Sometimes You Eat the Bear…

… Sometimes the bear (or in this case, the Cub) eats you.  I’m convinced there’s nothing in sports more exciting, or more heart-wrenching, than the walk-off home run.  The entire ninth inning of Friday’s series finale in Iowa felt like the Titanic sinking.  Hector Luna, who hadn’t committed an error in 17 chances at third base (leading all PCL third-sackers) boots a sure double-play ball and Valentino Pascucci, who is solid as it gets at first, hesitates on a key grounder.   You just knew something weird was in the air.   Of course, the walk-off homer by Jason Dubois off Tanyon Sturtze, who has been lights out so far this season, was the clincher in the 7-5 Cubs win. 

The good news is, in baseball there’s game tomorrow!  Time for the ‘Topes to go on a winning streak!

Long And Winding Road

While it’s only been a week  since the Isotopes were home, it seems like a lot longer, as Albuquerque continues a road trip that has the team playing a dozen away games in 13 days, the ‘Topes’ longest roadie of the season. After tonight’s game at Iowa, the Isotopes will have an early wake-up for their flight Saturday to New Orleans.  The bus to the Des Moines airport leaves the ‘Topes’ team hotel at 4:00 AM, meaning that after playing the game, eating, showering, and heading back to the hotel, the team is looking at probably a best case scenario of getting around four hours of sleep before heading to the airport.  All PCL teams fly commercial, so that means the team must go through security and deal with all the other hassles and delays that all of us must endure when we travel. So, in order to make sure the team and its equipment make the 6:00 AM flight out of Des Moines, the players must arrive about an hour and a half before it departs.  After a change of planes in Chicago, the Isotopes will arrive bleary-eyed in New Orleans around noon, which allows for maybe an hour or two of rest at the hotel before having to be at the ballpark for the 6:00 PM (local time) game.   Travel in the PCL is anything but glamorous. 

Jeff Weaver will be spared the early wake-up call, as the right hander will start tomorrow’s game against the Zephyrs and will fly to the Big Easy today.  The Dodgers want Weaver to get more innings so that he could be a potential long reliever or spot-starter in the Major Leagues should the need arise.  Scheduled starter Giancarlo Alvarado will come in after Weaver throws about 60-65 pitches.  That means the Isotopes rotation for the New Orleans series is now: 

Tomorrow:  RHP Jeff Weaver
Sunday:  LHP Eric Milton
Monday: RHP Charlie Haeger
Tuesday: LHP Shawn Estes 

In the back half of that series, the Isotopes will face a couple of names familiar to Isotopes fans as RHP Dallas Trahern and RHP Daniel Barone will throw on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. 

It’s also been a week since the last roster move, but that could change shortly.  Dodgers.com is reporting that Cory Wade is close to coming back from right shoulder bursitis, which might impact Albuquerque’s roster. 

After such an arduous road trip, the ‘Topes are going to need some home cooking, so make your plans now to come out to Isotopes Park when Albuquerque hosts the hated Round Rock Express for a four-game set beginning on April 30.       

Salami!

Valentino Pascucci has always had a flair for the dramatic, and his first home run of the 2009 season proved that the “Italian Bazooka” can deliver a huge blow at the perfect time.  Down 3-1 with the bases loaded and two out in the fifth inning of the Isotopes’ game at Omaha on Saturday night, Pascucci looked at two strikes before working the count to 3-2 off of Royals reliever Carlos Rosa.  Pascucci took the next pitch from the O-Royals reliever and sent it over the fence in right for an opposite-field grand slam that ended up delivering Albuquerque a 5-4 win. 

What is even more strange is that Pascucci’s slam was one of three hit in the Pacific Coast League on Saturday. Reno’s Josh Whitesell hit one vs. Salt Lake and Sacramento’s Sean Doolittle went yard with the bases loaded at Tacoma.  Prior to the sudden salami deluge, the only grand slam in the PCL this year belonged to Iowa’s Brad Snyder, who hit one at Round Rock on April 12. 

Meanwhile, Albuquerque has one two in a row and you can’t help but get the feeling that this team is starting to gel.  Granted, it’s still extremely early, but winning your first two games on the road is always a great start.