Need to Regroup

The Majors are now tied for first place in the league with a 10-2 record on the season. We had our first bad game of the year on Sunday afternoon against the Ottawa Fat Cats. We ended up losing 16-11 in a game marred by shoddy fielding, bad umpiring and ejections. 

Truthfully, it’s nothing to be worried about it. These games happen throughout the course of a season. Baseball is a fickle game. It’s not like we weren’t prepared or that we weren’t focused. Murphy’s Law just happened to kick our ass.

We made a plethora of mental and physical errors that enabled Ottawa to grab a lead and never look back. There’s no need to read into our play any more than necessary. It was a terrible game on the defensive side of the ball, but it’s definitely not a harbinger of things to come.

To succeed in this game, you need a short memory and never get too high or two low with your emotions.

It’s just unfortunate that we laid an egg on Sunday afternoon because it was our “Pack the Park” fundraiser for charity. As I mentioned in my last Metro News column, our goal was to sell as many tickets as possible for Sunday’s game to get Labatt Park crammed with spectators. I’m not sure of the official tally, but it was estimated that our crowd was between 1500 and 2000 people.

It was a great turnout.

Although we lost, we can’t be accused of putting a boring product on the field. Our offence continued to roll, racking up twenty hits to go along with eleven runs. We are hitting well over .300 through the first third of the season and are averaging almost two home runs per game. These are batting practice numbers.

If I was unfortunate enough to have to face our offence, reading stat sheets before the game would keep me up at night. There are literally no holes in our lineup one through nine in the batting order. I’m just glad I get to watch my teammates hit from the comfort of the dugout rather than ten inches of dirt and clay.

I’d have whiplash by Canada Day.

Speaking of succeeding in the game of baseball with a short memory, I need to heed that advice with respect to my pitching. Physically, I feel great. My arm strength is back where it should and my legs feel as strong as they did before I got sick.

The problem I’m having right now is between my ears. I chalked up my wildness and ineffectiveness in my second start to my lacklustre health at the time. As I discussed last week, my throwing sessions have been feeling good and my mechanics are back where they are supposed to be.

However, I couldn’t carry that out to the mound in a game situation. I was brought in for the ninth inning on Friday night as a situational lefty. I was to face the leadoff hitter of the inning. I felt really good with my stuff in the bullpen, but couldn’t translate that to the mound.

I was so transfixed on throwing strikes—to remove any lingering doubts about my command from my second start—that I was babying the ball to the plate. I wasn’t throwing free and easy. It was like I was scared to throw a ball.

That is no way to pitch. I ended up walking him on eight pitches and was promptly pulled from the game, failing to do my job. I didn’t feel comfortable throughout the entire appearance.

Now I need to focus on the mental aspect of the game to get my head on straight. I’ve proved I can throw well in this league; I just need to gain that confidence back. I had a good bullpen session yesterday, I’ve cleared my head of any negative thoughts and I’m ready to prove my worth to this pitching staff.

4^th Metro News Column