When last we checked in on the Arkansas Travelers, they were fresh off a disappointing 2-4 series — three at home, three on the road — against the Frisco RoughRiders and were headed to west Texas to take on the Midland RockHounds for their last slate of games prior to the Major League All-Star Game break.
The games against Midland did not go great, but they ended on something of a high note, with the Travs taking two of the final three matchups to salvage another 2-4 series going into the four-day break. Even better, the Travs’ bats, which had been absent for weeks, came out of the break hot and sprayed San Antonio Missions pitching all over Dickey-Stephens Park in a three-game weekend series.
With nine games, there’s a lot of ground to cover in this post, and we’ll be leaning heavily on my notes from the six road games against the RockHounds. Which, if you’ve been reading these over the last month or so, means less “analysis” and more “weird outbursts and unhinged observations.” It’ll be fun. Let’s do this.
Series recap(s):
Tuesday (July 9): Brandyn Garcia makes his second start as a Trav after winning Texas League Pitcher of the Week based on his first start. I’m not used to a reality where games at Midland are low-scoring, but I guess that’s a testament to how much talent the Oakland A’s are hiding in the minor leagues while putting a bad product on the field in Oakland in their efforts to fleece a city (Oakland or otherwise) out of a new stadium. Top 4. TOOTBLAN, as Victor Labrada is caught stealing second. So tired of the team running itself out of innings, but this one wasn’t as bad as some. Labrada can FLY; this was just a good throw. Bottom 4. Midland scores, and that stupid f&#^ing train sound goes off in Momentum Bank Ballpark. Bottom 5. Garcia lifted for Reid Morgan after throwing four innings, allowing only one run, and striking out and walking three. Hounds get three straight hits off of Morgan, then a sac fly. 0-3, Midland. Bottom…7? 8? Who cares? It’s 1-8 now. This sucks. Bottom 9. Cole Young singles. Whatever. I miss hits and runs. RockHounds 8, Travelers 1.
Wednesday: Big righty Logan Evans making a spot start as the Travs continue to mold him into the reliever/occasional starter the Mariners seem to want him to be. Ben Williamson — who is going to be a very, very good major league player in the near future and is somehow criminally underrated on this team — homers in the top of the first to give the Travs a 2-0 lead. Top 3. Kaden Polcovich and Hogan Windish drive in one run each, making it 4-0 for Arkansas. Things are looking up! Bottom 3. I lied. 8-4, Midland, after the wheels come all the way off for Jimmy Joyce, who relieved Evans to start the frame. Midland adds two more in the bottom of the fourth, and each team scores once in the fifth. RockHounds 11, Travelers 5.
Thursday: Left hander Danny Wirchansky gets the start. He deserves better. Goes seven innings, gives up two runs, strikes out seven … and takes the loss. Arkansas has two hits (singles from Williamson and Jake Anchia). There is no joy in Mudville. RockHounds 3, Travelers 0.
Friday: 21-year-old righty Michael Morales makes his first start for Arkansas. At Everett this season, Morales was 9-1 with a 2.36 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 84 innings. Brock Rodden homers in the top of the first inning and Williamson singles in Labrada to make it 2-0. Yay! Bottom 2. Midland scores twice to tie the game. Boo! Bottom 6. Midland scores again to make it 2-3. BOO! Top 7. Morgan McCullough steals third and then scores on a throwing error by Midland, and we’re tied up! Top 8. Anchia singles home Windish to make it 4-3! So this is what it feels like to have hope. Travelers 4, RockHounds 3.
Saturday: I’m not saying Ellis “Red” Redding was right when he told Andy Dufresne, “Hope is a dangerous thing; hope can drive a man insane.” I’m just saying, I understand where he was coming from. After the Travs scored two in the top of the first and one in the top of the second to take a 3-0 lead, Midland answered with one in the second, two in the third, and two in the fourth to make it 5-3. Arkansas tied the game in the top of the sixth and took a one-run lead in the top of the seventh, only for Midland to score two in the bottom of the seventh to go up 7-6. Arkansas tied the game in the top of the ninth, but couldn’t score in the top of the tenth inning. Midland had no such problem in the bottom half of that frame. RockHounds 8, Travelers 7 (10).
