Up-and-down Spikes limp into All-Star Break

STATE COLLEGE — With the club at 37-19 through Aug. 14, it would be easy to not make much of the State College Spikes’ recent up-and-down play.

The club has five more wins than any other team in the New York Penn League, but limped into the All-Star Break with a 5-5 record. The Staten Island Yankees, a likely playoff team, took two out of three from the Spikes at Medlar Field, and the series has prompted manager Johnny Rodriguez to wonder if his team is complete.

“This lineup still needs one more banger,” Rodriguez told reporters after the team’s 5-3 loss on Saturday. “Because, when you face pitchers that you’ll face in the playoffs — and that team (Staten Island) is a playoff team, you’re going to need the help.”

Perhaps it is the free swinging tendencies of some of Rodriguez’s best hitters that serve as a cause of concern.

Centerfielder Vincent Jackson and catcher-first baseman Ryan McCarvel are both considered All-Star snubs, and rightfully so. Their burgeoning abilities at the plate materialized Aug. 12, when each hit back-to-back opposite field home runs in the first inning. Through the season’s first 49 games, the duo have combined for nine home runs and 64 RBIs.

In the case of Jackson, he also impacts the game with his speed. His 14 stolen bases only tell half the tale. Rodriguez is clearly comfortable with using Jackson’s aggressiveness on the basepaths to manufacture runs. Jackson’s 28 runs scored on the year is second only to leadoff man Tommy Edman’s 44. A shame, then, that Jackson’s strikeout tendencies — a 20 percent rate on 40 strikeouts against 18 walks — keeps him off of first base at times.

In the case of McCarvel and his 25.5 percent strikeout rate, Rodriguez has a handle on what ails the slugger.

“He has trouble with the breaking ball,” Rodriguez said. “So, he has to ambush a fastball early in counts. If he sees one he will do damage on it, he’ll put a good swing on it.

“In time, he will learn to see more pitches. His game speeds up a lot. I haven’t taken him out of the four-hole because he has good protection with Jeremey (Maritnez) and Elier (Rodriguez) behind him. “Really, he (McCarvel) is a six-hole hitter, or seventh, because he has trouble with the breaking ball.”

Regardless of the holes in the games of some of his most productive hitters, Rodriguez’s Spikes have still manufactured a wide enough cushion that a playoff berth seems all but certain. The remaining 20 game post-all star sprint will undoubtedly better inform him on what to expect in the postseason.