This one stings

Did anyone else see the Sox' 10-9 loss tonight? I feel like I jumped into a time warp and came out in 2003 - complete with the terrible pitching, the crazy comeback, the exciting offense, the late-innings drama, and the end-of-game meltdown.

This is the first really stinging loss of the season, IMO - a chance to sweep a good team on the road squandered due to, for the most part, bad luck.

I feel for Papelbon. Take a look at how it went down:

• A check-swing with 2 strikes that only resulted in an infield hit because it rolled so slowly
• An indecisive butcher-job by Lugo letting there be runners on 1st & 2nd with 0 out. It's easy to be angry with Lugo, although this was also a bit of bad luck - everyone watching the game was thinking 'lead runner,' but once again the ball was rolling slowly which really screwed things up.
• A successful bunt
• A simple 4-3 ground-out, which resulted in a run due to the aforementioned bad luck -> Tie game
  
• A little broken bat flair into very shallow left -> Loss

Papelbon was pretty good, things just rolled out of control with the crucial moment being the Lugo play and the subsequent sac bunt. Oddly enough, 'small ball,' which had been shooting Detroit in the foot all night (remember Magglio getting thrown out running to 3rd in the 8th? or the bunt with 2 on and 0 out while in the lead that resulted in 0 runs?), came back to be the deciding factor in the end, as without that bunt the tying run would not have scored. Go figure.

The only real questionable managerial decision I think was whether or not to intentionally walk Granderson w/ runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, but I still think they made the right call by pitching to him. Granderson was struggling (he continued to struggle with a weak groundout that just so happened to drive in the tying run) and you never want to create a situation where you can walk in the tying run or winning run.

This doesn't suck as much as it would have in the pre-World Championship days, but it still stinks. Gotta have some of these days though - it's all part of the journey of baseball season.

On to the next phase of the road trip.

EDIT: Also: That game was Four. Hours. Long. Eff that.

For now, we've still got tomorrow.

Note: Yes, I am aware of the news. And I will have plenty to say about the departure of the Spirit once the season is over. But for now, I have precious few chances to do what I love the most - talk about the games played by my favorite baseball team. So that's what we'll do.



It was definitely not the best of nights at Fraser Field. All night, the Spirit tried to scratch and claw their way back from an early 2 run deficit. From the 1st thru 7th innings, the Spirit stranded 9 baserunners and wasted many chances to get back in it. Finally, in the 8th, they broke through, when Mike Torres's broken bat bloop single over the shortstop's head scored Nilson Teilon and tied the game at 2.

Unfortunately, as if Spirit fans needed another kick in the balls tonight, the Surf got the win by fighting back to put a run on the board in the 9th off of Jamie Baker. Lucas Taylor hit a go-ahead RBI single up the middle with 2 outs to give Atlantic City a 3-2 win and even the best-of-5 series at 1 as the scene shifts to scenic (not) New Jersey for the remainder of the series.

Jamie Baker got the loss for the Spirit. Jamie Tricoglou earned the win, giving up the 1 run in the 8th over 3 innings of relief work. Each starter got a no decision - Matt Bishop, who gave up two runs in 6.1, and Ben Thurmond, who yielded 1 run in 6 innings of work.

Bishop pitched quite well in the game overall, but put the Spirit behind the 8-ball by giving up a pair of runs in each of the first two innings. In the first, Will Quintana's RBI groundout scored Taylor to make it 1-0. Atlantic City added one in the 2nd. Clyde Williams led off the inning with a double and was brought home by a Wally Rosa RBI single.

The Spirit halved the lead in the 4th on a sacrifice fly to center by Mike Torres which scored Teilon, but they blew a chance to do more damage. North Shore had runners on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out but could only bring in the one run as Josue Lopez grounded out to end the inning.

North Shore had baserunners in each of the next three innings, but failed to score in each before ultimately breaking through in the 8th.

When forced to rally in the 9th, however, they fell short, when Vic Davilla grounded out weakly to first to end the ballgame, and perhaps an era.

