Not every Arkansas Traveler has the freedom to swing at a 3-0 pitch, and those who do still have to make sure it's the right one.
Kurt Heyer delivered one to Jett Bandy on Wednesday night, and the Travs' catcher drove it back up the middle for an RBI single that gave the Travs a 4-3 victory over the Springfield Cardinals at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
"You make a little box," Bandy said. "If it's not in that box, you don't swing at it. That's exactly how you have to take a 3-0 approach, and it was there."
Bandy's eventual game-winning at-bat came with two outs in the sixth and the game tied 3-3. Maikol Gonzalez had drawn a leadoff walk, then moved to third when Alex Yarbrough doubled to right field and scored on Matt Long's single to right before Brian Hernandez's sacrifice fly scored Yarbrough to tie the game.
Bandy, who entered Wednesday hitting .237, flew out and popped out in his first two at bats, then saw three consectuive balls from Heyer. The fourth pitch was a fastball on the outside edge of the plate that he drove to center field to score Long to give the Travs a 4-3 lead. Starter Michael Roth and relievers R.J. Alvarez and Danny Reynolds held the Cardinals scoreless over the final three innings to complete a four-game sweep and deliver their season-high sixth consecutive victory.
Arkansas Manager Phillip Wellman said he has no problem with hitters swinging at 3-0 counts. He would rather them be aggressive than watch a good pitch go by.
"Nothing ever good happens when you take a strike," Wellman said. "I don't think there's any difference in swinging at a 3-0 cookie as there is a 3-1 cookie."
Wellman wasn't around to watch the final 2 1/2 innings of the Travs' first series sweep at home this season after being ejected by first base umpire Jake Wilburn in the top of the seventh inning.
Alex Mejia looked to have dribbled a change-up from Michael Roth down the first-base line that Brian Hernandez fielded and stepped on first for what was thought to be an out. But Wilburn and two other umpires conferred and ruled that the ball was hit off Mejia's foot, meaning it was foul.
Wellman came out of the first base dugout to argue, then became more animated while talking with Wilburn before being ejected. Once ejected, Wellman threw his helmet to the ground and continued arguing, first with Wilburn and then with home plate umpire Matt Czajak before exiting down the right-field line toward the Travs' clubhouse.
Wellman said later that he thought the ball was fair, which would have been the second out of the inning. Instead, Roth got Mejia and Travis Tartamella each to ground out and end the inning.
"That's a good group of umpires. I make mistakes every day, and they're human too," Wellman said. "Michael Roth is out there busting his tail, threw a great change-up, the guy hits it off the end of the bat and it gets called foul. That's really all I can say about that."
Roth (8-5) exited after a perfect seventh inning after holding Springfield scoreless in six of his seven innings. He gave up a two-run double to Curt Smith and an RBI single to Rodriguez in the fourth, but was otherwise solid while earning his fourth victory in his past five starts.
"Each starter usually has a couple of hiccups, and he only had one," Bandy said. "When we came back and tied it up, and then we went ahead, he had [one] shutout inning and that was huge for us."
Sports on 07/17/2014