Re: Going Undergroud - a London Underground blog
Posted: Sun May 10, 2015 4:55 am
August 17th, 2021
Short term at least the shake up in London had its desired effect. The team went out against Trendsetters at Wembley and blew them away. Bryan Bedell was in commanding form on the mound pitching a four-hit shutout walking just one and striking out 12 but it wasn’t just him. Three of the remodelled bottom four batters actually got a hit. Joe McNeal savouring his first PEBA cup of coffee hit a 3-run homer off John Turner the New Orleans starter in his second ever big league AB while Ralph Woods, restored to the starting RF role, hit an eighth innings homer as London cruised to an 8-0 win.
London did suffer an embarrassing 10-1 defeat in the very next game where New Orleans outhit them 15-3 but the new line-up generally worked well as they split the four game series 2-2 and then went on to sweep West Virginia 3-0. The bottom of the order contributed 17 runs driven in overall with eight hits from Valenzuela, seven from Woods, six from McNeal and three from Martinez. A good week for them and let’s hope it wasn’t a flash in the pan. Christian O’ Rorke who a few weeks ago just couldn’t hit anything went on a 10-30 streak for the week with five doubles while Leonard Ramsey hit three homers to take his season’s tally to 30, his fourth season out of five hitting 30 or more (and the other exception he hit 28). Decheng Wen has reached 90 RBI for the seventh season in his career but he has only passed the 100 barrier twice (2017 & 2019).
Bedell, two wins & 22 K's for the week
The pitchers had a mixed bag of results with Nii suffering his second straight defeat and Callahan surrendering three homers in his outing against New Orleans equalling his 2020 tally of 29 homers given up with high on 10 starts left. He did bounce back to hold West Virginia to one run but his place in the rotation is looking increasingly insecure with Robby Holmes being touted as a possible replacement. A good week though for Gary Stanley who posted a win and two saves and Bedell who added 10 more K’s in his second outing of the week. His New Orleans complete game shutout was his second of the season, his only other was way back in 2016. The bullpen as a whole had a good week, overworked by their standards, pitching 14 innings. They gave up eight runs, half by Robby Holmes’ first four of the season, walked five while striking out 13. Bryan Bedell’s 22 K’s for the week has now taken him past 100 K’s for the fourth straight season in his career, remarkable as he has only started 47 of his 154 PEBA appearances
Now with a three game lead over Amsterdam London face a vital week, three games in Havana are just a warm-up to the main event - the final three games against Amsterdam. Amsterdam lead the season series 8-7 but a series win by London would go a long way to securing their fourth straight division pennant