This past week was not a good one for the Clearwater Threshers. On May 14th the team was just one game out of first place and the pitching staff owned the lowest overall ERA in the entire Florida State League. After the next seven games where the team lost all but one, including two games where they gave up 13 runs and 16 runs back-to-back to the first-place Sarasota Reds they are now five games behind the Reds, and the team’s ERA has fallen to sixth in the league.

The week began on an ominous note with the Threshers losing in 10 innings to the last place Ft. Myers Miracle (Twins). Going into the tenth inning tied at 1-1 the Threshers picked up two runs to take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the inning. Brett Harker came in out of the bullpen to close the game since the Threshers ace closer Mike Zagurski had been promoted to Reading two days prior. Though Harker had four saves on the year, the situation seemed alien to him on this night. He walked the first batter, gave up a single, then walked another to load the bases. He then gave up back-to-back singles as the Miracle scored 3 runs to down the Threshers 4-3.

Appearantly still reeling from the loss the night before, the Threshers came out the next game and suffered their worst loss of the year falling 13-1 to the same last-place Miracle team. Dan Brauer who was coming off of a tough outing his last trip to the hill was once again in trouble early this game. Brauer went 3.1 innings in the game giving up nine runs on five hits and seven walks while striking out four. The sad highlight of that game was when first baseman John Urick came on to pitch the final inning giving up no runs, no hits, no walks, and getting one strike out.

Fortunately at that point the team was still just one game out of first place as they returned home for a three-game set against the first place Sarasota Reds looking to get back on track. It quickly became appearant that this would not be the beginning of a turn around for the team. The Reds jumped out to a 13-0 lead pounding starter Andrew Carpenter for ten runs on ten hits in 3.1 innings, then continued to pound reliever Charlie Weatherby for six more runs in his 3.2 innings of work. The Reds picked up five home runs in the game including a grand slam in an eight-run eighth inning. The only pitching highlight of the game was when Eude Brito made a rehab appearance going the final two innings giving up no runs, no hits, no walks with four Ks.

The Threshers dropped the next game 4-3 to the Reds, and in the the final game of the series on Saturday night, the team had their hopes crushed again.

After trailing 4-1 in the ninth inning the Threshers rallied for three runs to send the game to overtime, but three unearned runs later the Reds were on top 7-4, and the Threshers could not rally again falling 7-5 in the end.

Sunday afternoon saw the team once again on the road to face the worst team in the Eastern Conference, the St. Lucie Mets.  Like the five previous games, the Threshers could not get things going as they fell 5-3 in the game.

On Monday night the team did finally manage to snap their skid picking up a win, and hopefully getting a winning streak going. The Clearwater Threshers went up early on the Mets with an offensive explosion for five runs in the second inning, but the Mets kept things within striking distance getting offensive production themselves.

Charlie Weatherby got his first start of the year in the game, but lasted only three innings in the effort giving up four runs on five hits with three walks and two Ks. Cory Willey relieved Weatherby serving 2.2 solid innings until giving up back-to-back home runs. Wil Savage added 1.1 scoreless innings, and Eude Brito threw one scoreless inning turning the ball over to Brett Harker for the final frame and the save.

For the offense five Threshers’ players got multiple hits including Pete Shier with a 2 RBI home run, and John Urick with a triple and 3 RBIs in the game. Lou Marson had a double and an RBI, Greg Golson had two hits and an RBI as well with Jeremy Slayden adding two hits and scoring twice.

WHO’S HOT:
Lou Marson had a hot week hitting .429 in six games and now has the teams second best batting average (.297) trailing only Jeremy Slayden.

Greg Golson hit .355 this last week and along with Jeremy Slayden has played in every game for the team this year. Golson leads the team in steals (13 in 16 attempts), is second in runs (28), and third in batting average (.286).

Jeremy Slayden has played in all 44 games for the team and continues to swing a hot bat leading the team in average (.321), slugging percentage(.513), on-base percentage (.433) RBIs (34), Runs (30) walks (34BB/35Ks) and home runs (6). However he has cooled off over the last week hitting just .240, but so has most everyone on the team.

WHO’S NOT:
Brad Harman has nearly fallen off the map this season as he has struggled all year. This past week he went just 2-17 (.118) at the plate scoring once and walking twice. Currently he is just above the Medoza Line with a .214 batting average on the year.

Welinson Baez was in the same boat as Harman. He went 5-26 (.192) at the plate but did have two doubles, two runs, and one RBI though he had four errors in one game on Sunday as the Threshers lost to the Mets.

Other News:  Though it was touched on in a seperate article on this site I need to mention in case you missed it; Carlos Carrasco went on the DL with a “mild groin strain.”  He pitched to just three batters last Wednesday and left the game giving up a run on two hits.  He missed his next start, and last word was that he would miss just that one start.  His next turn in the rotation would be this coming Friday, so keep your eye out to see if he makes that start.

For daily Threshers recaps visit Jeff Crupper’s Clearwater Threshers Blog.