Road, sweet road

Blue Crabs move into first place in Liberty

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs are hopeful their latest road-warrior ways will yield the same type of championship results within the Atlantic League.

So impressive were the Blue Crabs during their three-city stop, which concluded Sunday, that their gaudy 8-3 record during the journey took precedence over the fact that it was a franchise-record 11-game road trip.

The Blue Crabs punctuated the trip in dominant fashion by sweeping a four-game series at fellow Liberty Division contender Long Island while never trailing at any point during the weekend.

Both teams were tied for second place in the division entering their matchup.

After outscoring Long Island by a combined 30-5 laugher through the four games — with wins of 6-2 Friday, 7-0 and 6-0 in Saturday's doubleheader and 11-3 Sunday — the Blue Crabs separated themselves from their New York threat in the standings. Both teams had Monday off.

More importantly, the blazing Blue Crabs had ascended into first place in the division with their 32-24 mark entering Tuesday thanks to winning 10 of their previous 13 games, leading Camden (31-24) by a half game. Beginning Tuesday, only 14 games remained on the Blue Crabs' slate in the first half of the season. Winning the first-half division title clinches a playoff spot.

And the Blue Crabs returned home Tuesday to start a three-game series with the league's worst team in Newark (18-38).

After the accomplished road trip, the expectation was to sweep Newark for the Blue Crabs.

Tuesday's contest finished too late for inclusion into this edition.

"On the 10-day road trip, as soon as we got on the bus, you could feel the excitement," said Blue Crabs starting pitcher Dan Reichert, who has won his last four outings to improve to 7-4 and lower his ERA to 3.41. His wins, ERA and 59 strikeouts are among the league leaders. "We wanted to get [to the stadium] as soon as we could, get our uniforms on and get to the field. We'd go to the field knowing we were going to win. It's fun going to the field when you're doing well like this. When you play loose, you play better. The looseness of the dugout and clubhouse really adds to the excitement.

"After that last game at Long Island, a lot of the guys said it didn't feel like it was a 10-day road trip. The 5 1/2 hours on the bus [back from Long Island] seemed like 1 1/2 hours."

Reichert added, "Right now, we're riding so high I think we could play the Yankees or Diamondbacks and beat them, hands down. We're not really looking at our opponent."

The Blue Crabs have won five of their last six series. The one during that span they did not claim was a split in four games at Bridgeport (Conn.) preceding their success in Long Island.

The Blue Crabs won two of the first three in Bridgeport before falling short Thursday, 4-1, in the series finale — the last time they lost entering Tuesday.

Reichert was the ringleader in the Blue Crabs flexing their league-leading pitching muscle against Long Island. He tossed a complete game in Saturday's doubleheader opener with 10 strikeouts and just two walks while allowing seven hits during his nine innings. None of those Long Island hits went for extra bases.

Reichert's performance came during a masterful Blue Crabs showing on the mound that included 33 1/3 straight innings of scoreless pitching from Friday through Sunday.

Kenny Rayborn started the run for the Blue Crabs during his quality six-inning start Friday, the last three frames in shutout fashion. The Blue Crabs bullpen was also key, blanking Long Island the rest of the way Friday.

"Reichert and Rayborn, the way they've been pitching is the way they envisioned it to be throughout the year," Blue Crabs third baseman Pat Osborn said of his team's lead arms in the pitching rotation that struggled to start the season. "They are throwing the ball well now."

In Saturday's nightcap of the doubleheader, the bullpen combined with starter Joe Newby — usually a reliever — in stellar fashion to toss 12 shutout innings.

The Blue Crabs offense broke that scoreless contest open with six runs in the 12th thanks to three home runs off the bats of Osborn, Eric Crozier and Christian Lopez.

Long Island finally managed its first run in three games against Blue Crabs' pitching in Sunday's lopsided affair, getting a solo tally in the fifth against starter Craig Anderson. By then, the Blue Crabs were well on their way to victory after scoring the first nine runs of the game. Anderson improved to 2-0 in just his third start for the Blue Crabs, his ERA at a skimpy 1.93 through 14 innings.

