Author: Will Geoghegan

Some shots from the Chatham at Harwich game on Wednesday.

Chatham centerfielder Addison Johnson (Clemson).

Chatham second baseman Kyle Seager (North Carolina).

Harwich third baseman Chris Dominguez (Louisville).

Chatham third baseman Jermaine Curtis (UCLA).

Harwich shortstop and all-star starter Cole Figueroa (Florida).

The Chatham dugout.

Chatham outfielder Andrew Crisp (South Carolina).

Harwich pitcher Josh Zeid (Vanderbilt).

Chatham pitcher Alex White (North Carolina).

Name: Gordon Beckham
Class: 2009
College: Georgia
Cape Team: Yarmouth-Dennis ’07
Position: Shortstop
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 181
Bats: R
Throws: R

Summer ’07:
July 27 – Beckham started hot and hasn’t really cooled off. He leads the league with eight home runs, is second in RBI, second in slugging percentage and third in extra-base hits. He’s hitting .304 and is a major reason why Y-D has the best record in the league.

Looking Back:
Beckham hit .307 this spring and led the team with 13 home runs, 51 RBI and 23 multi-hit games. He was a freshman all-american his first year.

Links:
Dog’s Gordon a hit, in a flash (Athens Banner-Herald, March 31, 2006)

LAST NIGHT

• Cotuit finally snapped its 12-game losing streak with a 7-2 victory over Wareham . . . Reese Havens went 3-for-5 with two home runs
• Chatham’s win streak ended as Brewster’s Ryan Cook, Keith Shinaberry and Lee Land combined for a shutout
• Hyannis’ Stephen Penney and Bourne’s D.J. Mitchell matched each other pitch for pitch through seven but both left with the game tied at one . . . Hyannis went on to the 2-1 win . . . Penney finished with 10 strikeouts and no walks in seven innings, while Mitchell had 11 strikeouts and no walks in eight innings
• Trevor Holder struck out nine and walked one in seven shutout innings as Y-D beat Orleans 3-0 . . . Matt Wickswat closed the shutout with two perfect innings

TONIGHT

• The two first-place teams play the two last-place teams as Y-D hosts Harwich and Bourne hosts Wareham
• Chatham sends Tom Milone to the hill against Orleans, which sits five points back of the A’s for second place . . . Craig Bennigson goes for the Cardinals
• Hyannis’ Austin Hudson tries to keep up with his rotation-mates as the Mets host Brewster . . . Matt Daly tossed a no-hitter for Hyannis on Wednesday while Stephen Penney allowed a run in seven innings Thursday

It was going to take something special to stop the Chatham A’s hot streak. Ryan Cook, Keith Shinaberry and Lee Land delivered.

The trio combined on a shutout as Brewster stopped Chatham’s five-game winning streak with a 1-0 victory Thursday night at Veterans Field. The win not only ended Chatham’s run, it also kept Brewster on pace. The Whitecaps are now just four points back of the A’s for second place in the East.

The game was scoreless until the seventh inning, with Cook (USC) and Chatham’s Charles Brewer (UCLA) both cruising. But the Whitecaps finally got to Brewer, and it was a college teammate who did most of the damage. Catcher Ryan Babineau, a sophomore at UCLA, hit a sharp single into left-center, then took second when Addison Johnson (Clemson) didn’t pick the ball up cleanly. That little miscue turned into a big one when Ryan Hanlon plated Babineau with a single.

Chatham had its chance in the bottom of the inning. Jeremy Synan (NC St.) singled to start the frame and stole second, even as Brewster pitched out. Sean O’Brien (Virginia Tech) drew a walk, but was forced out at second on a ground ball by Scott Lyons (Mt. San Antonio). Synan moved to third on the play, and Lyons then stole second.

With the go-ahead run in scoring position, Johnson worked deep into the count against Cook, fouling off pitch after pitch. But Cook busted him inside and got a check-swing third strike to end the inning.

The A’s never threatened again, due in large part to Brewster’s bullpen. Shinaberry (Texas) and his submarine motion came up with a 1-2-3 eighth and closer Lee Land (UNC-Greensboro) pitched around a single in the ninth for his eighth save. Charlie Cutler (Cal) made a running catch on a shallow popup in right field for the final out.

