A Loss In The Wind

Butler 7, Chillicothe 2

The Chillicothe Paints capped off a two game road trip to Butler, Pennsylvania with a split, but perhaps in this case, they may have to get a feel about what's going on with the way things are going because this past week has featured slumping not yet seen previously. This game featured nor real big explosion of hits that lead to some runs. The Paints only mustered out two runs in this ballgame, and for the Butler Blue Sox, they did a good job of taking down the Paints when they opportunities presented themselves.

It started with the first pitcher on the mound for the Paints. Tony Davey did not have a stellar game. He was a bit shaky from the start, and he couldn't establish himself a presence on the mound that starters need to do. Going 5 and 1/3 innings deep in his start, Davey gave up 9 hits, a hit batter, and a walk, and that lead to giving up 5 earned runs. He struck out four batters, but the damage was already done. The Blue Sox pulled away to a 5-2 lead that they wouldn't give up, and extended their lead by two runs more. This just wasn't a good day for Davey. I don't know what could be going wrong for him, but this has been present in his starts where he starts off shaky. I'm hopeful that whatever problems there are, they'll be corrected.

Stephen Shackleford came in relief of Davey, and he gave up two hits and two walks in 1 and 2/3 innings of work. This amounted to one earned run given up. Brad Schnitzer put in one inning of work and gave up two hits, which lead to earned run. He struck out a batter. Remember earlier when I was talking about making adjustments? Well, I think now would be a good time to talk about making adjustments again, because you have to realize that the new Paints have to make adjustments whenever they go out to other ballparks in the Prospect League. Everything becomes different, at least a little bit.

For the offense, Zach Leonard had a single and an RBI. Cory Maguire had an RBI double. DH Andy Brouse had a single. Kyle Gendron had a single. Steven Mirizzi had a single. That was the only offense that came out from the Paints. I can't say it enough how things have been going up and down for the Paints' offense this past week. Consider that we're in a new environment in the baseball world, and things are different with the Prospect League, but when you go through a slump, it's just hard for me not to wonder what it could be that might be hindering the Paints ability right now. It's hard not to take notice that the Paints can go through numerous innings without even scoring a run, but nonetheless, these things go in cycles. They're just phases.

In other unrelated news...

To be honest, I don't know what's going to happen when it comes to my reports in the future. I don't know because I get the feeling that they're becoming less and less professional with every passing report. That may not be the case after all, but unfortunately, I feel that way. I feel like sometimes I just reach for something to report on. There's not much of a story if I just have to write similar statistics and tell people how the game went down. In other words, I need extra motivation, and not only that, but I need more material, plain and simple. There have been things going on in life away from baseball that I've been needing to clear up, and sometimes that can be a big cloud over me in recent times.