Another Bad Trip for Cats

For the second time in three weeks Pitches B Trippin (4-4 overall, 3-2 Kenosha League first half) thrashed Harmony Sea Kittens (4-4, 3-2), this time sailing away with a 21-11 win at Olbrich Park Wednesday night.  A win for Sea Kittens would have placed the team into the league championship game for the second consecutive year, but early offensive struggles coupled with some spacey defense left the Cats playing from behind from the start.  

Playing a self-inflicted do-or-die game thanks to an early June loss to otherwise winless Bat Intentions, Harmony found itself in a quick 3-0 hole halfway through the first inning.  The top of the batting order responded with three quicks hits, and Helen Boo Rabbit Bradley’s double plated Dan DynamOele for the Kittens’ first run.  But with nobody out and runners on first and third base, the Cats could not manage to scratch out another run.

Sea Kitten pitcher Joe Hennessy worked an efficient second, limiting PBT to one, but Sea Kittens went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.  Another three-spot for the visitors in the third extended their advantage to 7-1, and increased pressure on the Sea Kitten lineup to find ways to get on base.  It didn’t. Harmony ended the third having gone 1-10 after the first three batters of the game hit safely.

But the Kitten rally-dream lived through the fourth, as the team held PBT scoreless for a half-inning for the first time in 10 tries in 2019.  DynamOele opened the inning with a blast over the left-field fence, and after Puma Latzka doubled, Schultzy Oele brought him home with a single.  Once again, the rally stalled, but Los Gatitos had trimmed its deficit to 7-3.

Pitches B Trippin reapplied pressure in the fifth, scoring three two-out runs to extend its lead to 10-3.  The Kittens showed some spark and opened the bottom of the frame with three consecutive hits, but Trippers Stephen Grutzik and Alissa Scnheeburg turned a nifty 5-3 double play to slow the Cats’ roll.  Boom Boom Magyera cracked a two-out RBI single to make it a 10-5 game, but Harmony couldn’t sustain the rally.

Then came the sixth.  PBT loaded the bases quickly, but Sea Kittens notched an out and Hennessy teamed with Red Shoes Hewitt to cut a runner down at the plate with a sparkling play on a dribbler, but the third out… that one was a long, long time coming.  PBT nearly doubled their runs before the dust settled, putting up 9 (revised from 10 after a scoring error was discovered post-hoc) to race to a 19-5 lead.

Seriously, tho, it was an 11-11 game, aside from that 9-run 6^th

-Harmony Manager Joe Hennessy, talking to himself

In subsequent stat-padding garbage time, Zen Master Rowe recorded a trademark hustle double and Hennessy smacked a grand slam, but Sea Kittens could not undo the damage that had been done.  Man-Aaron Jossart pitched mop-up in the 7^th, conceding only a Grutzik home run- nobody knows why he had to be like that- and the Cats satisfied their goal of getting all 13 batters in their lineup three plate appearances before heading home whupped.

Next Up:

Sea Kittens square off with league-leaders Silver Eagle (7-1) at 6:30 PM July 31 on Olbrich Field 3 as Kenosha League second-half play resumes. Silver Eagle has ripped off seven consecutive wins since falling to the Cats 12-11 in the season opener, and has outscored its opponents 129-41 in that stretch. But hey, Sea Kittens got ’em once!

Game Notes

Pitches Be Trippin became only the second team to ever drop 20 or more on Sea Kittens twice.  Pedro’s posted 20 & 22 in 2011, when the wet-behind-the-ears Kittens got moved into top-level play for the first time.

Sea Kittens have now played a full major league schedule!  After 162 games, the team is 84-78, and has a positive run differential (1713 runs scored, 1505 allowed).

By Bill James’ Pythagorean expectation, Sea Kittens expected win-loss record with that run differential is 91-71

Through eight games, Sea Kittens have as many home runs (15) as doubles.   The team record for home runs is 18, but the team hasn’t hit fewer than 20 doubles in a season since 2015.

Through eight games Sea Kittens have allowed 99 runs, and now have the challenge of trying to allow fewer than 21 total over its next two games to avoid giving up the most in franchise history (120 in 2011).

Joe’s grand slam was the 6^th of his career and the 13^th all-time for Sea Kittens.

Salmon Snacks

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