August 12th through 18th
The Return Home
After a road trip that everyone wants to forget, the club returns home and we really need to get our bats going. The pitching hasn’t been outstanding, but in this league it has been good enough most nights to have won some of those road games. We need to get back to hitting like we have been for most of the season.
Fortunately, returning home where we have a 35-20 record and facing two teams in the bottom half of the US division had better lead to a winning result. Honestly the bare minimum if we want to keep pace is to go 4-2 but it would be great to sneak another win or two. Traverse City is sitting in 5th place, has a 49-67 record and 21-35 on the road. No excuse not to win this series. After the Bears roll in, Detroit follows with a 53-66 record good for a distant 4th place in the US and has a road record of 23-37.
As I said, no excuses.
Instead of concentrating on our opponents we are going to focus on our hitters in the month of August (which covered the last few home games before that mess of a road trip.
LF Matt Graves was the only position player to hit over 225 on the road trip as he checked in with a 316 batting average. Graves, who has 49 stolen bases heading into the home stand and has only been caught 10 times this season, shows that even with some hitting we just didn’t have anything offensively. Graves had a 1 out of 5 stolen base success rate during the road trip. Before the 8 game slide he was 48 out of 54 for a 89% success rate.
As a team during that trip we had 205 at-bats with just 33 hits, for a team batting average of just 161. With 17 walks that brought our on-base percentage to just 225. With 7 doubles and 4 home runs that brought our slugging in at 254. So the road trip slash line was 161/225/479. That number just isn’t for some slick fielding shortstop, that number is for the entire team! So you have to look no further than those numbers or 1.88 rpg we scored over the 8 games.
On the bright side of things it is roster expansion time. We called up several pitchers including JJ Walker who had a very solid start his last time out. We also brought up RP Richard Herschel who is a team leader. That gives us 14 pitchers on the staff so if we have any negative blowouts hopefully we will use a couple of the less effective pitchers in those types of games. There is also some thought about bringing up SP Stan Storey who we picked up in the Ken Noseworthy trade. Between Thunder Bay’s AAA club and ours, Storey is 13-7 with a 3.09 ERA. With the club struggling, any thought of bringing up one of the guys who we believe will be one of our staples in the very near future, Curt Hopkins, has gone out the window for now. He might get a call up in a week or two just to get a feel for things, but I do not want to put that kid in the pressure cooker with the way the club is playing right now.
On the hitting side, we brought up several guys including RF Jim Harris who is a light hearted sort of a guy who might be able to loosen things up in the clubhouse if the guys are feeling tight after that road trip. We also brought back 3B/1B Cruz Torres who went unclaimed when we DFA him 2 weeks ago. The plan was if he went unclaimed that we would bring him back as a switch hitting bench bat. He might even get some time over DH Bob Toledo who has been a huge disappointment since coming over from Duluth. Toledo is hitting just 182/252/515 with 2 home runs and 11 RBI’s in 28 games. His regular playing time is about done I would say. We also brought back 3B/IF Larry Davis and 2B/U John Lambert. Both are hitting around 300 on the season and if they can heat up might see some extended playing time.
Traverse City Bears 49-67 5th in the US vs Chicago Architects 70-46 1st in the US
August 13th through 15th 2055
We have done well against the Bears all season going 13-5 so far. We will have this series at home and then in the final week of the season we will head to TC for 3 games. First things first, we need to end the losing streak. To do so we face our old friend Bradley Stenter who is making his 3rd starter for the Bears since we traded him. He beat Milwaukee his last time out.
Game #1 - Friday August 13th 2055
Chicago’s Pier IV Grounds
A - 39,655
RHSP Bradley Stenter 2-1 4.82 vs Joe Johnson 5-2 3.91
The Tects snap their losing streak. Joe Johnson (7.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K) wins his first game in one month and one day. Thomas Arnaud and Prowler Ashley homer.
Chicago 5, Traverse City 1.
1B R Osborn 2-4 RBI SB
CH HR - 3B T Arnaud (21), RF J Ashley (23)
Game #2 - Saturday August 14th 2055
Chicago’s Pier IV Grounds
A - 39,702
RHSP William Charles 8-6 3.88 vs Val Imbert 8-8 4.41
The Tects scored seven runs in the fourth. Samuel Amsden hits a two-run double, and Prowler Ashley hits a two-run home run. The Architects belt out 11 hits as the offense finally shows up again.
Chicago 8, Traverse City 5
SP V Imbert 6.1IP 4H 2R 1BB 4k W, LF S Amsden DB R 3RBI, 1B R Osborn 2-3 R, RBI, BB, SB, RF J Ashley 2-4 HR R 2 RBI, CF J Lambert 2-4 TP R,
CH HR - RF J Ashley (24)
Game #3 - Sunday August 15th 2055
Chicago’s Pier IV Grounds
A - 39,672
RHSP John Nelligan 7-7 5.46 vs Bill Lutz 11-6 5.32
The Bears scored four times in the second, with Eddie Guy hitting a three-run home run. They score twice more in the third and never look back. Bill Lutz drops his 3rd straight decision and has been removed from the Chicago rotation for his next turn.
