A Work in Progress

The London Majors pitching staff has been decimated in the past week. Where we once had a complete bullpen with a full complement of arms, we’re now faced with the difficult task of wading through our most difficult stretch of the season with a roster of arms that, at best, would be considered a minimum requirement to field a competitive team.

Between injuries—two guys have been shut down for the summer with arm troubles—and work commitments forcing guys to miss games (myself included; I’ve been working regularly at the Metro News London as a reporter in addition to my weekly column), we’ve been forced to take an all hands on deck approach.

Case in point Sunday afternoon: we travelled to Hamilton for an afternoon tilt against the Thunderbirds with exactly three pitchers, one of whom is a starter and could only be called upon to throw an inning at most.

I was designated as the first—and I guess by default, only—arm out of the bullpen. We were cruising along through the first five innings of the game up 8-0. However, in the sixth, our starter—typically a reliever all season long—ran out of gas and Hamilton began stringing some hits together.

A three run home run chased our starter and I was brought into the game with our lead cut to 8-5. I was hoping to build on my previous outing and continue my long, arduous climb back to respectability and hopefully the talent I showed in the home opener.

I gave up a run in my first inning on a loud double to the leftfield corner. My command wasn’t great to begin the outing but I got out of the frame without further damage. Our bats went silent for the remainder of the contest and it was left to me to hold onto our tenuous lead.

My control started to come around and my confidence continued to creep upward. Any command issues that did arise were purely the result of a lack of focus on my part. Not a lack of focus in the game, but a lack of focus in terms of replicating my mechanics. I would forget to hit my delivery checkpoints and the ball wouldn’t cooperate as it headed towards the plate.

Oddly, I felt the best and most confident in my stuff in the 9^th inning as we tried to close out an 8-7 nailbiter. Unfortunately, this was the time when every ball Hamilton hit bled into the gap for a cheap single. I was pulled with two outs in the ninth. Luckily, we won mere minutes later by picking off a guy wandering too far off of second base.

We got the win and I was able to throw three serviceable innings to help the team. I’m enthused about keeping the lead, but I still know there’s lots of room for improvement. And I need these improved results for these next few days. We play tomorrow, Friday, a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.

That’s five games in four days. And we’ll only have six pitchers available. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s going to be a dogfight to come out of the weekend with a .500 record. I will definitely be throwing again soon.

“Life with the Majors” (back after a one week hiatus)