Spirit Lose Heartbreaker; More Nails Lost

The blog's regular conntributor Joe is having trouble getting home at the moment...but is on his way home after a heartbreaking 9-6 loss against the Jackals of the Sewer State. He asked me to write up the report tonight.....but I'd like to get some sleep so I'm gonna cheat and put up the recap from the official North Shore Spirit website and add a few side-thoughts:

By Reid Cargan,SPIRIT Baseball Writer
LYNN,MA (SV)
"Sandy Madera hit a grand slam off Derek Drage to cap off a seven run ninth inning as the Jackals storm back from four runs down to shock the Spirit 9-6 Tuesday night at Fraser field in game one of their series.

It was a battle of the lefties for the first four innings as Luis Arroyo and Josh Brey held their counterparts scoreless. Then with two outs in the top of the fifth, Joe Mihalics singles and promptly stole second. Clay Kuklick hit what appeared to be the final out, but the fly ball tipped of Mike Torres’ glove and dropped in allowing Mihalics to score. New Jersey took further advantage of the error by scoring another run in the frame on a Francisco Leandro base hit to up the score to 2-0.

The Spirit struck for five in the sixth inning to overtake the Jackals. Mike Torres and Luis Lopez both with 2 RBI’s in the frame on a single and double respectively. Jerson Perez chipped in an RBI single as well that scored Lopez from second. The Spirit bullpen cruised through the seventh and eighth innings before Donny Langdon and Jamie Baker imploded in the ninth inning, all culminating in the Madera slam. New Jersey banged out five hits with two walks in the frame. The Jackals gave the Spirit a taste of their own medicine after the Spirit had strung together a few come from behind victories as of late.

Kyle George (2-3) picks up the win in relief, with newcomer Tom Atlee picking up his first save as a member of the Jackals. Drage takes the loss, moving his record to 3-4 on the season.

The two teams lock up again Wednesday night at 7:05. Gary Galvez will oppose Kevin Ool."


NOW...for my mini-rant and thoughts (I know Joe would've loved to do this in the main post XD):
First off may I start by askign the following questions.....Why can;t we seem to win at home,especially latye in the season? AND Why do we always have closer problems late in the season? NOW-we move on....

**Luis Arroyo did phneominal in his outing. His pitching line was 6 innings pitched with 4 hits and 2 un-earned runs (an E7) while stiking out 1 and walking 2.
** I liked the idea of,after Arroyo left,trying to use one pitcher per inning.....worked to a point ;]
** Fraser Field is porbably the only place that can go from active in the 6th to being a carbon copy of Pine Grove Cemetary when sound is NEEDED!!!! UGH!
** I hate how an usher told us to quiet down and then said "It';s only the Spirit" when we were cheering in the 9th....LIKE REAL FANS DO!
** Carl Schaefer is sick!!! He has some VERY good stuff. Maybe we should've kept him in a little later...
** Derek Gange shouldn't have gone in THAT late in the game (the 9th inning).....he's been bad lately,and doing that was suicide. Next time put him in earlier......this isn't helping him or the team at this point.
** Walking Fransisco Leandro (who?) to get to Sandy Madera (top league hitter) was a HORRIBLE discission! ALL of us agreed.....cause then what happened? BOOM! Grand Salami....just like Joe predicted and everyone thought might happpen.
** Why leave in Drage after doign badly and then giving up a grand slam?! Vic....stop being like JK,it's giving us heart problems.
** Vic.......make Carl Schaefer the closer--NOW! ^_^

ALSO: The press box is amazing....thank you guys for the Can-Am updates (they're important now) and thanks Pat for the enthusiastic Josue Lopez intro,you sound remotely like a Spanish soccer announcer subsituting Josue for GOOOOOOAAAALLLL!!!!! XD Can we do that every night? ;-]



NOW.....comment away!

PS: The Utica region of "Who's Now" will be forthcoming (AKA: This week)

The Spirit lose a thriller

The celebrations will have to wait for at least one more day.

The Spirit lost to Worcester tonight, 7-6, in what turned out to be a thrilling game in front of an involved crowd at Fraser Field.

Worcester controlled the game early on by putting up 6 runs against Matt Bishop and chasing him after just 3.1 innings.

Bishop wasn't too pleased with his own performance:

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Brandon Martin came in and pitched very well from there, getting the Spirit through the 7th inning with some quality relief work. Jamie Baker yielded a run in the 8th to give Worcester a 7-5 advantage going into the bottom of the 9th.