Traverse City 8, Chicago 4.
2B W Dunse 2-4 R
CH HR - LF M Graves (9)
Summary - Not a great way to end things, but we did take 2 out of 3 and end the 8 game slide. We showed some signs of offense in the series scoring 17 runs in the 3 game set. The one concerning thing is that 1B Reagan Osborn who was on a player of the year pace before his injury kept him out 2 weeks is not driving in many runs. He has hit 3 home runs and driven in 11 RBI’s since his return from injury July 23rd. When he went out he was hitting 350 with 23 home runs and 66 RBI’s. We truly need to get him back swinging a power bat in the middle of our lineup.
Lutz has been an enigma this season. He’s won 11 games, but has gone through very hot and extremely cold streaks. Right now he is in a cold streak and we will probably hold him out of his next scheduled start against Milwaukee, although that might be the team we should start him against. Right now we are leaning to putting him in the bullpen and working long relief where he was great in early May before making his return to the rotation later that month.
Next up Detroit
Detroit Thunderbirds 53-66 4th place in US vs Chicago Architects 72-47 1st place in US
August 16th through August 18th 2055
We lead the season series against the Thunderbirds 11-7 and have a season ending trip to Detroit to finish up the year. Detroit is playing out the string and trying to remain ahead of Traverse City for 4th place in the US. They do have an emerging star in 1B Mal Johnston who is probably an easy shoe-in (unless I am forgetting someone) for the USA rookie of the year as he is hitting 308 with 24 home runs and 78 RBI’s on the season. Grumpy RF Stan Gillis is having a season that could give TC’s Earle Foote and Chicago 1B Reagan Osborn a run at the US player of the year. Gillis (29) who is a free agent at the end of the season is hitting 325 with 24 home runs and 99 RBI’s.
Game #1 - Monday August 16th 2055
Chicago’s Pier IV Grounds
A - 39,738
RHSP BIll Clary 8-7 3.67 vs Clint Simpson 0-2 3.43
Cliff Simpson (7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 4 K) makes his third start as an Architect. Like the other two, (1) he pitches well enough to win, and (2) the team loses. Detroit’s Art Loder and Paul Larocque homer. Larocque also steals two bases and singles in a run. The Architects only manage 6 hits.
Detroit 5, Chicago 4.
LF M Graves 2-4 DB RBI SB (50)
CH HR - none
Game #2 - Tuesday August 17th 2055
Chicago’s Pier IV Grounds
A - 39,950
Joo-Seok Kim 7-11 6.79 vs Jose Cedeno 8-8 4.40
Chicago takes a 2-1 lead into the eighth. Detroit’s Mal Johnston hits a two-run home run, giving the T-Birds a 3-2 lead. But in the bottom of the inning, Chicago’s Thomas Arnaud singles in the tying run, then scores on pinch-hitter Cruz Torres’s double.
Chicago 4, Detroit 3
SP J Cedeno 6IP 6H 1R 3BB 7K, 1B R Osborn 3-4 DB R RBI
CH HR - None
Game #3 - Wednesday August 18th 2055
Chicago’s Pier IV Grounds
A - 39,609
LHSP Dwayne Miller 8-8 5.55 vs Joe Johnson 6-2 3.71
Detroit ties the game, 2-2, in the seventh on a Florent Bernier triple and an Alan Stout double. Chicago wins the game in the bottom of the ninth on a Thomas Arnaud two-run home run. Rookie LHP Ed Reedin picks up his 1st career victory in relief. Chicago's big 3 hitters Osborn, Ashley and Arnaud all hit home runs.
Chicago 4, Detroit 2
SP J Johnson 6.1IP 5H 2R 1BB 5K, 1B R Osborn 2-3 HR R RBI,
CH HR - RF J Ashley (25), 1B R Osborn (27) and 3B T Arnaud (22)
Summary - We end the homestand with a 4-2 record winning 2 out of 3 against both Traverse City and Detroit. We scored 29 runs in the 6 games so just under a 5 rpg clip. The team has been averaging 5.6 rpg so we are still down. We have been resting OF Jose Gomez who can’t seem to shake the shoulder injury. He has been available for high leverage pinch hitting duties but we will likely keep him out of the Milwaukee series and try to have him ready for the stretch run. He seems to be the bat that has replaced injury DH/RF Jose Aranda who’s injury has really seemed to have an effect on the offense. Even with the improvement offensively the team still doesn't feel like it is hitting on all cylinders like we were before the start of August.
We go to Milwaukee next where we take on the last place Eagles. We also enter that series with a 10 game road losing streak. Winning the series would be great and should be expected. Ending the road losing streak on night one of the series feels like it is important. Let’s hope we can sweep the struggling birds.
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At the bottom instead of the usual batting stats you will see the hitting stats from the road trip from hell.
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