(5-7, 4th–PCL American South)
Game Notes:
The Express and NO Zephyrs make it through 3 innings with the score tied 1-1 before the rain (and hail) came and the game is suspended.
Other News and Notes:
(1) They’ll play 2 on Wednesday. The suspended game will be picked up in the 4th inning and presumably will be a 9-inning affair. The second game will only go 7 innings. (2) RHP Justin Huisman, who pitched in 14 games with the Royals in ’04, has been added to the roster. Huisman had been pitching with KC’s AAA affiliate in Omaha this season before getting released.
(6-6, T2nd–Texas League South)
Game Notes:
After scoring a combined 51 runs in the 1st 2 runs of the series, CC and Midland settled down Tuesday night to a 4-2 affair with the Hooks on the right side of the affair.
Matt Albers (7 IP 4 H 2 R 2 ER 2 W 4 K) makes it 3 straight nifty starts at the AA level.
Jailen Peguero hurled 2 hitless/scoreless frames for his 2nd save.
RF Hunter Pence had the 3-4 night and went deep (a solo shot) for the 5th time this season.
C J.R. House had an RBI single to extend the hitting streak to 12 games.
SS Ben Zobrist made a nice leaping stab of a liner in the bottom of the 9th for the final out of the game.
Other News and Notes:
(1) The Hooks were 0-4 in the game in stolen base tries. Cal State Fullerton-ex Kurt Suzuki, the 11th-ranked prospect in the A’s system, was doing the gunnin’ from behind the plate for Midland. (2) RockHounds OF Steve Stanley, one of those 2002 Oakland draftees so prominently featured in the book “Moneyball”, was playing in his 4th straight AA season but has just announced his retirement. (3) CC LF Jorge Cortes singled in the 4th inning, his 1st hit of ’06 after starting out the season 0-20. (4) After making a couple of appearances while with the Express, reliever Aaron Williams has re-joined CC. (5) 3B Jared Sandberg and his .139 BA took a seat Tuesday night. Manning the hot corner instead was 1B Josh Bonifay, who last played 3B back in 2001.
Quoting:
Albers, who threw 103 pitches and had 13 groundouts in the game, on his performance:
“I just kept my fastball down. I knew they were going to be aggressive, so I threw them a lot of sinkers and make them beat it into the ground because I knew they’d be hacking at everything. Everything felt good, I could’ve even gone a couple more (innings).”
(5-7, 4th–Carolina League Southern)
Game Notes:
The jinx is broken as the Avalanche defeat the Keys 4-2 to pick up their 1st 2006 win in six outings versus Frederick.
Chad Reineke picked up his 2nd win of the season with the excellent outing (6.2 IP 5 H 2 R 0 ER 1 W 6 K).
Enyelbert Soto (1.1 IP) and Rodrigo Escobar (1 IP) made Reineke’s fine work stand up with some excellent pitching of their own, holding the Keys scoreless the rest of the way. The latter notches save #1 of the season.
DH Neil Sellers was 2-4 and scored a run. He was thrown out on the basepaths for the 1st time this year after being 3-0 in stolen bases entering the game.
1B Scott Robinson had a couple of base hits (the usual singles) plus an RBI.
3B Billy Hart got his 1st extra-base hit of the year (a double) and knocked in 2 runs in the process, thereby doubling his RBI total for the season.
Other News and Notes:
(1) The Avs are now 1-1 this season against Keys’ starting pitcher Garrett Olson, a supplemental 1st round-pick in 2005 who’s the Orioles 6th-ranked prospect. Olson took the win in a game last Thursday against Salem but got tagged with the loss in this one. (2) OF Matt Cunningham continues to show the knack this season of getting on base, though not via a hit. Though now just 1-14 after tonight’s game, he has drawn 4 walks and been plunked 4 times already this year. He drew one of each in this game. Three of his plunks, oddly enough, have come against Olson. (3) Sellers now has a 6-game hitting streak. (4) Not only was that Hart’s 1st extra-base hit of the year, it was the first extra base hit of his professional career. Of course, he played just 10 games last season at TRC after being drafted out of USC.
Quoting:
The manager talking about Reineke:
“He seems to be the kind of guy who’s even-headed, he keeps his composure,” (Jim) Pankovits said.
(9-3, 1st–SAL Northern)
The Legends travel to the suburbs of Cleveland and pick up a 4-3 win in the 1st game of the series against the Lake County Captains.
Their hosts were exceedingly generous, churning up six errors which resulted in all 4 Lexington runs being unearned.
Eli Iorg had the golden sombrero by the 6th inning, so it was only a question of whether he’d get to keep it or have to swap it for a platinum one. And in the 8th inning…(drum roll)…(drum roll)…he whiffs again and trudges off to make the exchange and compare notes with Preston Wilson.
Lexington’s 6 hits were spread among 6 different players.
3B Koby Clemens hit the only one with an extra-base flavor (a double) and also worked a couple of free passes.
2B Eric King and 1B Ole Sheldon each singled, walked and swiped a base.
Starter Levi Romero’s line (5 IP 4 H 3 R 3 ER 2 W 7 K) would have looked a lot better if he hadn’t given up a 2-run shot in the 4th inning.
Chris Blazek (2.2 IP) and Garrett Murdy (1.1 IP) kept the Captains in check over the final four with Murdy picking up his 1st save.
Other News and Notes:
(1) King is a perfect 4 for 4 in stolen bases this season. The former Tennessee Vol had just 5 steals (in 6 attempts) in 55 games for Tri-City last season.