Baysox Notebook: Pitching Big As Baysox Close Out First Week of Play

The best news about the first week of the season for the Bowie Baysox involves pitching—they’re getting plenty of it.

What happened in Thursday’s 2-1 victory over Erie in the season opener shows what Bowie’s been doing on the mound in the early games. Manager Gary Kendall’s starters and bullpen are combining to give the team good work, something they’ll need throughout the rest of this weekend’s series with Erie.

Wynn Pelzer threw four shutout innings in a spot start for Bowie, and Cole McCurry threw three strong innings in relief to get the win in his first appearance since being called up from Class A Frederick earlier in the day.

“My adrenaline was going heading into the game,” said McCurry. “I was nervous, and I felt like I was going as fast as I could, and I just needed to slow down and throw my game.”

But Bowie’s been getting those kind of efforts from most of its pitchers so far this season even though the team is 3-4.

Bowie’s team ERA is an impressive 2.43, fourth in the Eastern League. The Baysox also have given up only 18 walks so far, that’s third in the league.  

LOOKING FOR HITTING

But the hitting hasn’t been able to support the pitching yet. Bowie’s .198 batting average (through Thursday’s games) ranks it ninth in the 12-team Class AA Eastern League, and the Baysox are hoping to improve this weekend against Erie.

The Baysox have scored just 15 runs in the first seven games—making their 3-4 record look even more impressive.

In addition, Bowie’s .274 on-base percentage ranks it next-to-last in the league. 

That’s probably one reason why skipper Kendall is glad for his team to finally make it back home for the first time this year.

“When you’re playing on the road, it’s not the same as playing at home,” he said. “When you start out at home, you have an advantage where you can go over some things and visit some fundamentals that you don’t have time for just because of the field usage. It’s nice to be able to get home and address some of the things that have been going wrong.”  

CHANGES

The Baysox made a number of small moves before the start of this Erie series on Thursday.

Right-handed pitcher Steve Johnson was moved up to Class AAA Norfolk, and first baseman Joe Mahoney was put on the seven-day disabled list, retroactive to last Tuesday.

McCurry came to Bowie from Class A Frederick—as mentioned earlier—and infielder Miguel Abreu also joined the Baysox from the Keys. The Baysox now have 23 players on their 24-man roster.