Game 20 Recap: Just Keep Hitting, Just Keep Hitting
B’s Flip Script; Jump on PaddleHeads Early in 17-12 Hit Parade
by Joe Horton
The Oakland Ballers may not be able to churn out 20 hits a night, but on Wednesday night, it was a joyful sight to behold, and just (barely) what they needed. The B’s offense seems here to play and stay, and the pitching limited damage and got some timely stops as Oakland outlasted Missoula in another Mountain West shootout 17-12. The win didn’t solve all the team’s worries on the mound, but it did buy them more time to find a fix, and like that little forgetful blue fish, a short memory is often a resilient baseball team’s best asset.
Latecomers to Ogren Park at Allegiance Field or B’s fans sliding into the YouTube broadcast chat might have thought they were in the Upside Down: it was the Ballers who jumped on PaddleHead pitching early, plating seven runs in the first inning and never looking back to lead for the entire game. The in-game graphics on Home Team Network also didn’t help—runs went to the wrong team or were late, balls and strikes danced back and forth, and if you’re a fan trying to will a team out of a slump from afar, it’s the kind of erratic stress that keeps cardiologists in Scrooge McDuck money pools.
Offensively, it was once again a full-roster effort as every Baller recorded at least one hit. Jake Allgeyer, Jaden Collura, Jeter Ybarra, and Noah Blythe all homered. Together, Oakland and Missoula combined for 29 runs and 38 hits, bountiful even by Pioneer League standards.
Starting pitcher C.J. Blowers, despite a 10-run line, again played a stopper of sorts. He was lifted after giving up a grand slam to the Paddleheads’ Nich Kemp (3-5, one grand slam, one plain regular homer, and seven RBI in a titanic evening) in the fifth, but he was able to keep the game manageable into the middle innings and provide a clearer roadmap for the bullpen in his no-decision. Campbell Spradling, Valek Cisneros—earning the win—and Braydon Nelson combined in relief, allowing only one more earned run with four big strikeouts and, crucially, only four walks. It was the seventh (and, mercifully, the ninth) before Oakland managed to put a zero in the bottom frame, but the bend-don’t-break mentality was good enough for today.
I reached out to Tremayne Cobb and Noah Blythe before the game. From the outside, it’s easy to ascribe intentions and emotional states to a team. They are two players—one returning, one new—who have found success despite the team’s recent struggles, and I asked them how they balanced the two.
“Can’t really focus on personal success if the team isn’t performing at a high level,” Cobb messaged. “Really just gotta find our identity, I don’t think we have yet. It’s very early in the season, so we just have to make sure we don’t panic because there is a lot baseball left to be played. Just need to assess where we are struggling and do what we can to fix those areas of struggle.”
I had the same question for Blythe.
“I think as a team we have shown glimpses that we can be a really good team when we put it all together,” Blythe wrote. “Every team faces adversity but we all still believe in this team and we are a couple wins away from getting hot. Once we put it all together we will be just fine.”
Blythe certainly did put it together tonight—call it Dispatches Destiny™—going 4-6 with five RBI and the B’s biggest hit, a three-run homer in immediate response to Kemp’s grand slam.
I also told Blythe his good-natured and surprisingly successful position player pitching in some of the blowouts has been a highlight of the trip so far, though I hope to see no more of it anytime soon.
“I have been having fun out there. I haven’t pitched since high school.”
It was just one win, but the players’ tone after the game seemed to justify that pregame optimism.
“Always feels good to come out with a win,” Jake Allgeyer said after his 3-4 night. “The offense kept doing what we know we’re capable of and scoring a bunch of runs. Definitely was a tougher day to pitch in but I thought the pitchers battled today and were able to get out of some jams when we really needed it.”
Jaden Collura, whose own 3-4 night was punctuated by a fourth inning two-run homer, reached even further toward those big hopes that Baller nation might have forgotten for a couple of weeks.
“As a team we are starting to put it together…We are starting to click on all cylinders as an offense. The key is playing together as a team when it comes to pitching fielding and hitting. Once we do that nobody in this league can stop us and we will go back-to-back in this league.”
Video from the Oakland Ballers and photo from always-hard-at-work-and-multitasking Head Groundskeeper Anthony Alejandrez.
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
