Ballou on Baseball: May 30

WORCESTER - Summer has just begun and the really, really hot weather — best known around this part of the world as baseball weather — has yet to arrive.

Even so the ball has been flying, especially in WooSox games. It has been flying all around the park and often out of the park, and the name and location of the park has not mattered. In eight of Worcester’s last 11 games the winning team has scored in double figures, and one of those other games finished at 9-8.

These last couple of weeks have been all about home runs, both for and against the WooSox. In a 12-game span ending Sunday there had been 50 home runs hit in those 12 games, 25 by Worcester and 25 by the opposition. That is more than four a game.

Some homer highlights:

— Bobby Dalbec had six of those Worcester homers including the one at Polar Park measured at 515 feet. That one should be carefully re-measured scientifically because it is plaque worthy. At 515, it is 13 feet longer than Ted Williams’ red seat blast at Fenway Park in 1946.

Most modern-day batters have looked at the red seat and questioned that distance.

— Estevan Florian of Scranton-Wilkes-Barre hit three of the opposition homers making it nine lifetime versus Worcester. That ties Daniel Palka and Luis Garcia for most in that category. Palka has eight for the WooSox this year, so he should go into the plus column for Worcester some time this month.

— Franchy Cordero had one of the opposing homers. He joins Deivy Grullon, Joey Meneses, Yairo Munoz and Palka as players who have homered both for and against Worcester.

— The WooSox hit a lot of solo homers during the explosion. They netted 34 runs out of their 25. The opposition netted 47 runs.

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TRIPLE A TRIVIA

1. Who are the only two men to have played for a Red Sox Triple-A affiliate and also managed a World Series champion?

2. Which Worcester Red Sox pitcher holds the team record for the most outs recorded in a game?

Answers below.

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Congratulations to manager Chad Tracy, who won his 100th game for the WooSox when Worcester beat Scranton-Wilkes-Barre on Saturday. He is 22nd in that category on Boston’s all-time Triple-A list. Next up is Tony Torchia, who won 131 games with Pawtucket in 1983-84. … Also congratulations to Nick Sogard, who hit his first Triple-A home run last week. It came in his 364th plate appearance with the WooSox. … Only baseball uses the term unearned, which explains why Kaleb Ort has a record of 1-1 but an earned run average of 0.00. … Strange but true is the fact that the WooSox have not hit a sacrifice fly in 13 straight games. … Palka has at least one extra base hit in four straight games. No WooSox player has done that in five straight, but the list of four in a row is long and impressive. It includes Wilyer Abreu this season, Triston Casas, Connor Wong, Ryan Fitzgerald, Franchy Cordero, Yairo Munoz and Jaylin Davis.

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The WooSox are continuing their season-long road trip in Louisville this week. They are scheduled to play the Bats six times. It is the first time the two cities have met — Worcester and Louisville — but there is a major connection between them.

The WooSox are descended from the Louisville Colonels, who were the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate from 1968 through ’72. The Colonels went out of business after 1972 when their ballpark was torn down as part of a renovation project. Joe Buzas bought the franchise and moved it to Pawtucket.

The team cost Buzas $25,000.

The Colonels were also Boston’s Triple-A partner from 1939 through 1955 when they were in the defunct American Association.

The Bats are the 12th different Worcester opponent starting with 2021. The WooSox have yet to play Gwinnett (although they will this September), and after this season will still not have played Iowa, St. Paul, Memphis, Nashville, Indianapolis, and Omaha.

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CATCHING UP WITH….

Rusney Castillo, who will turn 36 this summer, is with Guadalajara of the Mexican League. He spent 2021 and 2022 in the independent Atlantic League. Castillo has been in just 10 games in 2023 and is batting .294

One of his teammates is pitcher Jonathan Aro, who got into 26 games for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2015. Aro is 3-0 with a 2.35 ERA in 16 games so far this season.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Alex Cora and Chuck Tanner both played for a Boston Triple-A team and later managed major league teams to a world championship. Cora was with Pawtucket for three games in 2008 and was the Red Sox manager when they won it all 10 years later in 2018.

Tanner played in 152 games for Minneapolis in 1959, then was the Pirates manager 20 years later for their last World Series title in 1979

2. Daniel Gossett got 25 outs at Lehigh Valley on Oct. 2, 2021. He took a no-hitter into the ninth then gave up a leadoff single. Geoff Hartlieb relieved and got the final two outs of the game which Worcester won, 7-0.