Just an hour into their game against the Auburn Doubledays, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers had to be scratching their heads and wondering who poisoned their food before the game.  After three innings, the scoreboard pretty much told the story (above).  The Scrappers played better after the first three disastrous innings but never got enough traction to get back into the game, ultimately losing, 10-1.

Auburn finished the game with ten hits and the Scrappers with seven errors.  Tony Wolters had three of the errors and could not make the plays he has made all year at short.  The fans sarcastically cheered in the seventh inning when Wolters made a routine play.  Not to worry Indians and Scrappers fans, he is the real deal, he just had one of those nights.

Starter Danny Jimenez struggled with his control at times and when he was able to throw strikes, the Doubledays either found holes or were given gift base runners.  Jimenez is a good pitcher and will have better starts.  Not to worry Indians and Scrappers fans, he is the real deal, he just had one of those nights.

A heckler sitting right in front of the press box made the comment that if he wanted to see this style of baseball he would go home and watch little league.  Haha… I think he was on the Muppet Show in the balcony twenty years ago and someone gave him a free ticket to the Scrappers game.  The moral of the paragraph is that one night and one loss will not cripple this team.  They will play harder tomorrow.  Not to worry Indians and Scrappers fans, they are the real deal,they just had one of those nights.

David Wallace is too good of a manager and his support staff of Greg Hibbard and Tony Mansolino have been around long enough to convince a bunch of young guys that they are way better than they played.  Wallace has preached to these guys all year not to look back and to develop not regress.  He has the composure of someone who has been managing for decades, yet he is a rookie.  Not to worry Indians and Scrappers fans, they are the real deal,they just had one of those nights.

Wallace (above), talked about his team’s uncharacteristic performance.  “They want to put this one behind themselves and forget about it pretty quick.  It really was one of those nights. We got off to a bad start and it just snowballed on us.  One thing I didn’t like was that if we are going to make mistakes, I want them to be aggressive mistakes.  I think some of the mistakes we saw tonight were passive and that is what bothers me. There wasn’t much positive to take from this one.  I think they were embarrassed out there tonight and they don’t need me to tell them about it.”

On the bright side, Scrappers pitchers recorded 12 strikeouts. RP Nate Striz had four strikeouts in relief, and Grant Sides struck out the side in the ninth.

These two teams meet again tomorrow night at Eastwood Field.  Expect a much different result.