Right Field Fog – A Cape Cod Baseball League Blog

On the second-to-last day of the regular season, the Cape League playoff picture finally began to take shape.

After last night’s action, here’s what we know:

As for the games last night, the biggest winner has to be Y-D. The Red Sox surged into first place a few weeks back, but with Brewster hanging around and Orleans catching fire, the lead was looking a little precarious.

Yesterday, Y-D slammed the door, sweeping a twin bill with Cotuit.

In the first game, a 9-5 win, Matt Jensen (Cal Poly) and Ben McMahan (Florida) hit home runs and Gabriel Shaw (Louisville) pitched a complete game for the win.

The Red Sox won game two 4-2 thanks to a sixth-inning rally. Trailing 2-1, Y-D scored three in the sixth and the rest was history. Jordan Ribera (Fresno State), Matt Watson (Boston College) and Matt Vinson (Arkansas) all drove in runs. D.J. Baxendale (Arkansas) got the win in relief.

What to Watch

The West race comes down to three separate games on the season’s final day. Cotuit visits Brewster at 4:30. Wareham hosts Bourne and Falmouth hosts Hyannis at 7.

A quick one today . . .

What to Watch

Harwich takes on Brewster with Greg Peavey (Oregon State) on the mound. He’s been good in his three starts. Chatham plays a doubleheader against Hyannis and Orleans. Greg Larson (Florida) and Logan Verrett (Baylor) take the hill.

For all their recent struggles, the Brewster Whitecaps reminded everyone last night that they’re not done yet.

The Whitecaps were the best team in the league for most of the season before an eight-game winless streak sent them tumbling. But they snapped that streak on Saturday, and on Sunday, they started with a new streak in impressive fashion, beating first-place Y-D 9-5.

With just three games left in the regular season, the Whitecaps have a shot to get that division title they seemed destined for. But whether they do it or not, they’re in the playoffs regardless. And they might have found something that works.

Brewster made a lineup change for Saturday’s game and stuck with it Sunday, when it really paid off. Drew Martinez (Memphis), the leadoff hitter all year, moved into the third spot. He went 3-for-5 on Saturday, and on Sunday, he went 4-for-4 with four RBI.

Suddenly, the middle of Brewster’s order looks a lot different.

Martinez led the way in Sunday’s win. Derek Jones (Washington State) also had a nice day, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI.

Brewster’s pitching staff, which has turned thin lately, got a boost from Matt Crouse (Ole Miss), who allowed three earned runs in six innings. Kyle Hendricks (Dartmouth) was dominant out of the pen, pitching 2.2 innings of one-hit ball.

The victory moves Brewster to within one point of Y-D for first place.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

With Falmouth clinching, the only race for a playoff spot is in the East, where Chatham is four points back of Harwich for the fourth and final spot. Chatham hosts Y-D tonight with Mike Dennhardt (Boston College) on the mound. Harwich sends Andrew Leenhouts (Northeastern) to the mound against Wareham.

On the fourth day of the season, I wrote about Chatham’s big hitters, who were off to a fast start. With Ricky Oropesa (USC) and Mark Ginther (Oklahoma State) hitting well, Chatham was 3-0 and poised for a big year.

The big year never materialized. The hitters struggled and the Anglers floundered, losing eight in a row at one point and plummeting to last place in the East.

Things have been better lately, though, and those big hitters? They’re coming around again.

Chatham won five in a row to get back into contention, and after a loss on Friday, rebounded Saturday for their sixth win in seven tries, a 10-9 thriller over Cotuit.

Oropesa, who was still showing pop despite an average that dipped close to .200, went 2-for-2 last night with two home runs and four RBI. His three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth erased a 9-6 deficit and tied the game.

After Oropesa’s bomb, Chatham kept pushing and eventually won the game when Beau Amaral (UCLA) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Ginther joined Oropesa with a big night, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Aaron Westlake (Vanderbilt) also had two hits. Kevin Vance (Connecticut) got the win in relief. For Cotuit, Mike Yastrzemski (Vanderbilt) hit a grand slam.

The win puts Chatham at 18-19-1. With six games left, the Anglers are just two points behind Harwich for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Y-D will visit Brewster in a battle of the top two teams in the league. The Whitecaps have been heading in the wrong direction, but they won Saturday, and with a win today, could get within one point of first place.

All summer, I’ve thought that Orleans could make a run. The lineup has some very talented hitters, and the pitching rotation looks solid enough.

It looks the Firebirds are making that run.

