Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Israel baseball's Bergstrom pitches first win, but--

When we last checked in with Israel Baseball League golden boy alum Rafael Bergstrom, he was holding his own in Connecticut, pitching for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League, and doing much better than his record-- 0-1 with a 4.18 ERA in 23 innings, with 18 strikeouts, seven walks and an opponents' batting average of .233— might lead us to believe.

“I told Bergstrom one of these days we're going to win a ballgame for him," manager Tommy John told The Connecticut Post. "He throws all of his pitches. He throws strikes. I personally think he can pitch more with his fastball than he does. I think his fastball is better than what he thinks it is. He throws the ball well."

On Friday, Rafael picked up his first win, defeating the Long Island Ducks before a sold out crowd of 6,047. That’s the good news.

The bad news? He gave up nine runs on 13 hits over five and two-thirds innings, and walked off the mound with an ERA of about 6.3.

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