Just like on opening day, the RailCats lose their home opener in a crushing 8-5 loss to the now 4-1 Cleburne Railroaders. But before I get into the game, let’s talk about the Home Opener. What a beautiful night for a baseball game! Early in the game, it was 66°F, and the wind was blowing in from right field at around 10 mph. The downside of having a Tuesday home opener is the amount of fans that can make it. On Pointstreak, the attendance number was 2,295; it could have been more if the American Association scheduling wasn’t broken. With a league that is heavily driven by gate sales, why start a team’s opener on any day that’s not Friday or Saturday? With the AA, it should be Friday no matter what, but that’s my rant. The outcome of the game wasn’t what we wanted, but it was still a great game and a great night.

1. I want to start with Brayan Villar. Yes, his line score—pitching only 2 innings and giving up 5 hits, 5 runs, and striking out 3—doesn’t look good. But Cleburne has always been a juggernaut on offense, and for him to come out in the 1st inning and for Cleburne to go down in order, having back-to-back strikeouts, was a nice tone setter for the offense in the 1st inning. However, to keep on Villar, the second inning wasn’t as nice to him. But this is what I will say: Cleburne feeds off of aggressive pitchers, and Brayan is one of them. We talk about his batters hit stats, and I believe that stat doesn’t reflect his control. He has solid control and good stuff. Was his outing short-lived? Yes, but his ceiling is higher than I expected.
2. We saw the bulk of our runs in the first 2 innings, 10 runs in 2 innings to be exact. We saw the RailCats take a 3-0 lead in the 1st, after newly acquired OF Jarius Richards flied out to center, Jake Allgeyer singled, stole 2nd and with 2 outs, Joe Suozzi singled to right, driving in Allgeyer. Right after, Baron Radcliff hit a 2-run Baron Bomb to left field for his 2nd home run of the year. But in the next inning, Cleburne jumped all over Villar by scoring 5 runs on 5 hits, and one of the hits was the big 3-run home run from Steven Rivas.
3. In the bottom of that 2nd inning, we saw the RailCats again not falter but fight back to tie the game. Olivier Basabe started the inning with the ‘Cats first double of the year; yes, you read that right, the 1st double of the year. This team has hit nothing but singles and home runs for the past 3 games and an inning and a half. We would see Peralta walk, and Jairus Richards hit a single to load the bases. With the bases loaded and 1 out, Jake Allgeyer would hit the ball to the 1st baseman, who bobbled the ball before throwing it to 2nd, getting Richards out, and when the shortstop tried to turn the double play, he made an errant throw back to 1st, leading Basabe and Peralta to score, tying the game.
4. Jairus Richard was highly impressive tonight. Did he score any runs or drive anyone in? No, but I think we have found a leadoff hitter. One game is a small sample size, but here is his stat line: 2-4, walked once, and stole 2 bases. Richard is fast on the base paths and in the field, as he was commanding center field and he has a cannon of an arm. Richard caught a ball in the deep alley in left center field and threw the ball to 3rd trying to get Shed Long out. He didn’t get him, but boy did he make it close, throwing the ball on a short one-hop to Basabe. He also stole 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 8th; the man has wheels.
5. Elvis Peralta had himself a game as well; he went 2-3, scored a run with a walk and stolen base. He was playing short tonight and helped turn a double play that kept the ‘Cats in the game in the 8th inning. Jacob Coats had the bases loaded and got Anthony Brocato to ground out to Peralta, who was able to get the ball to Allgeyer to turn the double play, keeping the game at 5-5. But we have another game where Elvis may have stretched a base too far. In the bottom of the 8th, Peralta gets on by hitting a single; he then steals second, and the throw was off-line, so he goes for 3rd where he is gunned down for out number 2. If Peralta had stayed on 2nd, there would have been a chance for him to score on Richards’ single.
6. Nate Alexander gets tagged with the loss after he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits. Lamar Sparks hit a solo home run and Kyle Martin hit a 2-run home run to put the final score at 8-5. Going back to Nate, it didn’t look like he had his stuff tonight and had to rely on his fastball, and against this Cleburne team, fastballs are what they want and will take them for a ride. Some nights you don’t have your stuff, and that was one of those nights.
7. We saw Jaykob Acosta bounce back, giving up just one hit in 1.1 innings pitched, after he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits on Sunday. Dawson Lane and Cody Reed both continue to dominate, as they haven’t given up a run in their past 2 outings.
8. This pitching staff has done a lot to keep the ‘Cats in all games, and a team like Cleburne is expected to give up runs, but holding them to 6 consecutive shutout innings and the game being tied at that point gave the offense a chance to make something happen. At the end of the night, fans are going to look at Nate saying “welp, he blew it,” when in all reality the offense didn’t hold up their end.
9. The offense, we saw the same story as games past; we had 10 hits, they had 12 hits, we walked 5 times, they only walked twice. What is the major issue, you may ask? Well, it’s extra base hits. The ‘Cats had 3: 2 doubles from Basabe and a home run from Radcliff. Cleburne had 3 doubles and 3 home runs. This team fails to drive in runs and is leaving runners on base; 9 runners were left tonight. Just think: one more double or one more home run could have changed the course of this game.

My final thought of the night is if we can awaken the sleeping beast of the offense, we could be a tough team; our pitching is keeping us in games, but our offense just isn’t holding up their end. But it’s not like last season, where the offense was non-existent; it’s just about driving in those runs when the opportunity is there.