Miami Palms Blog

The Palms got 6 shut out innings from Lucas Harrell and managed to hit 5 home runs on their way to a victory in the series opener with Baltimore. Steve Drysdale hit two of his teams' homers, while Frank Sohn and Chris Korb had solo shots, and Kelly Johnson hit a two run shot. Pete Otterloop struggled, allowing the O's to bat around and score 4 times in the 7th, but the remainder of the bullpen managed to shut things down.  Miami Palms 6, Baltimore Orioles 4  Tuesday, April 29, 2014  Baltimore Orioles (3-4)                                  Miami Palms (13-15)                                      Player    ...

The Palms and Rangers played to a pitchers duel in the finale of their 4 game set. Blake Johnston and Yu Darvish held their opponents to only one run over 7 and 6 innings respectively. Johnston had the better outing, allowing 6 hits and striking out 8 with Leonys Martin driving a run in the second when the Ragers had three of their hits. Darvish had some control issues, allowing 4 walks, but that didn't come back to bite him as much as a Frank Sohn solo homer. Steve Drysdale also homered, but his, the game winner, was off of Aaron Poreda.  Miami Palms 2, Texas Rangers 1  Monday, April 28, 2014  Texas Rangers (1-3)                                      Miami Palms (12-15)                    ...

The Rangers finally got on the board against Miami. They did it with a 2nd inning Mitch Moreland home run, and then they squirrelled away a couple more runs in the 4th and 5th to send Kyle Blume to another disappointing outing. The Palms made an effort to come back, but they left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th, down by 4. The series concludes tomorrow, with the Rangers having a chance to draw even.  Texas Rangers 7, Miami Palms 3  Sunday, April 27, 2014  Texas Rangers (1-2)                                      Miami Palms (11-15)                                      Player    ...

The strangest aspect of the 2014 Miami Palms season to anyone who has watched the team in recent years is the absence of homeruns. At their current pace, 27 dingers in 25 games, they will finish 60 short of last season's total, which is not insignificant. In fact, a total of around 170 will put the Palms somewhere near the 2009 mark, when Frank Sohn was only hitting 14 homers a year, and Eddie Black led the squad with 25. It's not like Miami isn't still a slugging squad, though. Despite their slow start, they are still ranked #6 in the league, tied with Toronto.

The Rangers and Palms are 20 innings into their series, and the Rangers are still scoreless. Certainly, Texas was the closest to scoring on several occasions, including the first inning when they had a 1 out triple from Elvis Andrus, or the 9th, when Adrian Beltre led off with a triple. Instead, Troy Munoz had his second dominant outing not go for a win, as it took until the 11th, when Nick Markakis was able to lead off with a solo, game winning home run.  Miami Palms 1, Texas Rangers 0  Saturday, April 26, 2014  Texas Rangers (0-2)                                      Miami Palms (11-14)                                  ...

The Palms were able to get every unit of the team involved, from their contact hitters (there were 18 hits) to the power with runners in scoring position (Tony Abreu had a bases clearing double, while Frank Sohn hit a grand slam) to their starter John Danks, who had to leave in the 4th after tweaking his shoulder, but allowed 3 hits and no runs to that point, to the bullpen, who scattered 6 hits and struck out three while keeping the Rangers off the board as well.  It was a solid game all around.  Miami Palms 13, Texas Rangers 0  Friday, April 25, 2014  Texas Rangers (0-1)                                      Miami Palms (10-14)                          ...

Mercifully, the Palms were able to pull out one game from their three game set with the lowly Houston Astros.The Palms  were up 1-0 through most of the game after scoring on an RBI double from Kelly Johnson. They added the necessary runs when they batted around in the 8th inning, scoring 5 runs, including a bases loaded double from Johnny Giavotella and another two run double from Brett Hayes. Lucas Harrell went all 9 against his former team, while former Palm Dallas Chastanet did well until the 8th for the Astros.  Miami Palms 6, Houston Astros 2  Thursday, April 24, 2014  Houston Astros (1-2)                                     Miami Palms (9-14)                        ...

