Catcher’s Blog

I’ve taken down the Theme Switcher for a few days to work on another theme for the site, replacing one of the other ones that was previously on here. I’ll add it back to the sidebar as soon as I’m finished with the new theme.

I’m actually writing this post the previous night before the first game of the series with the Reds since it’s my day to sleep in, but I did want to get a post in at least since I wasn’t able to post today. Maybe I shouldn’t make a post, though, because they actually figured out how to win again. Good thing that I’m not superstitious.

Let’s hope with Teixshy’s big offensive surge yesterday he can start to finally heat up like we’ve all hoped for him to do. We actually beat Volquez before at home and with Glavine going against him, our odds are pretty good. Let’s hope this series is a lot better than the last one in Milwaukee. How about we keep the one-run losses to a bare minimum now and end this roadtrip on a good note? Sounds good to me.

We really need to figure out what we’re doing on the road, because whatever it is, we need to remedy it now. You can’t stay in the race with the road woes we currently and continue to have. It’s obvious Bobby didn’t want to send anyone but Huddy out last night in the late innings, but of course, the Brewers found some way to overcome our lowly two runs. It’s going to catch up with us sooner or later in the season. I hope we find out a way to overcome these road woes or we might as well kiss October goodbye for the third straight year. You can’t win the division playing this badly on every single road trip. It just won’t happen. Let’s hope with Oh-no, Jo-Jo pitching tonight that we can pull out a win.

With that, I give you a video in honor of our road woes:

The title is kind of dumb, but whatever works. I’m making this post short because I have a test in my next class. I need to study and work on the chapter work as well.

Today Huddy takes the mound against Dave Bush. On paper this should be a good game, but with this team on the road, you can never tell what team is actually going to show up. Let’s make this roadtrip a good one and turn our luck on the road around.

Last night was not a very good outing by Jo-Jo, which further seems to prove he needs more time in the minors… or something. Not only did we have terrible pitching, our offense only had six hits and left six men on base, which is why we only scored one run. I think after the first inning everyone could have gone home because it was fairly pointless to keep playing, but I don’t make the rules.

Hopefully, today will be a lot better, but we are facing Randy Johnson, even if he does currently have a 4.42 ERA. Jorge Campillo did blow the Mets away for the most part, so maybe he can do the same against the D-backs’ offense. Even after this blowout loss, we are still in second place because the rest of the NL lost as well, with the Nats being the exception, of all teams. Let’s hope we fair a lot better today and can pull out a win.

Some notes I’m not going to link to because they’re all on the official site or here:

- Smoltz is making his first rehab start today for AA Mississippi. He’ll either pitch one or two innings depending on his pitch count.

- Pena was activated from the DL and promptly DFA’d. He’ll either be traded, released, or put on waivers after ten days. Should he clear waivers, though I doubt he would, he will go back to the minors. Now Escobar will be lost and sad without his running partner.

Pena was widely popular in the clubhouse. Shortstop Yunel Escobar, his close friend since their childhood in Havana, appeared deeply saddened by the news, staring straight into his locker for an extended period after talking to Pena.

Escobar just shook his head to a reporter when asked about losing Pena.

- Soriano had an inning of shutout ball with one strikeout in his second rehab appearance for Mississippi with his fastball coming in at 93 mph.

- Gonzo is a week away from his T.J. surgey anniversary and will be evaluted this week, after which he should begin a rehab assignment.