Newark Bears ~ Trying To Claw Their Way Back Above .500

From the desk of:  THE BRICK CITY NINE



NEWARK BEARS:  Even Series With Quebec; Game Three Tonight.


The Bears have played the Quebec Capitales well this season.  And they continued Friday night with a win against Quebec in game two of a four game series up in the Great White North.


After getting shut-out 4-0 Thursday night in the series opener, it took eleven innings to gain victory Friday.  Three runs in the top of the frame sealed the deal for visiting Newark and spoiled things for the home crowd.  Sacre Bleu!  The game was a step in the right direction against a good team, as the Bears are struggling to get above .500 again.  They are currently two games under the mark and perhaps they can get things going in a more positive direction during the rest of this trip in Canada.


I guess you can say; Bears' starter; Alex Smith did it again.  He walked a bunch of batters; which is his custom; but yet, was relatively effective over 5.2 innings.  Quebec scored one time in the second inning.  The Bears staked Alex Smith to a 3-1 lead after five innings on RBI singles by Brad Jackson and Brandon Watson.  Then Alex got into trouble in the bottom of the sixth and surrendered the tying runs.


Newarks' bullpen was stellar and kept the Capitales scoreless in relief of Smith until Quebec scored one time in the bottom of the 11th inning.  Anthony Pluta; TJ Hose; and Matt Fitton; combined on four innings; no runs; two hits; 2 walks; and five strikeouts.  Newly signed Gregory Lane finished the game for Newark.  He allowed Quebec one run, but was credited with the win.


Back-to-back doubles by Brandon Watson and Paddy Matera drove home all three Newark runs in the top of the 11th inning to get the Bears on the winning side.

TONIGHT

Canadian/American League of Baseball

GAME THREE of FOUR

NEWARK BEARS (1-1)

vs.

Quebec Capitales (1-1)

From

North of the Border, Canada

 

MIKE.BTB

Newark Bears ~ Roaring Back

From the desk of:  THE BRICK CITY NINE





NEWARK BEARS:   GM is Smarter Than The Average Bear.  Changes Translate on the Field.  Two Straight Wins Earns Split With Pittsfield.


It looks like a week of roster changes begot their desired effects.  Bears' GM Mike Torrez spent the early part of this week shaking up the personnel on his team.  The moves paid off towards the end of the week as the Bears won their last two games; including tonight's game at The Den.  With these last two victories, they did well to salvage a split of their four game series against the Pittsfield Colonials after losing six games in a row.


Starting pitcher; Eric Eden didn't pitch past the fifth inning, but he did keep Pittsfield off the scoreboard.  He allowed five hits; no runs; two walks; and struck out three.  But as is becoming custom, Coach Raines looked to his bullpen to pitch the final four innings of the game.


The Bears opened the scoring in the second inning with an unearned run.  Tim Raines Jr. drove in the Bears' second run of the game in the third inning with a single, scoring Ryan Walsh who led off the inning with a base hit.  Pat Biserta led-off the fourth with a double and scored on an error by  Pittsfield's catcher on a sacrifice attempt.


With the game turned over to the bullpen, Newark's Chris Rollins; relieving Eric Eden; promptly allowed Pittsfield two runs in the sixth, but did finish out the inning.  Newark picked up their pitcher with three more runs in the bottom of the inning.


Pat Biserta reached on an E-5.  Billy Alvino's attempted sacrifice resulted in yet another error (E-1).  He reached first and Biserta reached third.  Biserta scored on Eric McGee's single.  A Brandon Watson sac-fly scored Alvino.  And Juan Martinez doubled home McGee for a 6-2 Bears lead.


Newark tacked on two more runs in the eighth inning when Juan Martinez bopped a two run home run; scoring Brandon Watson.


TJ Hose kept Pittsfield quiet over the seventh and eighth innings.  He allowed no hits and struck out one.  Then Coach Raines called on Anthony Pluta to pitch the ninth inning for Newark.  He allowed a lead-off single and got the second batter on a fly to left.  Pluta got out number two via the swinging strikeout but walked the next for a first and third situation (lead runner advanced previously - WP).  Finally, out number three came on a grounder to second base.


Final score:  Bears 8;  Colonials 2


Since hitting the frightful .500 mark, two consecutive wins gives the Bears a somewhat more eye-pleasing 18-16 record.  They are now tied again with Pittsfield for fourth place overall in the first half CanAm standings.


The Bears will spend the Fourth of July Weekend in N.Y. playing the Rockland Boulders.  Three games in their place will be capped off with a fourth game back in Newark.





Mike.BTB

Newark Bears ~ Whoa Canada

From the desk of:  THE BRICK CITY NINE



NEWARK BEARS:  CanAm League's Top Team Sweeps the Brick City Nine in Forgettable First Trip to Canada.


