RIGHT FIELD FOG

The whole Right Field Fog crew is on the Cape this week so we took in the Chatham-Wareham game last night. RFF commenter Orville from Orleans was also on hand, and we chatted about this crazy summer of Cape League Baseball.

Then we saw it. A lot of it.

Four home runs and three hours, forty-three minutes later, Wareham outlasted Chatham 10-6. In this summer of offense, even the light-hitting Anglers have gotten in on the act plenty of times. But on this night, Wareham had a little more.

Chatham led 6-5 into the seventh, and reliever Tate Parrish (North Carolina) was doing his best to hold the league. He struck out the first two batters he faced in the fifth and worked a one-two-three sixth. But in the seventh, the Gatemen got to him. A single and an error put two on with two outs. Parrish jumped ahead of Daniel Palka (Georgia Tech) 0-2 in a lefty-lefty match-up. But Palka went with the next pitch and poked into left field. Two runners scored to give Wareham the lead.

Then in the ninth, with Konner Wade (Arizona) warming up and probably not needing any cushion, Wareham added to its lead. Kyle Schwarber (Indiana) smacked a two-run homer just over the fence — and the out-stretched glove of a leaping Adam Engel (Louisville) in center. One batter later, Palka absolutely smashed a solo home run to right-center field that landed at the top of the Veterans Field hill. It was the eighth home run for Palka, who’s not tied for the league lead.

Wareham was on its way. Chatham did put two on with two out in the bottom of the ninth, but Wade got out of the jam with a groundout to seal the victory.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

League-wide off-day today. Looking ahead to Wednesday, Sean Manaea (Indiana State) is scheduled to pitch for Hyannis in a 7 p.m. home game against Wareham.

The Harwich Mariners hit their 42nd home run of the season last night. It came off the bat of Brian Ragira (Stanford) and it meant that Harwich has now surpassed the benchmark total of the 2007 Y-D Red Sox, whose 41 home runs were the most in a long time before the Mariners came along.

But I don’t think there was much of a celebration. Brewster won 10-5 to hand the Mariners their fourth straight loss. Y-D, Chatham and Orleans are now all tied for second, just one game back of the Mariners.

It’s kind of symbolic — for all the power, Harwich is not invincible. I think they have the most talented lineup in the league and they may well win the Cape League championship, but they can be beaten.

The other angle from last night is that the Mariners can really be beaten by Brewster. The Whitecaps have now beaten Harwich four times this season in four tries.

While the Whitecaps aren’t in that group of three that’s right behind Harwich, they’re not far back, three games at this point.

Last night, they pounded out 13 hits, led by two Spencer Navin (Vanderbilt) home runs. Ryon Healy (Oregon) added two hits and three RBI, while Jason Monda (Washington) knocked in a run. Dylan Davis (Oregon State) had a rough start on the mound, giving up five runs in three innings, but the bullpen was in control from there, pitching six shutout innings. Evan Rutter (Rice) got the win with three strong innings, and James Leckenby (Washington State) finished it off with four strikeouts in two scoreless innings.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Should be a good pitching match-up tonight in Bourne. Ohio State standout Jaron Long goes for the Braves against Brewster’s Tom Windle (Minnesota), who’s been outstanding in his last three starts. Game time is 6 p.m.

Remember when Harwich and Orleans were running away with the East?

So much for that.

While I still think those two are the two best teams, they’ve struggled lately, especially the Firebirds. Meanwhile, Y-D and Chatham have not struggled. The Red Sox beat first-place Harwich 12-7 last night for their third win in a row, while the Anglers topped Hyannis 9-4 for their third win in a row.

Those victories, together with a loss by Orleans, have the top four teams in the East separated by a total of two games.

Y-D scored the biggest blow by out-Harwiching Harwich. The Red Sox hit three home runs on their way to another double-digit run night, their seventh of the season. Carlos Asuaje (Nova Southeastern) went 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBI, Mason Katz (LSU) went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI and Justin Shafer (Florida) went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. Robert Pehl (Washington) added two RBI.

Andrew Thurman (Long Beach State) got the win after allowing five earned in 5.1 innings. Rick Knapp (Central Florida) went 3.2 scoreless innings to derail any hopes of a Harwich comeback.

