Notes From The Nat

Vancouver first baseman, Haas Pratt, exploded onto the 2005 season, unloading three home runs on Yakima in the first series of the season, helping the Canadians to a big lead in the Northwest League. When he came to Vancouver for his first home series, however, Pratt lost his touch, going into a semi-slump as his power left him and his contact began to wane.But that was yesterday? tonight, Haas Pratt was loaded for bear.With 2004 non-draft free agent Joe Scott throwing thunderbolts from the mound for the Canadians, the C?s hitters were fired up for a big one. And front and foremost amongst them was Haas, who strode to the plate in the bottom of the 2nd and took the stance of a Colossus as he sneered at the man on the mound.Yakima pitcher, Angel Rocha (0-2, 10.80) perhaps remembering what Pratt did to his teammates at the beginning of the season, looked uneasy on the hill as his catcher gave him the signal for a fastball. But he nodded regardless, as pitchers tend to do, and reared back with all his might to fire in what he thought would be a sure-fire strike.And it would have been, if Haas Pratt hadn?t belted the thing deep into left on a frozen rope, clearing the 350 foot section of wall over the Global TV sign for one of the biggest hits seen at this park in 2005. As the 2500-strong crowd stood and applauded wildly, the BC Ford Dealers? June Player of the Month allowed himself a smile as he crossed the plate to give the C?s an early lead, but if the crowd thought he was happy crossing the plate just once, they were very much mistaken.Bottom of the 4th and Pratt is back at the plate with no outs and a very shaky pitcher facing him down. Pratt licked his lips as Rocha tossed another softball, duly dispatching it to left field for a handy lead-off double. Rocha was in trouble and he knew it, so when Ty Bubalo got ahead of him, Rocha opted to put the 6?3? DH on base and look for a double play opportunity, rather than test fate.Coming in behind Bubalo was catcher Shawn Callahan, who had the measly average of .100 on the year. That information should have seen Rocha grow a set of stones and go after the rookie backstop, but when everything is going wrong for you, this game has a tendency to stick the knife in and twist? Rocha sent in a fastball, and Callahan wore it right on the arm. Bases loaded.Up comes Jeff Bieker with everything set up for him ? bases chocked, rattled pitcher, small lead. Ball? ball? ball? ball. Bieker walks, the runner scores, and Vancouver is up by two ? both of them scored by The Denver Bronco, Haas Pratt.The next time the C’s picked up the wood, Rocha was gone, and with Wilber Perez and Wes Long both having singled to left to open the inning, Pratt found himself once again coming out to face a worried pitcher, this time in the form of 3.24 ERA-boasting Garret Bauer. Pratt stood tall at the plate, flexed a ?cep, and Bauer proceeded to throw everywhere except the strikezone to walk the big slugger and load the bases yet again. Jose Garcia came in to hit deep for a sac fly RBI, and as the dust settled and the crowd took a contented breath, Pratt took off for second on a steal. Liberally rubbing salt into Yakima?s weeping wounds, he slid into second safely, the crowd was amped, and the Bears were grizzly.By this point, Bauer?s self esteem was as low as his ERA was getting high. With an opening at first, batter Shawn Callahan (pictured right) knew the pitcher would be looking taking no chances, and so the big catcher just sat back and watched the pitcher unintentionally walk him. Bases loaded ? again.Bauer wiped sweat from his brow and looked to the pen, but the Yakima relief was far from ready. This is the minors, kid ? you dig the hole, you sit in it. And so Jeff Bieker walked up to the plate and waited for a good pitch, knowing the chances were solid that he wasn?t going to get one. And sure enough, he didn?t. Another runner walks home and the Yakima manager could be heard quietly crying “why me?!?” in the dugout.But relief was surely in sight in the form of Vancouver’s Michael Massaro, an outfielder with one of the lowest batting averages in the NWL ? just .077 ? surely he?d offer the pitcher an easy way out of the inning? Surely he’d pop up or strike out or ground into a double play?Wouldn?t he?No, he wouldn?t. Single to left, Haas Pratt scores another run (his third of the evening), the Canadians lead 5-0 and Bauer is done for the evening, his ERA blown out to 5.79 and his teammates mumbling curses under their breath.Meanwhile, Mighty Joe Scott was throwing a competent shut-out for Vancouver, despite getting himself in more than a couple of jams. Scott had conceded a lead-off single in each of the first three innings, then two singles in the 4th, then hit the first batter in the 5th, all while that was going on, catcher Shawn Callahan had twice thrown the ball into centerfield on steal attempts. But instead of crumbling on each of these setbacks, Scott bore down and worked his way out of trouble every time. To go 6 innings and allow 7 hits without conceding a run is a fine achievement, and if anything contributed to that scoreline, it was Scott?s control ? he threw 4 K?s this night and conceded not a single walk on the outing.Ronald Madej contributed a good scoreless inning in relief, his second scoreless outing of the season, which meant all that was left was to close out the game, and so in came John Herrera. Two clean innings later, and with his ERA down from 13.50 to 5.60, the win was Vancouver?s and the fireworks were crackling over head.Another beautiful night in Vancouver, another great win for the C?s, and the mini-slump looks to have been finally exorcized ? hopefully for good.

