The Team
We start off by taking an overall look at the team and their numbers. It’s easy to see that this Fisher Cats crew has an incredible mix of talent and depth that can one night belt out 14 runs and the next night get a two-hit performance from their staff. Overall the Cats outscored their opponents 172-104 in May and their pitching posted five shutouts. They put together wins streak of 3, 4, 5 and 7 games while only losing back-to-back games on one occasion.

The man, the myth, the mustache...Sal Fasano

“That’s the sign of a complete team,” said manager Sal Fasano. “Sometimes you don’t do it by hitting, sometimes you do it by base running, sometimes you do it by pitching, sometimes you do it by the long ball, but with a young team that has this much talent you don’t know what you’re going to get from day-to-day, but they do have the knack to win and when you got that, everybody steps up and they pick each other up and it makes it a fun time.”

Despite losing the last game of the month, the Fisher Cats finished May with a 23-8 record, the best month of play in franchise history. The previous high water mark for wins in a month was 19. The team’s overall record after May is 34-17, allowing New Hampshire a 3 game cushion on second place Trenton.

Pitching

Stewart dealing

The guns have been fully loaded even as the proverbial “ace” of the staff, Zach Stewart, misfired in a few starts along the way. Stewart sandwiched four rough outings with two stellar performances at the beginning and end of the month. In his last outing of May, on the 19th versus New Britain, Stewart tossed 8 scoreless innings (his longest career outing) and looked to be in full command of his arsenal. This will surely be something to keep an eye on leading into the warm weather months of the season.

Joel Carreno was a monster in May! After an 0-3 April in which his ERA inflated to 6.56, Carreno was one of the best pitcher’s in all of the Eastern League for May, going 4-0 with a miniscule 1.14 ERA. He struck out 41 batters in 31 2/3 innings of work and even earned Eastern League Pitcher of the Week honors for the period of 5/16-5/23. His walk total was a bit high, allowing 21 free passes, but he has more than made up for it along the way.

The addition of Henderson Alvarez (called up from Dunedin on May 19th) has been a godsend for the team. Alvarez has pitched 6 innings in each of his three May starts (his first three AA outings), allowing only 1 run in each of those games and striking out 13 batters. He is a force to be reckoned with and his arrival has solidified the rotation from top to bottom. Fisher Cats radio voice Bob Lipman could not stop raving about him in the press box after seeing his first two starts.

Chad Beck and Rey Gonzalez round out the starting staff and both have maintained a consistent level of work that has been yeoman like. Beck went 3-0 in 5 starts in May, allowing 11 runs and striking out 23 batters. Gonzalez had 6 starts and went 4-0 with a 2.75 ERA.

“Our starting pitching is going out there and giving us a chance every time,” said Fasano of his staff. “They’re going out there and they’re doing an outstanding job, throwing strikes and finishing guys off and getting ground balls.”

Batting
May became a contrast in batting in comparison to April as two of the most highly touted prospects in Jaysdom, Anthony Gose and Travis d’Arnaud, jumped to life at the plate.

D’Arnaud’s April was a complete disaster. He batted .188 in 13 games with 1 home run, 5 RBI and 6 runs. May on the other hand was a thing of beauty as d’Arnaud found his stroke to the tune of a whopping .410 batting average to go along with 3 homers, 10 RBI and 17 runs. His bat is most certainly on, he’s solidified his pitching staff behind the plate and he continues to gun down runners who try to steal on him…THIS is the Travis d’Arnaud we expected…maybe even more so!

Gose focused at bat

Speaking of runners, Anthony Gose continues to run down the Fisher Cats’ stolen base record, swiping 14 more bases in May (to go along with 8 in April), and only getting caught 3 times. He is 24 swipes away from the team record (46) set only last year by Darin Mastroianni. Gose has also found his stroke at the plate after a tough April where he batted .238. In May Gose hit .296, belted his first 4 home runs of the season, drove in 18 and scored 26 times.

“Slowly but surely things are starting to come together, ” said Gose, “but I still have some work to do with pitch selection a little bit and stay within my approach and stay within myself and just try to put the barrel on the ball.”

Other notable hitters on the month include Mike McDade, Moises Sierra and Adeiny Hechavarria. McDade, the Fisher Cats most consistent hitter all season long, put together a team-high 12-game hit streak in May, helping him end the month with a .330 average, 5 homers and 24 RBI. Sierra hit .310 for the month, with 5 home runs and 23 RBI and he even had back-to-back walk off singles on the 8th and 9th. For Hechavarria, the average is still down, but he has 12 more RBI in May (15) than April (3) and he stole 8 bases and scored 18 runs in the month, so as long as he continues to reach base, he will continue to help the squad offensively.

It will be imperative for the Fisher Cats to maintain their overall balance as a team if they are to continue on this torrid pace. For sure there will be a bit of a slowdown, because no team plays this good for a whole season, so it will be up to them to maintain during the down times, but obviously the talent is in place. It’s a matter of if that talent can stick it out through good and bad times.