The loss was the third in a row for the Mariners.

Over in Chatham, the Anglers continued to surge. After beating Falmouth and Harwich the previous two nights, the Anglers added Hyannis to the list. Though they were out-hit 14-10, the Anglers got the big hits. Chad Pinder (Virginia Tech) hit two home runs and drove in four while John Martinez (Michigan State) knocked in two.

On the mound, Thomas Lawrence (Maine) made his second start since joining the rotation and pitched well again, allowing three runs and striking out six in 6.2 innings. Jimmy Litchfield (UC Irvine) struck out four in two innings of relief.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Chatham will try to stay hot and will send its best pitcher to the mound as it visits Falmouth at 5:30 p.m. Ryan Thompson (Franklin Pierce), who struck out 11 in his last start, will go against Ben Wetzler (Oregon State), who has a 3.48 ERA in two starts.

The Cotuit Kettleers stayed hot last night with a 2-1 victory over Wareham.

And their hot streak is really taking them places.

The win was Cotuit’s sixth in a row and, coupled with a Falmouth loss, it moved them into first place in the West. Cotuit is now 14-10. Exactly one week ago, they were 9-10. The streak had just begun. In the last week, Cotuit has put it all together, pitching and hitting — especially hitting — better than it has all season.

Last night marked the fewest runs Cotuit had scored in the streak and the closest game in the streak, but the Kettleers still found a way.

A run in the second and another in the fourth turned out to be enough as three Cotuit pitchers combined to limit Wareham to a run on eight hits. Ace Kevin Ziomek (Vanderbilt) scattered seven hits and allowed one run while striking out five in 5.2 innings. Brandon Bixler (Florida Gulf Coast) went 1.2 scoreless innings before giving way to Ryan Connolly (Coastal Carolina), who slammed the door early. Connolly, who now leads the league in appearances with 12, came on with two men on in the seventh, got out of the jam and then cruised. He pitched the final 2.2 innings without allowing a hit. He struck out two.

Patrick Biondi (Michigan), the league’s leading hitter, went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead the offense. He raised his average to .414. Tony Kemp (Vanderbilt) had the other RBI while Mike Ford (Princeton) added two hits.

Wareham’s lone run came on a home run by Daniel Palka (Georgia Tech), his seventh. The Gatemen, who were neck-and-neck with Cotuit in the early part of the season, have headed in the opposite direction, losing five in a row.

Anything you can do . . .

. . . Well not quite better, but pretty close.

After Sean Manaea dominated for Harwich on Thursday, Jeff Hoffman (East Carolina) followed suit last night. The rising sophomore struck out nine and allowed just two hits in seven innings as Hyannis rolled over Brewster 11-0.

Hoffman had solid numbers at ECU this spring. He’s been good on the Cape too but Hyannis had lost each of his first three starts, largely through no fault of his own.

This time Hoffman left no doubt. He walked four but gave up just two singles, both to Ryon Healy (Oregon). He kept everyone else’s bat silent.

And like Manaea the night before, he had plenty of help. Hyannis broke out for double-digit hits again, pounding 16 on their way to the 11-run outburst. Blake Austin (Auburn) hit a home run and drove in four, while Brandon Trinkwon (Cal) went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Trinkwon has had three multi-hit games in a row and is now batting .346.

Dominic Jose (Stanford) and Taylor Zeutenhorst (Iowa) also had three hits while Brett Michael Doran (Stanford) had two RBI.

With the two straight wins — and two straight losses for Bourne — Hyannis is now back in front of the Braves in fourth place by a game.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

Cotuit will try to keep its streak going when it visits Brewster at 5 p.m. Kyle Finnegan (Texas State), who had been listed as the probable for last night but didn’t pitch, is the probable starter again. Sam Moll (Memphis), who has struck out 25 in 19.1 innings and went six scoreless in his last start, gets the ball for the Whitecaps.

It’s the year of the bat in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Every time Sean Manaea (Indiana State) pitches, the bats get a little bit quieter.

The Hyannis lefty has been dominant all summer, and almost every start has been better than the one before. Last night, Manaea struck out a season-high 13, didn’t walk anybody and allowed just a run on two hits in seven innings as Hyannis beat Wareham 8-2.

