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Sunday’s game was under the lights against the Blue Rocks, the current first-place team in the Rocky division. Our pitching (Hiroki and Bobby) was lights out, the defense was excellent (only one minor error), and we crushed the ball. The final score was 17-3.

I played right field and second base and didn’t get any action at either (sans a single to right that I threw in), but Zane asked me in the seventh if my arm was feeling good to pitch, so it’s good to know that I haven’t totally fallen out of favor with the team as a pitcher, despite my struggles. At the plate, I went 1-for-4 with a single, but the process felt pretty good. I got myself out in the first at-bat, making poor contact on a low and away fastball. The pitcher got me out in the second at-bat, locating his curveball on the outer half of the plate and getting me to roll over on it with two strikes. In both of these situations, I was able to move the runner(s) over with one out, so I still had some productivity to speak of.

The third at-bat saw me taking a fastball away to right field; I made excellent contact and was very happy with the at-bat. They brought in a reliever for my fourth at-bat, and he had been throwing a ton of curveballs earlier in the inning, so I sat on a curve and was ready to swing at one if he hung it. Sure enough, he hung his breaking ball right over the plate and I swung, made great contact, but got under it just a bit too much, sending a long flyball to center field. I don’t regret swinging at the first pitch - that was the best opportunity I would get in that at-bat by knowing what he’d throw and being prepared for it.

I’m learning a lot about baseball in general this year, specifically the ability to guess at which pitches are coming based on glove positioning, number of times the pitcher shakes off the catcher, pre-setting the grips, and other visual cues. Getting these “reads” on opposing pitchers will not only help me as a hitter, but also as a pitcher, knowing that other batters are doing the same thing as me.

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Today was a landmark day for me.  I made my first PSSBL pitching appearance for the Cascade Red Sox, basically mopping up the last three innings of a 12-2 rout by the Brewers.  Even though we got beat, the fact that I finally got out on the mound meant a lot.  The fact that I pitched relatively well was also nice.

This season has been very frustrating so far.  With only 15 AB’s entering today, my patience about the reserve role has been pushed to its limits.  Don’t get me wrong, we play to be competitive, but forking out $400+ for three games worth of at-bats halfway through the season is seeming like folly.  Not to mention how hard a groove is to find amidst sporadic plate appearances.  Being able to put some of the last eight months pitching work to use has eased my pain a bit.

I gave up one unearned run on one hit today.  Two walks, three strikeouts I think.  I got into a little trouble in my first inning, with the bases loaded and two down.  I got a pop-up to second, but it was dropped in short right and the runner came in from third.  The next batter hit a line drive right at me, fortunately I was quick enough to snag it and prevent a bad inning.  That moment will be embedded on my eyelids for a little while, I think.

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Today was an excellent individual effort day, despite two losses. I went 5-for-7 on the day, all of them singles. I smashed a hanging curve foul pretty far, so the power is still there, but the tinkering of the swing has clearly positively affected my bat control and probably negatively affected my power. That’s fine; I’ll take a higher batting average and more solid contact numbers over doubles. It’s easier to work on power after finalizing a good line drive stroke.

My pitching today wasn’t great, going 4 innings and allowing 4 earned runs with two walks and no strikeouts, but I’m still not at 100%. The control was decent but not great, the velocity was below average, and the breaking ball was not sharp. That being said, I located the fastball fairly well, mainly working inside to practice hitting that spot (I have historically had problems pitching inside to right-handed hitters). My shoulder’s at 90%, and I was giving about 85% effort on all my pitches. After a bullpen session on Monday with Jacob and Otto, I think I’ll have the confidence and the mechanics down to really work more on velocity.

Speaking of velocity, it’s clear that throwing upper 70’s and occasionally hitting lower 80’s isn’t going to cut it. I know that location is more important than velocity and blah blah blah, but it’s time to stop kidding myself and face reality: I just have to throw harder. By next year, I want to be throwing mid-80’s consistently with a plus-rated changeup and a reasonable out pitch. It’s going to take at least that to succeed in the Baker leagues of PSSBL, where most of the players have varsity high school or higher experience.

But enough reflection on what I have to do. I’m really happy with the new swing mechanics I’m working with, and I really believe that I’ve found a good line drive stroke that will turn into consistent gap power. I was never a true “power” hitter in the first place - years of “level swing” instruction have basically seen to that. Many thanks to the guys at Baseball-Fever in the Baseball 101 section - their articles and forum posts on rotational hitting really helped me turn it around.

Now, it’s time to relax. I have a 9 AM game tomorrow.

Hitting Stats:
.377/.442/.536 over 77 PA / 69 AB
26 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 11 RBI, 13 R, 8 SB, 5 K, 5 BB, 3 HBP

Pitching stats:
2-2, 8.75 ERA
25.7 IP, 19 H, 25 BB, 13 K, 25 ER

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Today’s game at the White Center stadium went extremely well - we were ahead by a run in the sixth inning when they had to postpone the game due to an overhead lighting malfunction.

I caught for two innings and played center field for the rest of the game; nothing of note occurred at either position.

The real good news is related to my hitting. After studying some hitting videos and animated images (see the last post for specific examples), I took to heart the idea of shortening my swing and getting “fulcrum push” to generate power, rather than torquing with the hands (resulting in a long swing). I hit a soft liner to left field that was caught, an absolute line drive smash to left field that was unfortunately right at the fielder, and two small singles up the middle and to the right side of the infield.

