Through the first four games of last week’s series at Hodgetown, things couldn’t have gone any better for the Amarillo Sod Poodles against the Wichita Wind Surge.
The price of that success, though, may have been reflected over the weekend and perhaps into this week.
After beating Wichita in the first four games of the series following two weeks away from home, the Sod Poodles were guaranteed a series win and the lead in the Texas League South Division second half standings. Even after losing two games Saturday and Sunday to close the series, they still led Midland by five games at the end of the week, and the Soddies (20-13) start a six-game series at Midland on Tuesday with a chance to create a bigger cushion atop the division.
The best news before the Sod Poodles head south to face the RockHounds in their shortest road trip of the season is that they’ll have all day Monday to forget about how the series ended Sunday. Three outs away from winning five out of six from Wichita, the bullpen fell apart, giving up 10 runs in the top of the ninth to fall 16-8, the second straight night the Sod Poodles gave up that many runs.
Two not-so-sweet 16s, though, couldn’t ruin four straight wins.
“We won the series and there are going to be games like this,” Sod Poodles manager Javier Colina said. “We turn the page and today’s over. I’m proud of my boys. It’s a long season and a grind and they never quit. When the game’s on the line they deliver.”
In contrast to the weekend, which included a 16-11 loss Saturday which broke a season high seven-game winning streak, the Sod Poodles had to scrape to get three of their four wins to start the week. They got two wins on walk-off home runs in showing some flair for dramatics.
Sunday’s game looked as if it could have the same conclusion. With the score tied and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Caleb Roberts hit an opposite field two-run homer to left, giving the Sod Poodles an 8-6 lead heading into the ninth.
Zane Russell, one of the linchpins of a reliable bullpen during the second half of the season, came on in relief and the game appeared to be in good hands. Russell, though, didn’t retire any of the five batters he faced at the top of Wichita’s lineup, as he gave up two hits and a walk before uncorking a wild pitch which allowed a run to score. Hendry Mendez then hit a two-run single to give the Wind Surge a 9-8 lead and what turned out to be the game-winning run before Russell was pulled.
New addition Dan Kubiuk relieved, and while he did retire Andrew Cossetti on a grounder to second which brought in a run, he didn’t fare much better. Rubel Cespedes drove in Mendez with a double, and after Kubiuk recorded another out, Wichita got five straight hits, concluding with Kala’i Rosario’s two-run homer which made it 16-8.
“Today is over and I don’t care what happened,” Colina said. “We’ve just got to move forward.”
The Soddies will have to do so without two key players who helped them get into their current lofty position in the standings. It might not have been a coincidence that first baseman Ivan Melendez and second baseman Tommy Troy weren’t on the roster for the weekend losses, as they were called up to Triple A Reno by the Sod Poodles major league parent club Arizona Diamondbacks.
Melendez, who had been with the Sod Poodles since 2023, is the franchise’s all-time home run leader with 50, the last of which came in appropriate fashion in Tuesday’s series opener.
The Sod Poodles trailed by a run heading into the bottom of the ninth and tied it when Gavin Conticello drew a walk from Joel Cesar to open the inning and scored on a one-out double by Jose Fernandez to tie it. With two outs, Melendez got under Cesar’s first pitch and skied it well beyond the left field fence for the game-winning shot in a 10-8 victory.
“I was just trying not to miss the heater inside in that situation,” Melendez said. “I was trying to square up a fastball but it came in pull side. I knew it wasn’t going to go foul because it had too much backspin.”
Ironically, for someone who has such prodigious power, that was the first walk-off homer as a pro for Melendez. It capped a big-time comeback for the Soddies, who trailed 8-3 going into the bottom of the seventh but ended the game with seven unanswered runs.
“We know how the ballpark plays and you can change the game with one swing of the bat playing in Hodgetown,” said Melendez, who’s probably hit as many balls out of the downtown Amarillo park as anybody in its seven years of existence. “The ballpark’s hitter-friendly. It was my first walk-off homer as a pro but I did have a few walk-off base hits, so this was pretty exciting for me.”
Not surprisingly, Melendez still leads the Sod Poodles with 16 homers this season, along with 43 RBIs with a .258 average. He made a big splash in his Reno debut Saturday, going 3-for-6 with a grand slam and a season high five RBIs in a 14-8 win over Las Vegas in a Pacific Coast League game.
Troy joined Melendez in Reno over the weekend. A first round pick out of Stanford who rose to the No. 5 prospect in the Diamondbacks organization in the last week, Troy played mostly second and usually batted second in the lineup, hitting .286 with 12 homers and 47 RBIs this year in his first season in Amarillo, and at the time of his promotion, was the team’s active leader in stolen bases with 21.
