THE MORNING BISCUIT

Damião Mourinha dazzles over six innings and Edward Bermudez provides the power as Glenira takes the series opener in the hostile confines of the El Cajondome.

By Elias Thorne | April 19, 2040

EL CAJON — You don’t always have to paint a masterpiece to hang it in the gallery. Sometimes, you just need to color inside the lines, keep the edges clean, and wait for the other guy to spill his paint.

Wednesday night at the El Cajondome was not a masterpiece of offensive explosion. It was a grinder. It was a test of patience. And for the Glenira Biscuits (12-5), it was exactly the kind of 3-1 victory that championship teams put in their back pocket for a rainy day.

Starting pitcher Damião Mourinha (1-1) was the story, hurling six innings of one-run ball, scattering five hits and striking out an eye-popping 11 batters. He was electric, mixing his fastball with a slider that seemed to disappear into the humid air of the dome.

“I felt good,” Mourinha said through a translator after the game, icing his shoulder in the visitors’ clubhouse. “My location was there. The slider was biting. Against a lineup like that, you can’t leave anything over the middle, and tonight, I didn’t.”

The Turning Point

For four innings, the game was a scoreless stare-down between Mourinha and Alliance starter Nick Wischmeier (1-3). Wischmeier, to his credit, was matching Mourinha zero for zero, keeping the potent Biscuits lineup off balance with a steady diet of off-speed junk.

Then came the fifth.

With one out, first baseman Edward Bermudez stepped to the plate. Bermudez had been quiet all night—quiet all season, really, still searching for his first home run. He found it. He turned on a 1-1 fastball from Wischmeier and deposited it into the right-field seats, a solo shot that broke the seal and gave Glenira a 1-0 lead.

“I’ve been pressing a little bit,” Bermudez admitted. “You try not to think about the zeroes in the home run column, but they’re there. It felt good to finally get one to ride out.”

The Biscuits weren’t done. Later in the inning, catcher J. Zubia—who is quietly having a stellar defensive season—ripped a double down the line to score M. Head, doubling the lead.

The Bullpen Hold

The Alliance didn’t go quietly. They scratched across a run in the bottom of the sixth on a P. Tomczak home run, cutting the lead to 2-1 and ending Mourinha’s night.

But the Biscuits’ bullpen, a unit that has been questioned early in this 2040 campaign, answered the bell. Chris Cunningham bridged the gap with two scoreless innings, and closer Bryce Walker slammed the door in the ninth for his 6th save of the season.

“That’s the recipe,” Manager J. Howard said. “Six strong from the starter, add-on runs when you can get them, and let the bullpen bring it home. It wasn’t flashy, but it was effective.”

By The Numbers

• 11: Strikeouts for Mourinha, a season-high.
• 0: Walks issued by the Biscuits pitching staff (Mourinha, Cunningham, Walker). That is elite control.
• 2: Double plays turned by the Glenira defense, erasing potential Alliance rallies in the middle innings.
• 3: Hits for the Alliance’s Carlos Sandez, who was a thorn in the Biscuits’ side all night, though he was stranded twice.

The Road Ahead

The win keeps the Biscuits just 2 games back of the idle Alpine Warcats in the AL Allison Division. It also pushes the El Cajon Alliance down to 7-10, continuing their rocky start.

The series continues tomorrow night, with RHP Jake Silverti (0-2, 8.40 ERA) looking to get his season on track against Glenira’s CY Young caliber arm, RHP Josh Thompson (1-0, 0.83 ERA).

The View From The Other Dugout

Quotes from the El Cajon post-game presser

Nick Wischmeier (Alliance Starter): “I made one bad pitch to Bermudez. That’s it. He’s a strong kid, and he didn’t miss it. You tip your cap. But when you give up three runs, you expect to have a chance to win. Their guy [Mourinha] was just better tonight.”

Vinny De Jesus (Alliance Manager): “We struck out 13 times. You can’t win ballgames when you aren’t putting the ball in play. We need to shorten our swings and stop trying to hit everything out of the dome.”