The 2011 Burlington Bees season has been full of memories filled with the typical highs and lows of a long season. As the Bees get set to start the final full week of the 2011 season here in Quad Cities today, it’s worthwhile to point out what last night’s game can show us. The offense can pick up the pitching when it struggles. The Bees are going to need that flexibility in the playoffs.

I know the playoffs are right around the corner and many of you are looking forward the start next Wednesday. If sport has shown us anything over the last 10 years or so, it’s not necessarily the best team that wins the championship but the team that is hot at the right time. Today in my weekly visit with Aaron Nieckula on Newsradio 1490 KBUR, he talked about his hope that the Bees are beginning to “peek” at the right time. I sure hope he’s right.

 

With such a pleasant break in our weather here in the Midwest, it’s been an ideal August to finish the regular season with spectacular late summer weather. It’s easy to forget the massive weather problems the eastern seaboard is facing. From North Carolina all the way through New England, the heavily populated eastern sea board is dealing with a hurricane that many folks that have not seen before.

With so many of the Bees players and coaches from or closely connected to people that live directly within the path of their hurricane, please keep everyone that lives on the east coast in your thoughts over the next 48-72 hours.

 

With last night’s 4-0 win over Beloit, the Burlington Bees recorded their 11^th shut out of the 2011 season. The Bees have shut out Beloit in five of those 11 games. Burlington picked up shut outs here in Beloit on May 24 and 26, August 14 and last night. Burlington’s only shut out at home against Beloit came on July 27. The Bees are 10-7 against Beloit in 2011 and wrap up the season series tonight.

 

The “dog days” of the season are almost done and the Bees are in the midst of a stretch that has been truly unique. Each night has provided a different statistical oddity.

Last night’s 6-1 win in Beloit featured 23 strikeouts (11 recorded by Burlington, 12 by Beloit pitching). The Bees committed six errors Tuesday leading to three unearned runs by Wisconsin in its 8-4 victory. On Monday the Bees had more runs (5) than hits (4) by taking advantage of eight walks in a 5-3 win.

It’s nights like these that make coming to the ballpark exciting and make the “dog days” here at the end of the season interesting.

Including tonight, there are 13 games left in the season as the Bees begin their final road trip of the regular season here in Beloit. It’s worthwhile to pinpoint some Bees players that are starting to heat up. Beau Taylor is hitting .355 over his last 10 games and CF Tyreace House is batting .350 over his last 10 games. RF Jose Crisotomo is hitting .343 over his last 9 games (12-35).

On the pitching side of things, RHP Jose Macias has struck out 11 over his last 13 innings pitched. He’ll get the start tomorrow for the Bees here in Beloit.

 

In baseball the name of the game is to win series. If you can win the series whether it’s a three-game or four-game set, then your club will end up with a winning record. In the month of August, the Bees have played six series, including the current one against Wisconsin.

The Bees lost three out of four games in Peoria from August 2-5 but since then Burlington has not lost a series.

Burlington split a four-game series against Clinton here at Community Field from August 6-9. The Bees won two out of three games at Quad Cities from August 10-12 and won two of the three contests in Beloit from August 13-15. The Bees also won two of the three-game series against Cedar Rapids from August 17-19.

With Burlington winning two of the first three games of this four-game series, the Bees look for the series win tonight in a game that wraps up the home stand here in Burlington.

Bees 2B Nino Leyja was drafted in the 15^th round in 2008 out of high school in Houston, Texas. He hit five home runs over his first three minor league seasons. With his two-run home run in the third inning on Sunday afternoon, Leyja now has as many home runs this season (5) as he had over his first three years in pro ball. He also homered at the 2011 Midwest League All-Star Game in Quad Cities back in June.

Leyja has also been a staple in the Bees lineup, playing in 102 games and logging a .245 batting average and 31 RBIs to go along with his five home runs. He’ll get the night off as the Bees take on Wisconsin in game three of their series tonight.

 

It was great to see the Burlington Bees take advantage of the opportunities last night when they scored four runs in the sixth inning to secure a 9-1 win over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The Bees earned two walks in the sixth inning and drove both of those runs in. Burlington received seven extra base runners on Saturday night (5 walks and 2 Hit Batters), the Bees converted three of those into runs.

On July 18 Jose Macias took the mound on a brutally hot afternoon in Burlington on his 21^st birthday. He struggled mightily and surrendered eight runs on eight hits in one and two-thirds innings pitched to suffer the loss against the Lake County Captains. It seemed to be the ultimate low point of the season for a guy that dazzled with six scoreless outings in his first game in Beloit back in late May.

Six days later on July 24 in Dayton, Macias was roughed up to the tune of four runs and 11 hits in four and one-thirds innings pitched.

Since then, Macias has been masterful. He allowed just one earned run over five innings in Wisconsin on July 30 and set a new career high with seven innings pitched in Peoria on August 4. The Bronx, New York resident followed that up by allowing three runs on six hits against Clinton on August 9. He tied his career high by pitching seven scoreless innings in Beloit in his last start on August 14.

Macias will take the mound tonight for game one of the Bees’ series against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

The Bees welcomed back A.J. Kirby-Jones into the lineup on Thursday for the first time since August 5 in Peoria. Kirby-Jones, who had been on the Disabled List, was activated before Thursday’s game and went 1-1 with three walks and a solo home run in the sixth inning. With his performance Thursday, Kirby-Jones raised his average for the month of August to .250. The home run was also his 10^th at Community Field this season. He has hit 10 of his 13 home runs in 2011 here in Burlington.

Here’s hoping he continues his hot hitting as the Bees finish their series with Cedar Rapids this evening.