Season Pennant still up for Grab

The Pirates have sailed away and "so what" if they left us with a bloody nose. But they’ll be back in less than 2 weeks for 2 more games. It will be our chance to even our season record with them. For the present, the current 6 game road trip takes the Railroaders to Owensboro to face off with the 2nd place Oilers. They are only a half game ahead of us, it’s time to gain ground and move back into the 2nd spot.

So what’s the rest of the season look like?

We are about to round the bend with 13 games left going into Owensboro. After the 3 set with the Oilers, the guys head for Marion for another 3 games with the Bobcats. That puts us down to 7 games to go and every one of them at home in the Yard. First will be the Greyhounds, this coming Thursday, for 3 nights of howling fun. The All Star break will suspend season play for 3 days, then the Pirates return to the Yard for the final 2 regular season meetings with them. We will complete our last 2 season games with the Bobcats with post season playoffs beginning after a day off.

The pennant is still up for grabs. Some don’t think we have what it take to grab it. Others are hopeful and supportive but are concerned over mistakes we’ve made that cost us games. Well, every team makes them. I’ll bet we’re not the worse in the league on errors per game. All we need to do is shake it off and get to work. Keep pace with the Pirates and overtake the Oilers. We’re only 2 behind the lead after 37 games and with 2 more Pirate games before the season’s end. Let’s fire up the engine and roll, train!

Things That Make ya Go HMMMM

Well I think all us yard hands were going hmmm last night, Got ourself behind early and gave up hmmm way to many hits early Those Pirates,Hats off to them, have a deep bench and a good team.But with that said, we Have a pretty darn good group of players to,and I saw a lot of Heart out there last night, we were behind could not even buy a run till the 6th inning,and what do we do? We bang out 6 runs in a hurry folks, we have the Heart to not quit and keep digging, and that my friends is what is going to carry us into the second half of this season and fighting with the best to win this penant! So hang on fans its gonna get better,Sure another good arm or 2 would be sweet to get b4 the cut off date,but never and I mean never count us out, take away a couple mistakes over the 3 game series and we would have won them all. Lets get them Oilers!
Roll Train

whoa

Ok enough is enough. The Pirates are ahead of us, as are the Oilers. We own the oilers and cannot beat the pirates. D-Fense people. Hopefully we can get past Marion and Union City after we beat up Owensboro again. Second place is cool but we gotta repeat as regular season champs. You know what, I have this feeling that we are gonna meet the Pirates in the finals, and then regular season records means nothing. Best of 3, loser go home. Been a good year so far, lets keep it going.

I have information on the Pirates

I’ve been undercover in the Pirates camp and have returned with important information we can use for the upcoming 3 game series with Bucs. They didn’t seem to mind a bit and hardly noticed me as I swabbed their decks and polished the brass. They are an interesting band to say the lease. Let’s take a look at the information I’ve uncovered.

The Pirates team batting average is .251, above the league average of .234,.but below the Railroaders at .267. We’ve shown an edge here. We’ve got them on slugging and OBA too, they are .335 and .355 while we are .386 and .387. We have 24 homeruns to their 9. Our 226 runs to their 179. The Pirates do have 11 more stolen bases (55) than we have and 3 more triples than the Railroaders. But in most other areas, we produced more.

So what do the Pirates have that makes them so good?

It must be the pitching. Their team ERA average is 2.38 with the League average at 3.34. The Railroaders BTW are 3.19. The Pirates top 4 starting pitchers have a combined record of 17-3 in 24 starts. Their combined ERA average is 1.69. These guys control the game and keep it close. Their offense is designed to win with bold action at the right time. We need to be on our toes to STOP IT and find a way to bust up the pitching.

Our record against the Pirates this year is 2-3, so far. We have 5 games left with them and these 3 at home in the Yard are important for us to win. We'll see them again later in the month for 2 more games. This will be the Bucs' first visit to the Yard in 2008. We need to get everyone out and involved to help stop the attack I’ve seen them planning for us. Let’s keep the guns warmed up and ready. We’ll need all hands!

Update: No truer words spoken than in the posted comment, “. . .our destiny is in our own hands.” Yes, it will take all our bats, gloves, cleats and more, plus body, mind and spirit to deal properly with these Pirates. The Firebirds may have been finger-lick’in-good, but the dish the Pirates are planning to serve us is a different meal indeed. One thing for sure, it’s supposed to be the hottest day of the year and I know it’s going to be on the field of play tonight at the Yard!