The Blue Crabs pitchers got plenty of help in walloping Long Island, as Southern Maryland's defense was error-free in the series while its bats continued their run-producing power surge. Such defensive and offensive assistance was inconsistent at best until this month.

Second baseman Casey Benjamin fueled the Blue Crabs bats with a run of three straight games from Thursday through Saturday's doubleheader opener with at least one extra-base hit. He resumed his extra-base hitting Sunday.

From Thursday through Sunday, Benjamin's potent bat produced two homers — giving him six on the season entering Tuesday — two triples and a double, raising his batting average to .298 through Sunday.

Osborn, Matt Craig and Jeremy Owens also enjoyed big hits for the Blue Crabs throughout the Long Island series. Osborn parked a pair of homers, totaling six entering Tuesday, during the four games, while Craig produced eight hits — three in each of the final two contests including his seventh long ball Sunday.

Craig's .343 batting average was third in the league entering Tuesday.

The streaky Owens smacked his ninth homer Sunday, seven coming this month, to tie Crozier for second in the league.

"Every game we go out, now we expect our batters to score six, seven, eight runs in one inning instead of one game," Reichert said of a Blue Crabs offense that is no longer scuffling like it was the first couple of months of the season. "It's very positive to know our hitters are clicking together. It eases our minds as pitchers that if I give up two or three runs, it's OK."

dcogle@somdnews.com

Atlantic League standings

(Standings through Monday)

Liberty Division W L Pct. GB Streak Last 10

Southern Maryland 32 24 .571 ---- W-4 7-3

Camden 31 24 .564 0.5 L-2 4-6

Long Island 28 28 .500 4.0 L-6 3-7

Bridgeport 26 30 .464 6.0 W-2 6-4

Freedom Division W L Pct. GB Streak Last 10

York 33 24 .579 ---- L-1 7-3

Somerset 32 24 .571 0.5 L-2 5-5

Lancaster 24 32 .429 8.5 W-1 6-4

Newark 18 38 .321 14.5 L-8 1-9

Thursday

Bridgeport 4, Blue Crabs 1

Blue Crabs 000 100 000 — 1 4 0

Bridgeport 000 120 01x — 4 5 0

WP Mannix (5-3), LP Robertson (2-2), Save Julio (9)

Extra-base hits: 2B — Benjamin (BC), Chaves (B);

3B — Benjamin (BC); HR — Chaves (B, 5), Rodriguez (B, 3)

Friday

Blue Crabs 6, Long Island 2

Blue Crabs 030 010 200 — 6 8 0

Long Island 002 000 000 — 2 9 1

WP Rayborn (5-3), LP Bauer (2-6)

Extra-base hits: 2B — Monzon (LI), Kovatch (LI);

HR — Benjamin (BC, 5), Osborn (BC, 5)

Saturday

Game 1

Blue Crabs 7, Long Island 0

Blue Crabs 110 104 000 — 7 10 0

Long Island 000 000 000 — 0 7 1

WP Reichert (7-4), LP Dittler (4-4)

Extra-base hits: 2B — Owens (BC); HR — Kirkland (BC, 4),

Benjamin (BC, 6)

Game 2

Blue Crabs 6, Long Island 0 (12 innings)

Blue Crabs 000 000 000 006 — 6 15 0

Long Island 000 000 000 000 — 0 8 0

WP Warden (3-3), LP Maldonado (1-3)

Extra-base hits: 2B — Osborn (BC), Hernandez (LI), Cavagnaro (LI); HR — Osborn (BC, 6), Crozier (BC, 9), Lopez (BC, 3)

Sunday

Blue Crabs 11, Long Island 3

Blue Crabs 000 540 002 — 11 13 0

Long Island 000 001 200 — 3 9 1

WP Anderson (2-0), LP Leek (8-3)

Extra-base hits: 2B — Garcia (BC), Osborn (BC), Craig (BC), Hill (BC), Giannotti (BC), Mohr (LI), Esposito (LI), Monaghan (LI), Hunt (LI);

3B — Benjamin (BC); HR — Craig (BC, 7), Owens (BC, 9)