After a great sports weekend in Miami, I returned to Jupiter to watch the other tenant of Roger Dean Stadium take the field. The Palm Beach Cardinals were hosting the Clearwater Threshers, who might have to change their name to the Underwater Threshers after Bright House Field was flooded due to record rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby.
I won't bother discussing the stadium again as I did that last week when I saw Jupiter play. I'll only briefly recap the game as it was rather ugly, at least for the home team. Fortunately, it was a beautiful evening for baseball.
Jesse Biddle (below), the Phillies' #1 pick in 2010 and their #2 prospect, started for Clearwater and pitched into the 7th, looking solid if unspectacular. He has a good fastball but his breaking stuff needs work to find the strike zone on a regular basis. In four of the seven innings he gave up two hits, but managed to pitch out of trouble for the most part.
He was the beneficiary of some run support, but much of this was due to the Cardinals' inability to make a play. Palm Beach committed five errors, with two of them leading to three unearned runs as Clearwater stormed to a 7-1 lead.
Biddle was replaced by Ryan Duke (25th, 2011) who let the two inherited runners score as well as two of his own with the big blow a 3-run triple from Chris Edmundson (43rd, 2010) as the Cardinals narrowed the margin to 7-5.
After Canadian Jay Johnson (read the linked article to see his patch to Clearwater) pitched a scoreless 8th for the Threshers, Hector Neris came on for the save and gave up a walk and a single to start things off. He then struck out Tyler Rahmatulla (34th round in 2011, above), who should make the show based on his name but won't if he continues to perform like tonight (0-5, 4K, 2 errors). Edmundson then blasted what looked to be a game-winning homer but it fell just short, resulting in the 2nd out of the inning. Neris then struck out Nick Longmire (5th, 2010) to end the game and earn his 6th save.
After an errorless series in Miami, this game reminded me that baseball players do make mistakes, certainly much more so at this level. With five more FSL games to go, I'm guessing I'll see a few more miscues in the days to come.
Next Up
Tripleheader tomorrow, with a 10:30 am game in St. Lucie, then a doubleheader in Fort Myers, which is about 3 hours west. Updates will be delayed as I'll be attending another morning game on Wednesday, this time in Dunedin, so check back Thursday to see what happened.
Best,
Sean
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