43
Same old story: Scrappers fall at Eastwood Field
By Steve Ruman
NILES
The inability of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers to win at Eastwood Field this season has been well-documented.
Turns out, the Scrappers have company in the New York-Penn League when it comes to home misery.
Nine of the 14 teams in the NYPL own better winning percentages on the road than they do at home. The trend was on display Thursday when Hudson Valley (24-28) defeated the Scrappers 3-0 in front of 3,229 fans at Eastwood Field.
The Scrappers (23-28) fell to 10-15 at home. Just eight days ago the Scrappers were just one game under .500 and within two games in the wild card chase. However, after losing six of eight, the season is slipping away.
Meanwhile, Hudson Valley lifted its road record to 14-11. Despite a 10-17 mark at home, the Renegades are just 21/2 games behind division-leading Staten Island in the McNamara Division.
Thursday’s game featured a pitching duel between Scrappers starter Jared Robinson and Renegades starter Benton Moss. Robinson worked 62/3 scoreless innings, giving up just three hits while striking out six. In six innings, Moss scattered four hits and recorded seven strikeouts.
The Renegades scored the game’s only runs in the eighth inning off Scrappers reliever Ryan Perez (0-1, 7.02 ERA). Angel Moreno led off with a home run over the left field fence. Taylor Hawkins followed with a single, and scored on Michael Russell’s hit. Russell eventually scored on an error.
As for Hudson Valley and other NYPL teams winning on the road?
“You know, if I could totally explain it, I’d probably be much richer and much more famous,” Renegades Tim Parenton said. “Last year was a completely different scenario for us. At one point we were 22-8 at home. So, from one season to the next you get a new group of players and you just never know what to expect.”
Parenton acknowledges that perhaps at the single-A short-season level, the road may offer some solace to players just getting used to professional baseball.
“When you’re at home, you have to worry about a [ticket] pass list, people you know are in the stands,” Parenton said. “There are different distractions that you don’t deal with on the road.”
Players also go through less pregame preparation while on the road. A home team might arrive at the park just past noon to work on fundamentals and conditioning. A visiting team generally has the field for an hour of batting practice and infield work.
“Who knows, maybe all the home work takes its toll on some of the newer players who are coming off a long college season and who are getting adapted to playing every day,” Parenton said. “The added work that you put in every day leading up to a game can be grueling.”
The Renegades played a home game Tuesday night, then immediately boarded a bus and took a six-plus hour trip to Niles, where they arrived at 5:30 a.m. That night they were shut out by the Scrappers 2-0 before rebounding Thursday.
“The bottom line is that there probably isn’t any logical explanation one way or the other as to why we’ve been much better on the road,” Parenton said. “Just another example of how baseball is a tough game to figure out.”