Excellent Pitching and a Pair of Home Runs is enough to win game one

When you’re on a roll like Amarillo sometimes two is enough. The Sod Poodles won the series opener against the Hooks on Tuesday with two swings, great all-around defense, and spectacular pitching.

The Amarillo faithful got their first chance to see Mitch Bratt pitch for their team at Hodgetown instead of the rival Frisco Roughriders and for the second time since the trade he didn’t disappoint. Bratt tossed five innings of one run baseball, with the only damage of the entire night coming off of a Will Bush solo shot in the fifth. “I think I did a good job moving around pitches. Overall, I trusted Cerda and executed the gameplay pretty well.” Bratt said. After striking out eight in his Sod Poodles debut, Bratt sat down seven Hooks including striking out the side in the third inning after a leadoff double from Pascanel Ferreras. The left hander’s ability to keep hitters off balance this season has led to him pacing the Texas League in strikeouts with 121. “I think it's just having five pitches, being able to mix and match,” Bratt said postgame. “Kind of keeping hitters on their toes, it's a big one for me. A strength of mine.” Bratt wouldn’t get a decision but for the 16th time this season he allowed less than two runs, a feat he’s accomplished in all but four starts so far.

Jose Fernandez and Manuel Pena continued their tear at Hodgetown. Pena launched his 13th home run of 2025 in the third inning when he took Corpus Christi starter Nic Swanson deep. The solo shot was Pena’s 5th home run in his last 6 games at Hodgetown, and gave Amarillo an early lead before Bush matched it in the 5th. Pena continues to dominate Hodgetown, slashing .340/.364/.609/.973 when in Bomb City this year. When Amarillo has needed to drive in a run this season, there hasn’t been a better place to look than shortstop Jose Fernandez. The Texas League leader in RBI drove in his 66th run of the season with a go-ahead 101 MPH blast in the 7th, giving him the infielder 12 on the season. Fernandez all season has been a machine with RISP putting together an incredible .360/.397/.568/.965 slash.

After Bratt the Sod Poodles turned to another red hot arm in Casey Anderson, and he did exactly what he’s done since dawning a Soddies uniform for the first time, dominate. Anderson tossed another scoreless 2.1 innings and added three more strikeouts with just a walk, pushing his K/BB since he arrived to 15/1 in 11.1 innings. From Anderson the ball went to the Florida Gator Philip Abner, who despite a walk closed out the 8th for Amarillo without a run scoring, leading to closer Landon Sims getting the ball. The defending National Champion is arguably as hot as anyone on the entire roster, executing a scoreless 9th despite a little scare with a double that looked like it might be on its way out before eventually falling in play. Like has for the last month Sims put up a 0, giving him 12 consecutive scoreless appearances, slamming the door shut on yet another Sod Poodles win. “I feel like I've found myself, you know, within that role over the last month or two, you know, kind of just reverting back to some of the things that worked for me in college and trying to apply them in that role now.” Sims said pregame on Tuesday “Trusting everybody behind me. Everybody's really good. 
We're really good defensively, and we have good catchers.”

With that 2-1 victory Sod Poodles became the first Double-A club since the Rocket City Trash Pandas in 2023 to win a game with their only two hits coming via the home run. Amarillo will try to make more magic tonight with Jose Cabrera on the mound against Hooks right hander Bryce Mayer.