Maple Leafs Weekly Recap - July 26 to August 1, 2021
A rain-shortened fourth week of the 2021 IBL season saw the Toronto Maple Leafs on the winning and losing ends of slugfests
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| Outfielder Garrett Takamatsu led the Leafs at the plate last week with 6 hits, 4 RBIs and a home run. |
Last week's Toronto Maple Leafs action can be summed up in three words.
On Wednesday night at Christie Pits, they clobbered the Kitchener Panthers for 18 hits and racked up a 14-6 win. Nasty.
The following night, the Leafs travelled up north and got a taste of their own medicine, getting rocked for 14 hits in a 16-6 defeat to the Barrie Baycats. Brutish.
Sunday was rained out to end the week. Short.
As seven clubs thunder past the one-third post on the 2021 IBL season, the standings remain close. The top four - Kitchener, London, Hamilton and Toronto - are separated by just two games.
As expected, the high-octane offence that Manager Damon Topolie has at his disposal has delivered.
Leafs batsmen lead the league in the following categories: hits (Garrett Takamatsu), runs (Jordan Castaldo), RBIs (Johnathan Solazzo) and home runs (Justin Marra and Takamatsu tied).
When the bats are bashing, it bodes well. As we saw this week...
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 - Kitchener Panthers at Toronto Maple Leafs
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| Jordan Castaldo set the tone Wednesday night at the Pits with a leadoff home run. |
It looked like this would be a wild one from the get-go.
Visiting Christie Pits for the first time this season, the Kitchener Panthers tagged Kyle Perrett with a three-run home run in the top of the first. The Leafs punched back with four runs in the bottom of the inning, as first baseman Jordan Castaldo launched the latest Christie comeback with a leadoff homer.
There commenced a back-and-forth battle that saw the Black Cats retake the lead twice, and the Leafs coming back to tie it again.
The second half of the game was all Toronto. Between the fifth and eighth innings they pounded out eight hits and eight runs. Second baseman Grant Tamane and catcher Justin Marra each homered in the eighth to put a bow on this win and put smiles on the faces of the sizeable home crowd.
Perrett surrendered a total of 10 hits and six runs, but he absorbed the body blows and stayed on his feet through five innings for his first win. Adam Marra pitched the final four in relief for his first save, and everybody but the Panthers went home happy.
NOTE: A bunch of photos from this game is posted below.
Thursday, July 29, 2021 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Barrie Baycats
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| Garrett Takamatsu completes a home run trot in what turned out to be a blowout loss at Barrie. Image from Barrie Baycats YouTube |
In recent years, the great white north has not been kind to the Mapes.
A familiar story unfolded up in Barrie on Thursday night. After a pre-game welcome-back tribute to Jordan Castaldo, who played part of seven seasons for the Baycats, things went downhill for the visitors.
Barrie jumped ahead with two runs in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back. They battered Leafs pitchers Sebatian Khan and Andrew Hyde for a total of 14 hits over eight innings and ran up a 16-6 final score.
First baseman Castaldo treated the crowd at Coates Stadium to a solo home run in the third.
In the seventh, outfielder Garrett Takamatsu belted his fourth dinger of the season to tie him for the league lead with teammate Justin Marra. Behind that, the Leafs scattered 11 hits over eight innings and put up six runs in a rain-shortened loss.
Toronto 6 11 4
Barrie 16 14 1
(final in 8 innings)
W - Leishman (1-0, 3.08)
L - Khan (0-1, 11.25)
Photos below are from Wednesday night's game at Christie Pits.
After four weeks, the Leafs are 5-5 and two games behind the league leading Kitchener Panthers. Sunday's rainout means that the Leafs will go almost a week between games, before playing four in five days starting Wednesday.
The week ahead:
Wednesday August 4 - Kitchener Panthers at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7:30 pm at Christie Pits
Thursday August 5 - Toronto Maple Leafs at Kitchener Panthers, 7:30 pm at Jack Couch Park
Friday August 6 - Toronto Maple Leafs at London Majors, 7:35 pm at Labatt Park
Sunday August 8 - Brantford Red Sox at Toronto Maple Leafs, 2:00 pm at Christie Pits
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