Then, all heck broke loose. With 1 out, Josue Lopez hit an absolute bomb over the rightfield wall to cut the lead to 1. Joe Hough walked to put a man on. Then, BJ Weed legged out an infield hit to put two runners on for Gary Roche.

Roche blooped a single into shallow left just out of the reach of a diving Alex Pena, who recovered in time to gun down Hough, who broke for home on the play.

A big topic of conversation after the game was whether or not Tommy should have sent Hough, but I think that's too easy of an excuse. It was a really nice recovery and throw by Pena and the play wound up being really close. It was simply well-executed by Pena.

That put the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 2nd for Mike Torres, who hit a hard line drive that Pena snagged at short to end the game. The Spirit were literally inches away from at least tying the game twice, but Worcester escaped.

From a selfish standpoint, I was sad that the Spirit didn't clinch it tonight because I won't be there tomorrow - but all in all, you have to be pretty pleased with the game, it just didn't turn out our way.

Also, I got myself a white #16 Jon de Vries jersey with his name on the back at the Spirit pro shop, so I am VERY HAPPY.

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I actually caught Worcester scoring a run on tape, but needless to say I have crappy filming skills:

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Question: can we play all of our playoff games on the road? :)

Also, don't despair - The next phase of "WHO'S NOW" is coming tomorrow morning. Well, it's coming when I wake up, so realistically, tomorrow afternoon. ;)

Spirit lose game three

So, the Skyhawks salvaged game three of the series today with a 6-5, 10 inning win. Derek Drage took the loss for the Spirit.

No biggie - we won 2 out of 3 on the weekend, so mission accomplished.

Off to Brockton now to start a big series. Well, who am I kidding - they are ALL big series from here on out. It's crunch time, baby. Gotta love pennant races...even if they leave you lacking for fingernails from time to time.

Sorry for the sparse updates this weekend - I've been out and about and away from the computer.

Among other things, I attended a mind-blowingly awesome concert on Saturday night in Boston by the one and only Muse:

I'm not a big concert guy, but Muse kicks ASS... I will always make sure to get tickets whenever they are in town.

I also took the T back home to Revere to attend our annual neighborhood block party.... it's a municipal election year, so needless to say, every politician in the universe was there gladhanding. It was kind of sad. You can always count on the local politicos to turn out in force at any community gathering.

Surprise, surprise.

All in all, I'm pretty glad I spent the weekend away from baseball -- the results down in Baltimore weren't good at all, and I think that if I had watched Kentucky Fried Kevin hit a walkoff home run against the Sox, and then listened the Spirit lose to Sussex in extra innings all within a short span, I would have been pretty ticked off.

Looking at it from the macro perspective, however, the Spirit got the job done this weekend. But I'm not sure you can say the same for the struggling boys in Boston.

It should be an interesting week in the world of baseball. But isn't it always?

Spirit Swept By Rox In DH ; Onwards To Sussex!

Tonight Joe won't make it back till late--so he asked me to do the update tonight.
So here it goes:

FIRST OFF: I want to state that Josue finally got hte recognition he deserves....as he and Joey Siak recieved Player of the Month honors from the Spirit. Congrats on continuing to pitch great Joey and it's nice to know Josue was recognised for a month in which he proved why we should start the official "I ♥ Josue" fan cluib. ^_^

Back to buisness.....
For starters: I want Morse back. :'-[
He was a good guy (from what we saw,at least) and is STILL a damn good pitcher. We were on a 5-game winnign streak going into today,and he derailed us......he is still an awesome pitcher in my opinion.....but too bad we traded him. =[

ANYWAYS--In game one former Spirit Bryan Morse went aginst current Spirit Matt Bishop as the Rox came up to Lynn to finish their weirdly-scheduled series against us. Both pitchers were brilliant in this game,but Morse proved that he is still one of the best pitchers in this league as he went the distance in the 1-0 shutout victory for the Rox.

