Camden once again got the early jump on the York Revolution, putting up a five-spot in the second inning and cruising to a 5-2 victory at Campbell’s Field on Sunday afternoon.
The win capped off a three-game sweep for the Riversharks (3-0) and saddled York (0-3) with a three-game skid to start the year. York was also swept in its opening series at Bridgeport last season.
Camden’s L.J. Bierbaum led off the second with a single and then Nic Jackson singled with two outs to move Biernbaum to second. Both men moved up on a wild pitch from York starter Aaron Rakers (0-1) and Gabe Suarez followed with a double to score both Biernbaum and Jackson. Rakers then walked Erik San Pedro and leadoff man Chris Walker tripled for the second time in three nights to make it 4-0. A Gary Cates double plated Walker to complete the ‘Sharks monster inning.
York’s offense stalled once again, only managing four hits in the game. Keoni De Renne hit leadoff and went 1-for-4 with Travis Ezi receiving the day off. Matt Padgett, Matt Esquivel and Tyler Von Schell added the other hits for the Revs. Matt Dryer (pictured) went 0-for-3 with a walk, snapping a two-game hitting streak.
Rakers, making the start to allow Pete Munro and Landon Jacobsen more rest, went three innings and allowed seven hits and five earned runs. Most of Camden’s damage did come with two outs in the second, however, and Rakers added three strikeouts with only one walk.
The Revs’ bullpen was excellent on Sunday. Travis Phelps pitched two scoreless innings in his first appearance with York, Jason Olson followed with two scoreless frames and Matt Trent finished it off with a scoreless eighth. Phelps (two walks) and Olson (one walk) did not allow a hit while Trent only allowed one.
Player of the Game: Darren Sack (Camden). After the ‘Sharks staked Sack to a five-run advantage, he really settled in and was efficient through five innings. Sack only gave up one hit and two walks in five innings while picking up the win. Jackson also had three hits for Camden.
Notes: Kaz Tanaka started in center field for York on Sunday and went 0-for-2 with a walk… Wayne Franklin is scheduled to start the home-opener at Sovereign Bank Stadium Tuesday, but the starters for the rest of the series could still be up in the air. Aaron Myette could start the finale at home against Southern Maryland — that would give him five days rest… Jose Enrique Cruz hit second for the Revs Sunday and went 0-for-2 but got on twice via a walk. Padgett hit third again, Jason Aspito hit fifth and Esquivel was dropped to sixth. Esquivel has started the year 1-for-12.
Check the game box score here.
*Dryer photo by Dispatch photographer Bill Kalina.
Filed under: Camden Riversharks, Game Recaps, York Revolution |
Revolution Rumblings 
I was at this game, too, a few observations:
1) Esquivel isn’t really struggling as much as it might appear. Between the Saturday and Sunday games, he had 3-4 crushed line drives that went straight into the gloves of the Camden outfielders. His bump down in the lineup seems to be really hasty.
2) In the two games which I saw, the bullpen was the clear hightlight (as we might have predicted this year). Jason Olsen has looked terrific. Trent might need a little more time to find his offspeed stuff, he had a few 59 footers on curves, but he has an excellent fastball that was good enough to get the Camden hitters out.
3) It’s hard to quantify this, but I had a sense that Camden was more prepared for the regular season at this point. They looked a little sharper with their pitching, and their hitters seemed to have better at-bats in the two games which I saw. They also made a few tough defensive plays which York wasn’t able to come up with as consistently.
I agree that York just didn’t seem ready to start the season, even though I was only there Friday night. It also doesn’t help when two of your five starting pitchers are not right physically at the start of the year and another is traditionally a slow starter (Wayne Franklin).
We’ll see how they do in the homecoming. Lancaster (2-1), Somerset (2-1) and Newark (1-2) have already started applying a bit of pressure in the Freedom division.
How was the trip to lovely Camden?
It’s not often that you have a view of a maximum security penitentiary from your seat at the ballpark, so Camden has that unique feature going for them.
I just posted on Atlantic League Baseball News that the game experience in Camden was pretty good, for the most part. There wasn’t much of a crowd for the second and third game of the season, but weather might have been a factor. It was pretty bad at gametime on Saturday and not particularly pleasant on Sunday, either.
We had a chance to chat with some of the Revs (Dryer and Esquivel before the game on Saturday, Veres a bit during the games both days), which was really cool. It’s such a double-edged sword in this league, you root for guys and you really want to see them do well for themselves, but at the same time you hate to see them leave the team when the time comes.
As I mentioned in my other post, Veres dominated the three Camden hitters that he faced. Apart from the fact that he struck out the side on 10 pitches, the swings that they did have at his pitches were simply atrocious. I know it’s just one game, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if he was back in the majors sometime soon.
The park is nice, the access is OK. I was pretty disappointed in attendance – granted it’s the end of April and it was a chilly weekend.
Camden’s team is very solid. Strong pitching top to bottom excepting a few hiccups. Their hitters were working counts and getting good pitches to hit generally (except against Veres and Olsen who looked very good).
I have to agree with ALF(atlantic league fans) on all of his points. It’s easy to root for this team, they seem like some standup guys and Dave Veres inning was one of the most impressive pitching performances I’ve seen in any league recently. My biggest complaint was the managing. Camden has this guy who Kaz could probably post up in basketball, and he had two cheap hits because of poor postioning by the centerfielder. Otherwise, a fine weekend(Thanks for the free BBQ to whoever was paying in that luxury suite) as one could possibly spend in Camden, NJ.
Free food? Man, curse the illness that kept me at home on Sunday.
Camden is really a tragic situation. The park is great and it could use a few renovations, but it’s in an area where people just aren’t going to come out.
You have to love that backdrop with the Ben Franklin Bridge, though.
There’s no such thing as a free luxury box lunch.