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Senators Use Long-Ball to Best Diamonds |
June 25, 2008. Vienna, Va. -- The Senators have hit for average all season long. They have routinely had hitters hitting over .300, and two still hitting over .400. However, until recently there had been little power from the Senators lineup. At the rate the Senators lineup is hitting home runs now, though, that stands to change. The Senators used the long-ball Wednesday night to power them to a 6-3 victory over the Arlington Diamonds. With the victory, the Senators are now 19-1 on the season.
Both Martin Parra and Eric Walker hit two-run home runs, which provided all the offense that the Senators needed. Both hitters have been smoking the ball lately. Walker's shot was his second in as many games, which gives him three on the season. Parra's home run was his third in the last week of play.
Parra is now hitting an absurd .481 on the season with an .815 slugging percentage. He has clearly been the most dominant hitter in the Clark-Griffith League this season. At some point, you would think pitchers would start pitching around Parra, or even intentionally walking him, because Parra has devoured opposing pitching.
Perhaps Senators hitters simply needed a couple of weeks to adjust to the wooden bats. All of these hitters use aluminum bats during their respective collegiate and high-school regular seasons. So after a couple of weeks of broken bats, it seems that Senators hitters have now found the precision necessary to center the ball and drive the ball out of the park.
“We came out swinging it pretty well early, but as [the season] has gone on, we have started to hit for more power and the opposing teams are starting hit better as well,” said Walker. “There is a good week or two weeks of adjustment.”
Coming off of an 18-1 clobbering of the DC Grays, you might have feared a slip-up from the Senators. However, they came out focused and ready to play as Parra opened the scoring with his home run in the first inning. Walker then followed that up with his home run in the second inning.
“When you strike the ball well in a game and put it to a team, you have to come back with the same approach, trying to hit the ball well, and not trying to do too much out there,” said Walker. “I was just trying to get a good pitch early, and [Diamonds starter Daniel Zailskas] was falling behind in the count, so you just look for a fastball and try to put a good swing on it.”
The Senators power surge was backed up by yet another strong pitching performance. Eric Cantrell pitched six innings, allowing only an infield hit and no runs. Cantrell is now 4-0 on the season, with an ERA so small you would need a microscope to see it.
Kyle Hald, the Senators' Player of the Week last week, was roughed up in relief of Cantrell. Hald allowed three runs on five hits, including a two-run home run to Diamonds first baseman Ben Fish. He faced more potential danger later in the inning when he loaded the bases. However, he was able to strike out Graham Sullivan to end the inning.
Chad Johnson and Jimmy Duggan, arguably the Senators' two most effective relievers, recovered from shaky performances in their last outings and pitched two perfect innings. Last time out against the Beltway Blue Caps, Johnson allowed two runs, and Duggan nearly blew a 13-6 lead by allowing six ninth-inning runs. However, the two seemed like completely different pitchers last night, flashing dominant stuff in setting down the Diamonds lineup in order.
The Senators added runs in the fourth and sixth inning to complete their scoring. Gunnar Terhune engineered a run in the fourth. He singled and then came around to score on a wild pickoff attempt from Zailskas. The Senators added an insurance run in the sixth when Blake Tagmyer hit a sacrifice fly that scored, who else, Parra.
Andrew Struckmeyer
Vienna Senators