Photo courtesy Bob Hauer

Sitting through the Senators’ three-game series against the New Britain Rock Cats was an exercise in futility and patience best suited for someone who dabbles in sadomasochism.

As the hits and runs piled up for the Rock Cats, I couldn’t help but remember a similar series the Senators played against the Reading Phillies in 2011. In that three-game set, the Senators were outscored 35-16 with game scores of 7-4, 13-6, and 15-6. These last three days, the boys from the midstate were outscored 35-14 with game scores of 9-2, 9-7, and 17-5.

At the time I suggested then manager Tony Beasley should scour eBay looking for one of those Men in Black neuralyzers that erase your memory, because everyone needed to forget it ever happened. Since those were purely a prop in a sci-fi movie and don’t really exist, maybe Matt LeCroy’s best option would be to pass around a bottle of the world’s most powerful absinthe instead.

So how good was New Britain’s offense in this series?

• Last season, these two teams played each other 14 times and the Rock Cats scored a total of 68 runs. This season, in only three games they’ve already reached over halfway to that figure with the 35 they scored in this series.

• Following a tough opening four-game series in Richmond, New Britain owned the Eastern League’s worst batting average at .134. After this series in which the Rock Cats hit .369 (45 for 122), they pushed their team average to .253.

• The Senators team ERA ballooned from 4.50 to a league-worst 7.34.

• The Rock Cats had six different innings amongst the three games where they put up 4 runs or more.

Player of the Game: Jose Lozada

Dugout Chatter

“I felt that this series we didn’t pitch well enough inside and they made us pay. When you’re giving up that many runs and you keep coming back and coming back, sooner or later the comebacks stop. I don’t care how much heart you have. In baseball, when you’re down a lot it’s real hard to keep coming back day in and day out.” – – LeCroy

“I think these kids are figuring out…Skoley’s watching the game being injured and he hadn’t seen this type of stuff before. Guys can throw 2-0 changeups and 3-1 changeups. They can command the ball to either side of the plate a lot better than they can in A ball. As an athlete, you have to realize that you have to rise to the occasion and get going because if you don’t then you’ll be buried in a hole that will be hard to get out of. The kids in there have good attitudes. They pull for one another. They fight the whole game. Games like this you’ve got to just brush it off and learn from it. We’ve got to get back at it tomorrow.” – LeCroy

From the Windup

• The last time the Senators were swept in a three-game series at home was last August when Akron defeated them 2-1, 5-2, and 4-1.

• Steven Souza was a late scratch from the lineup as a precautionary measure with a slight issue in his shoulder.

• The game was delayed for one hour and five minutes while a storm system moved through the area. But before the umpires called for the tarp, the teams played in swirling, driving rain that was unfair to the players. Reliever Rob Wort allowed two home runs balls aided by the wind (one on fair/foul, one on distance) and was incredulous when the crew finally decided to delay the game. As the umpires were racing off the field, Wort questioned the logic behind their decision and apparently didn’t get the answers he was looking for since he launched the game ball out of the park and into the back parking lot.