Going into their six-game series at home against the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Sod Poodles had a one-game lead over the Hooks in the Texas League South division in the last series of the season between the two teams. They were guaranteed to still keep that lead going into Sunday’s series finale, but didn’t build on it, as the Hooks scored eight runs in the third inning to take control and rout the Soddies 14-8 to salvage a series split and stay a game behind Amarillo in the second half standings.
So, the Sod Poodles (20-13) ended the series with the glass half-full. At least that’s the way manager Shawn Roof saw it.
“We played good baseball for six games and that’s a really good team over there,” said Roof in praise of his team and the Hooks. “They’re aggressive and they can play defense, just like us. When you go up against good teams like that, to earn a split and stay in first place is nice. We were a couple of pitches away from maybe winning the series and in their minds they were too.”
The teams took turns winning in the series, as nobody won back-to-back games, with the Sod Poodles winning the first, third and fifth games and the Hooks (19-14) winning the second, fourth and sixth games. How the weekend transpired typified the competitiveness of the series.
After falling behind by five runs Saturday night, the Sod Poodles rallied to tie the game, and in the bottom of the ninth, Seth Beer led off with a walk-off homer to right field to give the Soddies an 8-7 victory and guarantee they’d end the series with the division lead. Contrast that to Wednesday night, when they squandered a five-run lead and Corpus ended the game with seven unanswered runs for a 13-11 victory, and you get the gist of the series.
“That’s just baseball,” Roof said. “That’s really good thing about our team is that we never quit no matter what the score is. You saw the same kind of grittiness and character in (the Hooks) as well.”
There was probably more inventive for the Hooks going into Sunday’s game, since they needed a win to stay within a game of the Sod Poodles. The Soddies got the upper hand in the series finale when Caleb Roberts hit a two-out solo homer to right off Hooks starter Angel Macuare to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Sod Poodles starter Luke Albright allowed baserunners in each of the first two innings and looked as if he was going to get out of a bases loaded, no-out jam with two outs in the third. But that was the highlight of the day for the pitching staff.
Albright walked Jordan Brewer to force in Corpus Christi’s first run, then gave up a two-run single to Garrett Wolforth which gave the Hooks the lead for good and forced Albright out of the game. Reliever Dillon Larsen fared little better, giving up an RBI single to J.C. Correa and later a two-run double by Kennedy Corona.
In all, six straight Hooks reached base and they led 8-1 at the end of the inning. Albright, who struck out 10 in five innings in Tuesday’s series opener to earn the win in a 7-5 victory, didn’t have one of his better outings one night after the Sod Poodles used six pitchers to win.
“Whether you’re light in the bullpen or not, when your starter only gets through 2 2/3 innings, it’s going to put stress on you,” Roof said. “Luckily we have an off day (Monday). Albright missed with a couple of pitches here and there and it was a good lesson there.”
The Sod Poodles ended the day by using seven pitchers, including two position players to close out the last two innings. Nick Dalesandro threw the eighth and gave up a solo homer to Corona and Jesus Valdez, an infielder called up to the team earlier in the week and who hasn’t made a plate appearance yet, threw a scoreless ninth.
“When we have guys in the bullpen ready to go we’re not thinking about position players,” Roof said. “We had some guys that were down and we ran out of innings and some position players picked us up. Dalesandro has a big arm and he’s always ready in a pinch to go.”
Not so light Beer
The most dramatic moment of the series appropriately came Saturday night as a lead-in to the usual postgame fireworks show. On the second pitch of the inning, Beer blasted Hooks reliever Logan VenWey’s offering over the right field fence to end the game and guarantee the Sod Poodles a series split.
Beer didn’t pretend that he wasn’t thinking about ending the game with one swing.
“I’m only human, so yes, of course,” said Beer of wanting a game-ending homer. “At the end of the day, the thought to me was I’ve just got to control my emotions. I’ve had a couple of situations like that and I’ve failed at times and had some success and I know if you try to do too much you’re definitely not going to do it.
“That’s a surreal feeling which is kind of hard to explain, but once I made contact, I knew the ball was going to go out of the ballpark and the game would be over.”
However, Saturday wasn’t close to the most memorable walk-off homer of Beer’s career. On April 7, 2022, while playing for the Sod Poodles’ parent club Arizona Diamondbacks on opening day, Beer hit a walk-off three-run homer to beat the San Diego Padres 4-2 on what was coincidentally National Beer Day.
That was certainly special, but Beer isn’t playing down his game-ender at Hodgetown.
“They’re always cool,” Beer said. “To hit a walk-off homer in a game, guys dream about that, even dreaming about wiffle ball.”
Former Sod Poodles change uniforms
During the Major League Baseball trade deadline last week, three former Sod Poodles, two of whom played for the team this season, were traded by the Diamondbacks.
Last Monday, outfielder Dominic Canzone and second baseman Ryan Bliss were part of a deal with the Seattle Mariners as the Diamondbacks shipped them to the northwest for reliever Paul Sewald. Canzone, who played in Amarillo for part of the 2021 and 2022 seasons, was called up to the Diamondbacks in early July, and 11 days before he was traded, hit his first major league homer against the Atlanta Braves.
Bliss started the season at Amarillo and was promoted to Class AAA Reno in early July. He was leading the Texas League in hitting with Amarillo before his promotion.
Also traded was right-handed pitcher Chad Patrick, who was sent to the Oakland A’s for second baseman Jace Peterson. Patrick started 19 games for the Sod Poodles and was 4-7 with a 4.71 ERA.
“Unfortunately, it’s part of the business,” said Roof, who managed Canzone, Bliss and Patrick. “You grow to love these guys and build a relationship with them. There’s a lot of time with them on and off the field. It’s always tough to lose guys. It’s better to see a guy get traded than released.”