It was vinatge Morse out there for Brockton. He went the complete game for the Rox pitching a one-hit shutout for the Rox. The Sprit would only come close to scoring once in the 7th. After two straight outs and a Torres walk Luis Lopez came up. He hit a deep ball out to right center......and we all thought it was gone as Brockton CF Matt Maloney chased it down. Then we saw him jump up and reach his glove out......AND ROB LOPEZ OF A 2-RUN BLAST! That was the closest the Spirit came all night....and it was shot down with an amazing catch by the Center feidler.

Bishop only allowed (including last night) 8 hits the entire game to Brockton while striking out 4 and walking 4. Even though Brockton got runners on they didn;t get past second until the 9th. In that inning Matt Maloney,with one out,got a single. That was the end of bishop's night and the start of Derek Drage's. Drago came in and Maloney stole a base, and Andre Alvarado followed that with an rbi single to right. But some bad baserunning lead to a 9/2/4 out. Then Lee Rubin poped up to end the 9th for the Rox.

As you can tell,it was a pretty good pitcher's duel....but in the end only one could prevail,and it's the one we all thought would in this situation.

Now onto game 2:
This game sped by quick,lasting only 1 hour,42 minutes. Game 2 featured former Rox Gary Galvez going against current Rox Mike McTamney. This one wasn't really a pitcher's duel,but the Spirit were still held to little offense as the Rox went on to win 3-1 in this 7-innign affair.

Mike McTamney also went the distance for Brockton,throwing a complete game and allowing only 1 run on 5 hits. The Spirit got their onyl run on an Alex Trezza homer in the 2nd,his 9th of the year. the Spirit got close again the next innign with runners on 2nd and 3r and Trezza up again,but he couldn't come through again-strikign out to end the inning and any threat of scoring from the Spirit.

Galvez almost went the distance for the Spirit,going 6 2/3 innings,but didn't pitch well enough afor a win. In that time he gave up 3 runs on 4 hits while strikign out 5 and walking 3. The Rox got on the board first in the 2nd. The first two batters got on via a walk and getting hit,then Maloney came up and once again helped his team--hitting a three-run bomb,his 2nd of the year,to put the Rox up 3-0. The 7th would be the closest they would come to scoring again,as Julio Soriano c ame in to relieve Galvez in the 7th with runners on 2nd and 3rd to strike out Rubin to end the Rox 7th,and any more scoring.

I also want to add i saw quite a few DeVries Jrs out there today. Not much hustle today.....I felt like chanting run it out a few tiems today. We need a hustle coach--maybe BJ? XD

But,in the end the Spirit came out scoring only 1 hit in 16 innings of baseball on 6 hits,and 2 straight loses.
Now the Spirit move on to a 3-game series in Augusta,NJ aggainst the suckit Skyhawks. This should be an easy couple of wins for us,so let's hope that we can keep up what we've been doing and also cheer them on during this final couple of weeks.


NOW,here's a treat for you all....a post-game wrap-up featuring Joe & Jonathan....

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SCORES FROM TONIGHT:
Worcester 4, New Jersey 3
New Haven County 6, Grays 4
Atlantic City 6, Quebec 5

You're S%@!#!ing me

Donny Langdon had no business pitching that 7th inning. I said so before it started (see the game log). That was fucking stupid. I'll try to muster up an actual recap later.

I know it's just one game and they can't win them all and they were due for a loss, but pissing a way a 2 run lead in the last inning against these dickwads makes me very, very upset. $@!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

6 runs in 2 innings. The bullpen = officially a problem.

Just a frustrating night

Well, here we have it – tonight’s game really was a combination of all the factors that have made this season frustrating. Two baserunners gunned down in scoring position, untimely mistakes on the hill, an inning-ending double play just as the Spirit were beginning to rally, and the morphing of Davilla into Kennedy, Jr. It was a frustrating night at Fraser as the Spirit fell 5-2 to Brockton – meaning that the best the Spirit can muster against the 3^rd-worst team in the league is an even split with a win tomorrow night at the House of Horrors.

To make things worse, we hit the triple crown – a pizza scream, Fraser Downs, and the tee-shirt toss, all in one night. The good news was, we heard what an enthusiastic crowd of 2,200 CAN sound like……. for anything but actual baseball.

