As of this week, the Amarillo Sod Poodles are in the ideal position to establish themselves in the second half of the Texas League South division race.

Starting Tuesday at Hodgetown, they have a chance to do even more than that.

After losing four of six at home to Arkansas to open the second half of TL play, the Sod Poodles made a major statement in last week’s six-game “split” series against the Midland RockHounds. They won two of the first three games at Midland, then in a quick return to Amarillo for three more games, they pulled off their first Hodgetown sweep of the season, capping things Sunday by holding on for a 6-5 victory which gave them five wins in six games over Midland.

In the very early stages of the TL South race, the Sod Poodles are tied with Corpus Christi atop the division with a 7-5 record.  Following an uneven first half of the season, the Soddies appear to be playing their best baseball as they’re in the middle of their most favorable scheduling stretch of the season, with 15 of their first 18 games to open the second half of the season taking place at Hodgetown.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that everybody’s doing their job,” Sod Poodles manager Javier Colina said. “It’s a great combination when you pitch, play good defense and hit you know good things are going to happen. I’m proud of my crew, they’ve come a long way and they want to win.”

Colina has to hope his team carries that over starting Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. at Hodgetown, when the Soddies continue their homestand by opening a six-game series with the Frisco RoughRiders.

The Sod Poodles had good moments in all three aspects of the game at Hodgetown, but what provided the foundation was three strong starting pitching performances at a park not always known to be hospitable to whoever takes the mound. Right-handers Roman Angelo, Jimmy Endersby (a new addition) and Jose Cabrera all picked up victories with solid starts to take some heat off the bullpen.

“We’re going through a good moment right now with pitching,” Colina said. “The past week was the opposite when we burned the bullpen and the bullpen was tired. We had plenty of arms ready to come in this week and get the job done.”

The first two games on the mound at Hodgetown were feel-good stories for the rotation but for different reasons.

Angelo, who is tied with Cabrera for the most starts on the Soddies this season with 16, might have been the most snakebit starting pitcher in the Texas League this year. He was 0-8 entering Friday’s start, but had pitched well enough to have at least a couple of wins.

A 2023 free agent signing from Fresno State by the Soddies major league parent club Arizona Diamondbacks, Angelo had the longest starting outing for the Soddies this past week, going 6 1/3 innings and giving up only four hits and one run with nine strikeouts in a 6-1 victory which finally got him in the win column.

“It’s definitely something you think about because you’re here to win, so when you go out there every five or six days and you’re not putting up wins you’re not helping the team,” Angelo said. “It’s not necessarily thinking about how to win but doing the things it takes to win. It’s been a grind but my teammates and coaches have had my back and that makes it a lot better.”

This is Angelo’s first season in Amarillo after spending last season in the far more pitcher-friendly confines at Class A Hillsboro, which can be a culture shock for those pitchers making the transition. When the wind is especially blowing out of the south, pitchers become acutely aware that their ERAs can take a serious hit.

Angelo acknowledges it takes a few starts at Hodgetown to learn about what matters as far as pitch location.

 “I think the biggest difference is just the mindset,” Angelo said. “If you come in here and you’re thinking you’re going to have a disadvantage, you’re going to have a disadvantage. You’ve got to go out there and make pitches the way you do whether it’s on the moon or at sea level. That’s got to be your only focus or you’re not helping yourself.”

If Angelo has become overly familiar with Hodgetown this season, Endersby entered his start Saturday the complete opposite. Endersby was signed by the Diamondbacks at the beginning of last week and assigned to Amarillo, where he made his first appearance as a Sod Poodle on Saturday night.

Whatever expectations there might have been for Endersby, its safe to say he met them, as he went five innings, scattering six hits, allowing two runs, striking out six and walking only one to get the win in a 10-2 victory.

Endersby is hardly a newby in terms of professional baseball. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in 2020 and made it as far as Triple-A, and also appeared at Hodgetown pitching for the Astros Double-A affiliate Corpus Christi.

