Geneva Red Wings

The Geneva Red Wings are just off a hot streak. After winning six straight to claim the top spot in the Eastern Division, the Cortland Crush gave the Wings a reality check. Cortland won two of the three games they played against the Red Wings, including a 7-1 victory over the Wings in Geneva. These losses made the Red Wings two for their last five and they slipped out of first in the Eastern Division. Now, atop the division are the Syracuse Salt Cats.

nycbl.com

As the Red Wings near the half season point, they have shown fantastic pitching, which helped them cruise to an early divisional lead. At the plate, though, the Wings have been struggling. In their past three games, the Wings have only been able to score 2 runs and they lost two of those games. The only game they won was on the shoulders of Vince Apicella who pitched a complete game two hitter. He did so with only one insurance run that the Wings picked up in the second inning. 

So let's look at the possible reasons the Wings have fallen into this slump. As of right now, only one Red Wings batter is hitting at above .300 and that's Harry Roberson. If we look at shortstops expanded stats, he's got a slash line of .310/.446/.328. While that is a fine statline, with a strong on-base percentage of .446, Roberson hardly gets past first base, as illustrated by his low slugging percentage. Yet, Roberson's slugging percentages is one of the highest on his team. Only one batter has a slugging percentage over .400, and that's Jackson Rhodes. To be fair, he has 2 home runs, so those count as an outlier for the outfielder. His own statline is skewed as well, as he is slashing .273/.333/.591. 

The issue isn't getting on base for the Wings, though. As a team, they are batting second best in the Eastern Division at .237, only Oneonta is hitting better at .250. In fact, they also are in second in RBI's with 67, only behind the Syracuse Junior Chiefs who have 69 RBI's. But clearly the issue isn't with their season stats, so let's look at this recent three game slump in which the Wings have dropped two out of three against Cortland. In that span, as a team, the Wings are hitting a measly .173. The only earned run that was scored by the Red Wings was a solo shot from Jackson Rhodes in the 1-7 loss against the Crush to open the series. 

Vince Apicella, nycbl.com

The issue is easily labelled as a slump that the team is in. Defensively, the Red Wings are solid, giving up only an error per game which is good for the middle of the pack in the Eastern Division. Their core issue recently is their hitting.

So the Wings bats need to fire up behind their pitchers. Apicella, who pitched a sensational game two against the Crush, didn't have much insurance behind him. In order for the Wings to return to winning form, they will need to get their hitting back into shape. They will have to do so against their upcoming opponent of the Oneonta Outlaws who are sitting just a game back on the Red Wings in third place. 

You can tune into the games here, where I broadcast every home game for the Red Wings and the Twins. 

Topher Lane is the play-by-play/color commentator for the Geneva Red Wings and Geneva Twins. He's on Twitter at @Topher_L and you can reach him at his email, crlane@syr.edu.