Oneonta Tigers Put on a Good Show

After watching the Detroit Tigers get swept by the White Sox this weekend, I went to watch the Oneonta Tigers play the Lowell Spinners in Lowell, Massachusetts. I was hoping that they would put on a better show than their parent club. I was not disappointed as they routed the Spinners 18-7 in a game which was not as close the final score indicated.

Lelacheur Park is a beautiful park built right along the Merrimac River in 1998. Going to a Spinners game is definitely one of the things to do in the Lowell area. It is very difficult to get tickets as they have sold out every game for the last 8 years! I brought my mother and father to today's twilight game beginning at 5:00. I think they overdo the music in Lowell and the public address announcer does not stop talking but overall it was an enjoyable experience. The weather was very nice - high 70s and clear skies.

The Tigers scored in each of the first 6 innings and built up an 18-0 lead on 21 hits. The inning by inning scoring looked like this: 1 7 3 2 1 4. There is no telling how many more runs they would have scored had they not called off the dogs when the Spinners brought in an infielder to pitch the 7th inning. Caspar Wells led the 21 hit attack with 4 hits in the first 4 innings. Chris Carlson and Ronnie Bourquin had 3 hits apiece and Justin Henry, Ryan Seawell, Corey Middleton, Kyle Peter and Adrian Casanova chipped in with 2 each.

One of the Tigers victims was Eric Beattie who was once a very promising prospect in the Tigers system. Beattie was the the Tigers second pick in the 2004 draft and was considered a fairly polished pitcher who had the potential to move through their system pretty fast. Then he developed Rick Ankiel disease and could no longer find the plate. He still can't find the plate as he walked three and threw 2 wild pitches in one inning of relief today. Although he pitches for the enemy now, this saddened me because we used to talk to his father over at MotownSports. He was naturally very excited and proud of his kid and it's sad to the youngster continue to struggle.

Despite all the hitting, one of the most impressive performances of the day was by 23 year old right-handed pitcher Guillermo Moscoso from Venezuela. He's old for the league and not one of their big prospects but he looked good to me. He is only 6-1 165 but throws fairly hard and has outstanding control. He has a fastball in the low 90s, a curve and a change-up. He came into the game with a 2.18 ERA and 37/12 K/BB ratio in 45 1/3 innings. He also pitched the first perfect game in Oneonta history on July 16. I'd like to see what he could do at a higher level.