EL1 Chesapeake Baysox

Fisher Cats Maul Johnson

Published on May 22, 2010 under Eastern League (EL1)
Chesapeake Baysox News Release


BOWIE, Md. - The Bowie Baysox lost 6-2 to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on a drizzly Saturday evening at Prince George's Stadium. The teams each recorded eight hits, but New Hampshire claimed the win thanks to seven walks, two wild pitches and four extra base hits. All eight of Bowie's hits were singles, and the Baysox were unable to draw a walk in the entire game.

Starting pitcher Steve Johnson walked six batters and gave up seven hits for six runs (five earned) while striking out six batters in his 5.2 inning performance. The loss drops his record to 1-3 with a 3.88 ERA through nine starts.

"It was one of those deals tonight where he never really looked comfortable," said Pitching Coach Kennie Steenstra. "It looked like he got out of rhythm early on and had to battle every inning to regain himself a little bit. It's one of those things we'll take care of on the side and make sure he's getting done what he needs to get done."

"I just got behind a lot of batters, walked a lot of guys," Johnson said. "It's something I've been battling for a couple years now, but this year it's been bothering me. You can get away with it sometimes, but tonight I got behind a lot, both the home runs were balls I got behind with guys on base from walks.

"It's obviously the fastball, something about it," he explained. "I feel so good with it sometimes, and then there's balls where it just gets away, so I don't know... maybe I need to change the grip or just try to get a little more consistent with my delivery or something. I've got to find out what it is, so I can work on it."

Control was an issue for Johnson right out of the gate, as he walked the second batter in the top of the first, New Hampshire second baseman Callix Crabbe. Crabbe moved to second and then third on two wild pitches before third baseman Shawn Bowman sent him home on a double down the left field line to grab a 1-0 lead.

The Baysox responded in the bottom of the second frame, and took a 2-1 lead on four consecutive two-out base hits. The Baysox put two runners aboard with singles by right fielder Jonathan Tucker and first baseman Steve Lerud, before catcher Caleb Joseph hit a fly ball to shallow right field that plated Tucker and sent Lerud to third. Lerud scored when recently activated shortstop Carlos Rojas hit a grounder up the middle for a single to put the Baysox on top.

Johnson's control problems continued to haunt Bowie in the fourth inning, as he walked the leadoff batter, shortstop Jonathan Diaz. Johnson got behind in the count 2-0 to catcher Brian Jerloman, who hammered Johnson's next pitch high over the second wall behind right field to erase the lead and put the Fisher Cats on top to stay. New Hampshire added another run in the inning, after Johnson walked outfielder Darin Mastroianni, who stole second base and moved to third on Crabbe's bunt single. Johnson tried to pick off Crabbe at first, but the ball went in the dirt and wound up pinned underneath the sliding Crabbe as Mastroianni crossed the plate to make it 4-2. Johnson was charged with a throwing error on the play.

"The whole game, I'd been throwing the ball in the dirt," Johnson said of the pickoff attempt. "It seemed like I didn't have any control on anything. It was one of those games, I threw it in the dirt and unfortunately, the guy scored on it."

The Fisher Cats went deep on Johnson one more time, as he once again walked the leadoff batter in the top of the sixth. Johnson managed two outs on a sacrifice bunt and a fly ball before left fielder Adam Calderone smacked the ball down the right field line and over the wall on a 2-1 pitch to put New Hampshire up 6-2.

"It was the fastball [on the home runs]," Johnson said. "I got behind and had trouble throwing anything else over the plate, so I figured I might as well challenge them rather than walking them again.

"I was just trying to throw strikes," he continued. "When you do that, throwing at any velocity, behind in the count, you're going to run into balls going out like that. Guys are geared up for the fastball and unless you can throw something else for a strike, which I wasn't comfortable in doing at the time, you go with the fastball and hope they hit it at somebody. Unfortunately, they didn't."

After the second home run, Johnson yielded the mound to right-hander Ryan Ouellette, who was making his return to the Baysox after being deactivated for a month to refine his pitching. Ouellette did well through his 2.1 innings. He surrendered just one hit, to the first batter he faced, and notched a strikeout and a walk.

"It feels good, it was a little bit different, getting a little more adrenaline going," Ouellette said. "I was excited for this for a month, so ready to get back at it."

"The big thing [I worked on] was to keep my weight back so I can get ahead and stay on top of the ball," he said. "I worked on a change-up too; the last batter I faced, I was able to throw a righty-on-righty change-up, which I've never really done throughout my whole career. So, building confidence in the new pitch always helps. [It makes it so] I'm not two-dimensional, fastball/slider, and I've got something that kind of looks like my fastball."

The Baysox are now two games under .500, at 20-22. They lie in fifth place in the six-team Eastern League Western Division, five and a half games behind first place Altoona. Bowie has an opportunity to win the series against the Eastern Division-leading Fisher Cats in the rubber match on Sunday at 2:05 p.m.

Sunday's game, presented by Maryland Public Television, will be the Husky Dog Webkinz toy giveaway for the first 1,000 fans ages 3-12 and will feature a special appearance by PBS's Word Girl. The team will also give away two pairs of tickets to Taylor Swift's sold-out show at the Verizon Center in June during the game.

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Eastern League Stories from May 22, 2010


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