Brewster Surging As Cape League Regular Season Nears End

SOUTH YARMOUTH – Yarmouth-Dennis seemed unstoppable. As recently as July 10, the Red Sox led the East Division with a 10-point cushion (equivalent to five games) over the next best team.

But the Brewster Whitecaps kept hanging around, even as the Red Sox played at their torrid pace (Yarmouth-Dennis won 19 of their first 22 games). And after finally besting Yarmouth-Dennis last week on the fourth try this summer, cutting the Red Sox’s lead down to two points (or a game), the Whitecaps have engendered a full-blown pennant race with just a few days left in the regular season.

The Whitecaps (24-8-3, as of The Chronicle’s Tuesday deadline) have a chance at the franchise’s best-ever record, were they to win out. On July 20 with 11 games to go, they clinched the postseason. They have never clinched that early, said Jamie Shevchik, Brewster’s manager since 2015, who earned his 200th career win on July 15. (For reference, Orleans took the East last season with 22 total wins; both the Whitecaps and Red Sox have already eclipsed those marks.)

“You can see these guys are playing loose,” Shevchik said, moments after Brewster beat Orleans 6-3 last Friday. “They're having fun, and they're not chasing anything. They're not trying to squeak into the playoffs, so they're really just — they're free, right? Just going out there and playing baseball, and with no pressure on them right now.”

The looseness is palpable at Stony Brook Field. The team bubbles with chatter and the silly rituals that can help dissolve the monotony of a long season. Winning obviously helps. After Brewster won Friday, kids ran to join players in the outfield, where they all held hands and spun in a large circle together.

You’d be hard-pressed to figure out some of the players have only been on the Cape for a day or two, as the club experiences the roster churn typical of this portion of the post-All Star Game year. Shevchik said the team chemistry is some of the best he’s ever had, though he took zero credit for it and gave all kudos to the players.

“For the most part, the core of this group is staying together, and we've been welcoming these new guys that are coming in like they've been here all along, so that's a good testament to the players that are here,” he said. “The chemistry on this team is unbelievable. I mean, it is really good. The culture here is really good.”

One of those core players is Jacob Lee (Virginia Commonwealth), a catcher who’s played 26 games this summer, his six home runs tied for second across the Cape Cod Baseball League. Every new player that’s arrived, he said, “has fit right in, and we’ve been welcome to see them.”

“Everybody that comes in here, I think they just kind of feel easy and start to fit in right away,” Lee said. “So I think it starts at the top with [Shevchik], so I mean, he can say it's not him, but him, [pitching coach Brian Del Rosso and hitting/third base coach Scott Grimes], they do a great job at building the culture from the top.”

The fraughtness of the final third of the regular season, when most teams longer-term players depart the Cape (and many of the scouts with them) after the conclusion of the league’s All-Star Game on July 18, probably can’t be overstated. In a way, other than the wins and losses banked into the record, what was done in mid-June and early July hardly matters by the time the calendar flips to August. So many of the current players weren’t even there for it.

Which makes what Brewster has done even more noteworthy. They haven’t slowed (they’re on a five-game win streak as of Tuesday) even as they filled holes left by players like Jamie Laskofski (William & Mary/transfer to North Carolina, who hit .323 in 27 games) or Jay Abernathy (Tennessee/transfer to Oklahoma, who hit .293 and stole 14 bases in 22 games). The Whitecaps just haven't changed anything, according to Lee.

“I think that's why it's been so consistent as a team, so I don't really think there's been any ups and downs with us,” he said. “It's just been really consistent. I think it's just the way we show up to the field every day, and everybody's just kind of hopped on the train with us.”

To their credit, the Whitecaps do have several players who have stuck around all season, guys who have been here since the .750 winning-percentage summer first got going and will still be when it ends — like Michael Torres (Miami, 29 games), Cash Strayer (Florida, 25 games), Dane Harvey (Ohio State, 23 games), Owen Jenkins (Kentucky, 23 games) and Brody DeLamielleure (Florida State, 21 games).

“It's been a little bit of everything,” Shevchik said. “Obviously we know about the constant turnover, but it seems like when one guy leaves, another guy comes in and kind of picks up where the other guy left off, so that's been the bright spot. Usually, when you lose some players throughout the course of the year, you feel like you're losing some pretty good talent.”

The Whitecaps have also gotten tons of strong pitching (a 3.10 team earned run average, third-best in the league) from arms like Zach Kmatz (Oregon State, 1.29 ERA in 28 innings), Charlie Willcox (Georgia Tech/transfer to Ole Miss, 1.73 ERA in 26 innings) and Payton Manca (Florida State, 1.48 ERA in 24⅓ innings).

The pitching has kept Brewster in games, and the offense has found ways to deliver repeatedly. The Whitecaps’ .702 on-base plus slugging percentage is second-highest in the league, just one decimal point behind Yarmouth-Dennis. For that same measure with runners in scoring position and two outs, Brewster is similarly second overall, again only behind the Red Sox.

Perhaps most importantly, the Whitecaps are the Cape’s strongest late-game hitting unit and in fact outright hit better than usual as games approach their conclusions. Their .845 on-base plus slugging and seven home runs in the seventh inning or later lead the league by far.

“I think we put constant pressure in those situations that makes it a lot easier for a hitter to go out there and hit in a more clutch situation, so I mean, we've been pretty good at it all year,” Lee said. “I don't think there's been a time where we haven't been cashing in those runs.”

The Whitecaps followed that same exact blueprint of effective pitching and timely offense last Saturday against the Red Sox in a marquee showdown between the Cape’s best baseball clubs. Yarmouth-Dennis had already won the season series, but Brewster felt this fourth game between them (of five) was important from a confidence standpoint. If they lost again, they’d feel like they’d never be able to beat the Red Sox. It might have been one of the biggest games of the summer, Shevchik said.

Brewster trailed 1-0 entering the sixth inning at Red Wilson Field, then tied the score and proceeded to add four more runs after the start of the seventh inning. They won 5-1 and, in doing so, created a real chance to contend for the East crown. The Whitecaps “smelled blood in the water,” according to Lee, and they “capitalized.” 

“We didn't do anything different than we've done all year,” he said.