Brian Mazone went to South Korea. Matt Childers and J.A. Happ went to the DL. Zach Segovia, despite generally pitching consistently,(one bad outing), could manage only one win in May. The bullpen were up and down as Manager John Russell scrambled to find replacement starters. Rick Bauer continued to get hit hard almost every time out. Brian Sanches picked up three more saves. Happ was largely ineffective in May and his elbow injury was the likely cause of his struggles. J. D. Durbin was lights out or lit up. The staff either gave up lots of runs or hardly any, no happy medium which, of course, showed a glaring lack of consistency.

At the end of May Ottawa ranked thirteenth in ERA after ranking twelfth in April, (4.44-3.96). The Lynx allowed 71 earned runs in April, 141 in May, and 87 runs in April, 146 runs in May. Ottawa ranks sixth in earned runs and fifth in runs. The staff had given up the third worst total of home runs by the end of May, (45), were eighth in saves with 16 and had one complete game. They had ten holds in April and nine in May. They fell from second worst to dead last in WHIP by months end, (1.45-1.50), allowing 301 hits 268 innings along with 107 walks in May. Lynx pitchers struck out 209 batters.

May looked suspiciously like April which allowing for the absence of Mazone and Childers and the ineffectiveness of Happ wasn’t all that terrible but the staff is going to have to step it up the remainder of the season if Ottawa is going to contend for the North Division title. Manager John Russell is going to have to find some starting pitching for the month of June from somewhere. There were too many games in which Ottawa were blown out early which puts a great strain on the bullpen which builds and builds over the course of the season. Russell has also been forced to use relievers in unfamiliar or uncomfortable roles further taxing the pen and leading to the game getting out of reach early on. There are simply too many Lynx pitchers with very high ERAs.

Zach Segovia, J.A. Happ and J.D. Durbin had the most starts in May with six each. Segovia went 1-2 with a 4.26 ERA. Happ was 01- with a 5.65 ERA and Durbin was 2-4 with an ERA of 5.35. Happ of course, was suffering from the beginnings of a sore elbow shortly before going on the DL, Segovia had four solid starts and one poor and one okay start and went at least six inning in all but one, (in that one he went 5.2). Durbin as mentioned in the opening, was either lights out or completely ineffective. All three had very high WHIP averages in May, (1.58-1.67,1.58), and gave up more hits than innings pitched. They were simply wildly inconsistent. Happ and Segovia had been much more effective in April although they were 1-4 between them. Their WHIP in April were a solid 1.23 and 1.05. Each gave up less than one hit per inning in April. Durbin had only one start in April and lost that one in an outing of only 4.2 innings. Jason Anderson and Bauer each started two games in May, (Anderson also appeared in three games in relief, Bauer in eight), but were hit hard in both starts. Matt Childers made three starts before injuring his knee and was 2-0 with a 3.94 ERA and with a WHIP of 1.50, very close to what he had done in April, (2-1 3.00 1.29). Childers was on a hot streak before his knee problems. Heath Totten, (1-2), had one good game and two poor outings before being sent back to Reading and relievers Eude Brito, (0-1), and Bubba Nelson, (0-1), were ineffective in their one start.

The Lynx bullpen was either very good or very bad in the month of May and they were generally bad in the middle innings. The later inning relievers, Brian Sanches, Kane Davis, Matt Smith, and John Ennis were very effective and at times spectacular. Sanches picked up six saves in six chances in May and had an ERA of 1.93 in eleven games and had an excellent WHIP of 1.00. He also struck out twenty two batters in only fourteen innings. This was a big improvement over April in which, although he had been 3-3 in saves, his ERA was 9.31 and his WHIP was 1.66. Kane Davis had been ineffective in April but turned in a 1-0 record with a 1.32 ERA and two saves in May. He was also a big strikeout pitcher with twenty one in his 13.2 innings. His April WHIP was 1.76 but only 1.32 in May. His April ERA was 4.76. Matt Smith had pitched only 0.1 innings in April but threw eleven in May going 2-0 with an ERA of 1.64 and picked up one save in two chances. His WHIP was a very good 1.18 for the month. John Ennis appeared in eight games, went 2-0 and gave up no runs in 13.1 innings. His WHIP was an excellent 1.07.

Now for the not so pretty Lynx bullpen numbers in May. Rick Bauer had a combined ERA of 10.02, a WHIP of 2.03 and opponents hit .341 against him. Joe Bisenius had an ERA of 6.59. Anderson Garcia was 6.75. Jason Anderson had a combined ERA of 5.73. The other May numbers look just as ugly for these relievers and need to get much better if Ottawa is going to jump into the pennant race in 2007. Obviously, the pitching has been very solid-or very bad. In May, Ottawa had four games in which they gave up ten or more runs and four others in which they allowed at least seven.

Manager Russell summed it up succinctly saying, “We have to get better outings from the pitching staff. We can’t use injuries and guys in unfamiliar roles as excuses.”