In 2024, Endersby pitched in the Chicago Cubs organization and was throwing in the Mexican League when he got called by the Diamondbacks and made his Sod Poodles debut.

“I just tried to have fun, man,” Endersby said. “I came here in 2021 and threw for Corpus against Amarillo and I was lucky to throw five innings with no runs and I was hoping that would be the last time I threw in Amarillo because you never know what can happen here. I’m happy that I got to go out and compete.”

Endersby fits the prototype of the well-traveled minor leaguer and could be a key addition to the staff in the second half of the season. In that regard, Colina sees him as a known quantity.

“He has Double-A experience,” said Colina of Endersby. “He was throwing in the summer league in Mexico and he knows how to pitch. What’s crazy is I was talking with the Midland manager (Gregorio Petit) who’s a good friend of mine and he had (Endersby) two years ago in Corpus Christi and he told me he was a great guy and a great teammate so we’re happy to have him here and help us.”

With their top two starters from the first half of the season, right-hander Dylan Ray and left-hander Spencer Giesting both getting called up to Reno, that’s left two big holes in the starting rotation. Someone has to step up and fill those innings.

Endersby looks as likely as anybody to get that shot and throw again at Hodgetown this week, but he isn’t assuming anything.

“Whatever I can do to help the team win,” Endersby said. “You never know what can happen in baseball but five runs in two innings, I’ll take it any day.”

Cabrera ended the series on the hill for the Sod Poodles, and he was steady as expected. The Dominican Republic native went six innings, and although he walked five, he gave up only two hits and one run to earn the victory.

The Soddies never trailed Sunday, taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first and extending it to 3-0 in the fourth on a solo home run to left by Christian Cerda. They went up 6-1 in the sixth when Gavin Conticello drove in a run with a single and Cerda capped the inning with a two-run double to center.

That was huge, since the Sod Poodles needed some cushion for the last two innings. Gerardo Gutierrez relieved Cabrera in the seventh and was greeted with a homer by Luke Mann and a sacrifice fly by Drew Smith to cut it to 6-3 before he was pulled for Zane Russell.

An error loaded the bases with one out, but Russell got T.J. Schofield-Sam to ground into a double play (his third of the game) to end the inning.

Russell pitched a scoreless eighth before yielding to Landon Sims, who had an adventurous save in the ninth. Sims gave up singles to the bottom three hitters in Midland’s lineup to bring home a run and an RBI single by Euribiel Angeles cut it to 6-5, but Sims retired the final two batters on groundouts to end the game.

Robinson returns

After spending a week on the injured list, centerfielder Kristian Robinson returned to the leadoff spot in the lineup, and when the Soddies got back home Friday, he made his impact.

Robinson drove in the first run at home in the series with a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the third and spark the Sod Poodles to a three-run lead and early momentum. For the series at Hodgetown, Robinson was 4-for-10 and scored three runs.

“It’s strange with the first three games in Midland with the rain and the delays it didn’t really feel like the first game back,” Robinson said. “Coming back here it helped spark the offense and helped solidify that spot back on the roster with the guys.”

Short trip was successful

The first three games of the week in Midland represented not only the shortest road trip of the season for the Sod Poodles in terms of duration, but also in travel, as the two teams are closer to each other distance wise than they are any other teams in the Texas League. Fortunately for the Soddies, they got things off on the right foot, if not that conventionally.

In Tuesday’s opener, the Sod Poodles scored seven runs in the third and fourth innings before the game was halted after four innings due to rain. They finished it Wednesday and won 7-1.

Later Wednesday, the teams played an abbreviated seven-inning game, which the Sod Poodles won 5-2, as Alec Baker, who’s been converted to the starting rotation from the bullpen, threw 5 2/3 innings, giving up only four hits and one run.

Thursday, the Sod Poodles suffered their only loss of the week, 7-1 before returning home.