However, they can’t help but think that it could have been even better at the end of the day.
Through the middle of last week, the Soddies were playing perhaps their best stretch of baseball of the season in the thick of a Hodgetown homestand. They’d won six of seven games and assured themselves of no worse than a split with the Wichita Wind Surge in their current series.
Thanks to a couple of bad innings over the weekend, though, they ended up settling. They fell behind Wichita by identical scores on Saturday and Sunday evenings, and suffered nearly identical losing margins, falling 10-9 and 10-8 respectively with the winning run at the plate, and had to take a split instead.
After getting into position to make a charge in the Texas League South in the second half of the season, the Sod Poodles (11-16 second half) are now wondering how much better things could be.
“I was little disappointed in the way we ended the homestand,” Sod Poodles manager Tim Bogar said. “We won our first three games and we were thinking we were in a good place. We dropped the last three and it kind of leaves a little bit of a sour taste in your mouth. All we can do is show up every day and when we go down to Corpus (Christi for a six-game series starting Tuesday) we’ve got to do better down there.”
It was no surprise that their Nos. 3 and 4 hitters, A.J. Vukovich and Tim Tawa, both came up big. Vukovich was 3-for-5 with a two-run home run and fell a double short of the cycle, while Tawa was 4-for-5, capping the scoring with a two-run homer in the eighth and falling a double short of the cycle.
Sunday, with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Vukovich and Tawa both came to the plate representing the winning runs. However, both flew out deep to center to end the game and thwart the comeback.
It was the second night in a row of a comeback being close but no cigar after trailing 10-2.
“We were down a lot and could have folded the tent and came in but it shows these guys have some backbone,” Bogar said. “We’ve just got to do a better job earlier in the game of not letting them expand the score to 10 runs. We got the winning run to the plate and that’s all we can ask for. Timmy took a great swing and I thought that ball might fall in there but their guy made a good play.”
Saturday night the Soddies came up big in the seventh and eighth before falling. Tawa hit a three-run blast to left to cut it to 10-5 in the seventh, then in the eighth, Jancarlos Cintron’s two-run single and Tawa’s two-run double cut it to 10-9.
Ivan Melendez led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to center, but Wichita’s Kyle Bischoff retired the final three batters in order to preserve the win.
Comings and goings
The series wasn’t without interruptions for the Sod Poodles, mainly through off-field activities. On Thursday, the Sod Poodles parent club Arizona Diamondbacks engaged in a trade involving Soddies past and present.
The Diamondbacks traded for Miami Marlins left-handed reliever A.J. Puk, trading Sod Poodles outfielder Andrew Pintar and Reno Aces first baseman Deyvison De Los Santos (a Soddie at the beginning of the season) to the Marlins.
Pintar wasn’t with the Sod Poodles long, appearing in only 10 games, batting .184 with no homers and six RBIs. In Tuesday’s series opener against Wichita, Pintar hit leadoff and went 0-for-5.
That deal epitomizes the nature of the minor league baseball at this time of the season, for better or worse.
“I think most of our guys are extremely excited for those guys,” Bogar said. “What everybody needs to realize is that there are other people out there who think our players are pretty good. They’re willing to take a chance on those guys and I’m happy for (Pintar and De Los Santos) getting an opportunity with another organization. Both those kids are top-shelf. You don’t like to see your friends move on but it’s just baseball.”
That deal and other happenings left some holes on the Soddies roster which needed to be filled. With Pintar gone, outfielder Neyfy Castillo was called back to the club from Class A Hillsboro for the weekend.
Castillo, who started the season in Amarillo and was on the Texas League championship team all of last season, actually played first base on Saturday and went 2-for-3 and scored twice. He played center field on Sunday and went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, including a single in the ninth to keep the rally alive.
Jesus Valdez, who opened the series for the Sod Poodles by going 2-for-3 with a homer and two runs, was called up to Class AAA Reno prior to the weekend. Jean Walters was called up from Hillsboro to take his place on the roster.
Walters made his Amarillo debut by hitting second on Sunday, and after going hitless in his first four at-bats, singled to left field in the ninth to drive in the last run of the game and keep hope alive for the Sod Poodles.
Hodgetown’s namesake passes
Jerry Hodge, the Amarillo businessman and former mayor for whom the Sod Poodles home of Hodgetown was named, passed away Thursday at the age of 81. Prior to Thursday’s game, the team had a moment of silence to honor Hodge.
In 2018, Hodge was instrumental in bringing affiliated professional baseball back to Amarillo for the first time since 1982. His role was prominent enough in birthing the Sod Poodles, that Hodge, who founded Maxor Drug, which expanded from Amarillo to pharmacies in a dozen states, got their facility named after him.
“Quite simply without Jerry Hodge there wouldn’t be minor league baseball back here,” Sod Poodles president and general manager Tony Ensor said. “We affectionately call this the house that Jerry built because he was so instrumental in bringing the Sod Poodles here, and for that I think this community will always be grateful. The thing I love about Amarillo is that there are people who create here and Jerry was the epitome of that. He took a small pharmacy and turned it to a multinational corporation which has done so much good for people.
“When he got it in his mind he wanted professional baseball here, he wanted affiliated professional baseball here. He knew that it would be longstanding. It means that kids, families and young people will get to enjoy professional baseball for generations.”
The stadium’s name is an indicator of Hodge’s imprint on the city which will be in place even after his passing.
“He’s an original,” Ensor said of Hodge. “This was his home and he helped to build it and that’s something special that people like Jerry Hodge decided to stay and build where his home is.”
If it wasn’t for bad luck …
Right-hander Billy Corcoran didn’t do anything to hurt his status as the most consistent starter for the Sod Poodles, but it couldn’t get him a win against Wichita.
Corcoran started Friday’s game and pitched well enough to get the Soddies a series win as he got his eighth quality start. He threw six innings, giving up three runs (only one earned) on four hits, but still lost 4-1, and fell to 5-4 on the season.