A horrid weekend by the Cal baseball team’s pitching staff busted the team that was once at No. 5 in the country, according to Baseball America, down to No. 16.  The Bears (27-13-2, 7-8 in the Pac-10) have now dropped two conference road series in a row, and in both the Friday losses, starter Tyson Ross was wild, ineffective and downright terrible.  Ross is the linchpin that holds this team together.  A good start on Friday, with this offense, gives Cal a pretty good chance to win, taking the pressure off the team and the bullpen in particular.  By winning the Friday game, the Bears don’t have to stress over getting swept, which puts the offense on the defensive and makes pitching far more difficult. 

I wish I had the slightest clue as to why Chris Petrini, Craig Bennigson, and Daniel Wolford have imploded as of late.  Without two pitchers who were supposed to be weekend starters throwing effectively and a pitcher who had been a lights-out set-up man for closer Matt Gorgen, the pitching staff, which had been the Bears’ bread and butter, has become a huge weakness.  Twice this weekend, Cal scored seven runs in a game, and frankly, that should be enough to win, especially with Ross and freshman Kevin Miller starting.  The strength of this team for the first half of the season was a never-say-die attitude and a cockiness that allowed them to take it to whoever was across the diamond.  They didn’t care who they were playing.  They were aggressive and threw strikes.  This weekend, the Bears folded.  It seemed as if pitchers were too afraid to throw strikes in such a hitter-friendly ballpark, and part of that has to be the poor infield defense.  But throwing strikes has been their game all year, and by going away from that, they opened themselves to a whooping. 

Up next after a midweek road game against Cal Poly is a home weekend series against erstwhile No. 23 Arizona.  The Wildcats are a struggling team who just dropped two of three to Oregon State.  Scuffling Arizona is a team that Cal should be able to take advantage of to improve its place in the conference standings, if the Bears can play their game.  It’s a home series, so the territory will be far more familiar and conducive to the way this team is built to play.

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