Ed Hendrickson pitched a hell of a game, limiting the Cardinal to 15 runs and when we answered their five in the first inning with our own five, you just had a feeling that we were going to win in the end. We have come to expect the Big Guy will shut the opponent down when it counts, and that he did as they only scored another ten the rest of the game.
But - I may have acted in haste in giving him the game ball. It really belonged to Brian Goldusky. All he did was go 3-4, with a three run homer, a two run triple that would have been a homer had not the fifth run been on first, a two run single and even an RBI ground out. That's right EIGHT of our 20 RBIs belonged to Brian. Good move by the coach to move him to third with leadoff hitter Dan Roach returning from vacation.
Mark Childress did his best, well, Mark Childress imitation with two fabulous catches. The one in the first only temporarily stopped the Cardinal five run opening outburst. Depending on who you talk to, his stumble, er tumble afterwards was either a fine ballet like move or as someone stated, "Zero style points".
But the one in the late innings (was it the ninth?), when the Cardinal still had hopes for a comeback, shut down a rally right when it started and sent them to defeat after a few more outs. He also nearly made a leaping catch on one of the few Cardinal blasts over our outfielders' heads.
The infield highlights came all in the scoreless top of the fifth. Jeff Mertens grabbed a shot to his right and falling down shoveled it over to first where the first baseman likewise crawled in the dirt to ensure the out. Then after a hit, shortstop Jim Krochka made a nice back handed stop in the 5-6 hole and whirled to throw to Goldufsky waiting at second base. And then third baseman Bill Hoffman knocked down a hot shot at the hot corner and calmly tossed to second to close out the inning.
Roach lead all hitters with a perfect 4-4. Hendrickson, Goldufsky, Krochka, Childress, Tom Caldwell, and Bob Vitro all were 3-4. Everyone else had one or two hits.
That's four wins in a row if you count the forfeit earlier in the day (and we do). And five of six, the only blemish being the one run loss to Gold when we had the game in our grasp in the ninth. Pretty damn good, and we are jelling as a team. The defense has been great and we have enough great hitters and the rest are all good enough such that there are no easy outs in the lineup. Good combination. If we play like this next week, we will give the Clippers everything they can handle and hopefully more. Bring 'em on!
Awesome and accurate account of the game. We’re all feeling really good about what we have going.
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