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Fowl Ball! Weekly report on the DUCKS During the month of June, if your team was down on the scoreboard going into the ninth inning and you saw Danny Graves standing on the mound for the Long Island Ducks, you might as well have saved the time by packing up and heading home because the game was as good as over. Similar to the other former major leaguers on the Ducks roster, Graves was decent in the first month of the season as he needed some time to adjust to a new league, but in June the Ducks' closer was nearly invincible. Graves appeared in 16 games during the past month, converted all 12 of his save opportunities and allowed just a single earned run over a total of 17 innings pitched. "I have been able to get in a groove during the past month because I have been pitching a lot more frequently," says Graves. "If you're a starter you pitch once every five days and then you have four days to do nothing, for me that would be miserable. Recently I have been getting into games every other day, sometimes even two or three days in a row, which is great and is exactly the reason why I love being a relief pitcher." During one particularly memorable streak a few weeks ago, Graves picked up saves in five out of six games including four days in a row. Not only is the 33-year-old right hander tied for the league lead in saves but he has appeared in more games than any other pitcher during the first half. However, Graves has no doubt in his mind that he can keep up this pace for the rest of the season. "In my second year in the big leagues I had around 70 appearances and more than 110 innings pitched while playing with Cincinnati," said the former Reds' closer, "I think I can still handle that kind of workload and if I get too many days off then I'm not going to be very effective so hopefully I can keep this up." On the other hand, having been a closer for just about his whole career, Graves is well aware that he is completely reliant on his teammates to provide him with save opportunities and that can lead to some periods of inactivity. "That is all just part of the job," says the firstyear Duck, "But really any closer on any baseball team is going to get their save opportunities and right now I think I am getting more than my fair share of chances so I have nothing to complain about." Considering the numbers Graves has put up during this first half, it would be shocking if some major league teams have not taken notice of his play. "Just like all the other guys here I would like to get back up to the majors but my main goal is to do the best that I can for whatever team I am with," Graves says, "You cannot control anything else, if a team wants me they can come pick me up, but if not then I'm going to have fun playing here the rest of the season." If anything, Graves seems to be genuinely enjoying himself during his time with the Ducks so far. He mentions that during his brief time playing for the Mets a couple of years ago he got a little taste for Long Island while he was living in Manhasset, but now has had the chance to get to know the area even better. "I love Long Island, in fact, as soon as I found out about this team I was begging to come here," said Graves, "There is always stuff to do around here and great places to eat. I'm a big pizza guy and obviously there is plenty of that around Long Island." As for the team's performance, Graves believes the Ducks have played good baseball for most of the first half and he is excited to be a part of the playoff race at this time of the season. Having been in the big leagues for most of the last decade, it is a unique experience for Graves to be pitching with a division title on the line during the first week of July but he says it is easy to get inspired by the kind of crowd support regularly seen at Citibank Park. "We are getting around 6,000 people here every night and that is almost unheard of in minor league sports," Graves states, "The fans we have here are really into it and they obviously want us to win so that is encouraging and makes it feel even more like a heated playoff race." Ironically, Graves had his worst outing in a long time on the first day of July, blowing his first save in the last 14 opportunities. This certainly came at a rough time for the team, but if there is anybody to be let off the hook for one bad night it is Danny Graves. The Ducks will certainly need their closer in top form if they are to win the division and it is a safe bet that Graves will be right back out there this week doing everything he can to help his team clinch a playoff spot. Extra Innings: +If the Long Island Ducks have any chance of winning their division in this final week of the first half, they better hope that there are some fireworks during their games to go along with those planned for afterwards in celebration of the Fourth of July holiday. Having taken a brief lead in the division race over the weekend, Long Island went on to lose their next two games and heading into play on Monday were trailing Bridgeport by one game in the standings. Making matters worse is the fact that the Bluefish hold the tiebreaker as a result of beating the Ducks in six out of their nine head-to-head meetings. "Well obviously we are not in anywhere near a perfect position to catch Bridgeport, they are a great team and will not let up," says Ducks manager Dave Lapoint, "We will be watching the scoreboard but still our main focus has to be on what is in here. We can't only worry about them, we have to play our own games and in the end the best team will win."
Further complicating the situation are the streaking Newark Bears who have won five games in a row and have crept to within one game of the Ducks and two back of the Bluefish. Suddenly this is a three team race and at the end of next weekend only one of them will be celebrating.
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