The obvious story of last night’s Threshers vs Manatees game was Jesse Biddle and his 7 no-hit innings.  He was absolutely dominant.  I have seen many minor league games over the years and it was amongst the best pitching performances I’ve seen (2 others that come to mind are Lisalberto Bonilla’s great game for Lakewood last year, and Ben Rivera’s 7-inning no hitter for Scranton many years ago).  It was obvious right off the bat that we were in for a special night after Jesse struck out the side with ease in the first inning (looking- fastball, looking- curve, swinging- fastball).  The second inning went quickly with a weak fly, weak grounder to third and a K looking on a filthy curve.  Inning 3…more of the same 2 K’s on sweet curves (one looking, one swinging) although one hitter did hit a screaming lineout right at Lavin in LF.  The 4th inning was his “toughest” inning- The first Batter hit a 3-1 pitch and  lined to Lavin in LF but he caught it just short of the track, 2nd batter grounded very hard to 1st, third batter drew a walk (after Biddle was ahead 1-2, he threw a low curve, then a high fastball, then was way high and outside with ball four).  Biddle bounced a curve that went to the backstop which allowed the runner to advance to 2nd, but the batter flew out to deep CF to end the “threat.”  Inning 5 was a 6-3 (nice play in the hole by Duran), an error by Duran on a pretty routine grounder, a K looking- another beauty of a curve, and a K swinging (half-hearted swing that the hitter couldn’t hold up on).  Inning 6 went quickly with a 1-3 comebacker (broken bat), and 2 K’s (looking- curve, half swing at 3-2 fastball).  The 7th and final inning was another easy one with a weak liner to left and two more K’s (swinging- low fastball and swinging- crazy curve in the dirt).  Biddle was so locked in that as soon as Rupp threw the ball back, he was on the rubber ready to throw.  It was like he couldn’t wait to make his next pitch.  He  had the ball on a string all night.  There was no radar gun so I don’t know how hard he was throwing, but the opposing hitters had trouble keeping up with the fastball and were mesmerized by the curve. Continue reading Clearwater Game Report →