A Breakthrough

The Labours of Hercules-like stretch I mentioned in last week’s column has mercifully come to an end. Our shortened bench only made the task at hand all the more difficult.

I missed last Thursday’s game because of my work commitments as a reporter with the Metro News London. We lost 7-6 to Kitchener in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicates. We fell behind early and often and only managed to score the runs in our last three at-bats — otherwise we couldn’t muster anything offensively.

I was to be the second guy out of the bullpen in Friday night’s rematch with the Panthers from Kitchener. This game was the reverse of the night before. We jumped out to an early lead and managed to hold on for dear life, closing out a hard-fought 10-7 victory. I was in the bullpen warming up in the ninth inning ready to come in if our reliever wasn’t able to shut the door.

He did and I was able to get some much-needed work in on my mechanics and delivery.

The doubleheader in Barrie on Saturday was a disaster from the time we left London. Horrible traffic made us late for the game and we were forced to forgo batting practice and jump right into a contest against the first place team in the league.

The lack of preparation showed as our hitters couldn’t get anything going offensively in either game. I was the lone reliever available out of the bullpen. We had just three pitchers to get us through 14 innings against one of the top lineups in the IBL.

The heat and humidity was unbearable at times. I was drenched in sweat just by walking from the dugout to the bullpen. I entered the game to pitch the 6^th inning of Game 1 to face the top of Barrie’s batting order. I had a 1-2-3 inning, three up and three down.

It’s the first perfect inning I’ve pitched since my first start of the season on opening day. I retired the three batters I faced on two groundouts and a strikeout. I was throwing strikes with good velocity and I was able to command my off-speed pitches as well. It felt like I’ve really turned a corner and that I’m back to where I was at the beginning of the season.

It took me long enough, but better late than never.

Unfortunately, we came up on the short end of the stick in both games, losing two straight games to Barrie, basically eliminating ourselves from contention for the regular season pennant.

However, we bounced back beautifully on Sunday against Brantford and hammered the Red Sox 11-1. That win basically assures us of second place in the league, barring a horrible collapse this week in the remaining four games of the season.

Our pitching staff is still pretty thin so I will most likely have one more appearance before the playoffs start. I’m hoping I can build on my performance on Saturday and be counted on to throw important innings in the postseason.

"Life with the Majors Column"