Road teams always have a slow start when they trek out to Boise Idaho to play a series against the Hawks, so much so that it’s quite shocking that the Chicago Cubs affiliate doesn’t dominate the NWL East more often. A 13-hour road trip will take it out of you, especially when you’re squeezed into a bus with half your equipment crammed under your feet, while consuming a steady diet of Jack in the Box and 7-11 microwave cheeseburgers, and haven’t been home for the best part of a week.

But that’s life in the bus leagues, and if you can’t find the energy to be out there at the top of your game while dealing with a sore back, a rough gut, a 93mph fastball coming at you, and Idaho-bred base bunnies yelling your name through chicklet-filled mouths, then you’ve got no future in the game. 

The Vancouver Canadians, right now, are on a three game losing skid – one that has dropped them back to .500 ball with far too few weeks left to mount a serious challenge on the NWL West-leading Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, who currently sit 11.5 games ahead of us in 1st place.

In fact, if the Volcanoes drove their team bus off a cliff (and that’s what it would take for them to miss the playoffs), you’d have to think the C’s would struggle to even catch the second place Eugene Emeralds right now, what with a 5.5 game deficit to make up, and a bullpen that is struggling to stay dominant for longer than a few innings at a time.

And the games played over the last two nights are a perfect example of that issue and what it does to a team, as the C’s have had no trouble scoring runs, but much trouble keeping the other team from scoring more.

The C’s have hit three dingers in two nights (two of those coming from the soon-to-be-promoted Corey Brown), and though only Justin Frash has managed a multi-hit game over that period, the Canadians willingness to steal bases, run hit-n’runs, play small ball, draw walks, and take fastballs to the shoulder (Pruitt is just two from the NWL HBP record as of yesterday’s game) has kept the scoreboard ticking over.

But what of the work from the mound? Well, Van City hasn’t hurt for decent starting pitching this series, with Fingers Figueroa throwing 4 clean innings on Wednesday night and Scott Hodsdon [seen above] allowing just two runs over five innings last night, but handing the ball to the relievers of late has been something akin to running out to left field and just tossing balls over the fence.

Dr John Quine, Medicine Woman [seen right], has been diabolical over his last ten, giving up earned runs in all but one game over some 20 innings pitched. Opponents are only hitting .189 against him, but the fact that he’s walked more people than he’s struck out (17 to 13) is killing him, and would hardly be popular with his starters, you’d expect.

Easy Earl Oakes has been so hot and cold he might as well be a soup. He’ll go three games of dazzling ball, then give up 6 earned, then be awesome again, then give up three runs in two games. With Oakes, his issues are nothing like Quine’s – he can strike guys out just fine, he’s just getting hit for .297 while he’s at it.

Between them, Oakes and Quine took Figueroa’s win and turned it into a ‘run per inning’ loss on Wednesday, and Lance Sewell’s bubble finally burst last night with three earned over 1.1 innings to give Boise a sniff of a win, before the once-unhittable Junk Jenkins came in with one on and no outs, and ended up watching three runners score in his 2/3 of an inning of work.

Which is not to say these guys can’t throw – they clearly can. Sit behind home plate at The Nat one night and that much is clear, but the ability of the players and coaches to adapt to situations seems way behind the ability of our opponents to force such changes. If pressed, I can’t recall a single situational relief appearance this season from the C’s, other than guys being brought in because the guy on the mound is getting brutalized.

Look back through the C’s box scores and you’ll see a whole lot of this:

Starter: 5 innings
Reliever: 2 innings
Reliever: 1 inning
Closer: 1 inning

…Which means guys are being assigned to an inning about eight hours before the game starts, rather than when they’re going to be at their most useful.

Earl Oakes has been a workhorse for these C’s, and that’s something that the C’s coaches should be applauded for. The dude is in his second season of short season ball and he NEEDS some big outings to stick in the system for another year or two, and unlike with previous Vancouver teams where guys in his position were given mop-up duty so the bonus babies could get the extended stuff, Oakes has been given enough rope to either hang himself or climb up a level from, basically, day one.