I feel really good about my swing and look forward to this weekend’s games.

Hitting Stats:
.339/.414/.516 over 70 PA / 62 AB
21 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 13 R, 8 SB, 5 K, 5 BB, 3 HBP

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Two games over the weekend, went 2-for-8 with a walk (no strikeouts), a hit, and a double. I swiped second base in one game, too! I threw four innings at 75-80% due to shoulder pain/discomfort over the past few weeks, but the control was there and the breaking ball was reasonable (threw no changeups). I allowed four runs, both in innings I walked a runner, but got out of two innings scoreless 1-2-3 by pitching to contact low in the zone. Total damage was four runs, two walks, one strikeout, and a no decision (entered the game down 8 runs, ended up losing the game by one).

That brings my stats to:

Hitting stats:
.328/.410/.517 over 66 PA / 58 AB
19 H, 9 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 13 R, 8 SB, 5 K, 5 BB, 3 HBP

Pitching stats:
2-1, 8.71 ERA
21.7 IP, 15 H, 23 BB, 13 K, 21 ER

Oh, by the way - I’m getting this motion down really well:

It really helps with control. Haven’t thrown at max speed yet, so we’ll see about the rest.

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This weekend I had two games and went 1-7 with a HBP. It wasn’t a great weekend individually, but we won both games, so that’s all that really counts in the end. Good progress was made in my second game, where I hit a flyball to the warning track. After it came off my bat I knew I missed it by a few millimeters, but I’m happy with the process instead of focusing on the result.

Workouts tomorrow morning and cage work all week. I need to get back on track with working out and being more dedicated to losing weight and increasing my skill.

Hitting Stats:

.340/.421/.540 over 57 PA / 50 AB
17 H, 8 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 12 R, 7 SB, 5 K, 4 BB, 3 HBP

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I played three games over the weekend and went 3-for-10 overall. Here’s a brief rundown of the games:

Seattle League Nandemoya vs. Central

Central is the defending champions of the league, mainly on the strength of their pitching. Their ace is a former high school player in Japan who gets it into the mid-80’s pretty reliably with an average breaking ball (overhand curve) and average changeup. We ended up winning the game 5-4, which is a great way to start the summer league off. I went 1-3 with a single and a stolen base and committed a throwing error at third base (which luckily didn’t contribute to any runs scored).

PSSBL Mariners vs.  Missions

This is a rematch against a team that I pitched against and ended up walking tons of their batters, unfortunately. We had our ace, Cole, on the mound today, who is an RHP who reliably throws in the mid-upper 80’s with a plus slider and curveball. Cole gets great movement on his two-seam fastball to generate a ton of groundballs for us. The opposing team has two ex-college pitchers who are both right-handed and throw in the low-mid 80’s. The reliever had the best curveball I’ve seen since college, while the starter had a bit better command. We won this game 5-3.

I played some left field and second base, recording a single putout at second and chasing a line drive over my head in left, which is about all the action I got on the day. I’ve never played outfield in my life (career third/second baseman when I wasn’t pitching), so getting used to the idea of “first step back” is pretty tough. My line for the day wasn’t great, going 1-for-4 (one strikeout, swinging) with a double, a run scored, and an RBI.

Random Pickup Game

A bunch of people I met get together once a month and play pickup games occasionally. Most of them are ex-HS players who play in local amateur/recreational leagues, so the competition isn’t stellar, but it’s not beer league baseball either (though we had beers on hand). In this game I went 1-for-3 with a triple and a run scored.

Hitting stats:
.372/.449/.605 over 49 PA / 43 AB
16 H, 8 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 12 R, 7 SB, 5 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP

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We had a rematch against the River Dogs today at 4 PM out in Sammamish. We lost to them 14-0 last time in an effort that had our pitchers (including me) walking everyone on their team. It was pretty embarassing.

Today, we got revenge to the tune of 12-8. Cole (our college pitcher) went 5 innings and allowed 3 runs, only one of them earned.

As for my individual performance, I went 2-4 at the plate with a single, a double, and a run scored.

First at-bat: Runners at first and second, 1 out.
-Fastball high/inside, ball
-Fastball high/inside, ball
-Fastball down the middle, strike
-Slider; I roll over on it and hit it up the middle for a fielder’s choice (2nd base).
-I take second on defense indifference.

Second at-bat: Leading off the inning.
-Fastball high/inside, ball
-Slider inside, strike
-Slider inside; I get jammed and hit an infield single. Somehow I end up on third base due to throwing and fielding errors. I score later in the inning.

Third at-bat: Leading off the inning.
-Fastball in the dirt, ball
-Fastball outside, strike
-Curveball down the middle, I make solid contact and lace it into left-field for a double.

Fourth at-bat: Leading off the inning.
-Fastball down the middle, strike
-Curve outside, ball
-Fastball inside; I jam myself again and break my bat on the routine 6-3 groundout.

Not a great day at the plate, but I’ll take the .500 batting average and the team win.

Hitting stats updated:

.394/.487/.576 over 39 PA / 33 AB
13 H, 7 2b, 8 RBI, 10 R, 6 SB, 4 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP

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