Some loose ends to tie up from Tuesday night’s game, a 3-2 Hillcats victory over the Wilmington Blue Rocks, before peeking forward to tonight and beyond ...

* Let’s take a closer look at the game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth last night. First off, the Hillcats never use pinch hitters. This is not hyperbole. Before Tuesday, manager P.J. Forbes had used pinch hitters twice, and in both cases, it was not for strategic purposes—i.e., punishment for not running out ground balls, etc. But with two on and one out in the ninth, Forbes lifted Ciro Rosero in favor of Kris Watts with the game on the line.

This tells me a few things ...

1. Rosero really is just a warm body here. He’s only made two starts since arriving from Short-Season State College at the All-Star break, and he’s not a promising prospect. So while the name of the game at this level—especially when a playoff berth is already clinched and nothing can be gained by winning the second half—is player development, it was more important to develop the confidence of Watts as a pinch hitter than to develop Rosero’s confidence. Otherwise, you leave Rosero in and give him a chance to see what he can do.

2. It was a rare opportunity to give Watts, a Carolina League All-Star, a true chance at an impact pinch hit. It’s an experience Watts will be able to use down the road in his career, and he made the most of it. Wilmington’s Juan Abreu was on the mound, and he isn’t exactly a stiff (3-2, 1.95 ERA, 9 saves). Watts fell behind 1-2 and lunged at the next offering, a tailing slider. He got just enough to keep the at-bat going. Clearly, that was Abreu’s out pitch, and Watts had survived. The next pitch was left up, and Watts drove it into the gap for the game-winner. Experience breeds confidence, especially at this level. And Watts could use some. He was hitting .350 as late as May 26, but his batting average had slid to .298 before last night’s crucial at-bat. Maybe the hit gets Watts going again.

3. Forbes was already four pitchers deep into the game, and he saw an opportunity to end the game without heading to extra innings. The Cats are a man down right now, as Pittsburgh is using Lynchburg’s 25th roster spot as a revolving door for paper moves in Double-A Altoona. (i.e., don’t go looking for Derek Hankins, who is on the Lynchburg roster but really isn’t here.) Rosero is 1-for-7 in Lynchburg with a single and he’s a ground-ball hitter with little pop. A double play was a distinct possibility. Watts is a disciplined hitter with gap power. The choice was easy.

* With that out of the way, a couple of other items of interest on this Wednesday at City Stadium:

—First off, lineups:

Wilmington

Derrick Robinson cf
Johnny Giavotella 2b
Mike Moustakas 3b
Clint Robinson 1b
Anthony Seratelli dh
Paulo Orlando rf
Jamar Walton dh
Ryan Eigsti c
Adrian Ortiz lf
Alex Caldera p

Lynchburg

Chase d’Arnaud ss
Alex Presley cf
Jordy Mercer 3b
Matt Hague 1b
Eric Fryer dh
Jamie Romak rf
Kris Watts c
Jared Keel lf
Jose De Los Santos 2b
Bryan Morris p

—Speaking of players who needed a spark, let’s look at Jose De Los Santos’ line from Tuesday—3-for-4, 3B, run. De Los Santos spent much of the first half as the Hillcats’ leadoff hitter but moved to No. 2 when Chase d’Arnaud arrived from Low-A West Virginia. De Los Santos didn’t fare well in that spot (.107 average), so Forbes moved him to the nine hole and pushed Alex Presley to the No. 2 spot. De Los Santos beat out an infield single, laid down a bunt single and hit a sixth inning triple and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 2. If the Hillcats’ offense is going to find any sort of groove in the second half, De Los Santos needs to find his way on base. He’s a pest once he gets on, but getting on has been the problem. Before last night, he was 3-for-33 after the All-Star break.

—d’Arnaud was 3-for-24 in his first six games as a Hillcat but since then has sizzled, going 11-for-19 with five doubles and a triple to raise his average from .125 to .326. I bring this up because of the slow start C/DH Eric Fryer is going through. Since coming over last week in a trade with the Yankees, Fryer is 1-for-14 with a single and an RBI. It takes players a few days to get accustomed to new surroundings, and Fryer has a proven track record as a hitter. He won the South Atlantic League batting title last year. I doubt he hits .071 for long.

—Interesting stat from Scott Bacon’s game notes: Hillcats OF Jamie Romak is batting .352 with 16 doubles, a triple, seven home runs and 21 RBIs in 35 games against Wilmington in the last three seasons.

—Hillcats 1B Matt Hague takes a 10-game hitting streak into tonight.

—Too bad that Wilmington pitcher Rowdy Hardy won’t be throwing this series, because he has quite the interesting back story, starting with his first name. (Big thanks to Wilmington radio broadcaster John Sadak for the background.) He’s actually named Lenny Franklin Hardy, but his father was quite the fan of old Western films, so he nicknamed the boy Rowdy and it stuck throughout his life. If the name sounds familiar, it should. Hardy was the Carolina League’s pitcher of the year in 2007 when he went 15-5 with a 2.48 ERA. Kansas City promoted him to Double-A Northwest Arkansas, and Hardy tanked. He went 6-11 with a 4.97 ERA and struggled so much that the Royals sent him to the Arizona Fall League to change his delivery entirely. That’s how Hardy was re-born as a sidearm/submarine pitcher. For a little while, at least.

The last time Wilmington visited Lynchburg, Hardy was in the bullpen after coming to Wilmington from the Royals’ extended spring training facility in Surprise, Ariz. He moved into the rotation in mid-June when team had a need for starters with back-to-back doubleheaders against the Hillcats scheduled. He stayed in the rotation when pitcher Everett Teaford was promoted to Double-A. Howdy wasn’t tremendously comfortable with the sidearm delivery, so he slowly went back to his overhand style of delivery. It’s worked. As a starter, Howdy has been excellent, going 2-1 with an 0.60 ERA in five starts.

Howdy’s secret isn’t in his overpowering stuff. It’s actually in his lack of velocity. His fastball routinely blazes by hitters at about 80 mph (ha!), but it has a tremendous biting sinking action that fools hitters into flailing at the pitch. He induces a ton of groundball outs and pitches quickly, which makes scribes like me happy. Obviously, if anything gets left up, Howdy gets pounded. You won’t fool many high school hitters with a high 77-mph fastball, much less professionals. It’ll be interesting to see what happens the next time Howdy gives Double-A a go.