The game got away early --- falling behind 2-0 is usually too much to overcome for this offense, but once the Rox got off to a 5-0 lead, it really was over. In a theme that has been constant throughout his starts this year, Spirit hurler Josue Matos cruised through his first 2 2/3 innings but started to lose it after that. He squeaked his way out of a 3^rd inning jam unharmed, but the warning signs were there: Matos was fading.

Matos walked the bases loaded to start the top of the 4^th and by this point the 7 or 8 people in attendance paying attention to the game were getting antsy and calling for Vic to at least get someone warming up in the ‘pen. Tony Gonzalez then ripped an RBI single to make it 1-0 Brockton and suddenly the Rox were threatening to put up a huge inning; finally, McNamara began warming up. One more run came in on the inning before a slick play by Jerson Perez started a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play, limiting the damage… Matos escaped further trouble and at that point, should have been taken out of the game.

He was sent back in for the 5^th, however, and right then and there I knew it was over. I turned to my partner in crime, Dr. Sparky, and said “Look who’s out there to fall on his sword… good ol’ Josue #2. It’s over now.”

He gave up two singles to start the inning, which led me to think, well, he was left in too long, but hopefully Robinson can come in and escape the jam.

But Matos was left in still, after about 2 innings of struggles, and it finally came back to really, really burn the Spirit – Jason Radwan blasted a 3-run homer to make it 5-0 Rox. With this lineup, that means one thing: o-v-a, ovahhh.

The Spirit finally got some offense going off of Rolando Viera in the 8^th. Mike Torres smoked an RBI single which plated Gary Roche, making the score 5-1 and putting runners on the corners with 1 out. Luis Lopez promptly swung at the first pitch from a struggling Viera and grounded into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play ---- one of the most frustrating moments of the season, surely. I’m glad I have this two-hour or so buffer zone of travel time before blogging, because at the moment I was very upset.

Observations –

1. I think it’s time for everyone named “Josue” and everyone named “Lopez” to go. Package every Josue and every Lopez for Oglesby and de Vries for all I care.

2. Also, Vic needs to return to his proactive style that he showed earlier in the season. This was surely the most frustrating managerial performance of the season.

3. Of course, ideally, we really need Vic to get back in the lineup. In place of Luis Lopez. Now. This lineup is mediocre at best. Have we even had any big comeback wins this year? There was a point in each of the last few seasons where we would have a big 4, 5, 6 run comeback seemingly once every week.

4. This team really looks lethargic. Obviously, more importantly, they just aren’t hitting. But there’s something to be said for the general feeling of lethargy surrounding the team… all of the players, the fans, the owner, the staff, Slugger, the ushers, EVERYONE--- with the exception of Spirit Dance Team Superstar and ace intern Kristen Mooney (Revere High School ’05… I guess I can forgive her for going to sUeConn ’09), who turned in a grade-A performance atop the dugout. It seems like everyone is just playing out the string right now. That is a disturbing trend.

In other news –

Apparently, Bryan Morse has been suspended by the team after various disputes, the nature of which I am basically unaware of. I’m not sure what the whole story is and I don’t want to speculate. All I know is, don’t expect to see Morse on the hill any time soon…

Agh

After that heartbreaker in game 1, I'm goin' out for a while -- ouch. I'll be back later tonight to report on the end of numero 2.

We have to win game 2 - we can't lose a series to New Haven.

On the bright side, I'm feeling darn good about our chances with Farley on the hill.

Let's go

Game 1 is underway in West Haven, CT - the weather is holding up for now.

Bic is pitching in game one. Bucky Kosyk is pitching for the Cutters.

Farley is pitching in game two.

NSS 0 0 0 / 0 1 1 / 0 / 0 0 / 0 --- 2
NHC 1 0 1 / 0 0 0 / 0 / 0 0 / 1 --- 3

Bot 1st: Pickerill RBI groundout. 1-0 New Haven.

Top 2nd: Spirit put the first two runners on, but someone (torres?) grounds into a double play, and then My Man Josue Lopez grounds out to end the inning. Still 1-0 Cutters.

Bot 3rd: Junior Zamora RBI single scores Pickerill, 2-0 NH.

Top 4th: Josue Lopez grounds out with 2 men on and 2 out. I SERIOUSLY would rather have Fran Riordan at this point.

