Texas League Baseball: All the pieces come together for Hounds

MIDLAND Winning doesn’t always matter in minor-league baseball, where moving up in the organization is more important than ascending in the standings.

The Double-A Midland RockHounds don’t deny that, but they also want to win on their way to Oakland.

The RockHounds have been doing a lot of that lately, and a Texas League season that seemed lost a month ago is rounding out nicely. They’ve surged into second place in the South Division’s second-half standings and are closing in on division leader San Antonio after Monday night’s 4-2 win against Northwest Arkansas at Citibank Ballpark.

“It’s that point in the season where your stats are pretty much what they’re going to be,” RockHounds middle infielder Wes Timmons said. “We only have 20 games left, so you can pretty much throw all that out the window and actually play for your team and to win as a team. … That’s obviously the main goal here with the guys that are in uniform and our coaching staff.”

Timmons, a 32-year-old West Virginian in his seventh minor-league season, is one of several reasons why the RockHounds are suddenly winning at the tail end of a mostly sufferable summer. They were 27-43 in the first half of the season and had a second-half record of 13-18 after a 7-3 loss July 26 at Frisco.

The RockHounds won 8-3 the next day, starting a stretch in which it won 14 of 16 games capped by a season-high eight-game winning streak. RockHounds manager Steve Scarsone said the strong stretch is a product of timely hitting, solid pitching and defense, and roster continuity after a summer full of personnel moves.

“It seems like all season we pitched and we didn’t hit, or we hit and we didn’t pitch,” Midland relief pitcher Jared Lansford said. “It seems like we’re finally coming together as a squad, so it’s nice.”

Timmons, who was demoted from Triple-A Sacramento in early July, had a team-high .384 batting average and 28 RBIs in 34 games entering Monday’s game. Matt Sulentic, Stephen Parker and Grant Green — who was named Texas League Player of the Week on Monday — also are batting above .300 during the last 10 games.

The RockHounds have pitched just as well, having allowed three runs or fewer in 11 of their last 19 games. Lansford has been especially strong in the closer’s role, converting all eight of his chances and six during the last 11 games.

“I think one through nine, on paper, we can bang with any team in the league,” said Timmons, whose RockHounds rank second in the Texas League in batting average. “The reason we’ve been so successful here lately is because our pitching staff — starters and our bullpen — has really come up big for us. And that’s going to be the story at the end of the season. If we make the playoffs, it’s because our pitching staff’s going to carry us there.”

Lansford said leadership from players such as Timmons also has helped. Timmons is one of six current RockHounds who played at the Triple-A level earlier this season.

The others are fellow infielder Adam Heether, outfielder Shane Peterson, catcher Mitch Canham and pitchers Anthony Capra and Lenny DiNardo.

“We’ve had a nice addition of a couple players coming down from Sacramento that have provided a little bit of that maturity and veteran knowhow — how to handle yourself day in and day out and still have fun playing the game,” Scarsone said. “Those guys have given some of the younger guys an opportunity to see how fun it can be to play. We’re having much more fun obviously, and that plays into the winning.”

The RockHounds hope to keep having fun, and keep winning, during the final 20 games of the season. They hit the road for six games beginning today and return home Aug. 23 for their final seven home games of the year. Then comes what could be a critical four-game series at San Antonio followed by a season-ending set at Frisco.

The RockHounds just hope those games matter and they still have a chance to win their division and qualify for the postseason, which seemed like a long shot a month ago.

“If that happens where we end up catching San Antonio and surpassing them, that would be awesome,” Green said. “That’s the big goal right now is to make the postseason and see where it goes from there.”