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A crabby division title
Blue Crabs get the job done without any drama
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DALLAS COGLE
First baseman Eric Crozier, right, hugs third baseman Patrick Osborn during the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs joyous postgame clubhouse Friday night after they clinched their second straight first-half Liberty Division title with a 7-1 win over Camden.
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By 10 p.m. Friday, all of the buzz throughout the week for a compelling four-game series — providing fans a taste of the playoffs in early July — was reduced to a literal laugher.
Instead of a dramatic end to the first half of the season on Independence Day between the Liberty Division's top two teams, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs ended all of the suspense 48 hours earlier after claiming the opening two games in the deciding series. While postgame fireworks splashed across the night sky Friday above Waldorf's Regency Furniture Stadium, the Blue Crabs' plastic-lined clubhouse was in full celebratory mode, overflowing with jubilant laughing, toasting, dancing, hugging and fizzy beverages popped from bottles and cans alike.
Victories of 3-1 Thursday and 7-1 Friday over the visiting Camden Riversharks crowned the Blue Crabs the first-half division champions for the second straight year, clinching a playoff berth. The Atlantic League's postseason begins Sept. 22 after the second half is completed.
"I've been fortunate to be a part of [winning a division title in my career] a few times, and it's special, something you remember forever," Blue Crabs designated hitter Matt Craig said on Friday after his monstrous three-run home run provided a comfortable 4-0 lead in the fifth inning. Craig's team-best 19-game hit streak ended Sunday, while his .332 average is third in the league. "I'm glad it's happened to us. Everybody here deserves it. Hopefully, we can celebrate a few more times in September.
"I look around at the teams we play, and I'll take these 25 guys on this team over 25 guys from the other teams. The next step is winning it all in September [and October], and that's what we're going to go out and do now."
Blue Crabs center fielder and hitting coach Jeremy Owens added, "When you set goals early in the year to go win that first half, now we can set our schedule [in the second half] to prepare ourselves for the playoffs. Getting that taken care of is so important for us."
Camden entered the final series of the first half trailing the Blue Crabs by just two games, needing to win at least three of the contests to capture the division title. That endeavor was virtually impossible against the buzz-saw Blue Crabs, whose fourth straight win Friday was also their 19th in the last 25 games.
The Blue Crabs were the best team in the league during the first half, boasting a 41-29 record, and that's with losing Saturday, 3-0, and Sunday, 2-1, to Camden (39-31) in what were glorified exhibition games with virtually no meaning. The second half starts Thursday after the three-day All-Star break with team records resetting in the league while stats carry over from the first half.
"It could've been a really, really tough series, but we got it done and it feels great," said Blue Crabs third baseman Patrick Osborn, who scored the first run in Friday's playoff-clinching victory as his leadoff double in the fourth was followed by Eric Crozier's RBI single.
York (40-30) was the other division champion in the first half, winning the Freedom Division by four games over reigning league champion Somerset.
Flipping the switch
Since May 31, the Blue Crabs have impressively not lost a series, winning seven with three splits.
They were 5-5-1 in series to start the season. Thus, the Blue Crabs meandered between second and third place in the division for much of the first half, managing to stay within striking distance of Camden, which regularly occupied first place during that time. Offensive inconsistency is what kept the Blue Crabs looking up in the standings — until the calendar flipped to June.
The last month of the first half saw the Blue Crabs bats come alive. They were as hot as the weather through June, going 21-9, climaxed with a stellar 8-3 road trip that was capped with a four-game sweep at then-division contender Long Island.
Winning that June 20 series finale over Long Island finally propelled the Blue Crabs into first place by a half game over Long Island.
And they never looked back, hanging on during the final week of the first half when Camden quickly went from three games back to just one game of the Blue Crabs following both teams' doubleheaders June 28.
"[The division title] goes back to that 11-day road trip we had," Owens said. "[Manager Butch Hobson] challenged us, and we met that challenge."
"That's why we're here right now [as division champs] for that reason," Blue Crabs shortstop Travis Garcia added about his team's consistent stretch of winning baseball.
