Squirrels make first trip to New Hampshire

After a winning homestand and a rare day off, the Squirrels head north to New Hampshire and Maine for their longest road trip of the season.

August 3, 2010; 10:13 AM • by John Murden

After a winning homestand and a rare day off, the Squirrels head north to New Hampshire and Maine for their longest road trip of the season.

A great 3-1 home series with the Western Division-leading Altoona Curve (61-46) helped the Squirrels (52-56) climb to within 4 games of .500. The club’s bid to break even for the season faces a hurdle in this week’s New England roadtrip with sets at the Eastern Division-leading New Hampshire Fisher Cats (65-44) and the scrappy Portland Sea Dogs (52-56). These will be the first games of the season between these teams, with the Fisher Cats and Sea Dogs both then visiting the Diamond next week.

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are the AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. They’ve played in Merchantsauto.com Stadium (seen above) in Manchester, New Hampshire since 2004, having (like the Squirrels) began as a Connecticut team. Manchester, first settled some 113 years after Richmond, has a population of just over 100,000 and is the largest city in New Hampshire — had you heard of it before right now?

Like the most challenging series of the season, these games will pit New Hampshire’s bats against Richmond’s pitching. The Fisher Cats have a ton of hitting and lead the league in runs scored (guess who is last…). The Fisher Cats’ CF Darin Mastroianni is third in the league with a .310 batting average, .403 OBP, and a .896 OPS trough 104 games. Their LF Eric Thames is 3rd in the league with 21 homeruns, with 3B Shawn Bowman right behing him with 19. David Cooper (1B) has 15, and OF Adam Loewen has 11. For persective, Thomas Neal leads the Richmond roster with 10 homeruns.

While the Fisher Cats reign among the best in the league with their bats, their pitching is at best solid. The team 4.35 team ERA accounts for the 523 runs that they’ve given up this season. The Squirrels’ team ERA of 3.61 is the best of any team in the league that did NOT have Stephen Strasburg on the roster this season.

While New Hampshire leads the Eastern Division with a record 13 games better than the Squirrels, there is a good chance that the Fisher Cats get a good suprise this week. Their stellar record was built in part by playing 20 games with the atrocious New Britain Rock Cats (31-78), while at the same time the Squirrels were trading series with the then-dominant Altoona Curve. The recent addition of pitcher Craig Westcott (2-1, 3.81) and 1B Brandon Belt (.343, 20) have helped spur the Squirrels to a winning record in July and 10-5 run over the past 2 weeks.

ALSO: This last homestand put the Squirrels in the lead for attendance this season, with 375,496 total and 6,474 average per game. Reliever David Quinowski (3-2, 2.32) has been bumped up from A+ San Jose. INF Juan Ciriaco is back from San Jose as INF Skyler Stromsmoe goes on the DL.

August 3 7:05PM (AWAY)
Richmond Flying Squirrels vs New Hampshire Fisher Cats
Westcott (2-1, 3.81) vs. Stewart (8-2, 3.75)

August 4 12:05PM (AWAY)
Richmond Flying Squirrels vs New Hampshire Fisher Cats
Romero (3-1, 3.45) vs. Boone (2-7, 3.95)

August 5 7:05PM (AWAY)
Richmond Flying Squirrels vs New Hampshire Fisher Cats
MacDonald (3-7, 4.69) vs. Gonzalez (2-2, 7.22)

Eastern League Standings

EAS Eastern
Club	W	L	PCT	GB	ELIM#	Home	Away	L10	Streak
New Hampshire	65	44	.596	–	–	29-22	36-22	7-3	W3
Trenton	64	44	.593	0.5	–	37-18	27-26	6-4	L3
Reading	53	53	.500	10.5	25	29-23	24-30	6-4	W2
Binghamton	54	55	.495	11.0	24	29-26	25-29	3-7	W1
Portland	52	56	.481	12.5	22	24-26	28-30	2-8	L4
New Britain	31	78	.284	34.0	1	14-40	17-38	3-7	L1

EAS Western
Club	W	L	PCT	GB	ELIM#	Home	Away	L10	Streak
Altoona	61	46	.570	–	–	27-22	34-24	4-6	W1
Bowie	59	49	.546	2.5	–	35-23	24-26	6-4	W1
Akron	56	50	.528	4.5	34	30-27	26-23	5-5	L2
Harrisburg	56	53	.514	6.0	31	29-26	27-27	7-3	W4
Richmond	52	56	.481	9.5	28	30-28	22-28	5-5	L1
Erie	45	64	.413	17.0	20	23-31	22-33	6-4	L1