Thank goodness he has accepted the highs and lows involved with the game and simply goes about his business one pitch at a time. There is more to winning baseball games than a pitcher simply throwing strikes and trying to make good pitches. Team members need to play catch to avoid unearned runs and hit the ball to score runs for a fighting chance to win at any level of baseball.
The 3rd pitching start for John Lamb of the 2010 season against the Peoria Chiefs, the Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, went relatively smooth for the first three innings. After clearly picking off the Chiefs short-stop, Logan Watkins, in the 4th inning the play concluded with a throwing error by first baseman, Joey Lewis, allowing Watkins to stay a second base. Following a couple of hits in the inning the Chiefs managed to score three unearned runs and forcing John to leave the game in the bottom of the 5th inning, due to pitch count.
The ball went to the bullpen to try and hold the score, but instead allowed even more runs with the final tally being a 10-3 loss for the Burlington Bees, the Class A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals organization.
John Lamb finished his day of work spreading out 5 hits, 0 HR, 1 HBP, 2 BB, 4 SO, 3 runs without giving up an earned run over four innings and lowering his ERA for the year to 0.71. Again, it takes more than pitching to win ball games in professional baseball. Still proud as can be of my 19-year-old son living his dream.
Well, at least I should sleep well for the next 4 nights until John's next scheduled start on April 23, at the Burlington Bees home field in Burlington, IA.
- - - James Lamb
http://www.squidoo.com/prospects_dad