Manaea now leads the league in strikeouts with 51 in 30.2 innings. We’ve focused on the home run record books this season, but Manaea has now surpassed the end-of-season strikeout totals of the last two Cape League strikeout kings. Joe Bircher had 48 last year and Nick Tropeano had 44 the year before.

With seven more strikeouts, Manaea would pass Chris Sale, who K’d 57 for Y-D in 2010. He’s now a star with the Chicago White Sox.

It’s fitting that Sale is next on the list because he and Manaea have followed similar paths. Neither was drafted out of high school and neither ended up at a college powerhouse. Sale was at Florida Gulf Coast. Manaea is at Indiana State.

In the 2010 preseason, I had never heard of Sale until I did the Early Look. It was the same for Manaea this year. In both cases, though, I thought the same thing: tall lefty with a lot of strikeouts — this guy might be pretty good.

Like Sale, Manaea has lived up to every bit of the promise.

Early in the year, he gave up a few more runs than you’d expect, putting his ERA above three for a while, but even then, his opponents batting average was really low. Now, that batting average is .151 and Manaea has pretty much stopped giving up runs. He’s also walked just six all summer — and none in his last two starts.

Last night, he struck out the side twice and retired the last 12 batters he faced. Only one runner got past first base.

There’s a long way to go for Manaea to match the next steps that Chris Sale took — first-round pick and a meteoric rise to the majors.

But for his Cape League summer, Manaea is right on track.

Plenty of Help

Manaea got two no-decisions and a loss in his first three starts, but has had a lot of support in his last two, with Hyannis winning one 9-2 and last night’s game 8-2. Brandon Trinkwon (Cal) continued to shine, with his fifth multi-hit performance in his last eight games. He went 4-for-6 with a home run last night. Dominic Jose (Stanford) and Blake Austin (Auburn) each had a home run and three RBI, while Brett Michael Doran (Stanford) had three hits.

Elsewhere

What to Watch

More good pitching should be on the docket tonight. Aaron Blair (Marshall) and his league-leading 0.37 ERA will go for Y-D at home against Bourne at 5 p.m. In Falmouth at 7 p.m., Dylan Covey (San Diego) will make his first start for Orleans after spending the first half of the year in the bullpen.

Should be a good one in Harwich as well, with Michael Wagner (San Diego) going for Chatham against David Whitehead (Elon). Both have been good.

Heading into last night, Orleans had lost five of six games, with Saturday’s win over Y-D the only thing that broke up the streak.

Another game with Y-D didn’t yield the same result.

The Red Sox took a lead a lead in the sixth inning, watched the Firebirds tie the game but came back with two runs in the top of the seventh on their way to a 7-5 victory.

Y-D is now 12-11, two games back of 14-9 Orleans. The Firebirds were 13-3 when their rough patch began.

The key runs in the seventh came against the strong Orleans bullpen. A double, a fielder’s choice and a base hit put two on, for Sam Travis (Indiana), who reached on an error to bring the go-ahead run in. A Mason Katz (LSU) RBI groundout plated another run.

In the bottom of the seventh, Orleans loaded the bases for its top hitter, Conrad Gregor (Vanderbilt), but Joey Denato (Indiana) induced a ground ball to end the inning. A.J. Vanegas (Stanford) came on for the eighth and struck out four of the seven batters he faced in two scoreless innings.

The Red Sox was led by Zak Blair (Mercyhurst), who had three hits to raise his average to .380. Travis had two hits and an RBI, Tanner Mathis (Ole Miss) had two hits, and Katz drove in two runs. Carlos Asuaje (Nova Southeastern) also had an RBI.

Starter Ben Lively (Central Florida) pitched five strong innings, striking out six. Denato got the win in relief.

What to Watch

A couple of good pitching match-ups tonight. In Wareham, league strikeout leader Sean Manaea (Indiana State) gets the ball for the Harbor Hawks against Wareham’s Brad Kuntz (Baylor), who’s had two good starts and one bad start. That game is at 7 p.m.

In Bourne, Tyler Skulina (Kent State) makes his second start and goes against Cotuit’s Kyle Finnegan (Texas State). Skulina struck out 106 this spring. Finnegan has struggled a bit this summer but has a big arm.