Playing All Nine

The most telling trend of the Mavs' series loss against Modesto was how the last few innings played out. In the first game, the Mavs came back from a 4-1 deficit in the seventh to take a 5-4 lead on a grand slam by Mike Saunders. However, the Mavs gave the lead back in the eighth, as the Nuts went back on top 7-5. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the Mavs rallied for three in the bottom of the ninth to walk off with a 8-7 victory.

Things were much different over innings 7-9 in the latter two games of the series. The Nuts scored eight times over that span in each game, making once close games look like blowouts. Two-thirds of the way through, there was 4-4 game and 4-2 game that turned into 12-4 and 11-2 scores, respectively.

Most of the late inning struggles can be attributed to the bullpen. Over the last 15 games, the bullpen has an ERA above nine. The Mavs gave up a total of 21 runs in the last three innings in the Modesto series, and in the last 12 games the Mavs have played, they have been outscored 58-20 over the final third of the game.

I have no idea why this has started to happen. At the beginning of the half, the starting pitching was struggling. Now it's the bullpen. With such a young team, the Mavs have never really been able to play a complete game consistently. It's a problem I imagine frustrates the coaches and players alike. Maybe that's something this team can shoot to work on over the final part of the season.

After losing five of six at home, the Mavs will now head on the road for six. This weekend they'll take their final trip to Lake Elsinore, where they have not lost their last seven series. We'll see if that holds up because it sure will be a difficult task. Then it's on to Lancaster where things have not been pretty to say the least. These are two of the older teams in the league, and I'm interested to see how the Mavs play them consecutively.

I'm interested to see Nathan Adcock pitch tonight in his Maverick debut. Adcock got the nod up to high A over Kyle Parker, despite Parker having slightly better numbers and being a college draftee. But at this point of the season, why not challenge another 19-year-old? This team really has nothing to lose at this point.

That's all I got for now, I'll check back in a bit...