Friday the 13th
I am not a superstitious person for the most part, but today is another infamous “Friday the 13th.” Don’t worry if you are superstitious, as this is the only one in 2010. But beware in two years, as 2012 has three of them. Here’s a list of all of them in the recent past and the near future.
When it comes to baseball, I do not buy into the “broadcaster jinx.” If there is a perfect game or a no-hitter through six, seven or eight innings, I will say exactly that.
Although I must claim that I am highly superstitious in one instance — my friend Dave is solely responsible for a Rod Barajas home run. While at a game with him, Barajas came up, prompting Dave to say, “Rod Barajas, I didn’t even know he was still in the league.” Being a superstitious guy and understanding the magnitude of that statement, our mutual friend Kevin quickly turned away from his new phone to warn Dave and say, “Don’t say that, he’ll hit a home run.”
Well, one of the best pitchers in the big leagues was on the mound. As Dave was saying, “No, not against him,” Barajas clubbed a 400-plus home run to left.
Barajas has been improving ever since, and he drove in more runs in 2009 than he has in his entire career.
So, maybe I’m a little superstitious after all. Either way, it’s time for some more Bullets, in honor of Dave, Kevin and Rod Barajas.
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BURLINGTON BULLETS:
- Willian Avinazar may have picked up the tough-luck loss last night, but he continued the amazing work by the “Terrific Three” in the Burlington rotation. Avinazar, Leonel Santiago and Crawford Simmons are all very much in the running for postseason honors. And this trio has been dominant over the last few weeks.
- Over his last three starts, Avinazar has given up only five earned runs in 19 innings. These three starts came after Avinazar’s worst outing of the year against Johnson City (3.1 IP, 5 ER). Prior to that, the Valencia, Venezuela native had not given up more than one earned run in any of his first six starts.
- Crawford Simmons has worked 14 and two-thirds innings in his last two outings, scattering only four hits and earning a pair of wins. In those efforts, the southpaw has struck out 15.
- Righty Leonel Santiago has been unbelievable as of late. Santiago has surrendered only one earned tally in his last four outings, spanning 25 and two-thirds.
- If you combine Avinazar, Simmons and Santiago’s last five outings, you get a 1.81 ERA over almost 90 innings. When you consider that those three are scheduled to pitch 11 of Burlington’s last 18 games, you are likely to think that the Royals may have one more run in them. Burlington currently sits three games back of second-place Danville.
- From a development standpoint, there is still plenty of things to work on, says pitching coach Bobby St. Pierre. “Part of the development is gaining confidence,” St. Pierre said. “There’s always something to talk about, [like] ‘you get away with this here, but at the next level you are going to have to do this,’ and just trying to tutor them in that way.”
- The encouraging thing, according to the third-year pitching coach, is that many Burlington hurlers are working on those things. “The good performances [lately] are that much better because we are doing some of the things that will help them be more successful at the higher levels,” St. Pierre said.
- Burlington’s offense had few opportunities to score last night against Bristol’s solid staff. Royals manager Nelson Liriano has said in the past that the offense needs to turn it around. But, when chances are few and far between, Liriano tries to get something going. That happened last night, with two runners gunned down trying to swipe third base. “We tried to create,” Liriano said. “When we don’t score a lot of runs, that’s my job as the manager — try to create some chance to score some runs. Sometimes it’s going to happen.” The Royals are second in the league with 69 stolen bases and tops with 114 attempts.
- In the month of August, Burlington has scored three runs or less seven times, with the team 2–5 in those games. On the flip side, the Royals have held their opponents to three runs or less in seven games, too. In other words, there have been a lot of close, low-scoring games in recent weeks.
- Bristol and Burlington like to get in, get out and get on with life when playing each other. The four games have been completed in 2:05, 1:51, 1:50 and 1:52 for a total of 6:38. Consider that the Royals’ longest game (August 7 against Pulaski) took 4:30, and you can tell that this season series has been ridiculously quick.
- A quick check on a couple of Royals-turned-Bees: Alex McClure is hitting .190 (4-for-21) through five games. The shortstop has two runs batted in and three runs scored. The glove has been with him the entire stint in Burlington, as McClure has not committed an error yet. As for reliever Josh Worrell, he has made two appearances and given up two runs, one of which was earned, on four hits in four innings. For the year in both Burlingtons and Wilmington, Worrell is 1–1 with a 2.14 ERA in 21 innings.
Our play-by-play coverage begins at 6:45 on burlingtonroyals.com this evening. Hear more from both Liriano and St. Pierre. Enjoy the broadcast, and shoot us an e-mail at burlingtonroyalsradio@gmail.com.
- Brian
