It's fitting Columbus Clippers leadoff man Brandon Watson broke the International League hit streak record in Ottawa today in an extra-inning thriller, 9-8 for the good guys in 11 innings (boxscore, play-by-play).
It goes deeper than the coincidence the late and lamented Expos were Watson's first organization and Ottawa was originally a Montreal farm club in a city where many of the baseball fans remain loyal to Les Expos. It touches on the theme of eternal hope which is baseball's mostly about (that, and being able to crunch numbers and spit sunflower seeds at the same time).
Like the the Lynx, Watson, who extended his run to a record 43 games with a sixth-inning single off right-hander J.D. Durbin, has plugged away for years (he's only 25, but this is his ninth pro season) while being impeded by forces out of his control. In the '70s and '80s, there were plenty of major leaguers similar to Watson, singles hitters who slapped the ball through the infield and ran the bases like a scalded dog. However, the pitcher's slide step, thin-handled bats, smaller ballparks, the emphasis on plate discipline and managers' misguided belief in the need for 11- and 12-man pitching staffs works against his kind of player winning a big-league job in this age, unless he's Ichiro.
Regardless, Watson has just gone out and got a hit game after game this season, his lack of power and walks be damned. He's broken a record that stood for almost a century, whatever happens to him the rest of his time in baseball.
Similarly, the Lynx franchise, which has had every bad break you can imagine over the years, has hung in longer than many of the naysayers who personify one Ottawa's tendency toward derring-don't ever expected, regardless of what lies beyond the end of this season. In spite of it all, they always grade out well in overall ballpark experience and there's still some good vibes coming from that loyal Lynx following, people such as Carl Kiifner at ottawalynxblog.com. They got to go home today with a story to tell about seeing a 95-year-old record fall.
On top of it all, there was even a comeback win, with Gary Burnham's ninth-inning homer off IL co-saves leader Chris Booker forcing extra innings after a stretch in the middle of the game where the local nine looked SOL (Same Old Lynx) while blowing a six-run lead. Jim Rushford got the winning hit in the 11th.
Talk about bang for the buck. The 3,093 people who turned out today must be some pretty smart paying customers. The hope — there's that word again — is that they're going to get some kind of pro baseball in this town in 2008 and beyond. What happened at the Stadium today should be shared with anyone who would crack wise about how Brandon Watson made International League history in Ottawa, where the International League might soon be history.
(As for the game... it was a thriller, with Joe Thurston going 5-for-6 to tie the club record for hits in a game and Burnham going 4-for-6 with two doubles, the game-tying homer and four RBI. Blowing the 6-0 lead was byproduct of having a bullpen that was short-staffed even before Brian Sanches was called up to the Phillies. For the next while, manager John Russell can be expected to keep his starters in until they reach 100-plus pitches unless they're getting totally shelled, which was probably explains why Durbin was left in so long during Columbus' five-run rally in the sixth inning.
C'est la vie and que sera, sera: Lynx right-hander Matt Childers, who's been on the disabled list for the past month, has been suspended 50 games for a positive drug test. These things happen -- the Citizen story quotes the Phillies assistant GM saying it was "paperwork problem," that he never registered medication a doctor had prescribed for him.)
Lynx righty Zack Segovia (1-8, 5.45, 1.57 WHIP) faces Toledo Mud Hens lefty Corey Hamman (0-5, 4.11, 1.57 WHIP) in tomorrow night's series opener, a 7:05 start.
Related:
Positive test gets Childers 50 games (Darren Desaulniers, Ottawa Citizen)
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