By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
“Another opening, another show . . .”
From Quebec to Cleveland to Chicago . . .
With lyrics adapted from Cole Porter and locations from the Frontier League, the curtain went up Thursday for Northern Kentucky’s Florence Y’alls in an almost-too-one-sided-to-believe 16-3 romp over the two-time defending champion Quebec Capitales who could not have been outclassed any more had they been playing the New York Yankees.
“Tell them not to score so many runs tomorrow,” a Capitales’ player said as he was exiting the field.
“I’m ready for the show,” Y’alls’ second-year manager Chad Rhoades had said before the first pitch – and he called it. A “show” it was.
Rhoades had promised this would be a different Y’alls’ team with a different attitude than the one that finished 22.5 games behind Quebec last year. That Y’alls team was 20 games under .500 at 38-58 and fading fast. This Quebec team was 25 games over .500.
How smart the Florence fans lined up to the end of the left field stands more than an hour before game time had to be feeling. They were giving their guys another shot and they got their reward right away.
With a 5-0 lead after one inning, a 13-0 lead after five and ahead 16-2 after six. It was stunning how one-sided this one was. “And we didn’t do everything right,” Rhoades said as he ticked off a list of things he’ll be going over with his team.
No need, however, to talk to leadoff hitter and shortstop Alberti Chavez, who played for the Y’alls in 2022 then missed last season because of a visa issue coming from Venezuela. “An All-Star,” Rhoades had promised of Chavez who led off four straight innings, scoring three times, finishing four for six with four runs, and as good a defensive play deep in the hole on a two-out bases-loaded grab and throw from one knee that ended the inning.
Chavez said “I feel really good to be back,” with a smile. As for all that offense, it’s simple: “I have to get on base.”
That was obvious to DH Zade Richardson, the New Richmond, Ohio, guy traded back home late last season from Quebec where he couldn’t get into the lineup. It didn’t take Zade long to make them miss him.
With the bases loaded in the first inning, Richardson comfortably got his pitch and drilled it into the night under the scoreboard for a 4-0 lead just five batters into the game.
“He does what he does, he rips it,” Chavez said. “I just feel so grateful to be here,” Richardson said, “I have a team behind me . . . I just tried to stay in the moment. And I’ve become a better hitter being around guys like (Craig) Massey and (Brian) Fuentes,” the third and fourth hitters in front of him.
And Chavez? “Alberti’s a big-leaguer,” Richardson said of the 5-foot-10, 175-pound 28-year-old from Maracaibo. “If he played for the Reds right now, he’d be their best infielder.”
Nothing Chavez did Thursday would make you dispute that. He’s really good.
And for players like Richardson, it’s really good to have guys like Chavez and Massey and Fuentes and Hank Zeisler ahead of him. All they did was score seven runs among them.
And all Richardson did was come to the plate the first five times with 12 men on base – twice with the bases loaded. All he did was drive in seven with an eighth scoring on a wild pitch.
“Zade is really seeing the ball,” Rhoades said. And seeing lots of men on base ahead of him. Like Chavez, who was seeing it just as well.
“This lineup does not let up,” Rhoades said. And his starter, Georgian Ryan Watson, stepping in for returning ace Edgar Martinez, on the 14-day injured list, gave him five scoreless innings.
“He threw more pitches than I wanted,” Rhoades said, but he got out of every jam he got into. Unlike the Capitales, who walked nine with a wild pitch and a hit by pitch, allowing Y’alls’ hitters to swing with men on base, then allowing them Y’alls 14 hits.
And for the first time in a while, the talk wasn’t of the great work by the Y’alls’ promotions people who opened with three dozen young cheerleaders from the Prodigy Cheer of Indiana, followed that with the Conner High band including a string section with violins, cellos and bass instruments, gave away 1,000 Thomas More/Y’alls hats, served up the “Thirsty Thursday” specials of 10-ounce and 20-ounce draft beer for $1 and $2, and debuted a new Party Patio down the right field line and the new concourse train.
Even better, as the rain started and then passed over Thomas More Stadium before quickly stopping, there was a spectacular rainbow that ended right behind center field. A sign of good things to come?
It was Thursday.
Two more games in the series remain for Friday (7:03 p.m.) and Saturday (6:36 p.m.).
SCORING SUMMARY
QUEBEC CAPITALES 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1—3 10 0
FLORENCE Y’ALLS 5 1 0 3 4 2 1 0 X—16 14 1
WP: Watson 1-0 LP: Ryan 0-1
LEADING HITTERS: QC-Antoine-Lebroux 2-4, Crowl 2-4, Hernandez 2-4; FY: Chavez 4-6, 4 runs; Fuentes 3 runs; Zeisler 2-4, 2 runs; Richardson 3-4, HR, 7 RBI, 2 runs; Creel 3-3, 4 RBI, double; Gutierrez, double.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.
