Nothing is ever perfect, but you have to do some nitpicking to find some fault with what’s going on with the Amarillo Sod Poodles lately.
The good and not so good were on display this past weekend to conclude the Soddies six-game series against Corpus Christi at Hodgetown. All the negative stuff was swept under the rug emphatically in the series finale Sunday, as the Sod Poodles used two big innings in the middle of the game to roll to a 17-9 victory and win the series by a 4-2 margin.
Not only did the win keep the Sod Poodles (28-17) atop the Texas League South division second half standings, but it was their fifth straight series win. That’s the longest such streak in franchise history.
It might have been the quintessential Hodgetown weekend in terms of offense. For the second straight game, both teams had double digits in hits, as things went the way of Corpus Christi in Saturday’s 10-4 win which gave the Hooks (17-27) a chance to leave town with a series split the next day.
The Sod Poodles made sure that didn’t happen in staying hot in the second half of the season. Soddies manager Javier Colina is happy with another series win, but not completely satisfied.
“The goal is winning every series from now on and trying to take care of one day at a time,” Colina said. “I know we won but I still believe we can play better and definitely pitch better. I don’t want to hear about this park because both teams play in it, but we’ve got to get better because we’ve got great competition ahead of us. Out pitching staff has to execute better pitches and not give up so many two-strike singles.”
Neither team had very inspiring pitching numbers over the weekend at hitter-friendly Hodgetown, especially Sunday. The teams combined for 28 hits Sunday (they both had 16 on Saturday), but the difference was how well the Sod Poodles delivered.
Saturday night, the Sod Poodles left 10 runners on base (for good measure, Corpus Christi left 14). Sunday, they didn’t leave as many ducks on the pond, as they left only four runners on base.
It didn’t hurt that the Sod Poodles hit six homers to close the series, including three by Christian Cerda.
“They turned three double plays (Saturday),” Colina said of the Hooks. “Today we hit the ball well and dropped the ball in the gaps and got some home runs with runners in scoring position. We took advantage of those moments.”
The Sod Poodles fell in an early hole when starter Alec Baker gave up a single to Zach Cole and a mammoth homer to right-center by Wes Clarke to fall behind 2-0. After that, all the long balls belonged to the Soddies.
In the bottom of the inning, the Sod Poodles had back-to-back two-out homers to go up 4-2. Ben McLaughlin hit a three-run bomb to right field which put the Sod Poodles on the board.
McLaughlin is an example of how the Soddies have reloaded offensively even without the likes of Kristian Robinson, Tommy Troy and Ivan Melendez, all of whom have been promoted by the Soddies major league parent club Arizona Diamondbacks to their Triple A affiliate in Reno. In nine games since getting called up from Hillsboro, McLaughlin is hitting .353 with three homers and 12 RBIs.
Later in the game, McLaughlin singled and doubled and had a chance to hit for the cycle in the eighth, but instead drew a walk.
“I’m just trying to do what makes me good and play the same game I’ve always played,” McLaughlin said. “Playing in a lineup like ours makes it a lot easier. They’ve got to stay in the zone and throw to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve hit a triple, but it was definitely in the back of my head.”
McLaughlin didn’t get the cycle, but Cerda ended up in the Sod Poodles record books. Right after McLaughlin’s homer, Cerda followed with a shot to left to make it 4-2.
Cerda tied the game 6-6 with another solo homer in the fourth, and he appropriately enough capped the scoring with a monster two-run shot in the eighth which also brought home McLaughlin.
It was a career day for Cerda, who was 4-for-4 with six RBIs and five runs scored, as the Hooks never retired him. His final homer made him the fourth player in franchise history to hit three in a game, as he joins Edward Olivares (2019), AJ Vukovich and Seth Beer (2023) as the only Sod Poodles to pull off the homer hat trick in a game.
“I was just in there trying to have good at-bats and eventually I got the barrel on the ball,” said Cerda, who leads the Sod Poodles with 17 homers this season, which is second in the Texas League. “This week was a pretty rough week for me. I got only one base hit in four games and I got hit on the hand. It was a comeback and I was not trying to do too much and it paid off.”
Cerda’s second homer began an outburst of 10 unanswered runs by the Sod Poodles. They batted around in the fifth, taking the lead for good on Gavin Conticello’s two-run homer to right. Jean Walters capped the inning with a three-run double to right which made it 11-6 and gave the Sod Poodles the momentum for good.
The Soddies added four more in the sixth, capped by a two-run homer by Caleb Roberts which made it 15-6.
It’s a testament to the depth of their lineup that the Sod Poodles had such a huge offensive game despite the face that the top two hitters in their lineup, Manuel Pena and Ryan Waldschmidt, both went hitless. At that, they both drew walks off Nic Swanson to open the bottom of the first and scored the game’s first runs on McLaughlin’s homer.
Pena and Waldschmidt had arguably been the team’s hottest hitters over the prior five games, but their lumber wasn’t missed. Everybody else in the lineup got a hit and everybody except No. 9 hitter Walters scored a run.
“I got a lot of respect for Troy, Melendez and Robinson,” Colina said. “They did what they had to to move to the next level. We have to play with what we’ve got right now. We have to compete and the guys who get called up here click right away and join the culture and it’s fun to watch.”
Fernandez shines with bat, glove
Perhaps nobody on the Sod Poodles roster was happier to see Corpus Christi come to town than shortstop Jose Fernandez. As the Texas League RBI leader, Fernandez showed why against the Hooks.
