Week in Review Clearwater: May Sets Strikeout Record, Homeruns Galore
By: Bryan Sheehan
This past week certainly has been interesting for the Clearwater Threshers, with both players leaving and joining, records being set and a back-to-back-to-back homerun performance. The week included great pitching performances as well as nights where the bats light up, all combining for a record of 4-2 since last Friday.
Last Friday, July 29, was of course the day that the Phillies acquired Hunter Pence. This meant that it was first baseman Jon Singleton's last game in a Thersher's uniform, going 2-4 before being pulled in the bottom of the eighth for RF Brian Gump (Darin Ruf moved to first base, and has started all games there since). The Threshers won the game, 2-1, thanks to 7th inning RBIs by Jiwan James and Jeremy Barnes. Starting pitcher Trevor May, one of the Farm's "Baby Aces" (the other "Baby Aces" are Jarred Cosart, Brody Colvin, Jon Pettibone and Julio Rodriguez), threw seven and a third innings, giving up a run on two hits and striking out eight. That brought his season strikeout total to 159, a new single-season record for the Threshers (the previous record, 156, was held by Austin Hyatt, who now plays for Reading). May has recorded his 169 strikeouts over 124.1 innings, and holds a record of 8-6 with a 3.40 ERA (he threw five innings with ten strikeouts on Thursday).
On Saturday, the Threshers' offense didn't show up, the team losing 5-1 to Palm Beach. Starter Jon Pettibone had a quality start, going six innings and giving up three runs, but the combination of a near-nonexistant offense and reliever Juan Sosa giving up two runs in as many innings. The only run came from a RBI single by Jeremy Barnes in the eighth inning. Pettibone (8-8, 2.89 ERA) gets the start tonight against the Tampa Yankees, gametime is 6:30.
The Threshers bounced back on Sunday, though, winning 3-2 on the heels of another great pitching performance by Julio Rodriguez (14-6, 3.03 ERA). Rodriguez pitched six innings, giving up two runs and striking out six (119 Ks on the year). Barnes contributed his third RBI in as many games, hitting an RBI double during a big 5th inning. All three of Clearwater's runs came in this inning, with Ruf and Travis Mattair also contributing RBIs.
After a 7-3 loss in Monday, in which starter Brody Colvin (2-6, 4.25 ERA) gave up five runs and seven hits in five innings against the Palm Beach Cardinals, the Threshers won big on Tuesday, 10-3. The wrap-up from this game is available here (
http://tempuri.org/tempuri.html.)
The Threshers continued to beat up on the Tampa Yankees on Thursday (after an off-day on Wednesday), winning 8-4. The offense turned on late, including a back-to-back homerun display by catcher Sebastian Valle (5) and RF Brandon Tripp (3), who hit two homeruns in the game. Trevor May got a no-decision after a five inning, two run, ten strikeout game. Juan Sosa pitched an inning and a third and picked up his first win of the season for the club (Sosa was called up from Lakewood on July 11).