Sunday: Nope. Andy was right. Every baseball fan knows it, somewhere down deep in his soul. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” With Garcia on the mound again, I have hope. (Midland scores in the bottom of the first.) I have a deep, abiding hope that this team will turn things around. (Midland scores in the bottom of the third.) Maybe not today, but … wait! The Travs send eight batters to the plate in the top of the fourth, scoring four runs behind RBI hits from Labrada, Ben Ramirez, Anchia, and Blake Rambusch. A Williamson single in the sixth extends Arkansas’s lead and the bullpen combines for five scoreless innings to wrap up the series. Travelers 5, RockHounds 2.
—All-Star Break—
Friday (July 19): The San Antonio Missions coming to town meant the return of former Travelers first baseman and huge fan favorite Robbie “Byrd” Tenerowicz. When he came to the plate to lead off the top of the second inning, the Travs played his old walkup music (“Careless Whisper,” by Wham!) and the crowd gave him a solid ovation. Nicely done, fans. Wirchansky got Tenerowicz to ground out as part of Wirchanksy’s six innings of two-run baseball. Arkansas scored one in the second and four in the fifth, and that’s all they needed. Travelers 5, Missions 2.
Saturday: The Travelers put on a Christmas in July promotion Saturday night, with the first 1,000 fans receiving a Christmas stocking. Why July 20? WHO KNOWS?! But if you think I wasn’t doing a horrible Mariah Carey impression the entire game, screeching “All I want for Christmas is youuuu to hit a homer, baby!” then you don’t know me very well. Arkansas scored three in the second on a Brock Rodden homer, then added two more in the fourth. San Antonio plated two in the sixth to blemish an otherwise fantastic start from right hander Juan Mercedes, but Arkansas scored three in the seventh and put the game out of reach of a late Missions rally. Travelers 8, Missions 5.
Sunday: It probably bears mentioning that San Antonio came into this series as a hot team. Even after dropping the first two to Arkansas, they had a +17 run differential and were only half a game out of first in the Texas League South. Coming off back-to-back struggle-filled series against Frisco and Midland, Arkansas certainly didn’t look like a team that would sweep a playoff contender. Nor did they look like a team that could battle back and win a low-scoring game in the ninth inning. Going into the ninth on Sunday, however, they trailed San Antonio 3-2, and the Missions’ closer Ethan Routzahn had not blown a save all year. Harry Ford led off the final frame with a walk, then was driven home on a double from Windish. Rambusch pinch ran for Windish, and Labrada bunted him to third before a Rodden sac fly brought him across with the winning run. Travelers 4, Missions 3.
Random fact about Midland, TX:
Midland’s nickname is “The Tall City” because, during the oil boom in the 1980s, a few 300-foot buildings were erected. They planned to build four buildings over 500 feet, including an 870-foot Energy Tower, but a decrease in the oil market over the following decade scrapped those plans. Nevertheless, the nickname stuck, and a town with this skyline still refers to itself as “The Tall City.”
Travelers’ current record:
47-42 overall, 11-10 in the second half. Two games behind first place Springfield in the Texas League North, but only 1.5 games behind Tulsa for second. And, since Springfield won the first-half Texas League North, where they finish in the second half is largely irrelevant; Arkansas just needs to finish ahead of the other North division teams to punch their playoff ticket.
Three things to be optimistic about:
- Speed. I mentioned it in the previous column, but this team is silly quick. In the last 15 days, covering nine games, seven Travs have combined for 19 stolen bases. No Travelers player has been caught stealing more than once in that time, either. They’ve stolen 130 bases on the season, putting them seven behind co-league leaders Midland and Corpus Christi. At least twice in the San Antonio series, the Travs’ speed kept them out of double plays in innings where they ultimately scored.
- Travis Kuhn. It feels strange having him here, given how poorly he fared as the Travs’ closer to open the season. But since moving into first a middle-innings role and more recently getting chances as the setup man for closer Troy Taylor, Kuhn has been steadily improving. Over the last two weeks, he’s appeared in four games, throwing five innings, allowing no runs, and sporting a 0.80 WHIP and a .167 batting average against him.
