2023 Trinidad Triggers Season Recap - Powerful Offense Returns Trinidad to Winning Baseball
The 2023 Trinidad Triggers brought winning baseball back to Central Park and did it in a fashion that looked very familiar to anyone who had followed the franchise during its most successful years.
Trinidad hit.
And then Trinidad hit some more.
The Triggers finished the season with a 32-22 record, producing their first winning traditional Pecos League season since the dominant 33-5 club of 2021. The 2023 team featured one of the most explosive offensive lineups in the league, regularly turning games into high-scoring affairs and putting together stretches in which opposing pitching staffs simply could not slow them down.
Jason Rooks and Peter Bocchino led an offense filled with power and run production. Rooks played 44 games and collected 85 hits in 181 at-bats while hitting 22 home runs and driving in 84 runs. Bocchino was right behind him with 83 hits, 17 doubles, 13 home runs and 73 RBIs in 43 games. David Arza, Jordan Anderson, Alec Aleywine and Jakobe Smith gave Trinidad additional threats throughout the lineup.
The result was a team capable of scoring runs in bunches.
During one remarkable stretch in June, Trinidad scored 33 runs against Santa Fe, followed the next night by 30 runs. Less than a week later, the Triggers erupted for 39 runs in another victory. July brought more of the same, including games in which Trinidad scored 18, 20, 23, 24 and 33 runs.
There were nights when no lead seemed safe against the Triggers.
The season ultimately ended without a championship, but the 32 victories represented an important step forward for a franchise that had gone through two difficult summers following its tremendous 2021 season. The Triggers once again looked like one of the dangerous offensive clubs traditionally associated with baseball in Trinidad.
Looking to Rebound After 2022
The 2023 season began with Trinidad attempting to move forward from a disappointing 2022 campaign.
The Triggers had established a reputation throughout their history as one of the Pecos League's most productive offensive franchises. Central Park had hosted championship-caliber teams, playoff races and some of the highest-scoring games in league history.
The objective in 2023 was to get back to that style of baseball.
It didn't take long.
Trinidad opened the season on May 31 with a 15-10 victory over the Santa Fe Fuego and followed it with an 8-5 win on June 1. The Triggers then went on the road and scored 24 runs in their third game of the season.
Three games into the year, Trinidad had already scored 47 runs.
That was a pretty good indication of what was coming.
The Offense Takes Over
Trinidad's lineup was built around several hitters who could completely change a game with one swing.
Rooks was at the center of everything.
In 44 games, Rooks scored 79 runs while producing 85 hits, 13 doubles, 22 home runs and 84 RBIs. He also drew 31 walks and stole 20 bases. He wasn't simply a power hitter. He consistently reached base and created problems once he got there.
Bocchino gave the Triggers another elite offensive weapon. He played 43 games and finished with 83 hits, 17 doubles, 13 home runs and 73 RBIs while drawing 41 walks.
The production continued throughout the lineup.
Arza recorded 68 hits, 16 doubles, four triples, five home runs and 58 RBIs while stealing 26 bases. Anderson produced 61 hits, 15 doubles, four triples and 14 home runs while driving in 56. Smith had 43 hits, including 10 doubles, four triples and six home runs, while scoring 61 times and stealing 25 bases.
Aleywine provided one of the more unusual combinations on the roster. Listed as a left-handed pitcher, he was also an important offensive player, finishing with 34 hits in 91 at-bats while hitting 10 home runs and driving in 39 runs.
Jake Urena added 39 hits and 37 RBIs in 32 games, while Samuel Guillorme played 42 games and contributed 53 hits, 13 doubles and 33 RBIs.
There simply weren't many easy places for opposing pitchers to navigate through Trinidad's batting order.
June Turns Into a Run-Scoring Festival
If there was a stretch that defined the personality of the 2023 Triggers, it came during June.
Trinidad won three consecutive road games on June 9-11 by scores of 12-1, 11-4 and 17-12. After several uneven games followed, the offense exploded again.
On June 19, Trinidad scored 33 runs in a 33-3 victory.
One night later, the Triggers scored 30 more in a wild 30-22 win.
The team then went on the road and scored 26 runs in a June 23 victory before returning home and producing one of its biggest offensive performances of the season, a 39-4 win on June 25.
Trinidad followed that with victories of 15-2 and 27-7.
It was an extraordinary offensive run even by Pecos League standards.