While Y-D has made the most headlines with its surge into first place, Orleans is actually the hottest team in the league. The Firebirds beat Harwich last night 14-3 for their fifth victory in a row. The teams came in tied for third place, but the win moves Orleans into third, just four points back of second-place Brewster. All of a sudden, the Firebirds, at 20-18-1, have the third best record in the league.

Not too long ago, the Firebirds were floundering — but they weren’t getting blown out. Twelve of their 18 losses have been by two runs or fewer. These last few games, the Firebirds have turned that trend around. They won two close games to start the streak and have won the last three a little more easily.

Last night’s game was the easiest yet.

The Firebirds broke open a 1-0 game with eight runs in the fourth inning. They finished with 11 hits, four for extra-bases. Jayce Boyd (Florida State) had a huge night, going 2-for-5 with a home run, a triple and six RBI.

Kolten Wong (Hawaii) was his usual self, going 2-for-2 with two doubles, two runs and two RBI. With that showing, he took over the batting average lead from Drew Martinez. Steve Selsky (Arizona) and Matt Koch (Loyola Marymount) also had two hits.

Orleans used five pitchers to keep the big cushion. Kyle Long (Illinois State) was credited with the win.

The Firebirds will try to stay hot tonight when they host Wareham.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Austin Wood (St. Petersburg) gets the ball as Cotuit visits rival Hyannis. Wood has a league-best 0.58 ERA.

There wasn’t much of an All-Star break this year. Just an All-Star game and a day off for the players who weren’t in it.

Teams returned to action on Thursday and a lot of them picked up where they left off.

Y-D, who had overtaken Brewster for first place earlier in the week, won its third straight game, a 6-5 decision over Wareham. Meanwhile, Brewster played Chatham for the third straight game and again came away without a win. After a loss on Monday and a tie on Tuesday, Brewster lost 6-2 last night. Chatham has now won five in a row.

Y-D didn’t pick up exactly where it left off against the Gatemen. For eight innings, the Red Sox were held scoreless, with Wareham’s Eric Pfisterer (Duke) delivering seven strong innings. Y-D trailed 5-0 going into the bottom of the ninth, but put together a remarkable rally and scored six runs to win the game. Joe Panik (St. John’s) delivered the game-winning single, scoring Caleb Ramsey (Houston). Jordan Ribera (Fresno State) hit a home run in the ninth, his league-best seventh of the year.

For Wareham, All-Star game West MVP Zach Wilson (Arizona State) hit two home runs, bringing his total to four.

Y-D now has the best record in the league and a three-point lead over second-place Brewster.

As for the Whitecaps, they’re now 2-7-1 in their last 10 games. Last night, Chatham got a strong outing by Greg Larson (Florida), who allowed just a run in six innings. He was making only his second start and he got his first win.

The Anglers were led by Ricky Oropesa (USC), who hit his fifth home run. Drew Martinez (Memphis) went 3-for-4 for Brewster, but the Whitecaps only had three other hits.

Chatham has won five in a row and is four points back of fourth-place.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Wareham will play a split doubleheader, starting in Falmouth at 1 p.m. and concluding in Wareham against Brewster at 7 p.m.

Y-D has more All-Star starters than any team in the East. Caleb Ramsey (Houston), Joe Panik (St. John’s) and Tyler Hanover (LSU) are all in the starting lineup, and they all figure to play big roles in tonight’s game. Ramsey is batting second, Panik cleanup and Hanover fifth.

Is it any wonder?

Before heading to Fenway, those Red Sox and their teammates got their bats going for the second straight day and scored a key 11-5 victory over Falmouth. Thanks to the win and a Brewster tie, the Red Sox head into the All-Star game in sole possession of first place in the East.

Two of the aforementioned All-Stars had nice days for the Red Sox, but the story was the team’s ability to hit up and down the lineup. Hanover had two hits and Panik had a hit and scored a run. Matt Watson (Boston College), Matt Jensen (Cal Poly) and Ben McMahan (Florida) drove in two runs apiece.

Gabriel Shaw (Louisville) got the win with six solid innings.

The Red Sox finished with 10 hits. The day before, they pounded 12 hits and scored 10 runs in the second game of a doubleheader with Harwich.

While their pitching staff has been a little up-and-down, the Red Sox have been hitting since the beginning. They’re second in the league with a .246 team average and they rank first in home runs, first in extra-base hits, first in runs and first in slugging.

It’s no surprise that several Red Sox will lead the offensive charge in the All-Star game.

I guess it’s also no surprise that they’re in first place.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

The All-Star game is set for 7 p.m. tonight at Fenway Park. The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS College Sports Network.

