Tom Gamboa had seen enough.
The Cyclones had not scored at least five runs in seven games in a row, so before Sunday’s game he lashed out at his players during a closed-door 45-minute meeting aimed at getting their heads straight.
For too long, players were committing to pitches before they were thrown, then weakly swinging at balls over their heads or in the dirt — and the results were terrible.
“In the Staten Island series, every game was a carbon copy,” Gamby said afterward. “I’d look up in the eighth inning and we’d have four scattered singles. We’re better than that but our approach at the plate was horrible.”
Gamboa has said how he is happy to give something back to baseball by managing the Cyclones, but that doesn’t mean he can’t get frustrated. The bats went quiet against pitchers who may never make the majors. Out of the first 27 games, Gamboa only thought of three opposing pitchers as prospects. Yet the Cyclones made many pitchers look like Cy Young candidates.
The batters took the tongue lashing in stride.
“It was definitely something we needed as a team,” said Brandon Brosher, who hit a three-run homer on Monday. “When Gamboa, talks players listen because the guy has more experience than a lot of people do in baseball. A lot of words of wisdom come from that man.”
Brooklyn scored seven runs on Sunday, the most the team had scored in two weeks. The Cyclones scored five more in Monday’s come-from-behind victory.
And the players chalk it up to his great advice.
“Everyone in the locker room respects him,” said first baseman Jeff Diehl. “He’s not wrong about what he’s saying. We’re not hitting and we need to start hitting.”
Late-inning magic
The Cyclones are undefeated when leading after seven innings and on Monday won for the first time when trailing after seven. Down 4–1 to Vermont, Brosher tied the game in the eighth with a home run and Diehl followed with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Brooklyn had several walk-off victories already and the comeback win will only help the squad going forward.
“We’re all like one big family. This just brought us even closer,” Diehl said. “We know we can win when it goes into the later innings. This is going to come in handy when we go further into the season and games start meaning more and more as the season progresses.”
The Clones are doing better than they were at this point of the 2014 season. Brooklyn had started 15–11 but lost their next eight games. Although it is the late-season games people remember, the losing streak came back to haunt them when they missed the playoffs.
Monday’s late-inning victory helps build confidence in a team that already has some high expectations.
With all the talk about the hitting, the pitchers have almost been taken for granted. Lost in the seven-run outburst on Sunday was a superb start by Gaby Almonte who picked up his third win of the season.
Four relievers combined for four-and-one-third scoreless innings in Friday night’s win against the hated Staten Island Yankees.
