Around the Diamond: Wilkie wakes up; Major milestone for Kandel

The Majors’ three-game weekend includes a matchup with first-place Welland; London’s secondary arms will be key in long season. How are they performing so far? Wilkie looking to build on big game. Catch our news & notes …

Outfielder Austin Wilkie is hoping a big night Tuesday is the start of big things to come at the plate. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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1) Running wild. Majors catcher Robert Mullen may have his hands full Friday. The Welland Jackfish have wreaked havoc on the basepaths this season, stealing 84 bases in 15 games – far and away the most of any IBL team (Guelph’s 29 stolen bases rank second).

The Jackfish have made stealing bases a key part of their offensive strategy – and it seems to be working. They enter the weekend in first place in the standings, and their 153 runs scored is tops by a wide margin (London is second at 121 runs). They’ve been efficient about it, too, which should alarm teams across the league. Welland’s stolen base success rate is 87.5 percent (84 steals, caught 12 times).

The Majors, by comparison, have just a 68.4 percent success rate so far (13 steals, caught six times). Only the Guelph Royals have a better stolen base success rate than Welland this season, as they’ve been successful on 29 of their 30 tries (96.7 percent).

In the first two meetings between the two teams, both in Welland (and both one-run losses for London), the Jackfish stole 11 bases and were caught once. That’s a lot of extra bases, and the Majors’ battery is going to have to try and hold the running game in check Friday if they want to come out on top. London, on the other hand, was caught on three of their four stolen base attempts in those two games earlier this year.

Brandon Nicholson is the top thief for Welland, as he leads the league with 22 stolen bases entering the weekend (he’s been caught just twice). Nicholson is an all-around offensive threat, as he’s batting .353 (10th best in the IBL) with a .418 on-base percentage. For the Majors, Keith Kandel and Drew Lawrence top the team with four steals apiece, while Starling Joseph and Jakob Newton both have a pair.

Mullen, it should be noted, has thrown out four baserunners on 26 attempts (15.4%), which ranks sixth among IBL starting catchers.

2) Wilkie awoken. Many in the Majors dugout were thrilled when outfielder Austin Wilkie drilled a three-run home run in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s 14-6 win over the Hamilton Cardinals. For starters, it put London ahead, as they’d been trailing, 6-5, at the time. But it also reminded them what Wilkie is capable of at the plate. 

The 22-year-old had been quiet, collecting just three hits in his first 22 at-bats this season. But he’s arisen recently, with five hits in 11 at-bats in his last three games. He’s played in eight of 14 games this year, and he’s batting .241 (7-for-29) entering action this weekend. This, after a highly successful 2021 season in which he hit .303 in 27 games as the everyday centerfielder.

Perhaps the past two games will serve as the turning point for Wilkie on his 2022 season. It started Sunday, as the outfielder came off the bench and doubled in a run during the Majors’ Father’s Day loss to Barrie. On Tuesday, he went 3-for-6, out of the leadoff spot, including his long home run to left field – his first of the season. If his bat toss was any indication, that home run felt good. Perhaps it was a weight off his shoulders – or a reminder, to himself and to his teammates, what he can bring to the table.

There’s a lot of potential in Wilkie’s bat. As manager Roop Chanderdat said earlier this season: “I see tremendous upside in this kid, and I saw it last year in the finals. He had some really good at-bats and had a really good playoffs. I think he’s going to have a breakout year.”

Keith Kandel reached a milestone last week, playing in his 300th career IBL game. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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3) And the supporting cast? Tuesday marked the first time this season a pitcher not named Jose Arias, Owen Boon or Pedro De Los Santos started a game on the mound. It was Daniel Gore who took the ball, and although it wasn’t a particularly memorable outing (6 earned runs in 5 innings), the right-hander got the win. He walked two and struck out five (Wilkie’s three-run homer put him in line for the win).

It was Gore’s second appearance since joining the Majors in June. The Tecumseh, ON, native took a loss in the other, allowing two runs in three innings in Welland on June 11. With just those two outings, Gore has the second-most innings pitched among Majors arms after their main starters (reliever Bo Lewington has thrown 10 1/3 innings).

It’s these secondary arms that could prove to be very important for the Majors as the season wears on – especially with the expanded IBL season. Braeden Ferrington might be the most reliable arm out of the bullpen for London. Then there’s newcomer Fernando Fernandez and Jordan Spring, who have struggled a bit out of the gate.

The Majors have posted the lowest ERA in the league thus far (3.61), but that’s driven in no small part by Arias, who’s been the IBL’s best pitcher to date this season. London’s team ERA goes all the way up to 5.02, which would be fifth in the league. Likewise, when subtracting Arias, Boon and De Los Santos’ innings, the team’s strikeout-per-nine goes from 10.54 to under a K per inning (8.70).

Chanderdat had to be thrilled with the performance of Jaryd Lund on Saturday in Guelph. In Game 2 of a home-and-home series against the Royals, Lund came on in extra innings and shut the door for the 7-6 win, striking out four of the six batters he faced.

Meanwhile, some help arrived on the weekend, as import pitcher Cesar Cabral made his first appearance in a Majors uniform Sunday. He came in after Owen Boon turned in his first subpar outing of the season (6 earned runs in 4 innings). The native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic worked two scoreless innings, allowed just a walk and a hit while striking out three.

4) A Major milestone. Tuesday’s game marked the 300th of shortstop Keith Kandel’s IBL career. And he did it in style. Batting second, Kandel reached base four times, going 2-for-4 with a pair of walks and two runs in London’s big 14-6 win over Hamilton.

During his seven-plus seasons in the IBL, during which he played a season each with the Kitchener Panthers, Guelph Royals and Burlington Bandits before joining the Majors in 2016, Kandel has posted a career .278 batting average (305-for-1,097) with 224 runs scored, 143 RBIs and 118 stolen bases.

Two of his 12 career home runs have come this season, including a solo shot last Friday at Labatt Park during London’s 6-2 win over Guelph. The shortstop joked that it was ‘wind-aided,’ but there’s nothing illegitimate about his success at the plate this season – including his recent hot stretch.

After a slow start to the year, the shortstop has his average up to .340 – fourth-best on the team after Robert Mullen (IBL-leading .455), Cleveland Brownlee (.417) and Taylor Wright (.392). Kandel has been on a heater over his last seven games (spanning two weeks), batting .520 (13-for-25) with seven runs scored and four driven in.