits mark, which is 243, set by Lazaro Lowndes in 1977. McClelland is on pace to collect 250 hits and Lindsay 247.
Fred Reinhardt of Seattle may set a new single-season
doubles record. He is on pace for 59, with the current record being 57, set by Pittsburgh's Bill Winchester in 1977.
Detroit's John Hemmah will likely set a new single-season
stolen base record, as he is on pace for 80 and the current record is 72, set by Jeremy Brigatti in 1976.
Matt Van der Heyden may well break his own single-season
bases on balls record, which he set last year when he walked 137 times. He is on pace for 140 this year.