For the last week, we’ve been saying the same thing, over and over again - Vancouver’s pitching is filthy, but the hitting needs to find its feet. Of course, the risk in going on and on about the pitching being awesome is that eventually it may crack and the team will slump as a result. Of course, the other option would be the opposite side of the coin… that Vancouver’s offense explodes while the defense continues to destroy all before it.

And yes, C’s fans, that’s what happened tonight in Eugene. The Vancouver Canadians absolutely obliterated the Emeralds in every way, scoring 11 runs, with two homerun shots going over the wall, and at the same time they conceded just THREE HITS in defense.

Here’s how it went down. Chris Tritle (pictured right) opened the game with a double to left. Justin Sellers was then put on base by virtue of being clocked with the ball, and Steve Kleen pushed the runners around with a liner to short center. Big Haas Pratt sac’ed Tritle home with a deep right field flyball, then Jeff Baisley split the middle with an RBI single to center field. In comes ‘Pipes’ Recker with a 2-RBI single up the middle, and the C’s were more runs up in one inning than they’ve been in any game for quite some time. In fact, if the Canadians hitters hadn’t hit another ball for the entire game (as has been the case all too often of late), they would have had enough runs to win it all regardless.

But oh no, these boys did not miss today. These boys were ready to turn the knife in Eugene, and boy did they ever deliver on the promise.

With Joe Newby (pictured left) on the mound, the C’s had a strong base from which to control this game. Newby continued his great form of the last two weeks, further dropping his ERA from 4.50 to 3.60 (it was 9.00 just three weeks back), throwing five innings of 2-hit ball, with 5K’s and a single walk. In fact, so strong was Newby’s stuff that Eugene only got two men on base one time in his entire outing.

On the other end, however, Eugene pitcher Steve Delabar, who came into the game with a 2-0 record and a 1.71 ERA, got rocked in the 5th. Justin Sellers singled to right, then stole second. Squeaky Kleen walked, before a wild pitch saw Sellers sneak to 3rd base. Delabar, for all intents and purposes, was done for the night, so in came Adam Gold to try to work his way out of a jam.

Word to the wise in the Eugene dugout - maybe bringing in the 7.60 ERA pitcher with more walks than strikeouts isn’t the wisest move when you’ve got the game on the line.

Gold took his spot, then sent a fastball in for the boy from Land’O'Lakes, Florida, Jeff ‘Buttah’ Baisley (pictured right). The 6′3″ 12th round pick from the University of South Florida rocked back on the ball and OWNED it, crashing a three-run shot over the left field wall like it was… well, butter.

Gold was hurtin’, but he was about to learn what it feels like to have a half pound of salt poured into a gaping chest wound. Another fastball, another big swing, and the kid with the biggest biceps in the NWL, Anthony Recker, just exploded on the pitch, belting it deep over the center field wall for a back-to-back jack that gave Vancouver the lead 8-0.

When you’ve been smashed around like that by your opponent, what you really want in the bottom of the inning is a bit of a rally, maybe a few runs scored, just a sniff of a comeback possibility to keep your teammates peppy. But if you’re playing Vancouver… NO RUNS FOR YOU!

Newby was in the zone, throwing great stuff, once again touching the mid-90’s, and not trying to get too deep in the count. Newby throws hittable pitches, you just ain’t going to hit them where you want to. Ground out, fly out, strike out - inning over.

Adam Gold came out again to challenge the C’s in the 6th, but it wasn’t long before he was given the hook. Though the first two Canadians hitters he’d face in the inning (Isaac Omura and Mike Massaro) would bring averages of .167 and .118 (respectively) into tonight’s game, both knew that they were on the receiving end of a pitcher’s Christmas. Omura drew a walk, and Massaro did what the C’s had done all night long - drive a single up the middle.

At times like this, no matter who you support, you have to sit back and consider the man on the mound. This kid has a family who love him, he probably has a girlfriend, he’s living the dream of playing professional baseball, and these Vancouver players just put enough runs on the board, and runners on base, that his statistics for the season, no matter what he does from here on, will look like a failure. He might have oodles of promise, tons of ability, but when he goes home at season’s end, he’ll have a line that will make his coaches question whether he should be back for another season. Just think about that now… we may well have witnessed the end of a baseball career tonight. We might have just seen a great kid being told that he just doesn’t have it. That he’ll be wanting to think about his future and plan for a new line of work. It’s a sad time. A somber time. A moment for reflection and thinking about the things that are important in life…

Ah, to hell with it. Adam Gold just got old. New pitcher!

William Ponce, boasting a 2-0 record and a 3.12 ERA was more than happy to jump in Gold’s grave, and as he stood proud on the moung, full of beans and ready to rock the Canadians’ world…

Justin Sellers… walked.
Haas Pratt… walked.
Jeff Baisley… singled to score the lead runner.
Pipes Recker… walked to score the lead runner.

Thanks for coming out, William, now buh-bye. Vancouver leads 11-0.

