Lakewood Game Report

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NYPhilsmaniac19 was out at the Lakewood Game Wednesday evening and filed this report:
Pitching:
Ethan Stewart went the full 7  innings and looked decent.  The radar gun wasn’t on for the first inning or  two but the fastest pitch I saw was 87.  Hard to tell what he was throwing  from the angle I had (well up the 1B line), but he mostly had them off-balance  except for one inning (the 4th).
Inning 1:  He set them down with ease  (two groundouts and a K of Mr. Dyskstra).
Inning 2:  After an infield Pop-up, the #5  hitter ripped a shot down the 3rd base line that Maikel Franco made an  excellent backhand stab of (more on Franco’s def later).  Franco was  able to set himself while going away from 1B and still make a strong throw to  get the hitter.  The last batter skied one to CF for an easy  out.
Inning 3:  Easy 4-3 groundout, broken bat  single over SS, pop-out to SS, and then a long fly to CF that Eldemire  caught on the track.
Inning 4: (this was his only bad inning):  The  first batter hit a ground ball to Frano who bobbled and then made a wild  throw.  The official scorer called it a single and then an E on the throw  allowing the runner to take 2nd.  In my opinion, it was clearly 2  errors.  If Franco, had fielded it cleanly and made a good throw, it would  have been an out.  The next batter a lefty named Skole went the other way  beautifully and hit one off the LF wall for a double.  After a hard ground  single between short and third, a deep sac fly to center brought in  the second run.  During the next at-bat, the runner broke early and Stewart  saw him just in time and threw to 1st.  A long rundown ensued and the  runner was eventually tagged out.   Interestingly enough, this was the  2nd runner that he picked off in the same fashion, but the first one beat the  relay throw from Dugan to 2B.  Stewart struck out the next batter to  end the inning.  If Franco had been given an error on the fielding play, it  would have only been 1 earned run.
Inning 5:  Three outs on balls in the OF- one  was a line shot right at Pointer in LF.
Inning 6:  Stewart struck out Dykstra again,  and worked around a walk.  Altherr almost made a great catch on a foul ball  and ran into the side fence but was fine.  The ball bounced in and out of  his glove.  He caught a fly ball awkardly later to record the third out but  looked a little shaky on it.
Inning 7:  Another 1-2-3 inning with nothing  leaving the infield.
All-in-all a very solid outing.  He had a sub-  1.00 WHIP and managed to strikeout 4 batters to go with 2 walks.  There  were a few hard hit balls but most weren’t drilled too well.  He certainly  didn’t get any help from the offense. Being that he is lefty, I see  potential.
OFFENSE/DEFENSE
Eldemire went 0-3 with a chopper that  he almost beat out, a lazy pop to RF and he reached on an error that his speed  may have helped contribute to.  After he reached base, he took off to  steal, then put on the brakes, but didn’t get back quickly enough and he was  picked off at 1B by the catcher.  He did this one other time but the  catcher didn’t throw over.   In the field, he looked smooth but didn’t  have any tough chances.

Pointer looked pretty lost.   First AB, he did hit a good shot foul that he was out in front of.  He  K’d swinging twice (curves in the dirt that he missed by a wide margin), and  went down looking once.  He looked fine in LF, but again didn’t have any  tough chances.  I have a feeling he may be headed to W’port in a few weeks  (just a guess).
Dugan doesn’t look overly  comfortable at 1B.  He did hit a line single to RF but otherwise did not  do anything at the plate.
Franco hit a hard groundout  his first two times up, but his last at bat (in the last inning), he hit a weak  grounder to 2B and didn’t hustle to first.  The 2B bobbled the ball for a  bit but still threw him out.   Had he ran all out, he would have been  safe.  The fans (what few there were) let him have it a bit.  The next  two batters walked so it could have made a difference in the  game.
Altherr was overmatched by a high  fastball his 1st time up and K’d swinging.  His second AB he hit a ball  well the other way but the RF caught it near the track.  He walked in the  last inning but got left on 2nd.
In other notes, Harold  Martinez grounded out twice (but really hustled down the line) and  walked in the last inning.  He DH’d so I didn’t get to see him in the  field.  Stephen Malcolm played a very nice SS and had our  only extra base hit.  Kyrell Hudson did not  play.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for the 2nd game,  but I see that Pointer went yard and Eldemire/Dugan had extra-base  hits.

5 thoughts on “Lakewood Game Report”

  1. you should of stayed, pointer hit a bomb that is still going as we speak, he is only 20 yrs old and leads the team with 6 home runs and probably leading in rbi’s as well with some stolen bases.

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  2. Greg: Did you get enough to form an opinion on Franco’s coverage in the field. I’ve read that he is limited and then some I’ve read say he has all the tools for a 3Bman in MLB. Course if he doesn’t hustle down the line it won’t matter.

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  3. He moved well to his right to make the backhander on the play down the line. It was a hot shot and he scooped it up nicely with the backhand. Didn’t see him have any plays where he had to go to his left.

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