The 70th and final regular-season game at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock played Monday night might go down as the oddest of the season.
Consider first that the Arkansas Travelers, who struggled to hit at home all season, scored all of their runs in a 12-1 rout of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals in the first six innings, setting a season-high for runs at a park where they averaged 3.3 per game.
On the other side, the game got so out of hand for the Naturals that they finished without their manager and hitting coach after both were ejected in the seventh inning and Mark Threlkeld, a first baseman, pitched his first inning as a professional in the bottom of the eighth.
"Those are really not that fun," Travelers Manager Phillip Wellman said. "If you're going to have them, which you do, you'd rather be on the end we were on, but I've been on too many of the other ends. I'm glad we scored a bunch of runs, but it's really not fun."
It likely was for Alex Yarbrough, who scored three runs, Mike Bianucci, who had three RBI, and Eric Stamets, who hit a two-run home run in the third to give the Travs a 7-0 lead.
The victory was the Travs' fourth in five games and clinched at least a tie for first place in the Texas League North Division second-half standings. The Travs are one victory, or one Springfield loss, away from clinching their third playoff spot in four seasons as they begin a four-game series at Springfield tonight.
"We're not going to let off the gas pedal," said first baseman Brian Hernandez, who went 2 for 2, scored two runs and was the recipient of a pitch that began Monday's oddities.
After the Travs jumped on Naturals starter Aroni Nina, who made his first Class AA start when Andy Ferguson was scratched a couple of hours before the game, for five runs in the first, Hernandez went to the plate with two outs in the second.
After a strike, Nina's fastball hit Hernandez in the back of the head, knocking his helmet off. Hernandez popped up, and exchanged words with Nina as he took first base while both benches were warned by homeplate umpire Nestor Ceja. Bianucci then appeared to exchange words with Nina and Naturals catcher Juan Graterol before eventually drawing a walk. Matt Long struck out to end the inning, but Hernandez and Nina again exchanged words in between innings. No punches or shoves were exchanged.
"Anytime it's around the head region, it's scary," Hernandez said. "I don't know if it's intentional, but it's scary. So it's going to cause that sort of reaction."
Nina's outing ended after two innings and he suffered his first Class AA loss with 5 runs on 3 hits. He was thrust into his first start with the Naturals when Ferguson, a Benton native who pitched at Arkansas State, was scratched while preparing to join Class AAA Omaha. Northwest Arkansas Manager Vance Wilson said Nina could have handled the spot start better.
"If you're going to be a major league pitcher, no, you've got to be able to rise above and adapt," Wilson said.
No other incidents occurred until the seventh. With the Travs leading 12-0, Arkansas starter Michael Roth hit Jorge Bonifacio in the head with a two-out pitch. Naturals hitting coach Andre David, who was coaching first base, began arguing with first-base umpire Jake Wilburn and was ejected. Then Wilson crossed the field and was also ejected.
"The guy threw at my guy's head," Wilson said. "Now I didn't put the warning, the umpire put the warning. ... We played a bad game. Myself getting ejected and Andre getting ejected had nothing to do with the way we played, but the way the umpires handled the game."
Sports on 08/26/2014