TROY — The offense is still scoring despite losing a couple of big bats last week. The bullpen has been solid, but the starting pitching needs to improve.
Despite their challenges, the Tri-City ValleyCats still hit the midway point of the Frontier League season on Thursday night with their best record in manager Pete Incaviglia’s three seasons.
They improved to 29-19 with Thursday’s 7-3 victory over the Empire State Greys before 3,054 fans at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium. It was the 48th of their 96-game regular-season schedule.
More importantly, the ValleyCats seem to be trending in the right direction with 15 wins in their past 20 games, including six of their past seven. They’re in second place in the East Division, two games behind the New Jersey Jackals.
“I feel good about our club,” Incaviglia said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys that go out there and grind and play the game the right way and play hard and play till the end. There are some things we’ve got to do better. There’s no question. You’re never satisfied as a player or as a coach or as a manager. There are areas we have to get better. I think our starting pitching has to get better. Our bullpen has been our strength.’
Tri-City had gone eight straight games without a quality start — at least six innings and three earned runs or fewer — entering Thursday. But Garrison Bryant (3-3) snapped that streak on Thursday with 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball against Empire State. The ValleyCats ranked 10th in the Frontier League with a 5.08 team ERA.
Elijah Gill (5-2, 4.65 ERA) has been their most consistent starter, even though he gave up a pair of two-run homers in Wednesday’s 18-4 rout of Empire State.
None of Tri-City’s starters is older than 25. Incaviglia said he’s not done looking for starting pitching and “hopefully something will fall out of the tree.” But it’s a challenge finding…
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