Maple Leafs Weekly Recap - August 23 to 29, 2021
With the postseason coming up fast, the Leafs had an up-and-down Week 8 and welcomed a familiar face to Christie Pits
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| Longtime Leafs hero Justin Cicatello crossed the border, cleared customs, and pitched one inning of shutout baseball upon his return to Christie Pits on Sunday. |
The Toronto Maple Leafs' 2021 season was planned as a sprint, and it has played out that way.
Once the Ontario government opened the window for sports leagues to play this summer, the IBL launched a shortened season that began play in early July and will wrap up in early September with playoffs to follow.
Baseball-starved fans have been treated to a beautiful summer at Christie Pits. Each game on the hillsides has offered everyone an escape from their daily troubles. On the diamond, the Leafs have offered up homers a-go-go, blowouts, comebacks, throwbacks, wins and dreams of glory come September.
For Damon Topolie's crew, the pieces continue falling into place. The team has been relatively injury-free this summer. Among the regulars, only Grant Tamane remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, but he'll be back soon.
One of the big challenges this season - not just for the Leafs but for every team in the league - has been the absence of international players because of COVID travel restrictions.
For the Leafs, these restrictions prevented New York native Justin Cicatello from playing. But to the surprise of many at Christie Pits on Sunday, Cicatello made his first appearance on the mound since 2019. He pitched a shutout inning, and more importantly provided another sign that after all the crap we have all had to endure for the past year-and-a-half, brighter days are ahead.
As much as the Leafs have been lighting up the leaderboards in hits, runs, batting average, home runs and RBIs, their pitching and team ERA have been a sore spot and Cicatello's late-season return comes at just the right time.
On the field, it was an up-and-down, mostly down week for the Leafs. They went 1-3 on the week. Clubs are jockeying for post-season positions as September looms large. Until then, here's a quick look back at the past week.
Tuesday, August 24, 2021 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Barrie Baycats
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The Maple Leafs could not get out of town fast enough after their latest visit to Barrie.
Image from Barrie Baycats YouTube |
In the 2016 IBL Championship Series, the Barrie Baycats swept the Toronto Maple Leafs four games to none.
Since then, the Baycats have owned the Leafs like the nobles owned the serfs. Prior to Tuesday night, the Baycats had racked up a record of 17 wins and 4 losses against Toronto in the 21 regular season games these two clubs played since 2016.
The Leafs have not won a game on the road in Barrie since who knows when. It's too embarrassing to look up.*
Tuesday night's game was a continuation of the trend. The Leafs lost 18-7, making it 18 regular season wins for the Baycats since 2016.
It was a close contest for the first three innings. Left fielder Jordan Castaldo drew a walk to start the game, then came home on an RBI single by DH Sean Reilly.
Leafs starter Brandon Lyons surrendered a tying run in the bottom of the 1st, and the game remained tied 1-1 through three.
The Baycats took the lead in the bottom of the 4th, and poured it on. They scored 17 runs over four innings and ran away with another win.
The Leafs managed to score seven runs. Catcher Justin Marra led with three RBIs, third baseman Johnathan Solazzo had two, and Reilly and first baseman Damon Topolie each drove in one. But it was far from enough.
Lyons took the loss and the Leafs were left to wonder what it will take for them to finally break these cruel chains of vassalage.
* Don't make me look this shit up.
Toronto 7 13 1
Barrie 18 28 3
W - Grieder (2-0, 3.55)
L - Lyons (1-2, 9.20)
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - Kitchener Panthers at Toronto Maple Leafs
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| Mateos Kekatos was part of the four-man pitching relay that shut down the Kitchener Panthers on Wednesday night. |
Call the humane society!
On Wednesday night at Christie Pits, the Panthers of Kitchener were declawed and tortured. The Maple Leafs beat them so badly that they scored in every inning except the 6th.
Right fielder Marcus Knecht led the assault. He went five for five, hit two home runs including a grand slam (Knecht Four!), drove in eight runs and scored four.
Knecht's epic night at the plate was enough to beat the Panthers on his own, but his friends in powder blue joined in on the fun.
Second baseman Garrett Takamatsu had three hits and three RBIs, and he also homered.
First baseman Jordan Castaldo had two hits and two RBIs, including a home run.
DH Sean Reilly had two hits and drove in one.
Left fielder Chandler McLaren hit a home run and drove in three.
On and on it went. Panthers pitching was unable to stop the onslaught. Starter Adam Robertson lasted three innings and took the loss. Four different relievers came in from the Kitchener pen and they all got tagged for runs.
On the other side of the mound, Leafs pitchers were in shutdown mode all night.
Starter Kyle Perrett retired the side in the 1st and 2nd innings. He got into a jam in the 3rd, surrendering three runs on four hits.
