Let’s take a little inventory here. We just played a brilliant weekend of baseball. Possibly the weekend that defined us. We also just lost a guy who was leading the team in Home runs and RBI. Our 14 man roster was now 13.
We were 14-2….thus far putting together what many would consider at this point of the season to be a “masterful” year….yet we were still in SECOND PLACE.
I remember writing in this blog I was kind of annoyed they moved us back into this Division before the season began. The Eastern Division is without a doubt the toughest Division in the 20th District.
So put it in perspective. Not only were we doing well…..we were doing it in a vicious Division. Our backs were going to be a little bit against the wall though as we made this final run without Evans in the lineup.
But still…there were some silver-linings to Evans’ injury.
What? Wait a minute here Gee are you saying it was good that Evans went down?
HELL NO!!!! that’s not what I’m saying.
It flat-out sucked he went down.
But hear me out….
We had two guys that I juggled around all season up to the point of Lance’s injury. And when I say I “juggled them around”….I mean defensively. I had them in the starting lineup. I wanted their bats in there.
But I was playing them out of position. And I knew it. And they knew it. Hell….everybody knew it. But no one complained. I think everybody understood why….
Kirk Hagge is a shortstop. And a damn good one. And Dave Fielder is a catcher. And a damn good one, too.
When Evans went down, Haggs went to short. And Fielder went back behind the plate. Done.
Now…I had two guys who were playing in the positions on the field they were comfortable playing. This allowed those two guys to just “do what they do”….it freed them up.
And I think in a lot of ways it solidified us….especially defensively.
Losing a bat like the bat of Lance Evans hurt. Who was gonna hit third? Well, we mixed it up down the stretch. Lots of guys stepped into that 3-hole and did a great job.
Our 14 man roster just went to 13. One of the 13 guys is 14 years old.
We easily could have fallen apart….
But as we just saw over this last weekend, we pulled together. And it seemed no matter what was thrown at us…we continued to do so.
You’re gonna see as we go down the stretch how Hack, Turner, and Canale (who were already dominating) picked it up another notch. Our rookies stepped up big time. Guys like Wiley and Gabe were instrumental. Everybody participated in this. Everybody took it up a notch.
This is what was so magical about 1992.
Evans was hurt. He continued coming to every game. Sure , we all wanted to know “when” he could play again. It was looking like “maybe” if we made the playoffs…
That was something we had never done before.
We were now going through some unchartered waters. We had a hole in the boat. We patched it up and sailed forward.
As far as I was concerned …it only made the BIG games we were about to play in …and win…just that much BIGGER.
verdugo288 