Top 5th: HUGE! Gary Roche RBI single scores Jerson Perez and moves Adam Balkan up into scoring position. Roche has been excellent lately. Runners at the corners w/ 1 out and Mike Torres up. Let's go Spirit! 2-1 Cutters.

Top 5th: AFJ@J!#@L!J@#L!je:!J#L@#!L@#J! - Torres flies out to left field and Adam Balkan is thrown out attempting to tag up and come home. AGGGGGGGH!

Bot 5th: Quick inning for Bic. Let's get him some runs, now... 6 outs to work with.

Top 6th: Luis Lopez rips a leadoff double down the 3rd base line.... chasing Kosyk.

Top 6th: Mike Joyce in to pitch for the Cutters.

Top 6th: Josue!!! he comes through finally and ties the game with an RBI single. Beautiful! 2-2.

Bot 6th: Another 1-2-3 for Bic.

Top 7th: With a runner on 1st and 1 out Adam Piechowski in to pitch for New Haven.

Top 7th: With 2 men on and 1 out, Mike Torres grounds into a clutch double play. :( It's now nail-bite time.

Bot 7th: From the sounds of it, BJ Weed saves the game with a tremendous catch to end the bottom of the 7th. To extras we go.

---EXTRA INNINGS!---

Top 8th: Andy Weimer in to pitch for the Cutters. I like the fact that they are using up their bullpen here. I'll like it even more if we win.

Top 8th: Luis Lopez reaches first with a leadoff single, but two outs later, it's up to Josue...

...aaand the PA announcer in New Haven just referred to him as "ho-sue." Ho-sue is back to typical Ho-sue style, popping out to end the 8th. More "nail-bite time" in the bottom of the 8th...

Bot 8th: Donny Langdon in to make his 20th appearance of the season. Bic goes 7 solid innings, giving up two runs on three hits, and will exit with a no-decision.

Bot 8th: Langdon comes in to face the lefty, gets one out by way of the K, and is taken out in favor of Dennis Robinson.

Bot 8th: A pair of two out singles: Gaskin lines a single, then Encarnacion gets a base hit to put runners on 1st and 2nd with two men out... Matt Hackney is up for New Haven County.

Bot 8th: D-Rob gets Hackney to ground out and we go to the 9th! Interesting to note that right now the Spirit have 11 hits to New Haven County's 5. Let's get hits AND bring 'em home in the 9th, boys.

Top 9th: Bunting is f!@$!#!#@!#!ing STUPID, EXHIBIT 129249210381290381058840982103981203812038120381032193810. I can't tell if it was a bunt attempt gone awry or a straight steal. Either way, DUMB

Top 9th: "Gotta love the aggressiveness of BJ Weed" - no, no you don't. Gotta love the stupidity of wasting a leadoff walk. There ya go...... Adam Balkan flies out to end the inning. At least he didn't rip a double that would have scored BJ if he didn't get thrown out. Aggh!

Bot 9th: The drama is killing me here in the bottom of the 9th... full count, 2 outs, 2 men on...

Bot 9th: D-Rob escapes the jam, and I still have a few fingernails left. Yay!

Top 10th: Not much going on for the Spirit offense here but DAMN the Red Sox are absolutely pounding on the Devil Rays right now.. Coco w/ a grand slam in the first and Lowell with a 3-run blast in the 2nd, Beckett w/ 5 Ks - 9-0 Sox in the 2nd inning (?!)

Top 10th: Nothing doing...aaagh.

Bot 10th: Cutters start the inning with 2 singes (Zamora, Gaskin)...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh

Bot 10th: Orlando Encarnacion walkoff RBI single..............................................................................................................................

Epic loss

Simply stated, this was one of the most exciting games in Spirit history but also one of the most heartbreaking losses. Campanelli Stadium has always been an awful place for the Spirit and that trend continued with a crushing 4-3 loss at the hands of the Rox in 13 innings.

With the score 1-1 in the 10th inning, Darren Blakely hit a 1 out triple off of Ryan Bernard. Then, Adam Balkan brought him home with a sac fly to give the Spirit the 2-1 advantage.

But in the bottom of the frame, Donny Langdon, brought in to start the 10th, was clearly rattled by the pressure.