Observations:

• Both Cook and Brewer were very impressive. I guess they’d qualify as cross-town rivals in college, with one at USC and one at UCLA. On this night, they pitched like there was something big on the line. Cook ended up on top by working out of the key jam in the seventh, something Brewer couldn’t do. With the seven shutout innings, Cook dropped his ERA from 3.71 to 3.07. Brewer, who’s been one of the best freshman pitchers on the Cape, fell to 1-2, but his ERA will drop to 2.30.
• The top of Brewster’s rotation is looking very good. All-stars Mike Colla and Matt Couch have been great, and Cook really showed off Thursday. One of the more impressive stats for those three are their strikeout-to-walk ratios, which are all above two.
• Yonder Alonso just keeps hitting. Brewster finished with seven hits, I believe, and Alonso had three of them. This was my first time seeing him and he didn’t disappoint.
• I really liked what I saw from Shinaberry out of the pen. He’s 6’4″ but his delivery dips way down, and it certainly worked on this night. I wasn’t keeping track, but I’m thinking he only threw about 10 or 12 pitches in his one inning of work. That fits with his stats. Shinaberry hasn’t walked anybody in 13 innings. His ERA is now 1.93.
• Average-wise, Brewster’s lineup isn’t spectacular, but I like the way it shakes out. Blake Tekotte is the leadoff man, and when he gets on, he’s the best base stealer on the Cape. Tavo Hall bats second, with Alonso in the third spot. Jacob Priday is batting cleanup and though he’s only hitting .225, he’s a power threat. Cutler, who’s an all-star, is also a steady presence.
• I’m not completely sure why, but apparently Chatham reliver Kevin Couture has been added to the all-star roster. Whatever the reason, it’s a well-deserved spot. Couture relieved Brewer Wednesday and kept the Whitecaps from adding any more in the seventh. For the season, Couture, a freshman from USC, has a 1.04 ERA with 21 strikeouts and six walks.
• With his family on hand for the first time this summer, Chatham’s Bryan Shaw (Long Beach) pitched a perfect frame in the top of the ninth.

LAST NIGHT

• Matt Daly tossed a no-hitter for Hyannis. See below.
• Chatham won its fifth straight . . . The A’s are now six points back of first and five ahead of Orleans for second.
• All-star T.J Hose allowed three hits and two runs in six innings as Bourne rallied past Orleans.
• All-star starter Eddie Burns allowed two runs over seven innings as Y-D beat Falmouth
• Cotuit dropped its 12th in a row

TONIGHT

• A good pitching match-up in Orleans as Y-D’s Terry Doyle takes the hill against Michael Schwimer . . . As long as Chatham keeps winning, Y-D needs to keep winning, because they aren’t quite running away with the division anymore
• The A’s will try for their sixth straight win when they host Brewster. Charles Brewer goes for Chatham, while Ryan Cook gets the ball for the Whitecaps
• Harwich will try to snap a three-game losing streak. The good news: the Mariners aren’t playing Chatham. Dan Hudson takes the hill for Harwich against Kyle Weiland.
• From what I’ve read, coaches have been ordered to rest all-star pitchers for Saturday, so we may see some spot starters over the next few days, depending on when people are due up in the rotation.
• Hyannis at Bourne tonight is a scout’s day

Hyannis pitcher Matt Daly threw the first no-hitter of the summer last night as the Mets beat Wareham 4-1.

Daly, a sophomore from Hawaii, struck out eight and allowed just an unearned run.

Daly hadn’t put up great numbers yet this summer. His ERA was 5.46 heading into Wednesday and he didn’t have a win. But on this night, Daly did something special.

Interestingly, Charlie Furbush threw a no-hitter for Hyannis last year on July 26.

Cape Cod Times: Met’s Daly no-hits Wareham

If familiarity breeds contempt, the Harwich Mariners are pretty fed up with the Chatham A’s. Chatham’s probably fine with the arrangement.

Wednesday marked the third consecutive night that Chatham played Harwich, and for the third consecutive night, Chatham beat Harwich. The A’s exploded this time and pounded the Mariners 10-3 at Whitehouse Field.

It was a scheduling quirk created by a rainout that brought the teams together, and it couldn’t have worked out better for the A’s. The three wins over Harwich are part of a five-game winning streak.

Wednesday’s games had the makings of a pitchers’ duel early on, with Harwich’s Josh Zeid (Vanderbilt) and Chatham’s Alex White (North Carolina) matching each other through three scoreless frames. But only White held up his end of the bargain. Chatham got to Zeid in the fourth.

