The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox relief pitching staff has a 1.79 ERA, the lowest in the Cape League. The group also leads in relief strikeouts (85) across the league, with the next closest contender being the Harwich Mariners (76).
Y-D pitching coach Eric Beattie refers to this group as “ducks in a thunderstorm.”
“Ducks in a thunderstorm, it’s a stressful time. Drive through a lake in a thunder storm, you see ducks just spilling out water,” said Y-D pitching coach Eric Beattie. “They’re out there, kind of floating along and waiting for the thunderstorm to end.”
This is what a successful relief pitcher does, he explained.
“There’s stressful times in baseball. If you can maintain a slow heartbeat, and just kind of weather the storm and keep executing what you need to execute, you know, you’ll come out on top.”
Beattie created the “duck in the thunderstorm” award after Sunday’s 4-3 win against Bourne. He gave it to reliever Peyton Rodgers (University of California, Irvine) who pitched for the last three innings.
Y-D was ahead 4-2 when Bourne narrowed the lead to 4-3 and put the winning run on second. After Y-D intentionally walked a batter to load the bases, Bourne’s Andrew Costello (University of South Carolina) grounded into a double play, fielded by third baseman Kevin Takeuchi (University of Southern California) and thrown to first baseman Tommy Goodin (Vanderbilt University) for the last two outs, improving Y-D’s record to 12-1.
Rodgers left the game having only allowed five hits, one earned run, one walk, and three strikeouts. More significantly, he did not crack under pressure with the winning run within two 90-foot stretches of home plate.
“Definitely a high-intense situation, but I feel like I managed it well,” Rodgers said. “I knew that we had to get a double play right there, and we did.”
Rodgers felt most comfortable this outing with his four-seam and two-seam fastballs, despite the pitch that turned into the game-ending double play ball being a sinker. Although it wasn’t a staple for him in this outing, Rodgers noticed his changeup, a pitch he wanted to work on during this summer season, attracting swings-and-miss traffic.
The right-hander, who now holds a 0.59 ERA this season, reacted to being the first reliever given the “duck in the thunderstorm” award.
“[I] got this cool little duck,” Rodgers said, as he pulled a rubber duck out of his bag. “You ever seen a duck in a thunderstorm? It just doesn’t do anything, so I guess, that’s like, cool. It doesn’t move, it just stays there.”
Beattie elaborated on his decision to give Rodgers the duck award, citing his ability to stay calm with the game on the line.
“He was in a pretty stressful situation today, maintained a good, slow heartbeat, and just kept executing.”