Perrett's bullpen buds pitched the rest of the way and the Panthers' bats were never heard from again. Zach Sloan pitched three innings and struck out three. Mateos Kekatos pitched two innings and struck out five. Dustin Richardson pitched the 9th and struck out the side to put the black cats out of their misery. All told, the pitchers tallied 12 strikeouts on a dominant night.
Kitchener 3 8 3
Toronto 20 17 2
W - Sloan (2-1, 6.60)
L - Robertson (1-3, 7.23)
Friday, August 27, 2021 - Toronto Maple Leafs at London Majors
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Dan Marra trots home to score the lone Leafs run on Friday night at Labatt Park.
Image from London Majors YouTube |
The Maple Leafs' up-and-down week continued Friday night in the Forest City.
After they pounded out 17 hits against Kitchener on Wednesday night, the Leafs were held to just five by the London Majors in a 5-1 loss.
The Majors' Owen Boon pitched seven innings and struck out five en route to the win. Leafs starter Marek Deska battled through five innings, giving up five runs off twelve hits while striking out three. It was Deska's first loss of the season.
The Leafs were on the verge of being shutout before scraping out a lone run in the 9th.
London reliever Braeden Ferrington started the inning by plunking shortstop Dan Marra. A couple of groundouts advanced Marra to third, and he scored on an error. That was it for the Mapes on a mostly quiet night at the plate.
Toronto 1 5 0
London 5 13 2
W - Boon (7-1, 2.29)
L - Deska (3-1, 3.95)
Sunday, August 29 - Hamilton Cardinals at Toronto Maple Leafs
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| Jordan Castaldo launched a three-run bomb into the heart of the sun during the Leafs' comeback attempt on Sunday afternoon. |
Sunday afternoon at Christie Pits was even hotter than the Sunday before.
The humidity was brutal. A cooling breeze saved players and fans from suffering completely.
For the second Sunday in a row, Andrew Hyde started on the mound for the Maple Leafs, facing off against the Hamilton Cardinals.
Hyde and his counterpart Julian Tymochko swapped scoreless innings until the top of the 3rd, when the Cardinals tagged Hyde for four hits and three runs.
Hamilton added a run in the 5th, and another in the 6th.
The Leafs were unable to muster much at the plate. Through seven innings, they managed to record only two hits, one each off the bats of center fielder Connor Lewis and shortstop Dan Marra.
The Leafs were looking pretty lifeless out there. Then things turned around in a big and unexpected way.
At Christie Pits, it is customary between innings for PA announcer Gene Pereira to switch over to Q107 and let some classic rock tunes carry out over the loudspeakers. After the 7th inning, he did the same, but after a few moments the music cut out and this song began to play:
"Oh my God," said one of the Hamilton coaches. "That's Cicatello's music!"
As a jolt of electricity shot across the Christie hillsides, Pereira took it from there.
"Now pitching for the Toronto Maple Leafs... FROM BUFFALO NEW YORK! WEIGHING IN AT 180 POUNDS! MAKING HIS FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE SEASON! PUT YOUR CLAPS TOGETHER FOR JUSTIN CICATELLO!"
The Pits went nuts.
Kept away from Canada because of travel restrictions at the border, the long-time Leafs pitcher had been unable to play this season. Until now. For the first time since 2019, Cicamania was back.
He jogged out from the bullpen, cool and calm as always. He took the ball and threw his warmups. Then he pitched an inning of shutout baseball, all that was asked of him this afternoon.
Cicatello's return brought the Leafs' bats to life. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th, Lewis drove in one run, and then first baseman Jordan Castaldo blasted a three-run homer. 5-4 Cardinals through four.
The Cardinals pulled away for good in the top of the 9th, sending 10 men to the plate against Mateos Kekatos and scoring six more runs.
The Leafs battled to the end. Left fielder Chandler McLaren hit a three-run bomb to over the fence in center to make it an 11-7 game, but that was how it ended.
The Leafs lost the game, but they gained a pitcher.
Hamilton 11 15 0
Toronto 7 6 1
W - Tymochko (1-0, 1.22)
L - Hyde (0-3, 7.50)
One week remains in the 2021 IBL season, and it could be the toughest one yet. The London Majors have clinched first place and a first-round bye, leaving everybody else to battle it out for playoff seedings. At 12-13, the Leafs are currently 4th in the standings.
The week ahead:
Tuesday August 31 - London Majors at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7:45 pm at Christie Pits
Wednesday September 1 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Brantford Red Sox, 8:00 pm at Arnold Anderson Stadium
Thursday September 2 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Welland Jackfish, 7:30 pm at Welland Stadium
Friday September 3 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Hamilton Cardinals, 7:30 pm at Bernie Arbour Stadium
Sunday September 5 - Brantford Red Sox at Toronto Maple Leafs, 2:00 pm at Christie Pits
** END OF REGULAR SEASON ** PLAYOFFS BEGIN NEXT WEEK **
