Weekly report on the

by Jason Eisenberg

Ducks heating up, set sights on first-place Nashua

by Jason Eisenberg

What started off as another tough week for the Long Island Ducks could end up being the turning point of their season. After losing two games in a row by one run, the Ducks came to life winning four of five games and inched back in the standings to within five games of the Nashua Pride.

The biggest win came Monday night against Nashua to open up a seven-game homestand. If there was ever a time for the Ducks to go on a hot streak, this is it, as a look at the team's upcoming schedule shows a stretch which will have them playing seven of their next ten games against the first-place Pride. Manager Don McCormack knows how important these games are to his team's post-season chances. "The Ducks are pretty famous for having those big series' in the beginning of August and this is boiling down to a big one," McCormack stated after his team's 7-4 win on Monday, "We will be prepared."

Just about everything went right for the Ducks at Citibank Park on an otherwise dreary and rainy Monday night. In front of the 23rd consecutive home sellout crowd, and 37th overall for the season, the Ducks came out flying in the very first frame. The big star of the night was shortstop Juan Lorenzo, who hit a grand slam in the first inning and later added two doubles to finish 3-for-4 at the plate. It was Lorenzo's first home run of the season and the team's first grand slam. "That is not usually part of my game, but once in awhile I will take it," Lorenzo said about his big hit, "I just put the ball in play, tried to be aggressive and the home run came."

Armando Rios and Justin Davies kept up their recent torrid play, with Rios hitting a home run, his second in as many games, while the West Babylon resident, Davies, went 2-for-4 on the day and scored two runs. The only real negative of the night was Henry Rodriguez losing his 19-game hitting streak after an 0-for-3 night. The slugger's streak was the second longest in the Atlantic League this season and fell just one game short of the Ducks' record set by Derrick Gibson in 2003.

Todd Erdos pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his league-leading 25th save of the season and third in his past four games. However, the week did not start off as well as it ended for Erdos and the Ducks. Last Tuesday, the team's all-star closer was charged with the loss after giving up a ninth inning lead during a game against the Newark Bears. The Ducks would lose another late lead and another one-run game the very next day. After falling behind 6-1, Long Island, lifted by a three-run home run by Pete Rose Jr., fought all the way back to take the lead but could not hold on.

It took a complete game shutout pitched by Shane Arthurs, the first of his career, to get the turnaround started. Arthurs threw 125 pitches, allowing only three hits, in a 10-0 Duck's blowout last Thursday in Newark. Lance Davis, fresh off of being named the Atlantic League pitcher of the month for July, picked up right where Arthurs left off the night before. Davis limited the Lancaster Barnstormers to only two runs over seven innings of work, guiding the Ducks to a 4-2 victory. On Saturday, Long Island exploded for six runs in just the first inning and took all the pressure off pitcher Luis Arroyo, who picked up his first win in his first start as a Duck.

Looking to sweep the series from Lancaster on Sunday afternoon, Long Island ran into one of those games that you just move on from and try to forget right away. The Barnstormers won 16-2, scoring all of their runs in a four inning span. It was the most runs an opponent has scored against the Ducks this season. Long Island was evidently able to put this one out of their minds pretty quickly as they would post the big win against division-leading Nashua the very next night. Now the Ducks look to prove that they can continue their recent winning ways and hope that all of the coming games against Nashua can help propel them back to within sight of the North Division title and a berth in the playoffs.

Notes:

•Luis Arroyo was used as a starter on Saturday to fill in for Paxton Crawford's normal spot in the rotation. Early last week, the team announced that Crawford, an all-star in 2005 and league pitcher of the month for May, had decided to retire after his last start on July 31st

•Henry Rodriguez hit two more home runs during the week and continues to lead the team with 14 on the season

•.Carlos Hernandez, Davies, Rose Jr. and others all came up big at important times during the week, but no one on the team is swinging the bat better than Armando Rios, who has raised his batting average to .313

•During the week, the Ducks announced the signing of 28-year-old infielder Donny Leon. Up to this point, Leon, a native of Puerto Rico, had split the 2005 season between St. Paul of the Northern League and Charlotte of the International League.