Last week's CanAm LHP of the Week; Alex Smith of the Bears; couldn't corral the Capitales earlier this afternoon in Quebec.  As a result, Newark lost to the Capitales completing a three game sweep on their Northern road. 


Hoping to go into Canada and close the gap between them and the CanAm League's top club, the Bears wound up losing three more games in the standings and today remain tied for third place with the Pittsfield Colonials.  Both teams have identical 16-14 records; 7.5 games out of first.  New Jersey is solidly in second place.


Poor defense in the first inning dropped the Bears and Alex Smith into an early hole.  Two unearned runs were part of a 3-0 start for Quebec.  On the other side, one of Quebec's many quality starters; Matthew Rusch; took his turn on the mound and started out well before Newark caught up to him also.  And after six innings, both teams were tied at five apiece.

With the game turned over to the bullpens, Newark's T.J. Hose was charged with pitching the eighth inning.  Two singles and a double later, the Bears were trailing by a run again.


T.J. Stanton pitched the ninth inning for Quebec and retired the Bears in order to gain the Save.  Dexter Bobo pitched the eighth inning for the Capitales and was the game's winning pitcher.



BEAR CLAWS:
Daryle Ward ~ 1 for 4; Home Run; 2 RBI.
Danny Santiesteban ~ 2 for 4; Home Run; 2 RBI.



The Bears get a day off Monday to travel back home to The Den where they'll host the Pittsfield Colonials for a four game series starting Tuesday.




Independent League NEWS:

ATLANTIC LEAGUE ~ During the bottom of the fourth inning in a game between the Lancaster Barnstormers and the Somerset Patriots, Lancaster manager; Butch Hobson; argued over a play at first base with the first base umpire .

A heated Butch Hobson then gestured as if to throw the Umpire out of the game.  Well, that bought Hobson an ejection.  Coach Hobson then repeated the gesture throwing the Umpire out of the game again.  He then removed the first base bag out of the ground and took it with him to the dugout, where he retrieved a Sharpie; signed the bag; and gave it to a young fan in the first row.  The home crowd went wild as the game continued without a first base bag.



Mike.BTB

Newark Bears ~ Bears Take Back Second Place

From the desk of:  GROWLINGS FROM BROOKLYN



NEWAR BEARS:  Split Four Game Series With Worcester.

See Game One and Game Two; HERE


GAME THREE FINAL:  Worcester 4;  Newark 2.
After a rain delay and getting shut-out for eight innings, the Bears finally mustered some offense against Worcester in the ninth inning.  But they fell half-way short of a comeback last night losing 4-2 in game three of the four game series against the Tornadoes.  The loss dipped the Bears percentage points behind Brockton for second place overall in the League.


Newark starter; Jesse Estrada; took another tough loss.  He falls to 1-3 on the season as he lasted 4.2 innings and gave up three of Worcester's runs.  TJ Hose and Kyle Morrison pitched 4.2 innings in relief and allowed one more run to the Tornadoes. 


TJ Hose actually had himself a rather stellar appearance.  He pitched 2.2 innings; gave up no hits and struck out five.


Tim Raines Jr. has seen his batting average rise from .348 to .371 recently.  He went 2 for 3 in this game with a run scored.  Danny Santiesteban carried a big stick with a 3 for 4 night and 2 RBI.



GAME FOUR; SERIES FINAL:  Newark 8;  Worcester 7.
The Bears grabbed the last game of this four game series to earn a split with the Worcester Tornadoes.
Each team took turns pelting each other with four runs in the first inning.  Worcester picked up three more runs in the second inning to make it a 7-4 game.  The Bears clawed their way back with a run in the third and fourth innings.  Then in the fifth, they scored two more to take an 8-7 lead.


That's when Coach Tim Raines Sr.'s bullpen, the backbone of this team, stepped up yet again in support of the starting pitching; which frankly, wasn't very good on either team's part late this afternoon.


Newark's starter; Casey Gaynor; picked up his first win, in his first start, in his first game of 2011 in spite of giving up 8 hits and 7 runs (all earned) over his 5 innings pitched. 


In relief, the bullpen shined again while protecting the Bears' lead.  Matt Fitton was first.  He pitched two innings; allowed one walk; a hit; and struck out one.  Chris Rollins and his season 0.84 ERA were called upon to pitch the eighth inning.  He struck out two batters for his part with no hits or walks allowed.  Mikey Mehlich was then summoned to close out the game for Newark.  After plunking the lead-off batter, Mikey retired the next three in order to earn his 5th Save of the season.  His ERA is a microscopic 0.75 now.


Brandon Watson, now batting .336 this season, had an outstanding day at the plate batting lead-off, -going 5 for 5 with 2 runs scored. 


