The ending Sunday afternoon at Hodgetown wasn’t what they wanted, as they fell 12-6 to the Wichita Wind Surge. A win in the finale would have been gravy, but the main course was just fine as it was.
Over the previous nine days, the Sod Poodles had already sewed up winning the homestand and their series against Wichita. They had won six of their previous eight games and had taken four of five from Wichita to clinch that series and finished the homestand 6-3.
The Sod Poodles hold a two-game lead in the second half of Texas League South Division play, and had it not been for the bullpen’s only poor performance of the week to end the homestand Sunday (allowing 11 runs in a three-inning span), that lead would be three games.
“We played some really good baseball here at Hodgetown,” Sod Poodles manager Shawn Roof said. “We started after the All-Star break and won two out of three then came out and won the next series. We played well in all facets of the game, although we would have liked to have won (Sunday).”
It was a promising start Sunday, if not a very conventional one. Reliever Conor Grammes made a spot start for the Soddies in what amounted to a bullpen day, as he pitched two innings, striking out five (including the first four batters he faced), while giving up one hit in keeping Wichita scoreless.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Grammes is going to see more innings, if any, as a starter.
“He’s got nasty stuff and when he attacks the zone that’s what you expect of him,” Roof said. “He’s a reliever by trade but he was a guy who was up and ready to go and he gave us two good innings.”
The Sod Poodles led 2-0 when Grammes left, thanks to back-to-back solo home runs by Caleb Roberts and Ivan Melendez in the first inning. Mitchell Stumpo relieved Grammes in the third and threw a scoreless inning and Gerald Ogando followed suit with the same in the fourth.
But things fell apart over the next three innings for the Amarillo bullpen. Ogando walked the first two batters of the fifth, then gave up a double to David Banuelos to bring home Wichita’s first run. DaShawn Keirsey then hit a two-run triple to left center which gave the Surge the lead for good at 3-2, and Ogando was pulled.
Wichita got to Christian Montes De Oca for two runs in the sixth, then in the seventh, the first five batters reached against Soddies reliever Austin Pope (who didn’t retire a batter), resulting in an 11-3 lead, which pretty much put the Sod Poodles out of it.
Prior to that, the Sod Poodles rode two stellar starting pitching performances to victories which clinched the series and the homestand. Friday night, right-hander Jamison Hill went seven innings, stretching his scoreless innings string to 11 2/3, in leading the Soddies to a 3-2 win.
Saturday night, Taiwanese left-hander Yu-Min Lin threw his second straight dominant start to begin his Double-A career. After giving up a two-run homer to Alex Isola in the first for his first runs allowed as a Sod Poodle, Lin was dominant, throwing seven innings, giving up four hits, striking out six and walking none in an 8-2 victory.
“We have all the faith in the world in all our starters,” Roof said. “We expect that from all of them. We know that every time they go out, they have a chance to set the tone. It’s not just the 1-2 punch. When guys are pitching like that and we’re playing good defense that will give us a chance to win.”
Vukovich nuking it
For all the talk of pitching and defense which were cornerstones of last week’s success at Hodgetown, scoring is still a big deal as well, and A.J. Vukovich has been the most consistent example of that.
Saturday night, Vukovich got things going for the Sod Poodles after they fell behind 2-0, getting them on the board with an RBI double in the bottom of the first. In the bottom of the third, Vukovich gave them the lead for good with a solo homer the opposite way to right.
That gave Vukovich his 18th home run of the year, which not only leads the Sod Poodles, but is a career season high. He also leads the team with 66 RBIs, and both numbers are second in the Texas League.
“In the moment I’m just thinking about my approach and my game plan, and when I hit a ball like that, I’m just thinking about how good it feels to execute your plan,” Vukovich said. “I’m not really thinking about stats or anything like that when I’m out there.”
Vukovich also hit a three-run double in the seventh, which was only spoiled by being thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple. Appropriately, he ended the game by making a diving catch in centerfield which guaranteed the series and homestand win.
Oh, and he also turned 22 on Thursday.
“(The week) started off a little slow,” Vukovich said. “The game seemed like it was a little sped up on me when I got back from the All-Star break, so I got back to hitting with then coaches to see how I could get that slow the game down feel back. It’s something a lot of baseball players struggle with consistently.”
Melendez keeps crushing
If you were going to give a grade to the four players who got called up from Class A Hillsboro before the start of the homestand, it would have to be somewhere in the A neighborhood. While catcher J.J. D’Orazio and left-handed reliever Will Mabrey have shown flashes of why they got called up, it’s been Lin and Melendez who’ve no doubt made the biggest impact.
Melendez, an El Paso native, has become a definite fan favorite. During the homestand, Melendez started seven games and hit six homers and drove in eight runs.
He had a pair of multi-homer games against Wichita, hitting a pair of two-run bombs in the 10-7 win in Tuesday’s series opener. On Sunday, he was the bright spot in the series ending loss, concluding Amarillo’s scoring for the series with a titanic 489-foot solo blast in the eighth inning, which was the third longest homer ever at Hodgetown for a Sod Poodle.
“You never know what to expect when a kid gets called up from another level,” Roof said of Melendez. “You want to let them come out and play. We’re not surprised he’s hitting home runs because he’s got plus-plus power.
“When we had batting practice last Thursday, it just sounded different. It was one of the most impressive BPs I’ve ever seen coming from a minor league player. It’s been fun.”