Slide hits six
(courtesy Marc Smith, DiscoverMooseJaw.com) Sometimes in baseball, you have stretches where no matter what you do the game just doesn’t go your way.That’s where the Moose Jaw Miller Express are right now after dropping 5-0 game to the Regina Red Sox on Sunday night to finish the weekend on a six-game losing skid.
“When we play poorly we lose, and then we played relatively well (Sunday night), that was a clean defensive game, we pitched well and we got a lot of barrel, and didn’t have anything to show for it, but that’s the way baseball is,” said Head Coach Michael Hunt.
The Millers opened the weekend with back-to-back one-run losses, dropping a 5-4 game to the Swift Current 57s on Friday and then losing by the same score to Yorkton on Saturday.
Despite their struggles over the week, the Millers are staying positive as they remain comfortably in the top-four of the Eastern Division with 16 games remaining in the regular season.
“We’re still in control of our destiny to this point,” said Hunt. “We have a lot of home games left in the end, so that’s a good spot to be in and not have to try and do it on the road.”
Sunday’s game was the best of the weekend for Moose Jaw as they didn’t hurt themselves with errors, making just one in the loss, and received a quality start from pitcher Bo Sheridan, but everything they hit throughout the night was right at fielders.
“Our guys are hitting the ball well, there was a lot of barrelled balls and there was nothing to show for it,” said Sheridan, who allowed just two runs on five hits over seven innings of work in the loss.
There was one mistake for Sheridan as Red Sox outfielder Justin Erlandson tagged him for a two-run home run in the third inning. Other than that, Sheridan was able to keep the Red Sox in check for the rest of the game and gave his team a chance to win.
The offence just couldn’t break through for the Millers as they didn’t advance a runner into scoring position after the third inning, but had runners at third in the first and third innings and couldn’t bring them around.
“That could have changed the dynamic of the game,” said Hunt. “It hinges on a couple of tiny little details.”
Moose Jaw worked five walks in the game to get base runners on, but managed just four hits, including only two over the final six innings.Second baseman Scott Platt – who went 1-for-2 with two walks – led off the game with a double and was at third base with two outs, but he was left standing there.
“We really hit the ball hard today we were just hitting it right at people and that’s just game of baseball, it stinks, you do everything right, but don’t get rewarded for it,” said Platt.
This past week has been a tough stretch for the Millers, but they remain confident in the team that they have and that one break could swing things the other way.
“We’ve had a rough week, but (Sunday) was a good game for us, even though we didn’t get the win, we played well, pitched well and hit well,” said Platt.“We’re a good ball club, we’ve shown that, and once we get past this little slump here, we’ll really turn it on and get hot right as playoffs start.”
The Millers will travel to Yorkton on Monday night for a rematch of Saturday’s game. They square off with the Cardinals at Jubilee Park at 7:05 p.m.
After Monday’s game, the Millers will get a couple of days off before heading to Melville on Thursday and Friday followed by a trip to Swift Current on Saturday to wrap-up the week.
