BAY DEPOSES 'KING' FELIX
Flashback to 2009: Worcester Eliminators OF Jason Bay led all of BARB last season with 41 round-trippers, narrowly edging surprising Casselton backstop Mike Napoli. Flash-forward to now: Bay is taking up where he left off in the power department, smacking three HR in one game against Squirrels phenom 'King' Felix Hernandez, as part of a 6-4 victory over the host Squirrels.
Hernandez (0-1, 9.00) had to be scratching his head. Bay pulled a 1-1 slider just fair leading off the second, a solo shot that gave Worcester a 1-0 lead.
In the third, Hernandez faced Bay with two out and nobody on, and got ahead....but his 0-2 changeup 'waste pitch' got too much of the plate, and Bay hit a fly ball that carried over the CF wall: 2-0, Worcester.
Finally, in the fifth, the Elims put runners at the corners and with two out, who should it be? Of course, Jason Bay.
Hernandez, perhaps hearing footsteps, fell behind 2-0 and then challenged with a high fastball. Bay, looking for something to drive, drove it DEEEEEEP over the wall in left-center, a three-run poke and a 5-1 Worcester lead. The host Squirrels would score some runs against an inconsistent (1-0, 5.40) Jair Jurrjens, but Worcester held on to win the opening game of this series and keep Frostbite Falls out of the win column:
(Note: not every team played on each of the first four games in this year's schedule)
OTHER NEWS AND NOTES:
RF Nelson Cruz homered in each of his first four games for Oakland United, driving in 10 runs as the club's cleanup hitter. Brooklyn LHP Jon Lester (0-1, 5.14) struck out 13 Oakland hitters, including three straight against Kevin Youkilis, but nevertheless took a 6-1 loss after Justin Masterson allowed Cruz's second HR of the game.
Yuma's Matt Cain became the first BARB hurler to post a complete game effort, going nine strong innings on Game Day 4 to best the visiting Black Mesa Anomalies, 7-1.
Arizona veteran Ichiro Suzuki went 4-for-5 against the Flyers to raise his early season average to .500 (11-for-22), and seems likely to remain in CF for now.
Reliever Jonathan Broxton took the early lead in saves for Pottsylvania, going 3-for-3 in his first three appearances to keep his club's record unblemished. He will need to excel, however: the club was forced to put LHP Brian Fuentes on the DL with a shoulder strain.
BAY DEPOSES 'KING' FELIX
No comments:
Post a Comment