Series #9 vs Cedar Rapids Kernels

The Lugnuts had another tough week playing against the Cedar Rapids Kernels (Minnesota Twins affiliate) going 2-4, bringing our season record to 23-28. We are 12 games out of first place at this point in the season and 1 game from being in last place. Our run differential (total runs scored minus total runs allowed) is the worst in the league at -68. When we have timely hitting, our pitching struggles and when we have good pitching, we don’t have timely hitting which is frustrating. However, we have 81 games remaining so there is plenty of time for us to turn it around.

I got to pitch twice this week, on Thursday and Sunday. I won’t spend much time discussing my outing on Thursday because it was my worst of the year. I fell behind batters and didn’t execute when I needed to. We lost by 19 runs (yes, 19) and it was one of those days where everything was getting hit hard. This happens to every pitcher and I have to learn from outings like those.

I got another chance on Sunday, entering the game after the starter in the 5th inning with one out. I got a ground out and a fly out to end the 5th. Here is a couple pitches - curveball, cutter - from the first out I got:

I went back out for the 6th and threw a scoreless inning. Fly out, error, fly out, ground out. When I got in the dugout my pitching coach, Schulze, shook my hand and said “great job”, which meant my outing was done. As I walked past him, he got my attention again and pointed at the iPad, which read my last pitch at 91 mph. It's rare when a Lansing Lugnut left handed reliever (aka a Velo Boy) throws pitches higher than 90 mph so Schulze was joking around that maybe I shouldn’t be a Velo Boy.

Sunday was an important outing for me after struggling on Thursday. I wasn’t worried after pitching poorly but the last thing I wanted was to get strike zone shy and then run into more trouble. I threw 18 pitches and 14 for strikes, which is a great percentage, anything over 70% is fantastic. This weekend was Marvel weekend so we wore these jerseys, which you can also see in the video above.

June 5th, 2019 was the day I got drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 34th round. Four years ago today, my life changed and I cannot believe it has been that long. What a ride!

The weeks are flying by but life is good here in Michigan. The weather has been very hot and off day vibes have been awesome. The Lugnuts travel to South Bend, Indiana this week to play the Cubs (Chicago Cubs affiliate).

Wish us luck and thanks for reading!