Boo! Stanton Ks five more times in loss to Orioles
TRENTON » The Thunder and Flying Squirrels finished their four-game set by taking MiLB’s new extra-innings rule out for a spin.
The end result was exactly what the powers to be envisioned when they put it in place for the season.
Aramis Garcia doubled home Ryan Howard, who started the 10th inning on second base, and Richmond stranded the tieing run on third base in the bottom half of the frame to beat the Thunder, 3-2, and spilt the opening series at Arm & Hammer Park.
The new format adopts the international tiebreaker where a runner — almost always the batter who made the final out of the previous inning — begins each extra frame on second base.
The idea is to protect the players by shortening the length of games.
“I think it will protect arms and keep guys from over-pitching,” Thunder manager Jay Bell said. “The rules that are in place right now, and who knows what is going to happen in the future, but this is the first year of trying it and so far it’s doing it’s job.”
The Thunder (2-2) successfully sacrificed Ben Ruta to third in their half of the 10th, but Ray Black came on in relief of Ryan Halstead and fanned both Chace Numata and Gosuke Katoh to end the game.
Bell acknowledged that strategy may differ depending on situations. If the Squirrels (2-2) had scored multiple runs in the top of the inning then he likely doesn’t give up an out to move the runner to third.
“I’ll probably approach it a number of different ways depending on the hitter and whether he’s a bunt-guy or not,” Bell said. “At the same time, I want to make sure these guys do their best in those situations swinging the bats, too. You want to put yourself in the greatest situation to score runs and sometimes it means bunt and sometimes it means swing the bat.”
Yet if the goal is to protect players from injury then why not end the game in a tie?
“We like to win,” Bell said. “Everyone who straps on a uniform and puts on their spikes they’re not going out there to play for a tie. They’re playing to win the baseball game.”
Richmond took a 2-0 lead in the first off Thunder starter Will Carter on an RBI double by Jerry Sands before Carter walked the next three batters to force in a run.
Jhalan Jackson knotted the score at two in the second with a two-run shot to center. Jackson has homered in three straight games and is the first Thunder player to accomplish that since Gary Sanchez did it in four consecutive games in 2015.
Ruta, the West WindsorPlainsboro South grad, went 3-for-4 and has five hits in the last two games.