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(Reprinted with permission from the Rawken Times)
A quirk in the schedule has seen the Hawks on the road for their longest stretch of the season, starting from May 10th. The first home game since then will be versus the Bru Crew on June 11th. For the mathematically challenged, that is 28 games living out of a suit case.
Thus far in the 23 games since their last home date the Hawks have a record of 12-11.
“It’s not bad,” said manager Ken Harrelson, “considering we started out 0-4. We lost the first 3 games in Tijuana, that damn water down there caused some intestinal distress to put it mildly. Between innings we had a line up at the crapper.”
“We are neck and neck with the Psychos,” said ace Jacob deGrom, “we didn’t like dropping those games down there.”
The Hawks would be looking better in the standings if they could close out games when it is deGrom’s turn on the mound. “I’d like to have more wins,” said the 4-2 deGrom. Although he has the second best ERA in the league at 1.95 (behind only Max Scherzer of the Bombers at 1.89) turning that into wins has been tough this season for deGrom who hasn’t won since May 18th when he beat the Bru Crew for his 4th win.
“I’m not happy with my performance so far, I need to pitch deeper into games like I know I can,” said deGrom.
Michael Brantley has another way of looking at it, “We know Jake will put up the W’s, he has been pitching well enough to win, we haven’t been there to help him.”
deGrom has had a 1-0 loss and a 3-2 loss (two earned runs given up) and four no decision where he gave up a total of 2 runs in 23.2 innings.
Harrelson knows who has been picking up the slack in the win department. “I don’t know where we’d be without Gibby,” he said of Kyle Gibson. “The guy just wins!”
Gibson, who won 17 games last season, has already won 9 games for the Hawks and is sporting the 9th best ERA in the league at 2.94.
“It will be nice to get back to Rawken,” said Gibson, “I’m new to the team this season and have hardly slept in my own bed it seems.”
That won’t be a problem starting June 11th when the Hawks start a 16 game home stand that will run until June 28th.
“We feel like we have a winning team,” said Harrelson. “We were happy to get Burny back from last season (centerfielder and lead off hitter Billy Burns) and Philly is an anchor in the infield (second baseman Brandon Phillips). And bringing in Roddy (new set up man Francisco Rodriguez) and Fam (new closer Jeurys Familia) has really solidified our bullpen. By the All Star Break, after our home stand we are hoping to be in first place. We have an important series against the Psychos from the 16th to the 18th and we’re going to hide Ex-Lax in their post-game spread to return the favour for them.”
The Hawks are just a half game behind the Psychos and own the best run differential in the conference at +43, the Psychos are next best at +23. By the end of these next games, the Hawks will have played 11 more games on the road than at home (37 road games versus 26 at home).
Says deGrom: “We love playing at home and we think we can go on a bit of a streak and hopefully take control of the division over the next four weeks.”
And nothing will make that control more possible than wins from their ace.
A quirk in the schedule has seen the Hawks on the road for their longest stretch of the season, starting from May 10th. The first home game since then will be versus the Bru Crew on June 11th. For the mathematically challenged, that is 28 games living out of a suit case.
Thus far in the 23 games since their last home date the Hawks have a record of 12-11.
“It’s not bad,” said manager Ken Harrelson, “considering we started out 0-4. We lost the first 3 games in Tijuana, that damn water down there caused some intestinal distress to put it mildly. Between innings we had a line up at the crapper.”
“We are neck and neck with the Psychos,” said ace Jacob deGrom, “we didn’t like dropping those games down there.”
The Hawks would be looking better in the standings if they could close out games when it is deGrom’s turn on the mound. “I’d like to have more wins,” said the 4-2 deGrom. Although he has the second best ERA in the league at 1.95 (behind only Max Scherzer of the Bombers at 1.89) turning that into wins has been tough this season for deGrom who hasn’t won since May 18th when he beat the Bru Crew for his 4th win.
“I’m not happy with my performance so far, I need to pitch deeper into games like I know I can,” said deGrom.
Michael Brantley has another way of looking at it, “We know Jake will put up the W’s, he has been pitching well enough to win, we haven’t been there to help him.”
deGrom has had a 1-0 loss and a 3-2 loss (two earned runs given up) and four no decision where he gave up a total of 2 runs in 23.2 innings.
Harrelson knows who has been picking up the slack in the win department. “I don’t know where we’d be without Gibby,” he said of Kyle Gibson. “The guy just wins!”
Gibson, who won 17 games last season, has already won 9 games for the Hawks and is sporting the 9th best ERA in the league at 2.94.
“It will be nice to get back to Rawken,” said Gibson, “I’m new to the team this season and have hardly slept in my own bed it seems.”
That won’t be a problem starting June 11th when the Hawks start a 16 game home stand that will run until June 28th.
“We feel like we have a winning team,” said Harrelson. “We were happy to get Burny back from last season (centerfielder and lead off hitter Billy Burns) and Philly is an anchor in the infield (second baseman Brandon Phillips). And bringing in Roddy (new set up man Francisco Rodriguez) and Fam (new closer Jeurys Familia) has really solidified our bullpen. By the All Star Break, after our home stand we are hoping to be in first place. We have an important series against the Psychos from the 16th to the 18th and we’re going to hide Ex-Lax in their post-game spread to return the favour for them.”
The Hawks are just a half game behind the Psychos and own the best run differential in the conference at +43, the Psychos are next best at +23. By the end of these next games, the Hawks will have played 11 more games on the road than at home (37 road games versus 26 at home).
Says deGrom: “We love playing at home and we think we can go on a bit of a streak and hopefully take control of the division over the next four weeks.”
And nothing will make that control more possible than wins from their ace.