Around the ABL: August 2-August 8

Jorge Mora

August 2: New York 10, Nottinghamshire 8. Jorge Mora is at it again. Two days after his dramatic walk-off grand slam against Dallas, Mora hits a pair of dramatic home runs against Nottinghamshire. The Outlaws take a four-run lead into the ninth, but Mafioso Herman Campbell doubles in two runs, and Mora hits a two-run homer, tying the game at eight runs apiece. In the 11th, with one man on, Mora homers again, and the Mafia come back to defeat their division rivals.

August 2: Jacksonville 2, Boston 1. Much of the Cardinals offense may be on the DL, but they're still dangerous. John Ritter (9-9) holds them back, throwing 7 1/3 innings and allowing only one run. Dennis Woods, who's having a nice bounce-back season, homers in the third. In the fifth, catcher Nick Parks triples and scores what proves to be the winning run. Norm Jackson (6-9) pitches well, giving up only two runs in seven innings, but gets loss.

Pat Heard

August 2: Montreal 0, Washington 1. Pat Heard (4-12) has been getting shelled lately, allowing five or more runs in each of his past six starts, and tonight he faced one of the strongest offenses in the league. So naturally he tosses a shutout for 8 2/3  innings. Heard walks only one while striking out four and out-pitches Bandit ace Raúl Pérez (11-7). Merrill Harris's sixth-inning homer supplies the game's only run.

August 2: Las Vegas 4, Eureka 1. Mike Bergeron hits a solo home run off of Maurice Gould in the bottom of the first. It's his 30th home run of the season. Coupled with his 34 stolen bases, Bergeron becomes this year's first 30/30 player—what's more, he has an excellent chance of becoming ABL's first 40/40 player. But that first-inning homer is the only hit that Gould (18-2) allows. He pitches eight innings, walks three, and strikes out eight, and the Jokers defeat the Hornets.

Alex Austin

August 3: Jacksonville 1, Boston 9. Alex Austin is having a strong season for the Cardinals. He has already equalled last season's home run total of 13, and he has bumped his average up 40 points from .258 to .298. Tonight Austin comes to the plate with the bases loaded and lines a 2-1 pitch deep in the opposite field bleachers—a grand slam!

Rich Bussell

August 3: Ann Arbor 2, Dallas 3. Rich Bussell (7-6) may not be dominating the league like he did a season ago, but much of the difference is superficial. Has he been striking out fewer batters? No. His K/9 last season was 8.58, and this season he's whiffing batters at a 9.85 clip. Has he been walking more? Again, no. He's lowered his BB/9 from 2.45 to 2.09. So what's the difference? Two things. One, home runs. Bussell only allowed 11 of them all last season, but in 2013 he has surrendered 15 taters. Two, BABIP, which is heavily influenced by defense and luck. Last year Bussell (and his Texan defense) had a .255 BABIP—a very low number that's hard to sustain. His .338 BABIP this year, by contrast, is above the .320 league average. Basically, 2012 Bussell was a great pitcher who, on top of his greatness, got lucky. The 2013 Bussell has actually been pitching better, in most respects, but luck hasn't been on his side.

Today, however, he gets the win, pitching 7 2/3 innings and striking out 11. In the fifth, the Texans take the lead when Bodil Larsen singles in Jeffery McDonald and Jesse Clark.

Flipper Martin

August 3: Jersey 3, South Carolina 4. Top-rated prospect Flipper Martin combines an upper-90s fastball with a hard sinker, and ABL batters are finally getting a chance to see him in action. Martin strikes out seven and allows three runs over 6 1/3 innings. Gunner Smart and Fernando Guzmán hit back-to-back homers in the first.

August 4: Georgia 3, Cabo San Lucas 4. Carlos Martínez hits a pair of solo home runs, his 19th and 20th of the season. Keiran Simmons adds a solo home run of his own. The Toreros salvage the final game of a four-game series.

Allen Greene

August 5: Nottinghamshire 7, Dallas 6. With all the young talent on the Outlaws' roster, Allen Greene is easy to overlook. A 26-year-old right-fielder, the speedy Greene has excellent on-base and defensive skills: he has a .385 OBP and 14 stolen bases. Tonight he goes 4-for-5 with a two-run triple. The Texans tie the game in the eighth when Ken Kelly singles in Francisco García. In the 10th, the Outlaws score the winning run when William McKenzie singles in Greene.

