After 327 major league saves, Fernando Rodney revived the iconic "bow-and-arrow" celebration for his first save in the IBL, closing out the Barrie Baycats (1-5) in a 2-1 Hamilton Cardinals (3-1) win.
Along with Freisis Adames in his IBL debut, winning pitcher Corben Peters, and Steven Hospital, the Cardinals pitchers held Barrie to just seven hits while recording 11 strikeouts.
"We just didn't come out of the gates hot enough," said Baycats outfielder Noel McGarry-Doyle postgame. "We had a slow start, and as soon as we started to find our groove, it was kind of a little too late for us."
Hamilton got on the board first with a second-inning RBI single by Tommy Reyes-Cruz, before Johnathan Solazzo followed that up with a leadoff home run the following frame.
It was Solazzo's first home run as a Cardinal since 2014 after a legendary nine-season stint with Toronto.
Barrie cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the third with an RBI double by McGarry-Doyle, but the Baycats only got five baserunners the rest of the ballgame.
The offensive dormancy on the part of Barrie ruined another gem from its rotation. Juan Benítez followed up Frank Garcés' complete game on Friday with a seven-inning quality start of his own, both ending with losses.
"I thought we were going to get it going after Thursday night's outing," Baycats manager Josh Matlow said postgame. "1-5 could have easily been 3-3."
With the loss, Barrie is now 1-5, 4.5 games back of Welland for first in the standings. A place quite unexpected for the defending IBL champions who won the title by going undefeated in the playoffs.
Spots 3-6 in the Baycats order went one-for-16 collectively with eight strikeouts. Despite the lineup shuffling in an effort to see some hits strung together, the same culprits are setting the team back at the plate, which is frustrating Matlow.
"They're pretty much automatic outs, and it really hurts rallies, it really hurts the start of an inning," he said. "I'm tired of hearing 'it's early, it's early.' We've got to get it going now."
Barrie's team on-base percentage is a league-worst .304, while the team's batting average is second-worst at .229. Just four points above the league-worst Brantford Red Sox.
There were some positives in this game for Barrie, however. Austin Boylan, a commit to North Dakota State, made his IBL debut, and got his first IBL hit—a double in the fourth inning.
"I came to the park just thinking, I'm just going to do BP, he explained postgame. "Just like the normal type of thing. And then just watch the game. But then he said I'm in the line up so I was pretty hyped."
Boylan, a call up from the 22U Baycats that open their inaugural season next Saturday against the Hamilton Jr. Cardinals, started at second base.
Rodney struck him out in the ninth inning, but Boylan didn't back down from the three-time major league all-star.
"His breaking pitches were gross, he recalled. "I knew it probably wasn't going to see a fastball. He threw a lot of off-speed to [Noah] Hull as well. So, I went in there with that approach. But it was a cool experience."
Boylan will be active for the Baycats in Kitchener tomorrow afternoon, with a selection of 22U players potentially making their IBL debuts as well. Matlow is hoping the struggling Baycats players see that the call-ups joining the team on the road sends a message.
"I want to put a little pressure on our guys to say if you're not going to produce, then we have guys, he said. "These guys deserve it, Austin deserved it, he was that kind of next man up, and you saw he settled in right after that first at bat.
STARTING PITCHERS
Juan Benítez (BAR): 7 IP, 3 SO, 2 ER
Freisis Adames (HAM): 4 IP, 7 SO, 1 BB, 1 ER
UP NEXT
Barrie finishes its stretch of four games in four days with an afternoon game in Kitchener Sunday. Ethan Morris will start for the Baycats making his IBL debut.
Hamilton will be back at home hosting Guelph Sunday afternoon.