Fernandez is hitting .302 for the season against Corpus Christi (he’s hitting .282 overall) and has a 10-game hitting streak against the Hooks. The Venezuela native first made his presence in the series felt in Tuesday’s a series opener, where his solo homer to left in the seventh provided the difference in a 2-1 win.
“(Corpus Christi’s) pitching staff throws a lot of breaking balls so the game plan changes a little bit and I’m a little more patient,” said Fernandez through an interpreter, Soddies catcher and fellow Venezuelan J.J. D’Orazio. “I’ve had a lot of success and I’m going to keep doing that until they stop me.”
Fernandez might not seem to have the flash or the hype that other Sod Poodles have shown offensively this season, but that hasn’t made him less effective. He’s rather quietly inched his way up the stats list to lead the Texas League in RBIs.
As such, Fernandez has become known as the “RBI machine.”
“It’s mainly understanding how the one with the pressure is the pitcher, so that makes me more comfortable and confident in the situation,” Fernandez said. “I just wait for the right pitch in the zone.”
Fernandez showed he wasn’t one-dimensional in the first two games of the series by making plays with his glove. In the top of the eighth Tuesday night after his go-ahead homer with the Soddies holding on to a one-run lead with no outs and a runner on first, Fernandez fielded a grounder up the middle by Wes Clarke and made an improbable backhand toss to second for a force out.
Following a walk with two runners on base, Fernandez then robbed Orlando Martinez of a hit by snagging a line drive and tossed the ball to second to double off pinch runner Jeron Williams and end the inning.
In Wednesday’s 8-3 victory, the Sod Poodles ended each of the last four innings by turning double plays, all of which involved Fernandez. For good measure, Fernandez ended the scoring with a solo homer in the eighth.
“It’s a very important part of the game,” Fernandez said. “I understand that and make it a part of my priority as a ballplayer. I try to make every single routine play and the one percent plays not everybody’s capable of doing.”
Logan triples his pleasure
While Fernandez has been a fixture for the Sod Poodles all season, promotions and vacancies have given some newer faces an opportunity to shine. Catcher-designated hitter Gavin Logan was the latest to get a chance to do that in his Hodgetown debut.
Logan was brought to Amarillo from Reno a week earlier, and he made his Hodgetown debut Wednesday night. After going hitless in his first two at-bats, in the bottom of the fifth Logan lined a ball to deep right-center into what’s known as Hodgetown’s “triple triangle”, and indeed, tallied a stand-up triple.
Pena drove Logan home with a single, giving Logan his first Hodgetown run as well.
“When it bounced up and they didn’t get it in all that quick I said I guess I’ll try,” said the 5-foot-10, 212-pound Logan of going for three. “I’m not really known for my speed so it was very, very cool. I’ve played with just about everybody in the locker room from years prior, so I was really anxious to see their faces again. Coming in when they’re doing really well and have a chance to win the second half championship, I’m really looking forward to the journey.”
Roberts lights it up
It seems that just about everybody who hit last week for the Soddies had a special moment or two before the series ended, but perhaps the biggest night for anyone at Hodgetown was the one Caleb Roberts had in Friday night’s 12-6 victory.
Roberts had as efficient a night as any Sod Poodles hitter this season. He was 3-for-5 with two doubles and a home run and seven RBIs, a single-game high for any Soddies hitter this season.
When the bases were loaded was when Roberts came up biggest. In the bottom of the fourth, Roberts hit a grand slam to give the Sod Poodles an 8-2 cushion, which proved to be too much for the Hooks to overcome.
The next time Roberts came up in the bottom of the sixth, the bases were loaded again, and this time he delivered a two-run double.
Droning on and on for the second time
Roberts wasn’t the only one responsible for lighting things up Friday night at Hodgetown. That night marked the first of two consecutive postgame drone shows which for the first time, were combined with Friday’s traditional postgame fireworks.
It was the second time this season the Sod Poodles had postgame drone shows on Friday and Saturday nights, as they also did so in mid-June. This season fans got twice as many drone shows as before, as drones made their debut on a weekend during last season.
Sod Poodles president and general manager Tony Ensor likes the idea of the drones becoming a Hodgetown staple.
“We made the decision early in the year that we wanted to bring something dramatic to Amarillo,” Ensor said. “We stuck our toe in the water in 2024 with two drone shows. It was such a success and our fans loved it so much we doubled down and brought four in this year. It’s the most expensive promotion we do on any night but our fans love it and they respond to it.”
Friday night fireworks have always been a postgame staple at Hodgetown, and that’s almost certain to remain a tradition at Hodgetown. Drone shows, though, literally present things in a different light.
Ensor sees the rarity and intricacy of drone shows as an unusual attraction at the ballpark.
“You don’t get to see a drone show all the time,” Ensor said. “I see kids just looking at the technology in the sky and the science behind it and maybe it can inspire them to want to do something in a technical field. I’m the biggest kid in the ballpark and I can’t take my eyes off them. Our staff takes two to three months creating the narration, coreography and music score and matching it up.”
Ensor said he’d like to bring another drone show to Hodgetown next season, although dates haven’t been nailed down. This year has been a big enough success.
“From what I understand, we had more drone shows than this year than any minor league team or major league team,” Ensor said. “We went all out this year.”