The Curse of the Red Jerseys

The Blue Crabs are unable to win at home in red jerseys. Not a single home Friday night game has been won where the Blue Crabs wear All-American red jerseys, nor have the Blue Crabs won when wearing their newest red jerseys during day games. The first game of the Double-Header the Blue Crabs wore their new red jerseys and lost, giving starting pitcher John Halama his first loss of the season.

The First game of the double header was delayed by rain but that didn't stop the Revolution from getting out to an early lead off a Keoni DeRenne double. He would come in to score following two groundouts. The Revs would score another run in the top of the 4th after a single by Matt Padgett who would score on the Tom Collaro double. Both runs were charged to Pitcher John Halama, as he would pitch the entire game. He surrendered 6 hits, walked 3 batters, hit one batter and struck out six. He gave up only one fly out that was to the third baseman Chuck Jeroloman.

Offensively in the first game we had one run, scored in the bottom of the 4th after a lead off single by James Shanks who scored on Travis Garcia's single. We simply couldn't string the hits together. The curse of the Red Jerseys was alive and well as what is normally a powerful offense for us was shut down completely.

Our powerful offense however would show its might in the second game of the double header. After a rain delay following the hitless first inning the boys came out swinging for the fences. With the first homerun of the night and the game winning RBI first basemen Eric Crozier hit a bomb to the short porch in left going over the top of the picnic pavilion. Travis Garcia singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by James Shanks. Captain Jeremy Owens would also get on base and come in to score on the second homerun of the inning hit by catcher Lance Burkhart who creamed the ball over the left field wall to the roof of the clubhouse. In the third we would come out swinging again. Designated hitter Patrick Osborn would be walked following a Jermy Acey ground out, and would come home on an Eric Crozier RBI double. Eric would then score on a Travis Garcia single, and Travis would come in to score with James Shanks following his homerun to deep left field. The Last of consecutive scoring innings would come in the 4th where following an Eric Crozier walk Travis would hit a homer getting 2 more RBIs and bring the Blue Crabs lead to 10-0. We got one additional run in the 6th to bring the final score to 11-0.

Defensively our pitching was unbeatable. Making only his second appearance as a starter Edward Rodriguez went 5 innings taking a no-no into the top of the 4th where he gave up his first hit. The 4th would turn out to be his worst inning of the night giving up 3 singles though the Revolution were unable to capitalize on any of them. Edward struck out and walked only one batter on the night. In the 6th Jimmy Serrano would come in and finish off the game. Giving up no runs, he walked only one batter.

In Other Blue Crabs News: The ballots for the all-star game have been announced and our Blue Crabs have the following players available to be voted for:
1st- Eric Crozier
2nd- Chuck Jeroloman
3rd- Patrick Osborn
SS- Travis Garcia
Outfield- Richard Giannotti, Jeremy Owens, and James Shanks
Catcher- Lance Burkhart
DH- Jermy Acey

Following the Split of the double header the Blue Crabs are still in first place, 2 games ahead of Long Island, 3.5 games ahead of Camden and 8.5 games ahead of Bridgeport. Following tonight’s home game the Blue Crabs will take to the road to face the Newark Bears in a 4 game stand with an off day on the 8th. They will then see the Somerset Patriots at home, the first meeting of the two teams all year. The Patriots have the best record in the entire Atlantic League and are 1.5 games ahead of us for that title.