Diablos baseball

Diablos strike back

After starting the 2008 season with an ugly 21-5 loss to the Shreveport Sports, the El Paso Diablos have bounced back with five consecutive victories.
"Our guys were still getting their feet under them, getting into the swing of the season," Diablos manager Butch Henry said. "I think the speed of the game was a little quicker than we expected. But we're playing good ball right now. We still got some work to do, but we're a good ball club."
And Diablos first baseman Walter Olmstead said, "We knew that if we could come back from that (21-5 opening day loss), we could come back from anything. And that's what we've done. We're playing great. Our offense has picked it up. We're just playing great team ball."
The Diablos have put together their current five-game winning streak on the strength of their starting pitching and their offense. El Paso starters have been solid over the past four games, with Justin Knoff, Adam Blackley, David Whigham and Josh Neitz all going six innings in their wins.
What's been most impressive during the streak is the Diablo bats. It seems that every time the opposing team manages to put some runs on the board, the Diablos are able to answer back with some runs of their own. Wednesday's 8-6 win over Wichita is evidence of that. The Diablos trailed 6-2 after giving up five runs in the top of the fifth. But the team responded with a five-run outburst of its own in the sixth and went on to win the game.
What has been somewhat unimpressive has been the team's defense. The Diablos committed five errors in Wednesday's win and had two more on Tuesday. The result of those errors is that five of the six runs scored against them on Wednesday and two of the four on Tuesday were unearned. I think you can chalk up those defensive lapses to the early season, though. As the season progresses I'm sure things will improve.

Diablo bats

After two exhibition games, it appears the Diablos' offense is every bit as potent as it was last season, if not moreso.
Designated hitter Jorge Alvarez, the defending American Association Player of the Year, picked up right where he left off in the first exhibition game Sunday night against Los Cometas. Alvarez went 4-for-4 with a solo home run and three RBIs in a 13-1 win. Also on Sunday, center fielder Kory Drew was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and left fielder J.D. Reininger also drove in a pair of runs.
On Monday night against EPCC, all-star first baseman Walter Olmstead got the Diablos going with a two-run shot in the bottom of the first that erased and early deficit, and all-star catcher Matt Kent hit a pair of two-run doubles to give him four RBIs in the 13-3 victory.
The Diablos also are getting production from some of the new bats in the lineup. New third baseman Bryon Smith has driven in two runs in each of the first two exhibition games and is a combined 5-for-6 in the two games.
Of course these are exhibition games and its still too early to tell just how good this team is. But right now, the Diablos are looking pretty good. Hats off to manager Butch Henry and GM Matt LaBranche for managing to keep their lineup mostly intact from last season. It's a lineup loaded with big bats.

Diablos fans get pumped

With the first pitch of the 2008 Diablos season less than a week away, El Paso baseball fans should be brimming with excitement and anticipation. Under the direction of manager Butch Henry, in his first full season as Diablos' skipper, the team put together its first ever winning season as an independent ball club and made its first playoff appearance since 2000 last season. And it seems that success on the field translated to success at the turnstiles for the Diablos, as the team was second in the American Association — behind St. Paul — in average attendance with 4,226 fans per game. That includes a record-setting crowd of 11,206 that saw the Diablos beat the Shreveport Sports 9-1 last Fourth of July. If the team continues to play well, and it appears it should with a solid core of players returning from last year, then the attendance figures should remain steady. An interesting sidenote, the two teams with the lowest attendance from last season, Coastal Bend and St. Joe, no longer are in the league. The American Association remains a 10-team league, however, with the addition of teams in Wichita and Grand Prairie.

Free opening night Diablos tickets

UPDATE: Thanks El Paso Times readers! Your participation in our Diablos blog has been huge over the past three days. In fact, we are officially out of tickets! If you were one of the lucky El Pasoans that blogged in time, do not forget to pick up your tickets at the El Paso Times!

Don't forget, you can always clip out a baseball coupon that appears in the El Paso Times for a BOGO ticket!

 

Diablos baseball begins on Thursday, May 8. And the El Paso Times wants to make sure you have tickets to the game!

All you have to do to receive four tickets to opening night of the Diablos is add a comment to this post with a valid e-mail. Then we'll contact you by e-mail to let you know where to pick up your tickets to the game.

So drop a comment below, and get four free tickets!