I know I know, “Angry, who cares about the baseball team?”

The only reason I’m writing anything about this series is because it’s the Civil War, and that always has meaning. Also, during this absurdly long losing streak there came a time when I thought nothing would snap it except a series versus Oregon. Why?

Because this is human nature. When people feel down, in a rut, with little to live for, they tend to do things in day to day life to keep that cycle continuing. They’ll stay up late, sleep late, pull the blinds down and block out the sun. You know, depressing things. Until they’ve had enough and step outside. Usually, in the real world, at that point something good happens (like the depressed person finds a great job, a beautiful lady, etc) and his spirit is renewed. In the world of athletics, the options of what can bring a team out of a cyclical rut are much more limited. But a rivalry game is definitely one of them. The competitive spirit in these games is naturally high, and couple that with the Beavers dominance in the sport and you can understand their fear in passing the torch to the Ducks–they may never get it back.

Does all this apprehension and energy translate into wins?

I actually think it does. I think the Beavs take two of three in this series (*if* they win game 1), which won’t be enough to ignite post-season discussions, but it might be the spark that triggers an inferno down the stretch.

After 11-3 and 14-4 beatdowns by Cal, the Beavers are all but eliminated from tournament play. What has been lost in the ten game debacle is just how bad the pitching has been. Most of us have focused on the (lack of) offense. While it is true they could have scored more runs (an average of 3.3 runs per game over the last eleven games) it is also true that if the Beavers had “elite” pitching they’d win more than one game during that span, even with paltry run support. The bottom line is that one run is enough to win a game, so three is plenty. Look at the Stanford series. In game one the Beavers scored six runs, in game three they scored seven. Should an elite pitching staff win those games? I think so.

So let’s stop focusing on the offense. It is bad, but we knew it would be bad going into the year. Let’s place blame where it’s due during this losing streak.

At the beginning of the season, I thought the pitching staff would be “good”, not “great”, as Brooks Hatch and others in the media touted it. But let’s be brutally honest here. This staff is not even good. It’s at best average, and some might convincingly argue it is a flat out horrible (e.g. an 8.5 run per game average over the past 11 games) staff. Rob Folsom’s boneheaded brain cramp took the spotlight off the pitching staff and placed it squarely on the hitters, but the offense is performing (as ineptly) as we all expected.

As far as making the tournament, yesterday marked the end of that pipe dream. They had to win every series remaining starting with Cal. Their RPI is pretty high and keeping them lingering as the #30 team, but that’s not going to be enough to overcome such a horrendous conference record, and if momentum doesn’t stop soon, a losing record overall.