What a difference two days can make! In about 26 hours time, I've gone from seriously questioning my purchase of season tickets to being a BELIEVER all over again. I've gone from heartbroken to heartened about the Spirit's potential to make a run at Quebec again for this first half title and possibly the whole thing as well. And they've finally shown signs of life and shown they may be able to start rolling. Everyone KNEW yesterday's game was critical, because if they won that, they had Kelly tonight, then 3 at lowly New Haven, and Morse and Kelly again to face New Jersey. And it was about this time- and on this road trip- last year when the Spirit went on their roll. And they'll need to do that going into the huge 4th of July Weekend Series vs. Quebec. And as it turned out, the Spirit did win last night's game in style, and tonight, the Spirit got a very impressive victory, a 3-1 victory over the Rox in front of a huge and loud crowd of about 3000 at Fraser. The team got great pitching from John Kelly and (finally) some clutch hitting in the victory.
It started off poorly again, however. With 1 out in the 1st, Saul Bustos doubled off of John Kelly off the wall in left-center. Jake Daubert then walked. The next man, Craig Lewis, grounded it to Marcos and hit into a fielders choice 4-6, but on the return throw from Yuri Sanchez to first to try to complete the double play, Yuri threw it away past Davilla and Lewis was safe; scoring from 2nd was Bustos to make it 1-0 Rox. Brian Jones struck out looking to end the inning, Kelly's 2nd K of the 1st, and the inning was over but the damage was done.
The Spirit bats were stymied for the next few innings. They picked up a few hits in the 2nd and 3rd and even got men in scoring position in each inning but once again failed to pick up a clutch hit. Finally, the Spirit got to Brockton starter and loser Brad Guy in the 4th. With 1 out, Macchi laced a double into the gap in left-center. Two men later Stephen Carter plated him with a line drive scorching RBI single which scored Macchi on a very close play at the plate. Yuri was the next man to bat and he reached on an error, but Marcos grounded out to end the inning. The game was tied at 1, however.
In the bottom of the 5th the Spirit took the lead and it was a lead they would hold. With 2 out, Travis Oglesby's solo HR, his 7th of the year, put North Shore on top 2-1. The Rox threatened to tie it back up in the top of 6. Craig Lewis led off teh inning with a single but Kelly then got Jones to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Kris Zacuto then walked but the inning ended on a long, deep flyout by Guy Senjem on which Garret Weir made a sweet running catch toward the gap, running like a gazelle the whole way. Great hustle preserved the lead.
The lead would be extended in the bottom of the 6th. Yuri Sanchez, after not getting an RBI hit for like 3,332 games has one in two straight games now as he plated Eric Storey with a single in the inning. After 6 the Spirit led it 3-1 and that would be the final score. John Kelly pitched another inning, finishing his outing as the winning pitcher, tossing 7 and giving up 1 earned run. Alex Herrera and Ryan McCally (save) combined to shut down the Rox for the 8th and 9th, earning the Spirit the win.
North Shore improves to 12-11 and picks up 0.5 game on idle Quebec. Brockton falls to 14-13.
SPIRITFANS.BLOGSPOT.COM PLAYER OF THE GAME: John Kelly (4)
Around the league- New Haven 8, NJ 5; Worcester 4, Elmira 3.
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1 comment:
Wow Yuri got an RBI. I was for sure that the next acopolypse would happen before that
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