TAMING OF THE SHOE.

HURTIN' UNITS VS. DUSTY CLEATS.

NOW COUGH...

Game # 20 - August 14, 2012

Hurtin' Units lose 14-4

Team Record  7-12-1

Coventry Park- Week # 16 puts us back in Coventry Park on Tuesday (sixth week in a row) and over to Keogh on Wednesday. This is our final game at Coventry (until the playoffs) and as much as I like the Coventry diamonds, I prefer playing at Keogh and then going back to the Legion. All the games at Coventry have also hurt our chances at winning the keg party, we usually just stay at Coventry when we play there.

Including this game we have 5 games remaining and with a 7-11-1 team record, our window of being a .500 team is closing quickly, in fact this is our final opportunity, unless we tie.

It doesn't bother me to finish under .500, but with the team we have, it seems a little surprising. I looked back to last season, I actually looked at the playoff draw and I noticed that the Hurtin' Units finished in 9th place in the regular season and just missed the elimination round in the playoffs. 

Last season the Dusty Cleats were the talk of the town, with a record of 19-0-0, going undefeated until August 15, 2011, when the Hurtin' Units finally burst their bubble. In game # 20, for both teams, the Hurtin' Units, with a 8-12-1 team record, beat the Dusty Cleats by a score of 15-14 to end an incredible run by the Cleats.

The win by the Hurtin' Units was a highlight of a mediocre season and probably a real disappointment for the Cleats who were very close to a perfect season. The Hurtin' Units actually came close to a win over the Dusty Cleats in their first meeting (June 15, 2011) losing by a single run, with a score of 20-19. The Cleats would go on to lose one more game and end the season with a 22-2-0 record...The Dusty Cleats would breeze through the playoffs until the finals, where the Grisslies would beat them, in a close game, to win the championship...

The weather for this game against the Dusty Cleats was definitely much better than the rain soaked conditions of our last game, but there was rain earlier in the day and it still created some problems.

At game time we had 9 Hurtin' Unit players...Mark, Jamie and Anicete were all away. We signed Dave Argue as a free agent on a two way contact, with incentive clauses, trade anytime and no guarantee of playing time for a single night and no money...what can we say, he has a lousy agent. We sent him back to the minors after the game, called up another 3 subs for Wednesday's game. Same standard deal for these players, gotta watch the cap space and when I refer to cap space, I mean the space in my head, lots bouncing around in there these days. It was great to have Gord R. and Clayton A. back in the lineup; they both had some rust, but that's going to happen when you haven't played in 2 weeks.

The Game: I really don't know what to tell you, it wasn't a great game for the Hurtin' Units, it was mediocre at best. I'm startin' to think we play down to our competition. I didn't copy or photograph the game sheet, so I have no information, no boxscore and all I can tell you is we got beat up by the last place team in the league.

I was really upset with myself after the game. My pitching was very inconsistent, I was all over the place and if it wasn't for the defense, it could have been worse. The thing that upset me the most was the walks I gave up, it was only 3 walks on the night, but 2 of those were to Peter S., I joked with Peter about having a force field around home plate, I couldn't hit the board when he was batting and these are the guys you're supposed to let put the ball in play. I can't esplain it.


Hurtin' Units you have some esplainin' to do.

 

I really can't esplain it Lucy, we have all the components to win and yet we continue to spin our wheels. I looked back at our last 6 games, (including the Beer Bros, who we played on Wednesday night) trying to find some kind of esplaination why we can't win games or score my runs. I have a few thoughts on why we can't string hits together or why we are hitting the ball hard, but not being rewarded for our efforts. I'll touch on these thoughts in the next posting.


Here are the results of my findings:

Hurtin' Units last 6 games:

                                     








The  run results of our last 6 games.

Our average runs for over the last 6 games is 4.83 runs per game and only once have we gone in to double digits.

Our average runs against is actually quite decent, with an average runs against per game of 9.83, with average numbers like these we should be competing in every game. The highest runs scored against us in the 6 games was 14 and unfortunately in was the Dusty Cleats.
The run results for the entire season to date.

Our average runs for on the season is 11.333.

Our average runs against on the season is 12.76.

Based on the season runs for and against we should have a better record.

The Brew Jays ( the league's first place team) have an average of 14.85 runs for and an average of 10.71 runs against.  

Next game we're up against the Beer Bros., back at Keogh Park.