#slskeeters

The Bridgeport Bluefish will be back home tomorrow night after a rough 6 game road trip to Sugar Land. The team's only win during the series came Friday night when the bullpen was able to gain and maintain the lead for a 7-5 victory. Across the 5 losses, the Bluefish were outscored 34-9.

Exactly half of those Sugar Land runs came in the first game of the series, a game the Bluefish lost 17-0. Bluefish GM Ken Shepard doesn't travel with the team, but he felt that loss as much as any team member out at Constellation Field, the Skeeters' 37 million dollar stadium. I was clued into the dramatic loss when I read this on my twitter timeline:

I am embarrassed of the way @BPTBluefish played tonight

— Ken Shepard (@bluefishgm) July 31, 2014

Wow. I immediately pulled out my phone to check the Pointstreak app and see what he was talking about. Sure enough, not only were the Fish blanked, but they were held to only 4 hits. Most of the Skeeters' runs came in an 11-run 6th. Starter Hunter Jones and reliever Kyle McMillen combined to give up 14 of the 17 runs. Ryan Harvey and veteran catcher Luis Rodriguez gave up the bonus three runs to wrap up the game. 

In Game 2, Tomo Ohka followed suit with his last start (L, 3-11) and gave up 6 ER and 3 BB in 6 1/3 innings, a deficit the Bridgeport offense just couldn't overcome. Game 3 was not Matt Iannazzo's worst start, but he managed to get pretty close after giving up 5 ER in 6 1/3 innings. Luckily, the Bluefish lineup stepped up and overcame the deficit 7-5. James Simmons and Casper Wells combined for 6 RBI, including a Simmons homerun (14). Tim Gustafson and closer Winston Abreu closed the game out. 

Saturday's game wasn't lost until the 9th, when Winston Abreu blew the same. Sunday's game was a heartbreaker for starter DJ Mitchell who had a third straight phenomenal outing. He only gave up 2 runs in 7 innings, but it was 2 runs too many. Bridgeport's lineup left 7 men on base with only a 4 hit effort. Ultimately it was another loss, 0-2. Last night's last game of the series played out in an all too familiar form; the Bluefish starter kept the team in the game, but the bullpen couldn't hold off the Skeeters and the Bluefish lineup never stepped up to take the lead. It was the 5th loss in 6 games. 

Dontrelle Willis never threw a pitch in the series; he is done for the season after his 133 pitch outing a week ago. Shepard announced the news on twitter yesterday afternoon. He looked good in his only 2 starts for Bridgeport. I think he proved he was still more than capable of starting for an Atlantic League team. A team official cited family reasons for the decision not to play and placement on the reserved retired list. I guess we'll never know how Willis felt after that 133 pitch outing. 

In the mean time, Sean Burroughs and JR Towles have both been reinstated to the active list. Unfortunately, Burroughs has not seen any game time yet since being activated on July 30th. He's expected to take BP tomorrow. JR Towles served as DH in the last 4 games of the Skeeters series. He went 3-for-14 with 5 SO. No word on Towles catching yet. 

Tonight the Bluefish look to hand the Sugar Land Skeeters the second of two straight losses. On paper, the Fish are the team to do it, but we know what should happen isn't always what does happen. Bridgeport has the offense for it, enough to beat their weaker pitchers. On the other hand, our pitchers will have to be at their best to hold them. They've won 22 out of 26 for a reason. As I write this, the Fish have already allowed the Skeeters to tie that game 1-1 after jumping ahead in the first inning. Bluefish reliever turned starter Keith Bilodeau is facing the Skeeters' Bobby Livingston--a lefty that's 2-0 in his last two starts. Even though Bilodeau is 0-1 in his only 2 starts, this can be a fairly equal match up if he can keep the walks down. 

All the right guys are in the lineup tonight as well, except for Yusuf Carter. The catcher/DH is red hot these days with big hits; he might be able to get some power going if manager Willie Upshaw put him out there more regularly. Tonight veteran Luis Rodriguez is behind the plate and Alexis Gomez is DH. 

Tonight's game is the second in a 6 game series, so the odds are the Fish may very well be the team to beat the Skeeters more than once in a series. And 6 games? Really? I hope I'm not the only one who thinks that is ridiculous. But even more ridiculous was the fact that the Atlantic League put a team out there. All the money spent on travel and lodging could have been better spent on updating the older ballparks in the league and raising that salary cap to make certain ball clubs more appealing to fans and players.