Tuesday, August 18, 2015

1st Place Biscuits Sweep Barons, TOOTBLAN Lessons



On Monday night in Bham the Skitz took the fifth game of the series from the Barons. After knocking them around this week, the Biscuits one run lead might as well have been a twenty run lead to the Barons.

The Sox affiliate out-hit the Biscuits but left a ton of men on base and looked to be playing flat after Montgomery bumped them from the top spot.

Cam Seitzer watches 3b Patrick Leonard and 1b Jake Bauers celebrate the sweep

Faria
Again Montgomery pitching was strong, starter Jacob Faria working around ten baserunners to strike out five and allow just a pair of runs.  The duck-loving hurler seems to excel on days when it has already rained and today was no exception.

In the sixth inning, pushing his pitch count and obviously tiring, Jacob worked out of a bases-loaded jam, preserving his one run lead.

DH Cameron Seitzer
Biscuit bats were awake early, the usual suspects: Seitzer and Varona with RBI's, Tyler Goeddel with a steal and two runs scored. Scoring one in the first and two in the third was all Montgomery would need.


Brad Schrieber
The bullpen report was mostly good as we saw Jeff "Good" Ames, Mark Sappington and Bradley Schrieber come in nursing the one run lead.

Schrieber, the closer, made things interesting in the 9th by loading the bases but got a groundout to seal the win and the sweep.




TOOTBLAN LESSONS

During this series Tim Anderson was giving TOOTBLAN courses at Regions Field. No its not a new programming language, its an acronym for Taken Off Of The Bases Like A Nincompoop (see figures 1-3 in this section)

Fig.1
We have seen it repeatedly in action during this series, including on Friday when the Biscuits picked him off at first base twice and caught him attempting to steal once.

Fig.2

During this five game set the Barons prospect shortstop has repeatedly made baserunning mistake after baserunning mistake, removing himself from the bases.
Fig.3
Like A Nincompoop.

On Monday evening, down just a run, with two outs the powerful Hayes stood at the plate. But Tim Anderson again was caught napping and O'Conner threw behind him to pick him off and end the inning.


BISCUIT BUS NOW OFF TO TN
Now its on to Tennessee where await the Smokies and the final installment of the Grape Jelly Series.

Already an epic struggle so far this year, the final series now has serious playoff implications, the Biscuits face a six game visit that includes a doubleheader against the Cubs affiliate.

The Smokies are hurting abit, with Vogelbach still on rehab from his injured oblique and McKinney heading to the DL this week as well.
 
The Biscuits come back home on Sunday against the Jackson Generals. At just 16-33, the Generals are in the bottom of the division and could be eliminated from contention as early as Friday.


3 comments:

  1. Wow... great photos. Thanks!!

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  2. I was very disappointed in our Barons. They came into the series with a 3 game lead and now trail by 2. All they needed to do was to win 2 games. They took a 5-2 lead on Saturday night and blew it in the 9th. Last night, in the 6th, the Barons had 1st and 2nd with nobody out. A bunt later, they had 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Then they got a walk to load the bases with 1 out, but couldn't score the tying run. All I can hope is that we can get down to Montgomery and win a series to end the year, but I see no reason to hope that.

    The Barons started the second half at 16-4 and looked like world beaters. They've really collapsed since then. Kudos to Montgomery for refusing to quit.

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  3. Hey, comments on the blog! Always cool! I love to hear from the folks who watch the page.

    Glad you like the photos, Misty! They turned out really well from the road trip, Im happy to up my pic game a notch from the past! haha



    Jeb, I hear you, it was a classic rivalry series. When the Barons hit a grand slam on Saturday in front of a packed house, that should have turned the series. Tim Anderson has all the talent in the world, im not sure how he managed to let himself get picked off/thrown out repeatedly in such a huge series. Then to get thrown out, mid-at bat!

    Sorry I missed you, we will have to get together, the trip up was a last minute thing so i didnt get to plan for a trip to the old ballpark location as we talked about. Its gotta happen!

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