Back-to-back walks gave Chatham a scoring chance, and Zach Putnam (Michigan) delivered, belting a three-run home run into the trees past the left-field fence. Chatham added another run in the fourth on a squeeze bunt. Harwich first baseman Jared Bolden (VCU) nearly made a spectacular play when he charged, fielded the bunt, tagged the runner heading to first and flipped the ball home with his glove. But his flip sailed high and Chatham scored for the 4-0 lead.
Chatham found more offense in the sixth. With the bases loaded, Allan Dykstra (Wake Forest) crushed a grand slam to right field as the A’s blew the game open. Dykstra now has 25 RBI, and has raised his average dramatically in the last week.

With a big cushion, White kept pitching well. He allowed just three hits through five before allowing a walk and a double in the sixth. But with runners on second and third, White got Cole Figueroa (Florida) to ground out, then posted back-to-back strikeouts to finish off six shutout innings. Jeff Lorick (Virginia) relieved White and allowed a run in two innings of work.

Both Harwich and Chatham put a familiar face in an unfamiliar spot in the ninth. Harwich outfielder Alex Avila (Alabama) took the mound and worked a scoreless frame. Chatham catcher Tim Federowicz (North Carolina) pitched the bottom of the ninth and allowed two runs. He struck out two and would have been out of the inning with just one run allowed, but a popup that would have been the third out fell in the infield when nobody called it.

With the victory, Chatham moved to 20-12-3. Harwich dropped to 12-22-1.

A few observations:

• Zeid was consistently hitting 91 with his fastball and getting up to 92 on occasion, but once he started struggling with his control in the fourth, things unraveled. Wednesday’s game was Zeid’s 11th appearance but just his fourth start. He had a 2.14 ERA heading into the game with 27 strikeouts and five walks.
• White was making his second start and was more impressive than he was in the first. He consistently got ahead of hitters and really controlled the game. His fastball was sitting around 88-89, occasionally getting up to 90. If White, a freshman from UNC, can continue to pitch well, he gives Chatham’s rotation a big boost.
• Earlier in the season, Chatham’s bullpen was struggling mightily, and Lorick was in the thick of it. His ERA heading into Wednesday was 7.91 but he looked great in his two innings. From what I can gather, the bullpen has been better of late, a big reason why Chatham is on a roll.
• Chatham’s starting pitching hasn’t been too shabby either. In the five-game winning streak and the tied that preceded it, A’s starters have combined to allow just five earned runs in 35.2 innings. Tom Milone (USC) led the way with his complete-game shutout, Putnam pitched five scoreless innings and White pitched his six shutout frames Wednesday. The only starter who’s allowed more than one run in this stretch is Nathan Moreau (Georgia), who surrendered three earned Tuesday night.
• With some good hitters finally getting hot, Chatham’s lineup is looking more and more fearsome. Addison Johnson (Clemson) in the leadoff spot and Kyle Seager (North Carolina) in the two-hole are both hitting well and getting on base. Behind them, Jermaine Curtis (UCLA) continues his steady play and Dykstra continues to sizzle. Putnam, who’s long been considered a big prospect at Michigan, is starting to put things together as well. The fourth-inning blast was Putnam’s fourth of the season. With Andrew Crisp (South Carolina) hitting .291, Sean O’Brien (Virginia Tech) batting .248 and Scott Lyons (Mt. San Antonio) coming in at .250, the A’s suddenly have a very solid top-to-bottom lineup.
• Curtis is a fun player to watch. When he draws a walk, he runs to first base. In between innings, when he takes the field, he runs full speed and sometimes has Dykstra throw him a tailing popup that he can run under. In a league where the pressure of playing in front of scouts every night can bog players down, it’s nice to see a guy like Curtis just having fun. I think it spreads to the rest of the team.
• This was my first chance to see Figueroa in person, and I thought he looked pretty good. The freshman from Florida is starting the all-star game, and he flashed a good glove at shortstop, making a nice diving stop on a ball up the middle and catching a sharp line drive later that inning.

I’ll have photos from this game up next week.

