Jersey Pitching Sizzles in July; Ramos Takes Home Award

It was a great month for the Jersey Shore D-Bags, whom at the end of July saw themselves with a 3 game lead over slumping St. Louis in the CL East.  While the bats continue to lead the league in most offensive categories, it was the pitching that came through to drive Jersey Shore to an 18-5, easily their best of the season.  The starters combined to go 16-4 with 15 quality starts, 3 complete games and 1 personal shutout to go with another team shutout.  

Ace Jose Ramos led the way, being named the Pitcher of the Month for the CL, the 4th time in his career he has been donned with that honor.  He won all 5 starts he had in July, getting a quality start for every one of them and averaging a little over 8 innings per start.  His final numbers for the month: 5 starts, 5-0, 41.2 IP, 1.51 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and 21 K's to go along with just 5 BB. With a 13-4 record and league leading 2.34 ERA he might have a chance to catch up with Toronto phenom Albert Lebel in the Cy Young race who is out for the next 2-3 weeks.

Not only was Ramos perfect for Jersey, but we saw glimpses of the Jose Lara of old as he went 6-0 for the month, winning everyone of his starts as well, including a 109 piece masterpiece on 7/7 against Chicago.  Lara threw his first shutout since 2014 and it was the 14th complete game of his career.  His final numbers for the month: 6 starts, 6-0, 40.1 IP, 3.12 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 34 K's.  Before the month began Lara was 2-6 with a nasty high ERA of 7.20.  Through his 6 starts in July he lowered that to 5.64.  While Lara is still only a fraction of the Lara we saw in Boston, stretches like this give Jersey fans hope that he can make some meaningful starts down the stretch and help lead Jersey back to the playoffs.

Is Art Ellis's job in trouble?  After bouncing back somewhat from a horrible 2019 campaign, veteran Art Ellis had a good April and May before slipping in June and having a fairly terrible July.  In his last 4 starts, though he is only responsible for a 0-1 record, he hasn't gotten out of the 5th inning and twice hasn't even gotten out of the 3rd.  The almost 35 year old is making $12.25 million this year and has a team option for $14.75 million next year.  At this point that option being picked up has to have a very slim chance of happening.  24 year old Ramon Ruiz who has ripped up AAA pitching this year, but struggled through 4 big league starts is slated to come off the DL this week and with a couple more bad Ellis starts.....could a change be made?  If Jersey remains in a tight race down the stretch can they really send a struggling Ellis who has obviously lost a step and several MPH off of that fastball?  As much as we would hate to see him go out on a low note....Ellis's days in Jersey might be limited.

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Ramos Masterful; Jersey Takes 1-0 Series Lead

Jose Ramos showed today why he is one of the favorites to take home the CL Cy Young Award and why he is considered one of the best starters in the BSA.  Ramos sprinkled 4 hits in a complete game, giving up 1 earned run on a 5th inning Kevin Beasley single, walking no one and striking out 7 in a 120 pitch performance.  Only 5 balls left the infield all day, as Ramos induced 15 groundballs, including a double play. 

Ramos was aided by 11 hits by the offense, including back to back to back singles in the 4th to tie the game and 3 singles and an error in the 5th which would put the D-Bags up for good.  For the most part starting pitcher Albert Lebel for Toronto kept Jersey guessing all day, striking out 9 in 6.2 innings.  On the 10 hits that Lebel surrendered  only 1 went for extra bases.  Lebel got in trouble when he gave up multiple hits as he did in all 3 innings that Jersey scored in.  Dave Dodd added a solo HR in the 8th inning for extra measure making the score 5-1 which would be the final.

Ramos brings up his post season record to 2-5 with the win.  He had hard two years against against Austin where he went 1-2 despite only giving up 3 ER and only allowing 12 hits in 19 innings pitched.  This was Lebel's 1st post season loss after going 2-0 in 5 starts in Toronto's World Series run last season.  For the 2019 season this marked the 4th time Jersey has beaten Lebel this season.

Game 2 in Jersey Shore features SP Tim Harmon for Toronto vs. SP Sergio Martinez for Jersey

GO D-BAGS