Written by Greg Fertel | 05 April 2007

The air force wasn't looking too great after the national anthem. The players stood in formation waiting for the fly over for about five minutes. It was a C-135, so it we just say there as this little dot in the sky slowly approached, and sailed quietly over our heads. Bottom 2nd Chase Wright looked good through the first two innings. He seems to be experimenting with a couple of breaking balls, but he's throwing 90% fastballs. He only tossed three changeups by my count so far, but got one very embarassing swing out of one. He's struck out three, and has allowed only one texas leaguer. On offense, Brett Gardner almost legged out an easy ground ball ot 2nd. The second baseman fielded it clearly, but Ramiro Pena reached on error, followed by Justin Christian grounding in to a weak double play. Cody Ehlers drew a walk after a couple of close pitches in the second. P.J. Pilittere battled, fouling off two very tough pitches, but fell victim to a foul pop up on what I think was a changeup. Now we're down to the back end of the Trenton lineup, which is features such studs as Shawn Garrett and Carlos Mendoza. End 2nd. Top 3rd Chase Wright just broke the batter's bat, which sent the ball quickly grounding toward him. Luckily, the ball hit his foot, and wound up right on the first base bag to make the out. He just allowed a weak little single up the middle. It didn't even make it to the outfield grass. Cody Ehlers just had a nice little change with a nibbler up the line, but failed the make the play when he bobbled it. He got to the ball a little quick, but Ehlers should have made that play. His defensive reputation is very good. It didn't hurt Wright though, because he got a fly ball half way out to centerfield for the last out. Wright hasn't allowed anything to be hit hard so far. Bottom 3rd Gardner up with two outs. He hit a soft line drive on a 1-2 pitch. Top 4th - Wright's throwing strikes, but I think we saw one or two curveballs and a slider, but nothing else with a break. Both curveballs were way out of the strikezone. He just got a strikeout on a pretty good little slider. It definately wasn't a slurve. Cody Ehlers just got a nasty little error on a moderately bad hop. He really should have had it. That's two errors that should have been easy outs for Ehlers. Luckily for Wright, he got another strikeout, swinging, on a fastball. I'm not seeing a whole lot of changeups, and this is the second time through the order. He's going to need to mix in his other pitches more. Bottom 4th Ramiro Pena worked the count to 2-1, but grounded out to second. Justin Christian just grounded out to short. For all the stolen bases, he doesn't get down the line too quickly. Not at all as fast as Gardner. Cody Ehlers has a chance to redeem himself, and he's taking a lot of pitches, but he struck out on a 2-2 fastball. Top 5th He just struck a guy on an 0-2 slider. He's really fooling players, keeping the ball well inside to these two righties. Another slider for a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch. Wright definately didn't throw the pitch much last season, so he might be on to something here. He got the third hitter out on a tough play to Ehlers, who tossed it to back to Wright running to the bag, barely beating the runner. He's throwing more changeups as well as the sliders. Maybe 60% of his pitches are fastballs. Bottom 5th P.J. Pilittere broke the no hitter with a nice little single between the SS and 3b. He's looked good today. He's got a reptutation for calling a very strong game, and although I'm not sure how much faith I put in reports like that, he's been keeping Wright mixing his pitches very well since the 3rd. I'm thinking that Wright wanted to stretch out his fastball early, and brought in his changeup and slider more as batters saw him again. Top 6th Wright is still pitching. He just struck the first batter out with a fastball on the outer inch of the plate. He couldn't have painted it better. Ramiro Pena just made a laser throw on a weak grounder, kind of like Alex Rodriguez used to make from short. Wright just allowed his first hard fly ball of the night, but Brett Gardner ran it down pretty efficiently. He's throwing all fastballs again. Bottom 6th Brett Gardner just made an easy fly out to left. He ran it out faster than Christian ran out his grounder. Ramiro Pena ended the inning looking. He worked the count to 2-2, but took a strike right down the middle. Top 7th. Wright still in, but I think Kevin Whelan is warming up in the bullpen. Wright just struck out the first batter with a filthy changeup. He's dealing. He made a decent little play with a grounder back to the mound. He might just come out for another inning, though I'm not sure what his pitch count is at. The batter just hit a hard fly ball, that looked like a home run, but Matt Garson caught it on the warning track. After that near-hit, maybe Wright does need to sit in favor of Whelan. He's at 76 pitches. Bottom 7th We have a new pitcher. Hale allowed only one hit, but I guess his pitch count was getting high. He ended up striking out 5. Ehlers is up now. He got under the ball a little too much, and popped it up to right. Pilittere hit a similar ball to end the inning. Top 8th Wright is out, and Jason Jones is in relief. He's been edged of the rotation with all the trades Cashman made over the winter (the other starters, Wright, Smith, Marquez, Jackson and Horne are all clearly better prospects). To think that a quality guy like Jones has to go to relief even after Karstens, White, and Rasner leave the high minors rotations. He's got no future in relief though. His stuff (90 mph fastball, decent changeup, curveball) won't translate to the bullpen well. He got out of the inning fine though. The score is still 0-0. Top 9th Cassadiego is pitching now. No Whelan still. He struck out the first batter he faced. Cody Ehlers just made a third error, on a spin throw to the pitcher covering the bag. He threw the ball behind him. He's going to have to nail it down. Casadiego allowed a single to left, so the winning run is on 2nd. Bowie just scored their first run, a single to right. Matt Carson bobbled it and the runner on first moved to 2nd. If Trenton loses, Ehlers is at fault. Bowie just attempted a double steal, but the runner on third got caught up by P.J. Pilittere. He made the smart play, holding the ball and holding the runner up. The runner made it close, getting behind Ramiro Pena backing it up, but he fell down and Pena made the tag. Exciting, but a dumb play by Bowie. Bottom 9th Trenton down by 1. Baldiris walks, bringing up Brett Gardner. Gardner just missed out, fouling it straight back. He went 2-2 and has fouled off the last two pitches. The battle paid off with a single between 1st and 2nd. Ramiro Pena just got called out on a 2 pitch strikeout. He stepped out of the batters box. I've never seen that before. The official scorer says that it's a new rule, where the umpire can reward a strike to a pitcher if the batter intentionally leaves the batters box without permission. Weird. Bases loaded, walk. Cody Ehlers has a chance to redeem himself... and he strikes out. P.J. is up with two outs, the bases loaded, and the team down by one. And he strikes out. The game ends 1-0. Neither team could really get the offense going in the 35 degree cold. Cody Ehler's error eventually cost them the game. It's too bad, because Chase Wright deserved a win with the way he pitched. I'll get a more detailed recap when I get back tonight, in addition to looking at Charleston, Tampa, and Scranton. Overall, a great experience on opening day tonight. Trenton fans are going to have a long season if the offense looks anything like it did tonight. Only Gardner and Ehlers have any sort of hitting credibility, and Ehlers didn't show it tonight. We didn't see a whole lot from the defense tonight, but Gardner looked great in his few plays. Christian didn't even get to catch a ball all night. And Pena couldn't have looked worse.

< Prev		Next >