The way things were going for most of the season, you had to wonder if the Brewster Whitecaps would ever struggle. They got great pitching every time out and seemed to always find a way to win.

The last week has been a little different.

Brewster has dropped its last five games, including a 5-4 extra-innings loss to Chatham last night. With Y-D splitting a doubleheader, the teams are now tied atop the East standings with 44 points each. And Y-D actually has one fewer loss right now.

The Whitecaps haven’t been falling completely flat. The first two losses in the streak were of the one-run variety. The next two were worse, as Brewster lost 9-1 to Wareham and 12-2 to Cotuit.

Last night, it was back to a nip-and-tuck affair — and Brewster put together an impressive comeback — but the result was the same. The Whitecaps trailed 4-1 but scored three in the ninth to tie the game. Derek Jones (Washington State) had a two-run double in the rally.

But in the 10th, Chatham had an answer. Riley Reynolds (Vanderbilt) hit a walk-off single to give Chatham the win. The run came off Colton Murray (Kansas), who hadn’t allowed a run in his first 13 appearances.

Brian Humphries (Pepperdine) led Chatham with three hits and two RBI. Jones had three hits for Brewster, but the team finished with just six.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Wareham will try to keep its win streak going with a match-up against first-place Cotuit. Josh Urban (Texas) gets the ball for the Gatemen. Nick Tropeano (Stony Brook) is scheduled to go for Cotuit. Tropeano has delivered three strong starts in a row.

We were having such a nice summer, Mother Nature. If you could go ahead and get us back to that, I think we’d all appreciate it. For the third time this week, games were postponed — four in all. One game was called after six innings.

On the bright side, it was nice that that game went six innings, and not five-and-a-half.

Before the rains came, Orleans rallied from a 2-1 deficit against first-place Brewster and grabbed a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth. With Brewster batting in the bottom half, the game was delayed. Because the sixth inning hadn’t been completed, the score — if the game had been called then — would have reverted to the fifth inning and Brewster would have won.

Instead, the rain lightened enough for the teams to play, and Will Clinard (Vanderbilt) allowed a run but nothing else to get six in the books. At that point, the game was called, and the comeback counted. Orleans won 4-3.

Early on, before the rainy drama, the Firebirds couldn’t get much going against Brewster’s Andrew Gagnon (Long Beach State), the all-star starter. But Steve Selsky (Arizona) hit a home run in the sixth to tie the game, and Orleans got two more runs later in the inning.

That was enough to make the difference. Orleans improved to 15-18 with the victory. The loss was the second straight for Brewster, who fell to 22-11.

What to Watch

Bourne’s Anthony Meo (Coastal Carolina) stopped a Wareham four-game winning streak last Saturday, and he’ll try to do the same to Harwich this Saturday. The Mariners host the Braves and send Pierce Johnson (Missouri State) to the hill.

On a different note, I may or may not have internet tomorrow, so it’s possible that I won’t get the Daily Fog up.

That was the easiest post title ever, and this is a good time to use it.

Michael Goodnight (Houston) nearly pitched Y-D’s second no-hitter of the season last night. He needed one more out when Cotuit’s Mike Yastrzemski (Vanderbilt) ended the bid with a single. Goodnight left the game after that, having struck out nine in 8.2 innings. D.J. Baxendale (Arkansas) finished things off as Y-D won 2-0.

Goodnight is in his second summer with the Red Sox. He wasn’t one of the top arms in the league last year but he was very solid. After a pretty good spring with Houston, he was drafted in the 13th round this year by the Indians. Like a lot of guys are doing these days, Goodnight came to the Cape to see what he could do.

He’s been able to do a lot.

In his first start, he allowed four runs in five innings. In his last four, he’s allowed a total of five runs. Last time out, he allowed just an unearned run in 7.2 innings.

Last night, he took things to another level. He retired the first 12 batters he faced before a walk to Brooks Pinckard (Baylor) in the fifth. As noted in the Cape Cod Times, Goodnight turned on his ankle on a pitch in the seventh inning, but gutted through it and stayed in the game.

Though he couldn’t finish off the no-hit bid, he still delivered one of the best pitching performances of the summer — and he helped his team get a big win. With Brewster losing to Chatham, Y-D moved to within two games of the Whitecaps for first place.

And the Red Sox might have themselves a new ace.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Andrew Gagnon (Long Beach State) will try to improve to 6-0 as Brewster hosts Orleans. Last year, nobody in the league had more than four wins. Nobody has had more than six since another Long Beach State pitcher, Jared Hughes, in 2005.