Garcia lined a two-run jack over the left-center field fence in the sixth Friday to apply the dagger to Camden, giving the Blue Crabs a 6-0 lead.
The Blue Crabs' two game-breaking homers Friday came 24 hours after the team unloaded three solo jacks Thursday to account for all of their scoring to edge Camden in the pivotal series' tone-setting win.
Former everyday major leaguer Jason Lane, Crozier and Kody Kirkland were responsible for each of the Blue Crabs' homers in the series opener. Crozier's was of the rare inside-the-park variety — the first in Regency Furniture Stadium history.
Mastering the mound
While the Blue Crabs sticks garnered much of the headlines during their surge to a division title, it was their arms that made the feat possible.
The Blue Crabs league-best pitching staff — responsible for a stingy 3.17 ERA, almost a full run better than the next-best team, along with league lows in opposing batting average and hits and homers allowed — dazzled in the team's two most important games of the season, supporting the old adage that the baseball is won on the mound.
Thursday, Blue Crabs starter Craig Anderson improved to 4-0 this season with a miniscule 1.27 ERA after he blanked Camden through his six innings, allowing just two hits.
Friday, Connor Robertson kept the Blue Crabs' dominance on the mound intact, going seven shutout innings with five strikeouts while scattering seven Camden hits.
"It was a very well-pitched game [Thursday], and Connor Robertson pitched outstanding tonight," Hobson said Friday once he finished with his rah-rah speeches and toasts during the postgame celebration. "We're good defensively and good pitching-wise. The pitchers have carried us this year, but over the last few games our hitting has come around.
"I think in the second half, you're going to see this team offensively take a spurt."
The Blue Crabs sport a league-worst .264 batting average, though they are second in homers.
Even in the losses Saturday and Sunday, Blue Crabs starting pitchers Kenny Rayborn and Dan Reichert combined to yield five earned runs in 13 innings with nine strikeouts and just two walks, each throwing well enough to win. The team's bullpen tossed five shutout innings over the final two days of the first half.
"When you have the type of pitching that we have, it's definitely a security blanket," Osborn said. "We go into every game with a chance of being in a game the whole nine innings and having a chance to win. That helps out a lot."
"They've done a great job all year and thankfully they've carried everybody all year, that's for sure," Craig added about Blue Crabs pitching. "We're pretty fortunate to have them."
Camden manager Von Hayes said Friday, "The better team finally won [the division]. Butch has got a solid team over there — both pitching and hitting. They field the ball very well, at least against us they have.
"They're celebrating over there for a reason."
dcogle@somdnews.com
CrustaceaNotes
— Though the game was meaningless to the pennant race as the Blue Crabs clinched the division title two days earlier, Sunday's Fourth of July affair attracted a massive crowd of 7,592 fans who packed Regency Furniture Stadium. The Blue Crabs were edged in the contest, 2-1, by visiting Camden to end the first half of the season.
The stadium record for attendance is 8,126, established in this year's home opener on April 30 against Long Island. That large turnout also saw the Blue Crabs come up short, losing 5-2.
Baseball and Independence Day long have been a perfect marriage no matter the significance of the actual game, from the majors on down.
The Blue Crabs donned red, white and blue stars and stripes jerseys during the weekend series to display their patriotism.
— Catcher Octavio Martinez, who had been with the Blue Crabs since last year, was traded Friday to Lancaster for future considerations. The Blue Crabs also signed catcher Travis Howell on Friday.
Martinez struggled in 33 games platooning as the Blue Crabs catcher. He batted just .164 with one home run and 11 RBIs. Defensively, he only threw out seven of 26 attempted base stealers while the Blue Crabs' ERA was 3.84 when he caught, inflating their league-best figure in that statistical department.
Christian Lopez has gradually gotten more playing time as catcher as the year has worn along. The staff ERA is less than three runs when he is behind the plate, and he has gunned down 17 of 33 attempted base stealers.
Lopez is batting .246 with three homers and 21 RBIs in 41 games.
DALLAS COGLE