- RJ Schreck. The big left handed hitting outfielder made his debut for the Travelers on Friday. While it’s a small sample size, what we’ve seen from him in two games is promising. He went 2-7 against San Antonio with a double and a triple, two runs scored, and an RBI. At Everett this season, he was slashing .261/.401/.464 with 12 homers and 57 walks. He brings some power (in theory) to the lineup that has been missing for the past couple of months.
Current area(s) of concern:
- Jimmy Joyce. In the past 30 days, Joyce has pitched 12 innings — some as a starter, some in relief — and has allowed nine runs, nine hits, and nine walks. He’s also hit two batters. There’s no way to sugarcoat numbers like that, especially when his numbers coming into the past 30 days were also pretty ugly.
- Kaden Polcovich. In June, it seemed like Polcovich might be returning to the player he was in 2022 for the Travs. That was apparently a false alarm, however, because he’s since gone back to being the player he was in 2023. Over the last 15 days, he’s 1-17 with two RBI and one steal. In the last 30 days, his average is still only .135, with a .556 OPS, 14 strikeouts (versus five hits), and one steal against three times caught stealing. With the promotion of Schreck, Labrada, and Rambusch, plus Alberto Rodriguez slowly heating up and Jared Oliva due back from the injured list at some point, Polcovich’s opportunities to make outs might be coming to an end sooner rather than later.
Cue Joe Esposito:
In the previous installment of this column, we named the six Major League Hall of Fame players from Arkansas. That got me wondering who the best players were to have ever suited up for the Travelers, though. I don’t mean, “who had the best years as Travelers,” but “which players went on to have the best Major League careers?”
In case you were also wondering, here’s the list:
- Tris Speaker. Played one season with the Travs in 1908. Known as the Gray Eagle, Speaker amassed 134.9 Wins Above Replacement (WAR), good for ninth all-time in baseball history. Remains fifth all time in hits (3,514), ninth in batting average (.345) and 13th in on-base percentage (.428). In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him 27th on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1937.
- Mike Trout. Played one season in North Little Rock in 2011. Though riddled with injuries in recent seasons, Trout easily leads all current MLB players in WAR with 86.1, which ties him for 50th best of all time. His 173 career OPS+ is eighth best all time (13 spots ahead of Speaker’s 158). Trout was Rookie of the Year in 2012 and has won two MVP awards, though he should have at least two more if award voting made sense.
- Fergie Jenkins. The big Canadian righthander played in three seasons with the Travelers from 1963 through 1965. As a big leaguer, Jenkins amassed 84.2 WAR and one Cy Young Award, was a three-time All Star and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991 after posting a career 284-226 record, 3,192 strikeouts, and a 115 ERA+.
- Bill Dickey. One fourth of the namesakes of Dickey-Stephens Park, Dickey, who grew up in Searcy, played for the Travs in 1925, 1926, 1928, and briefly in 1947. He was an 11-time All Star for the New York Yankees in the 1930s and 1940s. He finished in the top five in MVP voting three times, played in eight World Series and ended his career with 56.4 WAR and a 127 OPS+. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954.
- Jim Bunning. Bunning pitched for the Travelers in 1953 and 1954 before joining the Detroit Tigers in 1955. Over 17 seasons as a Major Leaguer, Bunning won 224 games, put up 60.4 WAR and was a nine-time All Star. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996.
Arkansas Times Player of the Fortnight:
Ben Williamson. I am on record, in this column and previous ones, as a Williamson fan. Defensively, he’s insanely fun to watch, as he gets to balls that many major league third basemen wouldn’t reach, and he makes them look routine. His offense over the past two weeks, however, is why he’s getting this award: 11-35, .314/.385/.486, .three doubles, one homer, four runs, seven RBI and two walks.
Up next:
Arkansas winds their way up the Pig Trail to Northwest Arkansas for a six-game series against the Naturals starting tonight (Tuesday) at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday through Friday’s games will also get underway at 7:05 p.m., while Saturday will start at 6:05 p.m. and Sunday’s first pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m.
All games are available in Central Arkansas on 106.7 Buz2 FM.