July 8, 2005
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Yakima 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 Vancouver 0 1 0 1 3 0 0 0 X 5 5 2 wrap | box | logW: J. Scott (2-0, 2.45); L: A. Rocha (0-3, 9.00);HR: VAN: H. Pratt (4).

Game notes:* Perennial Yakima bleacher bum target, Ricardo Sosa (pictured left), got ridiculed into a horiffic slump in this series, adding another 0 for 2 with a K tonight before being yanked by his manager. That makes it 0 for 14 since the Vancouver crowd got on Sosa’s case, with 5 K’s to rub it in, and his average now sits at a much smaller total than it was when he came to town - .230 instead of .298. Why was he being picked on? Why, because he plays third base, of course, and that’s where the bleacher bums congregate!* Haas Pratt was a runaway MVP of the evening, scoring 3 of Vancouver’s 5 runs, hitting 2 from 3 with a dinger, a double, a walk and an RBI. If he can hold that form into the coming Everett road series, Vancouver stands a good chance of sweeping it.* Mike Massaro broke the half-Mendoza line tonight, with his 1 from 4 performance driving in a run and raising his average to .118 - we know Massaro has better than that in him (just watch him belt the ball around in batting practice for confirmation of that), but it’ll do him good to get a hit on the board. Nobody likes to have an average starting with a ‘0′.* Frank Martinez, having started the season strongly, has fallen into a death spiral slump. He went 0 from 4 tonight, striking out twice, and he made some odd mistakes in defense. Perhaps Martinez isn’t long for this level, if only the C’s can find a middle infielder in their benchful of corner men…* Ty Bubalo is having a real horror show out there at the moment, and for the first time since he was drafted out of high school, he’s starting to feel the pressure to perform or lose his gig. Anthony Recker did Bubalo no favors by having a game-winning evening last night, and though Shawn Callahan made some errors in defense tonight, he was okay with the bat, drawing a pair of walks on a 0 from 1 night. Bubalo’s performance as DH in contrast? 0 from 3, with 3 K’s and a walk. Ouch.* Mighty Joe Scott battled all night to keep his shut-out going, and though he was shaky at times, his control never waned. He’s earned his starting place in a tough rotation to stay in, but he’ll want to get his shut-outs a little easier than he got this one in the future. His bullpen sould be commended for their help in maintaining the scoreless game. Neither Madej nor Herrera are considered the stars of this pen, but both handled the job tonight like true aces.* The Vancouver team ERA is now at a ridiculous 2.56! Are you freaking kidding me? That’s unholy.Vancouver heads out on a road trip to Eugene tomorrow, so stay tuned to the Canadians webcast for all the play-by-play.