Daryle Ward; 2 for 3; with two RBI, climbed to a .378 batting average.


Todd Gossage hit a solo home run in the third inning.  Burt Reynolds homered in the fifth inning.


Billy Alvino; Daryle Ward; and Burt Reynolds all had 2 RBI each.



SEASON RECORD/ OVERALL LEAGUE STANDINGS:

Entering Thursday's Games:
1st - 20-6 - Quebec Capitales
2nd - 15-10 - Brockton Rox
3rd - 16-11 - NEWARK BEARS
4th - 16-11 - New Jersey Jackals


After Thursday Finals:
1st - 21-6 - Quebec Capitales
2nd - 17-11- NEWARK BEARS - 4.5 games back
3rd - 17-11 - New Jersey Jackals
4th - 15-11 - Brockton Rox  -  After two and one half hour rain delay, Rox lose 1st game of DH.  2nd game to start by 11pm Thursday.  League Rules prohibit an inning starting past midnight.  Brockton and the Rockland Boulders will have roughly one hour to play game two.

***Game Two; Brockton/Rockland - Cancelled curfew.



Quebec; Newark; and New jersey all won tonight.  And you can see, a little pack has formed for second place overall.  Brockton and Newark have been battling for position all season.  Now New Jersey; winners of their last four in a row; have joined the party after getting off to a slow start this season.



NEWS:  In the Rockland Boulder's home park, Brockton Rox manager; Bill Buckner; and a few Brockton players got into a heated exchange with the game's umpiring crew as they were all leaving the field after the game.  The incident occurred in full view of  a number of remaining fans on Rockland's park concourse (designed to be fan/player interactive).  Cooler heads prevailed and the night ended without further incident, although the League announced they will look into the matter.




Mike.BTB

NEWARK BEARS ~ Making Most of First Trip To Brockton

From the desk of:  GROWLINGS FROM BROOKLYN

NEWARK BEARS:  Brick City ROX Brockton...Again!

Jesse Estrada and Brockton's Robert Bono engaged in an old fashioned pitcher's duel.  Through five innings, the Brockton Rox only managed three hits off Jesse Estrada.  But against Brockton's Robert Bono, the Bears mustered none.


Robert Bono retired the first fifteen Bears to take a turn at-bat before the perfect game was ruined in the sixth inning as the Rox committed a two base error.  That led to Newark's first run of the evening when Paddy Matera not only broke up the no-hitter, but he singled home somebody (Watson?) to break up the scoreless deadlock.  I'll be honest, I lost track of the Bears in the field also.


What happened?


Tim Raines made a multitude of changes throughout the course of this game which drove the Brockton announcer up a wall.  I guess his score sheet was getting a little messy as a result.  On manager Tim Raines' many moves during the game, the Brockton announcer had this to say, ".....He's trying to prove some ludicrous point that I don't even know what it is."  "Very odd..(and).. More than anything, frustrating." 


Admittedly, there was confusion over Todd Gossage, Raines Jr, Jeff Toth, Brandon Watson, and Burt Reynolds, as to whether they were in the game or what position they were playing.  So yes, there was a small point to be made.


I'm not dropping names.  That's not what I want to do.  But I'm sorry, this man still needs to get over himself.  This is the third time I've had the privilege of listening to this announcer call a game; twice during this series, and initially when he wasn't even calling a game between Brockton and Newark.  But in the case I mentioned above, he had nary a good word to say while killing time between games of a double header between Brockton and Quebec.  And over all three occasions, he's done nothing but criticize the Bears in my limited samplings of his work.


In the home seventh, Brockton's Ryan Royster homered off Jesse Estrada to tie the score at one apiece.  Brockton's Robert Bono's day was finished after pitching seven innings.  Bono only gave up two hits and one unearned run.  He walked one and struck out six.  The Rox brought in Jake Hale to relieve Bono.


Newark's Jesse Estrada's day was also done after pitching seven full innings.

Jesse Estrada's Line:
7 ~ innings pitched.
6 ~ hits.
1 ~ runs/earned.
2 ~ walks.
5 ~ strikeouts.
1 ~ home run allowed.
no decision tonight.

TJ Hose came on in relief for Newark. 


Both teams traded zeroes in the eighth inning with their respective bullpens.  For the ninth inning, Brockton summoned Travis Hughes in to pitch.  Raines singled; Ward drew a walk.  Raines advanced to third base when Santiesteban bounced into a FC.  Then Ward advanced to second base on a passed ball.  Alvino was intentionally walked to load the bases.  But the threat went for not.  Brockton escaped without Newark scoring.