He walked de La Cruz on 4 pitches and then gave up an RBI double to Gonzalez, tying the score at 2. A Houdini act by Jamie Baker kept the game alive. With the bases loaded and 1 out, Joe Hough popped out to first and Fransisco LeBron popped out to right field to end the inning.

Baker continued to pitch magnificently and kept the game tied into the 13th. In the 13th frame, Gary Roche made a successful squeeze bunt to score Blakely and put the Spirit on top for the 3rd time on the night.

But again, the lead would not be held. With 1 out, Fransisco LeBron popped one up near the stands on the first base side but Josue Lopez had it pop out of his glove....... UGH HE IS SO USELESS... and LeBron went on to single. Then Guye Senjem walked and Jason Radwan singled, chasing Baker who pitched tremendously but wound up with the hard luck loss.

Shawn McNamara came in and threw a grand total of one pitch to De La Cruz, who knocked a 2RBI single to give the Rox an incredible win.

Joey Siak and John Kelly had outstanding starting pitching efforts. Siak went 7 innings giving up 1 run and John Kelly tossed 9 innings giving up just the 1 run. Derek Drage came in and bridged the gap for the Spirit until the 10th.

We really missed Dennis Robinson tonight.

At the end of the game Vic Davilla got into a furious screaming match with the umpires over ball and strike calls made during the decisive 13th inning. He was certainly inconsistent as he suddenly started squeezing Baker, but it was stupid to just go off on them like that at the end of the game. It looked really dumb. I also saw Vic conferencing with N.L. a few times during the game. What's up with that?

I was as happy as anyone about getting rid of Kennedy but it's starting to look like he was shipped off not to bring in a better baseball guy but to cut costs and have a Loyal Soldier of the Spirit Staff run the ship. Vic definitely has potential but maybe he wasn't ready to manage just yet.

Quite honestly, we really need his bat in the lineup. He stepped in in two games and got three hits and led the Spirit to two wins.

We could have used his bat tonight, and we could have used his glove at first base..... Lopez is awful.

Come back Vic?

Three (four, five, six?) cheers for Joey Siak, and three more for old friend John Kelly, who was absolutely masterful tonight.

Three more cheers for Jamie Baker, tonight's player of the game. He deserved a better fate, but we just plain ran out of guys to go to.

I had a lot of fun tonight... Fun Is Good after all. With the exception of a few nutters in the 13th I had great interaction with all the Brockton fans tonight and even made some friends with our three signs:

IMPEACH MILES!
FREE D-ROB!
ROX: THE TRUE 2006 CHAMPS - YOU GOT HOSED!

This was probably the most fun I've had at a game all year -- the place was electric and supportive and the atmosphere was fun. Maybe it's because my previous experiences in Brockton have been on a Friday or Saturday night which must obviously attract the drunk crowd. Tonight's crowd was great.

Fun is good.

Losing is bad.

Spirit lose in ten

Derek Drage blew a 6-5 lead in the 9th then let Jeff Lahair hit a walkoff double in the bottom of the 10th as the Spirit fell to Worcester tonight, 7-6. Ryan Bicondoa pitched six innings and gave up three earned runs. He pitched well enough to win but the bullpen couldn't hold a 6-3 lead.

I didn't listen to the whole game so I don't know the full details and honestly after the painful way we lost the game I don't feel like going back over it in great detail. Some bright spots - Gary Roche went 3-3 with 2 doubles and a walk, and new Spirit outfielder Adam Balkan reached base twice in his Spirit debut.

Before the game, Balkan was signed and backup C Chris Torres was cut.

Derek Drage led off the bottom of the 9th by walkinig Euvi Solano. A sac bunt moved Solano into scoring position, and Chris Colabello followed by lining an RBI single to left-center to tie the game.

At first, Drage appeared to dodge a bullet in the 10th. Yohanny Valera led off the inning with a double, and Patrick Perry came up to bunt him over to 3rd. His bunt was too hard, however, and Valera was thrown out at third. The relief was short-lived however as Lahair followed with his walk-off double.

I'm thinking of heading out to the game in Worcester tomorrow night so there won't be a recap til late, but I'll make up for it by taking some good pictures.