Jim OskolaAppleton Post-Crescent
GRAND CHUTE − When they arrived in Appleton from Arizona, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers players and coaches were all probably thinking about how to stay warm while playing a baseball game in the first week of April and how the season would unfold.
“First of all, our mindset that we had at the start of the season was to win one game at a time,” first-year Timber Rattlers manager Victor Estevez said prior to Tuesday’s game against the South Bend Cubs at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium. “Then, you know, after a month-and-a-half we were playing really good baseball. That’s when the guys realized, ‘OK, we’re going to have a chance to clinch the first half.’
“It was good preparation from the players, just playing good baseball for 2½ months.”
That stretch of playing good baseball paid off when the Timber Rattlers beat the West Michigan Whitecaps 8-5 on June 16 to wrap up the first-half Midwest League Western Division title. It is the first playoff berth for the Timber Rattlers since the 2016 season and the first division title since the first half of the 2012 season.
Rattlers catcher Matthew Wood played a key role in that playoff-clinching win, going 4-for-5 with a run scored and three runs batted in.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Wood, who is batting .257 with four home runs and 27 RBI this season. “I think going into that game we were all thinking we were playing too well to not have enough energy to go out there and finish the job.
“We have a great group of guys. It’s a blast to be able to share this with them.”
Ditto said pitcher KC Hunt, who joined the team after starting the season with the Brewers’ Carolina affiliate.
“It’s my first time here in my pro ball career, so it’s pretty awesome to say that,” said Hunt, who was 3-0 with a 1.42 ERA in eight games with Carolina and is 2-1 with the Timber Rattlers with a 3.38 ERA.
The Timber Rattlers returned to Fox Cities Stadium on Tuesday night after a 12-game road trip for their first home game since clinching the playoff berth. South Bend beat Wisconsin 8-4, dropping the Timber Rattlers' record to 1-3 in the second half and 43-27 overall.
While winning the division title again in the second half and then winning the Midwest League playoffs is a second-half goal, the important thing for Estevez is to see the roster continue to make day-to-day progress.
Seeing the club play day-to-day has given him a keen eye on where progress is being made that fans in the stands don’t see.
“First of all, the way we play defense with Gregory Barrios at short, Jadher Areinamo at second and Dylan O’Rae once in a while at second and then Luis Lara playing center field has been huge for us,” Estevez said. “It’s helped our pitching a lot and it helps prevent a lot of runs.
“Our game has been being aggressive on the bases. I think we’re still leading the whole league in stolen bases right now. That’s been key for us. That helps us produce runs and the offense has been consistent basically the whole year.”
Wisconsin is by far the league leader in steals. The Timber Rattlers have 142 steals with O’Rae, who was promoted to Double-A Biloxi on June 18, still having a team-leading 33 stolen bases. Areinamo and Lara have 23 and 21 steals, respectively. Second in the league in steals is Lake County with 114 and Quad Cities is next with 113.
The defense Estevez referenced has helped the pitching staff craft a 3.99 ERA with only 31 of the 299 runs they have given up being unearned. For comparison, Beloit and Cedar Rapids have both allowed 52 unearned runs as of Monday.
As for the team in the second half, Wood says it’s about consistency.
“We’ve just got to keep playing and keep doing what we’ve been doing so far this year,” he said. “It’s been working.
“And for myself, keep learning to handle failure, keep building on my successes and staying kind of neutral-minded through it all.”
Hunt is on the same page on that.
“We want to win the second half and seeing guys go up would be awesome,” he said. “That’s kind of the goal here. I’m just going to keep going at it. I’m not too worried about it.”
The other item on the Timber Rattlers’ to-do list is to keep having fun.
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“That kind of keeps you motivated,” Hunt said. “Everyone else would love to be in your shoes. I always joke with my friends at home that sometimes when I’m doing bad that I probably want to be working in New York City and making that money.
“And they’re sitting there in their desks thinking, ‘I want to do what you do.’ That kind of keeps me grounded. I’m doing what I want to do.”