LAST NIGHT

• The teams with the five best records on the Cape all got victories, putting some distance between themselves and the chase pack
• Y-D pounded out 13 hits and rolled past Hyannis 8-2 . . . Jerry Sullivan pitched six shutout innings
• Chatham won in extras over Harwich on Addison Johnson’s walk-off base hit . . . Johnson was 4-for-5
• Bourne handed Cotuit its 11th consecutive loss
• Kyle Gibson allowed one earned run in six innings as Falmouth topped Wareham to keep pace with Bourne
• Orleans’ Brandon Crawford had his best game on the Cape, going 2-for-3 with three runs and two RBI as Orleans bested Brewster

TONIGHT

• A pair of all-stars take the hill in Bourne as Orleans sends Brad Boxberger to the mound against T.J. Hose
• Chatham plays Harwich for the third straight night, with Alex White getting the call for the A’s and Josh Zeid going for Harwich . . . Chatham has won four straight and is only six points back of Y-D

Yarmouth-Dennis has rolled to a tremendous start this summer, sitting at 22-10-1 heading into Tuesday night’s games. A big part of the success stems from the offense, which is leading the league with a .273 average.

I dug into some of the archives on the Cape league’s web site to get some historical perspective on that number. Looking back through the last decade, the team with the best batting average is typically in the .250’s, occasionally in the .260’s and sometimes dipping into the .240’s. The only team that compares to what Y-D has done so far is the Chatham A’s of 2005, which had the three top average guys in the league. As a team, the A’s hit .274.

Y-D doesn’t have the same kind of presence on the leaderboard, which probably makes the average all the more impressive. Jason Castro’s .341 mark is second in the league, but only Gordon Beckham joins him in the top 10.

For the most part, the Red Sox have done it with balance. Every player but one in their typical every day lineup is hitting above .250. That’s something not a lot of teams can say. Here’s a player-by-player look at what the Sox have done, based on the lineup they put on the field most often (I’m listing four outfielders because there are some platoons there). Also, note the home run totals. Y-D can hit, and hit it far:

C – Buster Posey – .255, 2 HR
1B – Sean Ochinko – .295, 5 HR
2B – Joey Railey – .247, 1 HR
3B – Nich Romero – .248, 0 HR
SS – Gordon Beckham – .315, 8 HR
OF – Matt Long – .226, 0 HR
OF – Collin Cowgill -.301, 2 HR
OF – Johnny Ayers – .259, 0 HR
OF – Aaron Luna – .262, 3 HR

Two guys who always find their way into the lineup, at various spots:

Jason Castro – .341, 2 HR
Grant Green – .259, 3 HR

And some other contributors:

Diego Seastrunk – .308, 0 HR
Luke Stewart – .227, 2 HR
Mike Tamsin – .234, 1 HR

All in all, the Sox seem to hit up and down the lineup, which isn’t something you see every day in the Cape league.

The success speaks largely to the Y-D organization and the talented group of players it has assembled. But there’s also something to be said for luck, for having things work out as well as they could work.

That’s obviously a factor in all of baseball, and in any sport, for that matter. But in the Cape league, the importance of having things go right is a bit more magnified. I think there are a couple of reasons for this:

• The short season. There are a lot of games, yes but they’re squeezed into about eight weeks. So, if a player goes through a two-week slump, that means he’s slumping for one-fourth of the season. Getting every player in your lineup to avoid prolonged slumps can be tough. And if several players hit slumps at the same time, you can get buried quickly.
• The adjustment to wood. It can take awhile, and plenty of good players struggle with it.
• The grind. Players, for the most part, aren’t used to playing games every day of the week.
• The missing pieces. Be it Team USA invites, College World Series trips or injuries, plenty of players who are penciled in on Cape rosters never make it. When the rosters are coming together in the winter, it’s impossible to predict how things will shake out.

All those factors set the stage for teams to struggle, or at the very least, to be inconsistent. Across the board, with those factors as a backdrop, you never know what you’re getting.

For a team to do what Y-D has done, a lot of those factors have to play out the right way. Players have to stay out of slumps, or the team has to have enough depth to fill in when a player does hit a slide. The adjustment to wood has to go smoothly. The grind has to be overcome. Players have to show up.

And all of that is just to be a good team, the team you thought you’d be getting. To be very good — like Y-D, or Bourne, for that matter — things have to swing way into the positive direction, even unto the unexpectedly positive direction.

Who knew Castro would become one of the league’s best hitters after batting in the .100’s this spring for Stanford? Who knew Beckham would turn into the Cape’s premier power hitter? Who knew Cowgill would come off a spring he lost to injury and not miss a beat?

Those surprises are probably the real key, the one thing that separates a good team from a great team.

The Red Sox haven’t earned that label yet. There’s still a lot of baseball to be played. But you can say this: through 33 games, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox — however they do it — have been pretty close to great.