Mister Baseball

by Pim van Nes

All five active Netherlands pitchers in the American Major and Minor Leagues recently delivered their best results of the season so far. Jair Jurrjens, Sydney Ponson and Alexander Smit got their pitcher’s wins as starters for the Atlanta Braves (Majors), Oklahoma Red Hawks (Triple A) and Sarasota Reds (Single A Advanced). Loek van Mil produced two perfect innings and obtained the save in the victory by his Beloit Snappers (Single A) Shairon Martis worked as a starter for six shutout innings helping his Harrisburg Senators (Double A), however, they lost the game in extra innings without him. All five and disabled Rick van den Hurk are considered prospects for the national team of the Netherlands, preparing for the Olympic Games 2008 and for the World Baseball Classic 2009.

Loek van Mil (23 years of age) got his second Beloit save of the season by eliminating all six Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in the box during their last two innings as from the 6-5 score in the road game in Wisconsin. His six knockouts were five consecutive strikeouts and only the other European player in the game, Italian third base man Alex Liddi from San Remo, could not be beaten in the box. However, the Snappers shortstop kept the two innings perfect by throwing Liddi out at first base. End of the game and 0-0-0-5 for the tall Dutchman. The relief pitcher performed in six Single A games totalizing 8.1 innings during which he struck out 14 batters and kept the opponents scoreless in three games for an ERA by now at 3.24.

Alexander Smit (22) won his second game in a row for the Sarasota Reds in the road game versus the Yankees in Clearwater. Only in the fifth inning Smit conceded the first run, but this was non-significant at that time as Sarasota was leading 7-1. The Yankees got closer by five runs on Smit’s replacement in the seventh (6-9), but in the end Smit’s Sarasota won 10-6. Smit won two and lost two in his five games started. His ERA improved from 12.00 after the first to 1.80 in his latest outing last week for an overall average of 5.32 now.

Shairon Martis (21) also played his best game so far by keeping his opponents scoreless during the first six innings in the road game versus Akron. The Dutch pitcher of the Harrisburg Senators was relieved when they were leading 1-0. His first reliever immediately conceded the equalizer and in the tenth the home team scored even the game-winning run: 2-1. This result was the first loss for Harrisburg in the five games started by pitcher Martis and for him personally it was the fourth no-decision. As a pitcher Martis remains unbeaten and winner of one Double A game. Martis worked in a total of 26.1 innings, during which he conceded eighth earned runs only for an ERA of 2.73 by now.

Sydney Ponson (31) last week won his season’s first game as a starting pitcher for the Oklahoma Red Hawks in Triple A at the Pacific Coast. Ponson is the fourth pitcher in this story keeping his opponents scoreless for a significant part of the game. During Ponson’s seven innings Iowa remained silent, although the gap was narrow as from the first inning: 1-0. Iowa scored a single run as soon as Ponson was relieved in the eighth only to conserve the difference: 2-1. Oklahoma took the distance in the ninth for the 6-1 final score. Winning pitcher Ponson struck out four, walked two and gave up four scattered singles. Last year he was released as a Major League pitcher by the Minnesota Twins, but this year he was allowed to play a few spring training games for the Texas Rangers. He did well enough for a Triple A job with the Red Hawks.

Since Rick van den Hurk (22) left Florida Marlins to recuperate in Carolina (Double A), the only Netherlands pitcher active in Major League is Jair Jurrjens with the Atlanta Braves. Jurrjens (22) keeps on surprising. Most recently it happened last weekend at the Shea Stadium in New York. The Mets fans saw him produce even his first hit and his first run of his Major League career. Plagued by tough calls by the plate umpire, he walked four. However, by limiting New York hits at two, he managed to keep the damage light. Three Mets runs in the third were more than compensated by the Braves batters. When Jurrjens left the mound after six innings, the Braves had taken the lead again: 5-3. Jurrjens got his third win of the season when the scoreboard showed the final score 6-3 for the Braves.

Pim van Nes
Baseball writer for
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