But there was joy got Eugene in the 6th as new Canadians reliever Jason ‘Death’ Ray came in continuing where he left off the last time he was pitching for the C’s - with a severe case of No-Command. To be sure, Death Ray has a set of guns on him; he hits 94mph with his fastball without any trouble, but coming in to the game he’d walked as many as he’d struck out, and that trend shows no sign of abating. In fact, tonight it got a little worse.

Ray walked Kelvin Vazquez, then Nick Hundley, and when The Flyin’ Hawaiian, Isaac Omura, overthrew to first on an attempted double play, the inning got messy with a run scoring.

The 7th saw more of the same, as Ray walked Cavanaugh, Jones and Sansoe, before surrendering a run on a sac fly from Vazquez. Two K’s closed the inning out, but Ray’s 5 walks in two innings of work were the only dampener on the entire evening for Vancouver, though that he had enough stuff to concede only a single earned run over those two innings is testimony to his immense talent.

With about 750 paying customers bothering to stick around for the end of the game, Steven-Ryder Carter handled the 8th inning with aplomb, and Killer Kilby closed it out with a nice 2K outing in the 9th.

Final score: 11-2.

July 11, 2005
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Vancouver 4 0 0 0 4 3 0 0 0 11 12 1 Eugene 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 3 0 wrap | box | log W: J. Newby (2-1, 3.60); L: S. Delabar (2-1, 3.55); HR: VAN: J. Baisley (1), A. Recker (1).

Game Notes:
* Mike Massaro, who was looking perilously close to earning the nickname Mike No-Hitto with his .118 batting average, found his considerable feet today and looked exactly like the kind of guy that Oakland would draft in the 13th round. Massaro went 3 from 5 to bring the average up over the Mendoza Line to .227, although he was left stranded on base every time he went out.

* A handful of C’s hitters are still struggling at the plate, though it must be said that it’s hard to get into a groove when you only play once in three days. Ty Bubalo, Isaac Omura and Jeff Bieker all struggled today (0-1, 0-4, and 0-3 respectively), to continue their poor form at the plate, but the Oakland organization are not known for cutting newly drafted youngsters who are struggling to find form, so all with the exception of Bubalo will sleep easy tonight, and likely get plenty of opportunity to show their stuff in the weeks ahead, come what may. Bubalo is not in real trouble yet, but all eyes are on him as he’s been in the system for four years now. His saving grace is he was a high school draftee, so he’s at the same point that the college draftees are, agewise. We don’t anticipate Bubalo is at risk of being cut, nor being demoted for that matter. The C’s coaches are clearly giving him every chance to find form, and if we know the Boobster, he’ll do exactly that in the weeks ahead.

* Jeff Baisley was smooth like buttah tonight, going 3-5, knocking in five RBIs, hitting a home run and crossing the plate twice himself. Baisley has been looking to pop for a while now, so this won’t surprise keen observers, but it sure is nice to get another Canadian over the Mendoza Line, and it’s doubly nice to see a new draftee click into high gear with the bat.

* Anthony ‘Pipes’ Recker had the kind of night tonight that, if not for Baisley’s outing, would have been something to really write home about. He went 2-5 with 4RBI, a solo shot over the center field wall, a walk and a run, consolidating his average to a healthy .250 and putting forth the case that he should be the Canadians starting catcher. Recker has a few things to work on before they can start yelling “yippee” in Oakland, but he’s getting there, and he’s getting there quickly.

* Justin Sellers, the man with the Barbie Girl theme song, produced one hell of an unassuming solid game tonight. The kid straight out of high school is butting heads with the big guys and winning, scoring a 1-3 night with the bat tonight. Though a 1-3 night isn’t explosive, it’s the details that make it worth mentioning. He managed a walk, got hit by a pitch, and crossed the plate three times, which in itself was enough to win the ballgame. We’re liking what Sellers brings to the table a lot at Notes From The Nat, and it boggles the mind to think that he won’t be 20 until next February.

* With the exception of Jason Ray, who was ‘get the F out’ quick while enjoying questionable command of his strikezone, the ‘Couver pen was once again ridiculous. In fact, if you played the Vancouver bullpen drinking game (where you take a drink whenever there’s a strikeout), you’d have been wasted by the 9th. Big props should go to Steven-Ryder Carter, who is bouncing back after last year’s horror season to prove himself one of the shining lights in a very bright, shiny, well-lit bullpen.

Tonight’s slaughter line:
Newby - 5 innings, 2 hits, no runs, 4 K’s, 1 walk.
Carter - 1 inning, no hits, no runs, 1 K, no walks.
Kilby - 1 inning, 1 hit, no runs, 2 K’s, no walks.

* The Vancouver team ERA now sits at an astonishing 2.30

The Canadians are on a bus, heading home to Vancouver as I write these words, and they’ll be turning out on Wednesday night at The Nat, at 7PM, where they take on the slowly heating up Everett Aquasox. It’s also ‘cap night’, so the first 500 kids in the gate will get a free Oakland Athletics caps - a great excuse to drag the kids out to a ballgame!