It’s hard to imagine things getting any rougher after last week’s trip to Frisco, especially the way it ended.
For the first time this season, the Sod Poodles didn’t manage a single win out of a six-game series when they left town to take on the Frisco RoughRiders. With a chance to at least salvage a win Sunday and end a losing streak, the Soddies continued to struggle offensively, as Frisco scored three runs in the first and the Sod Poodles never responded in losing 12-0.
That concluded a series sweep of the Sod Poodles (26-37) at the hands of the Texas League South Division leaders Frisco (43-20). It also extended Amarillo’s losing streak to seven games, one which began at Hodgetown against the Tulsa Drillers.
The Soddies return to Hodgetown for a six-game series against the San Antonio Missions, starting Tuesday at 7:05 p.m., when they hope their fortunes have to start turning.
They had already known for over 24 hours that there was no way they were even going to manage a series split with Frisco after losing the first four games of the series. Sunday’s loss was the most lopsided of the series, as most of the other games were fairly competitive.
If there was some good news, it was the continued consistency of right-hander Billy Corcoran, who after Saturday’s start lowered his ERA to 2.36, but still didn’t have a win to show for it. Corcoran took the loss, 6-1, but didn’t give up an unearned run.
The Sod Poodles took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a solo home run by Ivan Melendez, but the RoughRiders scored five unearned runs off Corcoran in the bottom of the fourth to take control.
That homer by Melendez was the only run for the Sod Poodles in the last 19 innings of the series, as they didn’t score more than three runs in any game of the series and had a total of only 10 in six games. The closest they came to winning was Friday, when they scored a run in the top of the ninth to force extra innings before losing 4-3 in 10 innings.