Bakersfield well-represented in baseball’s postseason
It’s been four years since the Bakersfield Blaze vacated Sam Lynn Ballpark, but several of its former players continue to represent at a high level.
That was particularly evident while watching the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres battle it out in Game 2 of the National League Division Series in Arlington, Texas on Wednesday night.
With the Dodgers leading 6-3 in the top of the ninth, the tension built with virtually every offering from L.A. closer Kenley Jansen, and continued to heighten as Joe Kelly loaded the bases with two
walks as San Diego pulled to within one run.
The Dodgers held on for a 6-5 victory to take a 2-0 lead in the series, but former Blaze players were well represented throughout the game.
For starters, Dodgers hitting coach Brant Brown and third-base coach Dino Ebel both spent time in Bakersfield. Brown got his start as a hitting coach with the Blaze, the Texas Rangers Single-A affiliate during his tenure, in 2007 and 2008. He joined the Dodgers in 2017 as an assistant and is now in his second season in his current role.
Ebel was a player coach for the Bakersfield Dodgers from 1991 to 1994, and has been the third-base coach for L.A. the past three years.
In the other dugout, Padres manager Jayce Tingler also spent time in Bakersfield. In 56 games for the Blaze in 2006, Tingler hit .330 with 17 RBIs before being promoted midseason to the Rangers’ Double-A affiliate the Frisco Roughriders. The following year he retired from playing to become a coach. He signed a three-year deal to manage San Diego last October.
While television cameras continued to bounce between the action in the ninth and Tingler picking nervously on
his protective cloth mask, another former Blaze standout helped pull his team closer.
Mitch Moreland, who hit .341 with eight home runs and 26 RBIs in 43 games with the Blaze in 2009, ripped a pinch-hit, RBI-double with one out in the ninth, and one out later scored on a single by Trent Grisham to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 6-5.
Two other former Bakersfield pitchers, Emilio Pagan and Dan Altavilla, each tossed a scoreless inning of relief in the game. Pagan had a 2.53 ERA with eight saves for the Blaze in 2015, while his former Blaze teammate Altavilla was 6-12 with a 4.07 ERA as a starter that season. Altavilla was added to the postseason roster when Padres starter Mike Clevinger re-injured his elbow.
All told, 30 players with Bakersfield ties were assigned to 40-man rosters at some point this season, including former Centennial High standout Tyler
Burnes, who had a breakout season for the Milwaukee Brewers, and former Cal State Bakersfield lefthander Austin Davis, a reliever with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Of the 30, 15 players were on postseason rosters, but should San Diego be eliminated on Thursday, Tampa Bay pitcher Ryan Yarbrough would be the last remaining Blaze player
still in action. Yarbrough was 4-7 with a 3.76 ERA in 16 starts for Bakersfield in 2015. He tossed a 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief against the New York Yankees before Gleybar Torres connected for a two-run home run in Thursday’s Game 4 of the American League Division Series.
Heading into Thursday’s action, former Blaze pitchers had combined to throw 10 scoreless innings during this year’s playoffs. Pagan, Altavilla and Yarbrough, and relievers Michael Lorenzen (2013 Blaze) from the Reds, the Marlins’ Richard Bleier (2009 Blaze) have teamed to allowed four hits and two walks, while striking out 10 during that stretch.
Tingler is one of three Major League managers with Bakersfield ties, who took their respective teams to the postseason, joining second-year skipper’s Charlie Montoyo and Rocco Baldelli.
Montoyo, who managed the Blaze in 2001 and 2002, guided the Toronto Blue Jays to the playoffs for just the second time in the last 26 years. Baldelli played for Montoyo in Bakersfield in 2002, and led the Minnesota Twins to their second straight playoff appearance. Both teams were eliminated in the wild-card round.
Despite the Bakersfield alumnus’ early departure from the playoffs, the Major Leagues continue to have a local flavor, even as the memories of affiliated minor league baseball fades with each passing season.