The Ducks' second-half slump appears to be over after a mid-week sweep
The Ducks' Sam Travis looks for his pitch against the Staten Island FerryHawks in an Atlantic League game at Fairfield Properties Ballpark on July 2. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Something needed to change.
After winning the North Division’s first half title and earning a spot in the Atlantic League playoffs in September, the Ducks stumbled at the start of the second half.
They won just three of the first 13 games in the second half and sat in last place as July ticked down. Part of that lull could be attributed to the calm following nine wins in 11 games to claim the first-half title.
But manager Wally Backman said part of it was a team just going through the motions. The Ducks’ skipper had seen enough. He called a meeting on Monday before the Ducks opened a six-game home stand against the Spire City Ghost Hounds and the Gastonia Honey Hunters.
“Baseball’s a game where you can’t just turn the switch on and off,” Backman said. “And that’s kind of what happened after the end of the first half when we won it.”
The Ducks responded with three straight wins and a sweep of Spire City this week, doubling their second-half win total.
Wilson Ramos scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the 10th inning of the Ducks’ win on Thursday night. The Ducks, who became the Atlantic League’s winningest team with their 1,581st regular season win in June, won their 1,600th on Thursday.
“We’ve had some really high highs and some really low lows,” Backman said. “So, it’s trying to get more on an even keel and consistent, day in and day out. That’s what we need to do.”
The Ducks committed a defensive error in seven of their first 10 second half losses.
“We’ll be the first one to tell you when we make mistakes, and it happens, but all you can do is keep going,” said infielder Sam Travis, who drove in two runs in the Ducks’ 10-8 win over Spire City on Wednesday. “It’s unfortunate that it’s happened so frequently so far, but there’s no doubt in this clubhouse that we feel like we’re going to go out there and win every day.”
The Ducks improved to 6-10 after the Spire City sweep at home, then routed Gastonia 18-1, matching their season-high for runs in a game, in the first game of a three-game set on Friday.
It’s a much-needed turnaround for the Ducks after six straight games on the road.
“It’s always good to be back home after a long trip, get back on our feet,” Travis said. “At the end of the day, we’re all professionals, it’s our job to show up here and win the game, play to the best of our abilities, and we all take pride in that.”
Several roster moves flipped the Ducks’ personnel around over the last week and a half, beginning with the TSG Hawks of the Chinese Professional Baseball League purchasing Tzu-Wei Lin’s contract last Friday. Lin, a former big leaguer, hit .270 with seven home runs with a .876 OPS in 44 games for the Ducks this season.
On Tuesday, the Ducks signed left-handed pitcher Jake Fishman, who appeared in seven games for the Miami Marlins in 2022. The Ducks then traded lefty pitcher and former Yankee and Met Stephen Tarpley to the Lexington Counter Clocks for righthander Merandy Gonzalez on Friday.
“Our pitching, I’m still working, trying to mix and match guys, still finding things,” Backman said. “Our inconsistency is really what we’ve got to work on right now.”