In the home ninth inning, Brockton faced TJ Hose in his second inning in relief.  With one out, The Rox' Ryan Royster launched a ball deep to left center...that was caught short of the wall for long out number two.  After surrendering a walk, TJ Hose got the next batter to pop up to send the game into extra innings.


With Brockton summoning their fourth pitcher, the Bears got the lead-off  batter on base in the tenth.  A Sac/FC advanced Paddy Matera to second.  With two outs now, the Rox intentionally walked the switch-hitting Raines Jr. to face Daryle Ward.  But Ward never had a chance to swing.  Raines got picked off first base to end the inning.  Their second consecutive chance with a runner in scoring position had past.


Coach Raines took out TJ Hose after two innings and inserted Chris Rollins for the bottom of the tenth.  He took care of Brockton's first two batters before Chris Valencia doubled.  The Bears elected to intentionally walk the next batter.  With two outs and runners on first and second, Chris Grossman was hit by a pitch on a 3-0 pitch to load the bases.  Shawn Williams came up for Brockton after a Tim Raines visit to the mound.  Williams grounded to Raines Jr. at second who stepped on the bag for the force play. 


Brockton manager Bill Buckner called upon his fifth pitcher for the eleventh.  Tim Raines stuck with Rollins to finish the Brockton half of the inning.  They traded another pair of zeroes and on to the twelfth frame we'd go.


Todd Gossage; the still struggling Todd Gossage; son of Rich "Goose" Gossage, with one out in the twelfth frame launched a home run off Brockton's Colin Lynch to put the Bears ahead.


(What?  What?  Did I hear my favorite announcer complimenting the Bears bullpen tonight?  Yes I did!  How about that.)


The top of Brockton's batting order was due up in the bottom of the twelfth inning.  They'd take their last licks against Newark's Mikey Mehlich.  Brockton's Mike Torres hit a one out triple.  With the infield in, Tim Raines Jr. fielded a grounder, held the runner at third and threw to first for the out.  The Bears elected to intentionally walk the next batter.  And up came Chris Grossman who made the final out of the game.


Tonight's Bears winning pitcher is Chris Rollins.  Mikey Mehlich is credited with his fourth save of the season.  The Bears bullpen was indeed stellar tonight.


Newark Bullpen Line:
5 ~ innings pitched.
2 ~ hits.
0 ~ runs.
2 ~ walks.
3 ~ strikeouts.


And so, the Bears ensured themselves they'd win this series against the Brockton Rox.  Tomorrow will be the third and final game of the series before the Bears move on to Worcester.

And to my new favorite Brockton Rox web caster, keep it up!  I never realized how much fun beating up on the rest of you rambunctious CanAm Leaguers can be until listening to you.  How ya like the Bears now?

Newark Bears lead series 2-1

GAME THREE vs. BROCKTON ROX 

TOMORROW

Sunday, June 12, 2011

From Brockton

Mike.BTB

NEWARK BEARS ~ Win First Game in a Romp

From the desk of:  Growling in Brooklyn


NEWARK BEARS:  Win Their First Ever Game In CanAm League and Avoid Sweep by Rockland.

FINAL SCORE:
Rockland Boulders  4
NEWARK BEARS  16


After dropping the first two games of the season, the Newark Bears roared back at their competition Saturday night.  They finally won their first game of the season and also avoided a sweep at the hands of the Rockland Boulders.  Rockland only rolled out three pitchers against Newark and the Bears clawed them all.

Newark pounded out 18 hits and plated 16 runs tonight in a romp over the Boulders at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium.  Tim Raines Jr. had a break-out game as well with his first three hits of the season.  In going 3 for 5 tonight, he drove in 6 RBI.  Todd Gossage also chipped in with 3 more RBI.  The two combined for 9 RBI and 4 runs scored.

Other notable swings - Lead-off batter Brandon Watson set the table with a 4 for 6 day; an RBI and 2 runs scored.  Catcher Billy Alvino went 3 for 3; two runs scored and an RBI.  And first baseman Brian Nichols went 3 for 5 batting clean-up today with two runs scored.

Ryan Lobban was the starting pitcher for Newark tonight, hurling five innings and is credited with the win.  He gave up four hits and surrendered three runs all coming in the fifth, while walking two and striking out two.  By then the Bears were leading 9-3 and the bullpen took care of the rest. 

TJ Hose relieved Lobban with two innings pitched.  He gave up two hits, allowed a run and struck out two.  Andrew Pluta pitched the final two innings to seal the deal for Newark.  He allowed only one hit and struck out two, including the last batter of the game in a non-save situation.




NEXT GAME:

The Newark Bears face their officially declared rival; the New Jersey Jackals for the first time since being newly minted foes.  The first game of a home-and-home series is in Newark Sunday with a start time of 1:05pm.  Both teams head to the home of the Jackals for the second game on Monday.




Mike.BTB