Monday 7th to Friday 13th July
Results
Budapest Red Squirrels (12th) at Sheffield Mountain Hares: Loss 2-6, Win 3-2 (10), Loss 5-9
Lisbon Caravels (14th) at Sheffield Mountain Hares: Win 3-1, Win 8-6, Loss 5-6 (10)
Record and standing: 51-39 (6th)
A good week for…
Isaac Saville, who tied the Hares single game strikeout record with 12 in a superb performance as he led Sheffield to a 3-2 win over Budapest with a 7.1 inning start giving up just 1 run.
Eskinder Ali, who put up an OPS of 1.333 in 15 at bats during the week and pitched 5.1 innings without giving up a run in his start against Lisbon, a game the Hares won 3-1.
A bad week for…
Eskinder Ali who injured himself throwing the ball in the Hares’ 8-6 win against the Caravels and will be out for 3-4 weeks. He was not pitching, which has led to some fans calling for him to be given a designated hitter role on days when he isn’t pitching.
Rob Graham, who managed only 3 hits in 23 at bats as his disappointing season continues.
Home run watch (year total in brackets)
Jesus Morales - 2 (13)
Adam Koehler - 1 (17)
Ilyas Muraguri - 1 (9)
Werner Schilchegger - 1 (8)
Eskinder Ali - 1 (6)
Thoughts
I think the fans were hoping for more than a 3-3 record for a week with series against two teams outside the division’s top 10, but the Hares’ recent mediocre form continues. Offensively, we looked better than last week, but on the pitching front we looked worse, giving up more than 5 runs in the majority of games this week. The Eskinder Ali injury is also bad news, though his 3-4 weeks out does conveniently fall partially over upcoming the all-star break. The Hares are dropping down in the wildcard standings, but they're still well in contention, only 1 win behind the last wildcard berth.
All the week’s
boxscores are available here:
https://postimg.cc/gallery/jd5dC7N