The Triggers had rediscovered the formula that had made so many previous Trinidad teams successful: put constant pressure on opposing pitchers and make teams feel as though they needed to score in every inning simply to keep pace.
July Brings Trinidad's Best Stretch
The Triggers entered July with a winning record but immediately lost their first two games of the month.
Then the season changed.
Beginning with an 18-15 victory on July 4, Trinidad went on its strongest run of the summer.
The Triggers won 18-15, 13-2, 20-6, 11-1, 12-7, 14-9, 23-21, 20-12, 33-10 and 24-8 during a stretch in which they won 10 consecutive completed games.
The scores illustrated just how difficult Trinidad had become to pitch against.
There were blowouts. There were slugfests. There were games in which Trinidad simply overwhelmed opponents early, and there were games in which the Triggers had to continue scoring until the final innings.
By the middle of July, Trinidad had firmly established itself as a winning team and one of the most dangerous offensive clubs in the Mountain Division.
Pitching Remains the Challenge
The same aggressive offensive style that made Trinidad dangerous also frequently placed enormous pressure on the pitching staff.
The Triggers had several effective individual pitchers, but preventing runs consistently remained the team's biggest challenge.
Garrett Brown was Trinidad's most effective relief pitcher. Brown appeared in 19 games and posted a 2.02 ERA over 26.2 innings while striking out 50 hitters and recording three saves.
Ben Kowalski provided important innings in the rotation and finished 7-1 with a 5.04 ERA over 50 innings. He struck out 67 hitters and recorded a complete game.
Aleywine went 5-3 over 10 starts, working 59 innings and striking out 50. Jacob Faivre went 4-2, while Spenser Dexter finished 4-0.
Dakota Rodd became one of the team's primary bullpen arms, appearing in 27 games and throwing 40.1 innings.
There were enough quality performances to win 32 games, but there were also nights when Trinidad's offense was forced to score extraordinary numbers simply to stay ahead.
That imbalance became increasingly important as the season progressed.
A Difficult Finish
After the tremendous winning streak in July, Trinidad's momentum began to fade.
The Triggers lost several close games down the stretch, including a 9-8 loss, a 19-18 loss and an 18-15 defeat. Those games represented the other side of Trinidad's offensive identity.
The Triggers could score enough to remain competitive almost every night, but high-scoring games could turn on a single inning, defensive mistake or pitching breakdown.
Trinidad still showed its ability to win close games, defeating an opponent 4-3 on July 22 and earning a 7-5 road victory on July 28.
The final week, however, was difficult.
Trinidad lost 10-6 and 10-8 before dropping a 3-2 game on August 2. The Triggers responded with consecutive road victories, 10-8 and 3-1, but finished the season with losses of 8-5 and 12-7.
The late-season slide prevented the Triggers from turning an excellent middle portion of the schedule into an even stronger final record.
Rooks and Bocchino Lead a Memorable Lineup
When the 2023 Triggers are remembered, the offense will be the first thing that stands out.
Rooks' 22 home runs and 84 RBIs represented extraordinary production over only 44 games. Bocchino's 83 hits and 73 RBIs gave Trinidad another hitter capable of carrying the lineup.
Anderson added 14 home runs, while Aleywine hit 10 despite also serving as one of the team's primary starting pitchers.
The lineup combined power with speed.
Arza stole 26 bases, Smith stole 25, Rooks stole 20, Guillorme stole 18 and Anderson stole 15. Trinidad wasn't simply waiting for home runs.
The Triggers could put runners in motion, take extra bases and force defenses to make plays.
That combination helped make Central Park one of the most difficult places for an opposing pitching staff to survive during the summer.
A Winning Season in Trinidad
The 2023 season didn't end with a Pecos League championship, but it restored something important to Trinidad baseball.
Winning.
After the difficulties of the previous season, the Triggers finished 32-22 and once again gave Central Park an explosive baseball team capable of producing unforgettable nights.
There were 33-run games, a 30-run game and even a 39-run performance. There was a 10-game winning streak during the heart of July.
There were individual offensive seasons from Rooks and Bocchino that ranked among the most productive performances on the roster in years.
The pitching staff had its struggles, and the late-season losses kept Trinidad from turning its offensive firepower into a championship run. But the overall direction of the franchise had changed.
The Triggers were winners again.
And throughout the summer of 2023, one thing became very clear whenever an opponent arrived at Central Park: no matter how many runs a team scored against Trinidad, there was always a chance the Triggers were going to score more.