“This is what the minor leagues is all about,” Colina said. “They did what they were supposed to and got called up. I’m so happy for them. You want the big guys in the lineup. I’m proud of what those guys did all year long and I cannot wait to see those guys in the big leagues.”
Who’s here now
During a week of lots of comings and goings for the Sod Poodles during major league trade deadline week, Ben McLaughlin made his Amarillo debut Sunday, starting at first base. He made an impression, as in his second Double A at-bat, he blasted a solo homer to right to lead off the bottom of the fourth. McLaughlin was 2-for-4 and scored two runs in his debut after getting call up from Class A Hillsboro.
Also making his Hodgetown debut Sunday (although he threw in one game at Corpus Christi the previous week) was right-handed reliever Casey Anderson, another call-up from Hillsboro. Anderson threw three effective innings in relief of starter Alec Baker,striking out three with no walks and allowing one earned run.
Returning to Amarillo was outfielder Jack Hurley, who had been on the developmental list in Arizona. Hurley finished the week strong, as he was 2-for-4 with a double on Sunday.
Three other new pitchers were also on the roster over the weekend, although none of them threw for the Soddies. Two of them are familiar faces, but for different reasons.
Right-hander Yilber Diaz was called down from Reno and will likely be in the starting rotation. Diaz pitched one game for the Diamondbacks this season and also pitched extensively in Amarillo last season.
Left-hander Mitch Bratt, though, hasn’t been here before as a Sod Poodle. Bratt was in the Texas Rangers organization and pitched in Hodgetown for Frisco but is now a Sod Poodle after he was acquired from the Rangers organization for Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly.
Right-hander Hunter Cranton was acquired from the Seattle Mariners in the Eugenio Suarez trade. Cranton won’t make his Soddies debut for a while, though, as he’s been placed on the seven-day injured list.
Let’s play two
Thursday (on Thirsty Thursday no less) the Sod Poodles hosted a rare doubleheader by playing a pair of seven-inning games which were necessitated by a rainout Wednesday. They scored a pair of wins in quite contrasting fashion.
The Soddies led the whole way in the first game, as 7-2 win. Manuel Pena, who had probably the best offensive series of the week for the Sod Poodles, gave them the lead for good with a two-run homer in the bottom of the third. They put the game away with four runs in the fifth, as Jose Fernandez hit a three-run homer and Christian Cerda followed with a solo shot.
Jose Cabrera had a solid outing on the mound, throwing six innings and giving up only five hits and a run in the win.
The second game was a struggle at the plate for the Soddies from the outset, who stranded five runners in the first three innings, but after that had 12 straight batters fail to reach base until one out in the seventh, when Roberts and J.J. D’Orazio had back-to-back singles. With two outs and trailing 2-0, Pena blasted his second homer of the day to left-center, giving Amarillo a 3-2 win.
D’Orazio was a major factor in the win, not only scoring what would be the tying run, but throwing out two runners trying to steal, which was huge in a one-run game, gunning out Walker Jenkins at third base in the first inning and Jorel Ortega at second base to end the fifth
“The one at third base I saw jumping early so it was a good pitch to get momentum, you’ve just got to put it there,” D’Orazio said. “The one at second base was a great call by our bench coach (Jordan Procyshen). Ortega’s been really aggressive. We called a pitchout and it was the perfect timing.”
As it turned out, it was another tough luck outing for Sod Poodles starter Roman Angelo, who lately has thrown far better than his 2-8 record would indicate. The free agent from Fresno State threw five innings and gave up only four hits and one run, with seven strikeouts and no walks, but got a no decision due in part to his team’s struggles at the plate.
“We want starting pitchers to get deep into a game and give us a shot to win but sometimes it doesn’t go your way but you still want to give your team a shot to win,” Angelo said. “We’ve been winning close games so you know down to the wire something’s going to happen.”
Right-hander Landon Sims ended up getting the win by throwing a scoreless inning of relief in the seventh.
Another solid Endersby start
If there’s been a pleasant discovery for the Sod Poodles this season, it’s been right-hander Jimmy Endersby, who at the beginning of the season wasn’t even in affiliated professional baseball.
Endersby continued to justify his signing out of the Mexican League by the Diamondbacks with another stellar start Friday, going six innings in a 3-1 victory. The only blip on Endersby’s radar came in the top of the first when he gave up a solo homer to Rosario, but after that he gave up nothing.
In the final strong starting pitching outing of the week for the Sod Poodles, Endersby gave up only three hits. He’s now 3-2 on the season with a 2.48 ERA.
Jhosmer Alvarez, Russell and Sims each threw a scoreless inning of relief, with Sims throwing the ninth for his eighth save of the season.