August 6: Eureka 4, Kansas City 5. Eureka and Kansas City have been swapping places atop the Anderson Division standings for the past two months, and this week the two go head-to-head. Eureka ties the game in the eighth when pinch-hitter Joe Sharpe hits a three-run homer. The game goes to extra innings. In the 13th, the Tornadoes score a run without benefit of a hit—via three walks and a Bob Watkins sac fly—and take game one of the series.

Dale Watson

August 6: Washington 5, Minnesota 7. To say that Minnesota has underperformed this year would be an understatement, and Dale Watson has been part of the problem. Last year, Watson posted a .904 OPS, batting .288 with 32 home runs; this year, his OPS is .676, and he's batting .243 with 10 home runs. Tonight, however, Watson wins the game with a 10th-inning walk-off homer. Teammate Peter Blanchard, whose 1.182 OPS leads all of baseball, goes 5-for-6.

Tim Watson

August 6: South Carolina 2, San Francisco 3. In his 162nd major league at-bat, Tim Watson hits his first major league home run. What's more, it's a two-run walk-off home run that wins it for the Quakes.

Anthony
Shelton

August 7: Maple 10, Jersey 6. Anthony and Anthony lead the Canadians to victory. Anthony Lewis and Anthony Shelton each hit a pair of homers, with Shelton's two-run blast in the eighth putting Maple ahead, 7-6.

August 7: Carolina 0, Montgomery 4. Melvin Brown (8-8) and two relievers combine to shut out the Crush. Eric Williams hits his 20th home run of the year, a two-run laser down the right-field line that just clears the fence.

August 7: Montreal 9, San Diego 1. Raúl Pérez (12-7) had his forkball going, and Hops hitters went fishing for it all night long. Pérez strikes out 10 and allows one unearned run over 8 1/3 innings. Stanislav Izyurov and Tom Becker homer. The Bandits are red hot: they are 18-8 since the All-Star break and have won their last five games.

Patrick Goff

August 8: Maple 2, Jersey 5. Jersey leads the Munson League in home runs, but no one hits them quite as far as Patrick Goff. Tonight Goff hits a pair of moonshots, a two-run homer in the third and a solo shot in the eighth, each one travels well over 400 feet.

Mike Bergeron

August 8: Eureka 9, Kansas City 2. The Hornets take two of three from the Tornadoes, moving the two teams back into a tie atop the Anderson Division. Eureka prospect Júlio Sánchez flashes some of his strength and hits a two-run homer in the second, and Kansas City strings together a few hits in the third, scoring two runs of their own. The game remains tied, 2-2, until the 12th inning when the Hornets break out for seven runs. Ronnie Wells doubles with the bases loaded. A few batters later, with the bases loaded again, Mike Bergeron hits a grand slam. Bergeron, by the way, now has a 21-game hitting streak

August 8: New York 7, Ann Arbor 8. The Mafia looked to be pulling away from the rest of their Lasorda Division rivals, but losing six in a row to Nottinghamshire and Ann Arbor has brought them back to the pack. The Outlaws and Texans each gained four games and now stand just two and four games back respectively. Tonight Jorge Mora hits a solo home run in the ninth, tying the game, 7-7, but the Barn Owls swoop in for the kill in the 10th. Brooks Davis singles in Jeffrey Coleman for the win. Recent Ann Arbor call-up Ruben Ruíz goes 3-for-5 with a home run: he has hit safely in 11 of his 13 big-league games and has a .451 batting average.

Bill Watson

August 8: South Carolina 2, San Francisco 20. The Quakes rack up 24 hits and 20 runs. The Watson "brothers" lead the attack. Bill Watson goes 3-for-5 with two home runs: the Doctor scores three times and drives in four. Young Tim Watson goes 3-for-4 and scores five runs, tying a record held by eight others. Ignacio Villarreal goes 3-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs. Meanwhile, the Bombers were simply grateful that the Quakes didn't score 30.