When a team destroys the opposition by a massive score and has to turn out against them the following day, the big risk is that the beaten team will get inspired and step things up, looking to get some payback against their opponents.

So, as the C’s prepared to take the field at home against the Everett Flipper-Kids last night, the Vancouver fans might have been excused for being a little nervous: Could Everett turn it around, with a bullpen short on arms and a big last place finish staring them in the place to end the season?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: It was a close one, but no.

Everett played scared, even when the score was close and they were a swing away from tying the game.

For example, they intentionally walked Jermaine Mitchell, putting him on base even though he’s a lead-off man who can steal bases at will - an utterly scaredy cat move.

In addition, they didn’t pressure the C’s infield with their base running, even when Mike Affronti was playing footsies with the ball (he had two errors on the day, while third baseman Alex Valdez had one).

And, when facing Andrew Bailey, a pitcher with a 1-5 record (albeit a top notch ERA), they swung at rubbish, allowing the starter to throw what he wanted, where he wanted, without risk of a walk (in fact, Everett only managed two walks all night).

Everett’s play-by-play man says his team was decimated by early season by call-ups, but to be honest, this is the exact same style of play Everett showed in early July when we took 5 of 6 from them. There’s no fire, no threat, no fury when they go behind, no passion, no belief in themselves.

The C’s, meanwhile, are starting to get a little belief - addmitedly a little late in the day, but at least they’re learning that aspect of the game.

Jermaine Mitchell doesn’t just think he might hit a fastball, he knows he’s hitting it. And he knows where. And how long. And how many bases he’s going to take when he does.

Prowling Greg Dowling doesn’t just walk out and react to pitches, he watches them, manipulates them, abuses them and uses them to get what the team most needs (in last night’s case, a canny sac fly to score the go-ahead run).

But the real evidence that these C’s aren’t afraid of the Aquasox is the walk stats from last nights game: With the exception of the intentional walk put on the J-Train, not one Canadians hitter took the easy stroll to first base.

Clearly, after the beatdown that they’d put on Everett the night before, these C’s smelled blood in the water, and they were looking to swing some ash.

Ultimately, it was probably a ballsier move than a brainy one to do that.

I mean, baseball is a multi-faceted game, and the walks do add to the OBP total, as well as runs scored, total bases, games won… all important stats. But credit the kids in red and blue with at least having the intestinal fortitude to grind out a close one and win it in front of nearly 4000 local fans, even if they struggled to pile on runs.

Two things remain to be stated about last night’s game - first, the pitching was outstanding. Even when they found themselves in jams, the C’s chuckers threw smart, determined, courageous ball. Bailey especially, finding himself with two men in scoring position with only one out, really showed his class in bringing a pair of strikeouts when he needed them most, and even when he got tired and found himself walking in a run with the bases loaded in the 5th, the big man kept his head and got out of the jam with the lead intact.

The Battleship, Matt Manship, grabbed his 7th hold of the season by pitching finely tuned ball for two innings, while Anthony Rea struck out three in two innings to keep the game happy and win himself a save.

Finally, big time respect goes to The Wooden Shoe, Mike Klug, who went a healthy 1-2 on the night, singling to lead off the 3rd, and romping home on the back of Jermaine Mitchell’s towering double off the top of the wall in left center (Global TV should pay extra money for the attention their advertisement got when the ball smacked off it).

Klug would later drop a perfect 2-strike sac bunt to move Andre Piper-Jordan into scoring position in the 8th, leading to the wimpy intentional walk on Mitchell to put two on with one out. An attempted steal of 3rd (that looked safe to me) by DJ PJ pretty much ended the threat, but you’ve gotta give props to Klug who, while needing a stats boost of his own, sac’ed himself for the good of the team, even at great risk of a strikeout, and helped put our two quickest guys on the bags at a point where Everett was looking to come home strongly.

I don’t know if the ‘Give Klug a chance’ campaign on this blog played any part in his actually being given a chance by team management these last few games or not, but I can say that the kid is getting big cheers from the fans, and even bigger cheers from his teammates, because not only is he playing hard (and playing well - his defense is top notch right now), he’s also turning in results.

One wonders what might have been, had he been given more of a shot to show what he can do early in the season.

Great game, great performance, and if Everett scores more than two runs tonight, I’ll be very bloody surprised. They look dead in the water.

September 4, 2006
	Final> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Everett 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 Vancouver 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 X 2 5 3 box | log W: A. Bailey (2-5, 2.02); L: R. Orta (4-5, 5.20); SV: A. Rea (1) HR: None.