Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Asheville Series Recap, or Why Can't We Win at Home?

I'm not going to go into to much detail with this late series recap. But it does raise a good question: why can't the Fireflies win at home?

Let's start with a run down of each game

Thursday: This is the one game I went to. Thomas McIlraith started and was on cruise control most of the game, not always in complete control but doing a good job limiting his pitch count and being able to go late. Unfortunately, with a low pitch count the Fireflies thought he could pitch into the 8th, very rare in Class A. And McIlraith showed why, allowing three more runs in addition to one in the 6th before being pulled with 94 pitches. It's tough to see a pitcher have a good outing and then not improve his record or even his ERA. It seems when things get tough for McIlraith, things go downhill quick. Kevin Kaczmarski scored the only Firefly run to tie it in the 6th on a passed ball. The Fireflies had a shot at a late rally until Milton Ramos hit into a double play giving Asheville a 4-1 win.

Friday: Kevin Canelon struggled before settling down, allowing 3 runs in the first four innings and then none in his last three. It's sort of the opposite of McIlraith, who tends to give up runs in bunches in one big inning that knocks him out. But Canelon would unfortunately lose this as well as the Fireflies again couldn't get any offense. Maybe this was a good thing though for the home crowd, as South Carolina Gamecock Jack Wynkoop did well in returning to Columbia. If there was a good way for the Fireflies to lose, this was it. The only runs by the Fireflies in a 3-2 loss were on a home run by Dash Winningham, which is nice to see him get his power back.

Saturday: Very similar to the day before, as Tyler Badamo stayed in control but gave up a few runs which is too many with the lack of hitting. After struggling to hit starter Peter Lambert, the Fireflies made a rally against the Tourist bullpen in the 9th, and had the tying run 180 feet away with the top of the order coming up. But Kaczmarski struck out and Vinny Siena couldn't get a clutch hit as the Fireflies again lost 3-2.

Sunday: The Fireflies were down 3-1 after 7 and 4-3 going to the bottom of the 9th. But this time the Fireflies rallied for real! Finally the inspirational movie clips worked for once! (At least I presume those were played). Ivan Wilson drew a bases loaded walk with 1 out to tie the game, and Tourists manager Warren Schaeffer and first baseman Brian Mundell were ejected for arguing the balls and strikes call. J.C. Rodriguez would be the hero in tripling home Vinny Siena to win the game 5-4 in the 10th.

But the Fireflies still lost 3 of 4 at home. The Fireflies have beaten better opponents on the road this year. For example, the Fireflies beat the Drive 3 of 4 in Greenville after losing 3 of 4 in the opening home series. After this weekend, the Fireflies were 12-6 on the road but 7-11 at home. Why can a team not win at home if they can win on the road? Maybe the fans aren't doing enough to influence the umpire's calls. The Fireflies picked up attendance later in the weekend, but still need to get more vocal fans and create a good atmosphere. A lot of Minor League teams though struggle to get that kind of atmosphere, even those that draw well. I've noticed before that MiLB teams don't do as well at home as one would think. But the Fireflies may be the most extreme in this regard. Maybe the players don't like us? Who knows. Most likely, it's weird probabilities gone awry and will even itself out later as the Fireflies get more favorable home stands and better pitching matchups. We'll see.

In the meantime, here are the tables of player performance for both the weekend and all-time:

Weekend
PlayerPositionTBRRBIBB/HBPSBCS0 for 1SOOutsKRERHBB/HBPWSLScore
Joe ShawP00000000217314400084
Alex PalshaP0000000063112010049
J.C. RodriguezDH91121010200000000049
Kevin CanelonP00000000216337000143
Thomas McIlraithP00000000225445400133
Tyler BadamoP00000000213328200133
Johnny MagliozziP0000000062001000031
Milton RamosSS5105007000000000031
David Thompson3B5301008200000000025
Kevin KaczmarskiRF61130012200000000023
Dash Winningham1B61200011400000000019
Craig MissigmanP0000000052002100018
Jeff DiehlDH4102006300000000016
Seth DavisP0000000032000200015
Tyler MooreC2013004200000000014
Tyler BashlorP0000000031001000013
Ivan WilsonCF3131019400000000011
Christian MontgomeryP0000000031001100010
Chase IngramP000000000000000000
Emmanuel ZabalaLF000000000000000000
Natanael RamosC000000000000000000
Nicco BlankP000000000000000000
P.J. ConlonP000000000000000000
Tucker TharpRF000000000000000000
Witt HaggardP000000000000000000
Vinny Siena2B410100143000000000-3
Jose GarciaC20100162000000000-4
Joe TuschakLF20010092000000000-7
Vicente LupoLF20000065000000000-7


All-Time
PlayerPositionTBRRBIBB/HBPSBCS0 for 1SOOutsKRERHBB/HBPWSLScore
P.J. ConlonP000000001102965356500544
David Thompson3B63323616209028000000000515
Alex PalshaP00000000532887147241353
Vinny Siena2B5128929218032000000000350
Kevin CanelonP0000000099341212288202343
Chase IngramP00000000873615112713302319
Joe ShawP000000001013615123412202317
J.C. RodriguezDH42171715628619000000000284
Tyler BashlorP00000000452022910020250
Dash Winningham1B41142113007914000000000247
Ivan WilsonCF43171316347736000000000233
Seth DavisP000000005818861513111215
Tyler BadamoP00000000107201815389103213
Jeff DiehlDH34121616107132000000000194
Thomas McIlraithP000000001002421183017103176
Johnny MagliozziP00000000391299163221157
Joe TuschakLF31111113117420000000000141
Milton RamosSS2971514027020000000000127
Christian MontgomeryP0000000047221381412000115
Craig MissigmanP000000005120991512000114
Tucker TharpRF19852212913000000000110
Kevin KaczmarskiRF241341103571500000000094
Vicente LupoLF1696901432900000000062
Tyler MooreC1786711551300000000058
Nicco BlankP00000000239554700051
Emmanuel ZabalaLF5302108200000000038
Jose GarciaC1042601321400000000015
Natanael RamosC41120010300000000013
Witt HaggardP00000000423333002-58
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