Gina Carrano Project #2 - Game Story

Gina Carrano
5/18/07
Game story

Thunder Drop 6th Straight Game

Trenton, N.J—On Friday, May 11th, hope sprung eternal at Waterfront Park as the New York Yankees’ Class AA affiliate Trenton Thunder prepared to take on the Minnesota Twins’ affiliate New Britain Rock Cats at 7:05 p.m. Despite having started the season with a 20-4 record, the Thunder were mired in a five-game losing streak, and judging from the exuberant cheers emanating from the crowd of 6,380, the fans were ready for a win.

However, their hopes were not to be realized that night, as the Rock Cats beat the Thunder 3-1, improving their record to 16-12 while the Thunder dropped to 21-10.

The key to the Rock Cats’ success was a dominant outing from right-handed pitcher Nick Blackburn, whose record on the season improved to 3-1 with the win. Blackburn tossed 7.1 strong innings of three-hit ball, walking two batters and striking out six in the process. The outing was his longest and most successful of the season.

“Everything was good, I had a pretty good live fastball and I kept them off-balance. I was able to locate better,” Blackburn told reporters from milb.com, the official web site of Minor League Baseball.

The only run surrendered by Blackburn was unearned, and it came in the 8th inning, after Thunder center fielder Matt Carson reached base on a fielding error by Rock Cats third baseman David Winfree. After Carson advanced to second base on a grounder to first off the bat of second baseman Gabe Lopez, right fielder Jamal Strong hit a line-drive single to center field, scoring Carson and chasing Blackburn from the game in favor of righty reliever Tim Lahey.

Lahey closed out the game without incident, striking out the first two batters he faced to escape from the 8th inning, and tossing a scoreless 9th to earn his second save of the season.

Right-handed Trenton starter Brett Smith also turned in a solid outing, but it wasn’t enough to overcome timely hitting by the Rock Cats. Smith, who went into the night’s game undefeated (3-0) and leading the Eastern League in ERA (0.92), allowed three runs (two earned) in seven innings, allowing five hits and recording seven strikeouts in the process.

Both earned runs surrendered by Smith came in the top of the 5th. Right fielder Matt Allegra led off the inning with his sixth double of the season, and then advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt by first baseman Gil Velasquez. Immediately thereafter, catcher Kyle Geiger, hit an RBI triple to center field, easily scoring Allegra. Geiger then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of center fielder Brandon Roberts. Smith retired the next batter, second baseman Felix Molina, on a groundout to escape the inning, but the damage had already been done.

Also contributing to the Thunder’s sixth straight loss were key defensive miscues, as Strong made two fielding errors during the game. His first gaffe, which came in the first when a fly ball bounced off his glove, allowing Rock Cats left fielder Garrett Guzman to reach second base, didn’t yield any runs.

However, Strong’s second error, which came in the 7th, proved costly for the Thunder. Smith allowed a line-drive hit to Winfree to open the frame, but what would have been a single was stretched into a double on Strong’s fielding error. Another single by Allegra allowed Winfree to advance to third, and he scored one batter later on a sac fly by Velazquez.

After Smith’s seven innings, the Thunder turned the game over to right-handed reliever Kevin Whelan, who was acquired by the Yankees in a November 2006 trade that sent big-league right fielder Gary Sheffield to the Detroit Tigers. Baseball America ranked Whelan as the ninth-best prospect in the Yankees’ organization, and he lived up to his reputation, efficiently pitching two innings of scoreless, hitless ball, and striking out two batters in the process.

Promising arms like Whelan’s constitute a large part of the reason the Thunder were able to open the season with a scorching 20-4 record. In fact, Trenton leads the Eastern League in most important pitching categories: team ERA (2.29), strikeouts (354 in comparison to the second-best Bowie Baysox’s 304), and WHIP (1.05).

Their offense, however, is nowhere near as proficient. Of the twelve teams in the Eastern League, Trenton ranks ninth in team batting (.244), 11th in home runs (13) and dead last in slugging percentage (.335).

For the first month of the season, the offense was able to contribute often enough for the team to win most of their games. But the bats collectively suffered a huge blow when two of the team’s most promising hitters—speedy center fielder Brett Gardner (broken bone in right hand) and heavy-hitting first baseman Cody Ehlers (sprained elbow)—were recently placed on the disabled list.

Although Gardner and Ehlers are sorely missed by the Thunder on the base paths and at the plate, respectively, veteran outfielder Shawn Garrett is filling in quite ably for Ehlers in his absence. Garrett has been red-hot as of late, batting .306 with a home run and 5 RBI in his last 10 games. These impressive numbers have helped catapult him to ninth in the Eastern League in batting, with a .321 average, 3 homers and 12 RBI on the season, and he is hitting over .400 since being moved to the lineup’s cleanup spot in early May.

“Everything in Trenton…has been first-class. I’m really enjoying myself, [and] I’m glad I’ve been able to contribute,” Garrett told trentonthunder.com reporter Jed Weisberger when asked about his recent success.

Once Ehlers and Gardner are activated from the DL and Garrett returns to his regular spot in the outfield, Trenton’s offense projects to become much stronger. Gardner, who was interviewed by the Trenton Thunder radio affiliate before the game, hopes to return by early June.

“It’s a hairline fracture,” Gardner told reporters prior to Thursday’s game against the Rock Cats. “I hope it’s only three or four weeks,” he said, adding that he hoped to remain in Trenton with the team while rehabbing his injury, rather than being sent on assignment.

In the meantime, despite the six-game losing streak and offensive woes that currently plague them, the first-place Thunder remain optimistic about their chances of excelling throughout the season.

“We knew we couldn’t keep up the pace we started with, but nobody’s hanging their heads and we haven’t had any meetings,” Garrett told Weisberger. “We know what we have to do to win games and we will.”

The Thunder will have another opportunity to do just that tomorrow in the third of this four-game series with New Britain, as Trenton right-hander Alan Horne faces off against righty Jesse Floyd at 7:05 p.m.