Roman Anthony had two more doubles Sunday.
This week has tested my allegiance to this team, in a facetious but also “Oh, the Celtics are on? Oh, I haven’t watched Forged in Foxboro yet? Oh, let me do some homework with the game on and the sound off…” kind of way. I’m running out of ways to say “well, if you saw this ridiculous play, fear not, this guy is cooking down in Worcester!” about a certain outfielder and a certain shortstop, especially now that said shortstop is playing second base and our second basemen is taking grounders after the hottest hitter in the world refused to play first. David Hamilton taking an egregious turn and getting tossed out by a mile made me even more eager to see Mayer and Anthony. Yesterday, it was the latter who had two doubles of his own. Let’s get into it.
Worcester: L, 4-8 (BOX SCORE)
This was a bullpen game, so odds that Worcester was going to win against Buffalo (Blue Jays AAA) in the series finale were low, but no one save for Luis Guerrero emerged from their inning or two of work unscathed, causing the WooSox to fall by four, and Worcester going 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position didn’t help. Almost every hitter in the WooSox lineup enjoyed at least one hit, but every one was sat down on strikes at least once, too. Just one, though, got two extra base hits… and of course it was Roman Anthony, who’s played second fiddle a bit to Marcelo Mayer lately, who played second again.
Portland: W, 4-1 (BOX SCORE)
Portland, on the other hand, made four runs work for them to win in the finale of a series that saw an abundance of inclement weather against Somerset (Yankees AA). Also, can we talk about how the Yankees’ affiliate being named the Patriots has got to be some sort of small scale crime?
Now, back to the game: The TWO batters who had multiple hits have a COMBINED OPS of .773. I don’t mean combined like, taking their averages, I mean by adding them together. Of course, we also can’t overlook Blaze Jordan, who’s looking ready for Worcester, hitting Portland’s only home run of Sunday afternoon. And, speaking of guys who look ready for Triple-A, Connelly Early pitched 5 1⁄3 scoreless inning as he struck out eight his ERA dips convincingly under 2. The lefty has now looked like an absolute machine for almost two months.
Greenville: L, 3-6 (BOX SCORE)
Franklin Arias hit a two-out, bases loaded single to score two and pull Greenville ahead 3-2. Sadly, that was just the second inning of this one against the Spartanburgers (Rangers High-A) and there was a lot of game left to play. In a game that saw the usually dependable Max Carlson and Brandon Clarke issue six walks between them, the offense also didn’t live up to their end of the bargain, leaving ten aboard.
Salem: W, 5-3 (F/10) (BOX SCORE)
18-year old Justin Gonzalez ends his second week in A-ball with his second consecutive 3-hit game, none more important to score the go-ahead run in extra innings against the RiverDogs (Rays A). Freili Encarnacion would also drive in another run to make the game 5-3. This game may not have even been close had Salem mustered more than one base on balls Sunday evening, but we can’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Have a happy Monday!