After cooling off for a week, the Goldeyes offence started to heat up again this weekend.
On Saturday, the Goldeyes started late, but finished strong with a 6-4 victory. Then, behind Dee Brown’s three-hit effort and Kevin West’s two-run homer in the seventh, the Goldeyes pounded out 13 hits and came back from a 4-2 deficit to whip the visiting Joliet JackHammers 9-4 in front of 6,555 enthusiastic fans at Canwest Park on Sunday afternoon.
It was a perfect Father’s Day celebration for West, who had been in the midst of a horrible slump. Playing at third base with the injured Brent Metheny in the dugout, West went two-for-four with a run scored and two driven in, while wife Melissa and his three kids looked on.
“It was a great Father’s Day,” said a smiling West, with his young son in tow.
It was a pretty good day for Brown as well. As the Goldeyes improved to 23-9 and pulled five games ahead of second-place Schaumburg (3-2 losers to Gary), Brown went three-for-four with three runs scored and not only raised his batting average to a team-high .350, but his slugging percentage as well to a team-best .513. He was named the player of the game by the Sun’s Kirk Penton for his efforts.
“I feel pretty comfortable up there,” said Brown. “I’m just trying to keep it simple. You know the old saying, ‘See the ball, hit the ball.’ Well, it’s true. That’s all I’m trying to do.”
On Sunday, he did just that. As did a number of other Fish.
Take Dustin Richardson for instance. Like West, he’d been slumping in recent days, but pounded out two doubles, scored a run and drove in two. Meanwhile Josh Asanovich and Kurt Crowell also had multi-hit games as the Goldeyes put up a five spot in the bottom of the seventh to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 7-4 lead.
“For me, I always think fastball at the plate, but what I’m trying to do is just get a good pitch to hit,” Brown said. “I’ve been a little more patient at the plate recently, but that’s not always the best approach. If you’re facing a pitcher who’s struggling, you can be patient, because you’ll probably get a few good pitches to hit. But if you’re up against a guy who has been hot, who has really been getting guys out, if you see a first-pitch fastball for a strike, you should probably go after it because that’s likely the best pitch you’ll see,
“It always depends on the pitcher and the situation. But as long as you go up looking for a fastball, or just a good pitch to drive, you’ll be successful a lot of the time.”
Brown and the Goldeyes will wrap up this four-game series with Joliet on Monday with a noon start at Canwest Park. If you can’t get down to the ballpark, the game will be televised on Shaw Channel 9.
ANATOMY OF AN AT-BAT
In the eighth inning, Richardson ripped a double to the gap to drive in Brown with the ninth and final run of Sunday’s game.
Richardson just killed the pitch from Joliet’s David Byard and after the game, he walked goldeyes.com through the at-bat.
“The pitch I hit was a fastball in,” he said. “The pitchers in this series have been pounding me inside all weekend, so I’ve been looking for that pitch and trying to get my hands in so I can swing around it.
“The first two pitches of the at-bat, he went slider, slider and I thought, ‘OK, he has to come back with a fastball on the inside part of the plate with this pitch’ and sure enough, it was right where I expected it.
“It’s a funny game. The first double I hit (off starter Ryan Gehring in the seventh) came off a change-up. Second off an inside fastball. It doesn’t matter the pitch, just as long as you keep your hands back and make good contact. On the first double, I was a little in front, but I got the barrel of the bat on the ball and hit it down the line.”
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