But what of everyone else? Aaron Jenkins [seen left] is a LOOGY (Left arm One Out GuY) if I’ve ever seen one; he doesn’t throw hard, he relies on breaking stuff, and if you leave him out there for three or four innings, he’ll eventually get found out. But if you put him in to ruin a rally, placing him up against a lefty, let him get the grounder or strikeout and yank him out of there while hitters are still wondering what he’s throwing, he’ll be lethal all year.

Instead, Jenkins has thrown 3/4 of his innings against right handers, and the lefties, who would normally be his bread and butter if he was used as a one-out shock trooper, are killing him (9 ERA for lefties, 2.89 against righties).

Fabian Gomez has been another struggler of late, going from throwing multi-inning starts to open his season (3 ER over 7IP), to getting tagged in relief on July 1 (5 ER over 2.1) and then being used for about an inning per week from then on. His clean inning last night in the 8th was his first outing in 11 days, but his inability to get the ball past bats is really starting to hurt him, especially when he has guys on base, and especially in sac situations.

So how do you use a guy who has a 0.00 ERA when used with nobody on, and a 30.37 ERA with guys in scoring position? YOU TAKE HIM OUT WHEN THERE ARE GUYS IN SCORING POSITION!

I have nothing but good things to say about Fabian Gomez, who took the fact that he was mistakenly listed as ‘Fabio’ Gomez for the early part of the season in incredibly good humoured stride, but his career is not helped when he’s put in situations that he clearly isn’t built for – at least in current form. If he’s not striking guys out and there’s a dude standing at third base with one out, you’re not helping him by leaving him by offering the sac fly/grounder to the other team on a plate.

Let him eat innings – sure – let him look for corners and work for ground-outs, but if someone gets in scoring position, bring in the LOOGY – bring in the closer – bring in the fireballer – don’t just leave Gomez out there to get saced to death or killed by infield errors, and don’t sweep him off to mop-up duty because he doesn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold of the firebreathing deathdealer.

Sure, there’s an argument to be made that this is a development league and guys should be left to prove they have it in them to push through a rough situation, but there’s a similar argument that says the big club looks at guys with 7.43 ERAs as being a wash when they have to make roster cuts, and letting a guy rack up that sort of stat line in situations that don’t suit him puts the kid’s future in a rough spot.

You wanna see what these kids are capable of in a pressure situation? Use them every three days, not every eleven. Put them in for two outs and bring in someone else for the final out, and have them warming up again two days later when the shoulder’s still a little tingly. Make them wonder if they’re going in tonight or not. Make them warm up fast and get out there against a guy they should own, in a situation they’re suited for.

Justin Friend [seen right] was thrown in for 1 and 1.2 innings respectively on July 6 and 7, and he came out of both innings clean. Then he wasn’t used for a week and he have up 8 hits and 2 earned over three innings in his next outing. Why was he not used more often, for less innings? Why has he, since that date, been sent out only for multi-inning games, and only on long rest (5 days and 4 days)? Get that kid in there every second night, let him strike out a power threat or two, and take him outta there, coach!

Bryan Collins is another example of not using a guy to his strengths. Here’s a guy who is a straight up strikeout pitcher (10 K’s to 3 walks), and anyone who has pitched will tell you that the more you get out there, the more your feel for the zone is honed. Collins, however, pitched 0.1 innings over 9 days between July 2nd and July 11th. Is it a surprise then that he coughed up a run in his outing on July 12th and struggled to strike a guy out?

Contrast that with his next outing just three nights later, where he struck out 5 over three innings. Let the kid throw often and he’ll deliver. Keep him cold and when he does finally get a shot at throwing a ball in anger, he’s going to wobble.

Lance Sewell can flat out deal; in three games over July 11-15, he threw three innings and struck out 6, giving up only one hit in the process. Then came eleven days of rest. What followed? 3 earned runs over 1.1 innings, and an ERA that went from 0.00 to 6.23 in one fell swoop.

The C’s bullpen is hurting. And if you wanna know why, there it is in a nutshell.

Let the kids play.