Call to the Post Vol. 4

[Thoroughbreds]

It has been a great stretch for Kentucky since the All - Star break. They have gone 22-7 during that time and have opened up a 12.5 game lead in the wild card race. Recently aquired Antonio Mesegue has played excellent and new set up man Matt Brown should solidify the bullpen. Starting shortstop Bang-Xao You is slated to return this week after missing a month with an oblique strain.

The rise of Jose Mora

When the season started Jose Mora was a bit of an afterthought. He was one of a few pitchers that was going to battle for starts at the bottom end of the Thoroughbred rotation. All the hype was saved for Michael Doyle , who has the best stuff on the staff, all star Chris Brown, who was coming off a career season in which he had 18 wins and Ju- Hyung Park, who signed a 113 million dollar contact in the offseason.
To say that Mora flew under the radar would be an understatement. The 25 year old was 6-7 in 21 career starts over 2 seasons coming into this year. Mora struggled at the beggining of this season and was one bad start away from losing his spot. On May 5th Mora pitched 3 innings gave up 5 runs and took the loss. His record fell to 2-4 and his Era ballooned to 4.64.
What he has done since then is nothing short of remarkable. He has gone 13-1 over his last 16 starts. His only loss was an 8 inning outing in which he only gave up 1 run. In his last 10 starts he has picked up a win in all 10 games and has 12 wins in his last 13 starts. His best start during this hot steak came last weak against the powerhouse West Virginia team in which Mora threw a complete game 3-hit shutout. Overall he sits at 15-5 with a 2.77 Era.

Milestone watch

2 players on Kentucky are approaching pretty significant milestones. Alfredo Aranda picked up 3 saves last week and now sits and 592 for his illustrious career. No reliever in history has reached 600. If Aranda does make it to 600 he actually will probably be the 2nd player to do so as Ricardo Perez of Havana is only 2 saves away from 600. The amazing thing about the quest to this milestone is that besides Aranda and Perez, only one other pitcher in PEBA has ever even reached 400 saves.

The other milestone watch on Kentucky is with 1b/DH Brad Davis . Davis current is approaching 2 significant milestones. He is 79 hits away from being the 2nd player in PEBA history to reach 3000 hits. If Davis plays next season he should take over the PEBA all time hit record of 3026 held be Rob Raines. Davis is already the career leader in doubles with 605.
Davis is also 4 homers away from becoming the 9th player in history to have 400 homers. Despite only being selected to the all-star team twice in his career, Davis should be a lock for the hall of fame once he retires.

Giant Killers

Despite having a run differential of - 236 to Florida and -155 to West Virginia, Kentucky has played the 2 powerhouse teams well.
Last week the took 3 of 4 from West Virginia and hold a 5-3 advantage against them this season. Kentucky is one of 3 teams in the IL that has a winning record against them.
Against division rivals Florida, Kentucky has a 8-7 record and they are the only team to have a winning record vs the Farstriders. That could change though in the next 3 days as the face off for the final time in the regular season against Florida.
Either way If Kentucky meets either of these 2 teams in the playoffs the will be the heavy underdogs but having some regular season success might give them some much needed confidence in what would he an extremely difficult series.

[Ghosts]

Great recap! I do love seeing underdogs succeed, and so long as Florida and West Virginia continue their respective dominance, pretty much the entire IL field is an underdog.

Congrats to Brad Davis. Being in a position to take a record from Raines is amazing.

Go horsies!