Steve Drysdale is coming off of a season in which he hit 36 home runs and drove in 128 batters. This was accompanied by a .301 average. This year, his contact rate is dramatically improved, hitting .374 on the season, but somewhat remarkably, his ISO is .066, with only one home run and 3 doubles. The value is there, because of the outrageous batting average, but some have to wonder whether or not the contact is at the expense of his power.

The slide is getting out of hand for the Palms, who are now 8-14 on the season, and in the midst of a 6 game skid. If there was any good news out of this game, it's that Steve Drysdale got off the schnide, hitting his first home run of the season. Of course, Jose Altuve hit one as well, a three run blast. And so did George Springer, a grand slam off of Tim Byrdak. The Palms try to avoid the sweep tomorrow evening.  Houston Astros 15, Miami Palms 3  Wednesday, April 23, 2014  Houston Astros (1-0)                                     Miami Palms (8-14)                                       Player  ...

The Palms sluggish start continues after an extremely disappointing loss to the lowly Houston Astros. The Astros did most of their work in the first inning, batting around with a pair of walks and four singles, including Cris Carter's two run single. Kyle Blume went another 6 innings without allowing another run, but Alex Presley had an RBI triple off of Keith Harding to give the Astros the lead. Miami had come back to tie it, despite getting slowed by Colin McHugh. Billy Dupont may have awoken his bat, with two solo home runs, accounting for half of Miami's runs.  Houston Astros 5, Miami Palms 4  Tuesday, April 22, 2014  Houston Astross (1-0)                                    Miami Palms (8-13)                 ...

The Palms spoiled a decent outing from Troy Munoz by providing him with only three runs and shoddy bullpen support. The Palms power continues to be lacking through the middle of the lineup, as the 4-6 hitters only have 2HRs combined, but Frank Sohn and Steve Drysdale each had doubles and drove in runs. It was James Loney's 8th inning 2 run homer off of Pete Otterloop that made the game, however, and ultimately gave the Rays a 4 game sweep on the road.  Tampa Bay Rays 4, Miami Palms 3  Sunday, April 20, 2014  Tampa Bay Rays (4-3)                                     Miami Palms (8-12)                                    ...

This game came down to a bad managerial decision. Both Chris Archer and John Danks were out of gas by the end of the 5th inning, and both had given up three run homers to Coco Crisp and Matt Joyce, respectively. The decision came when the Palms sent Danks back out again in the 6th, and the Rays quickly scored three more runs. Neither bullpen allowed anyone to cross the plate.  Tampa Bay Rays 8, Miami Palms 5  Saturday, April 19, 2014  Tampa Bay Rays (3-3)                                     Miami Palms (8-11)                                       Player          A...

This was the score that was expected in the opening game of the series. Both offenss would be forgiven if they said they expected to score off of Lucas Harrell and Eric Bedard. Instead, the Palms were held to only 2 runs, solo homers for Coco Crisp and Tony Abreu, while the Rays had one run through 5, when a triple by Yunel Escobar changed the landscape of the game. Escobar drove in Logan Forsythe with two out in the 6th, and then Ryan Hanigan knocked him in to score the game winner.  Tampa Bay Rays 3, Miami Palms 2  Friday, April 18, 2014  Tampa Bay Rays (2-3)                                     Miami Palms (8-10)                              ...

The Palms rested a few players thanks to their long stretch without an off days, but they still managed to get within a run. Both teams got decent pitching from their starters, with both prone to a big inning. Tampa's David Price allowed 2 runs in the 8th, while Blake Johnston saw the Rays bat around against him in the 3rd. In truth, there wasn't much hard contact in the game, and both teams succeeded when they strong together a few hits.  Tampa Bay Rays 4, Miami Palms 3  Thursday, April 17, 2014  Tampa Bay Rays (1-3)                                     Miami Palms (8-9)                                     ...