(6-8, 4th–PCL American South)
Game Notes:
A couple of bloop singles, a walk and a salami (by ex-Red Brandon Larson) put NO up 4-0 quickly in the 1st inning on their way to the 5-1 win.
On the hill at the outset for the Express was Jason Hirsh, who ended up going 5.2 innings in the 95-pitch effort and yielding all 5 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks.
Joe Valentine tossed 2 scoreless relief innings.
The RR “offense” mustered just 6 hits, 2 (including a double) belonging to LF Luke Scott.
CF Charlton Jimerson and RF Brian Gordon also had 2-baggers.
The 5th run that the Zephyrs scored came in the 2nd inning when a baserunner stole 3rd and on the play C Hector Gimenez’s throw went into LF. The runner came home on the error (a subsequent fly ball would have scored the run had the error not occurred, so the run was still earned and got charged to Mr. Hirsh’s account).
Other News and Notes:
(1) RHP David Lee, who played at AAA in 3 different organizations last season, has been signed and added to the RR roster. The 33-year old Lee has major league time with San Diego, Colorado and Cleveland. He’s the 4th pitcher who’s been signed and added to the Express roster since the beginning of the season.
(9-6, 1st–Texas League South)
Game Notes:
On Sunday, the Hooks got their butts kicked to the tune of 26 hits by Midland. Friday night saw CC be the kicker instead of the kickee as a result of a 19-hit pounding of Frisco in the 9-3 win.
On the receiving end for the RoughRiders (I swear before the baseball gods that was not done intentionally! But I can’t stop giggling about it either…) was 7th-ranked Rangers’ prospect Armando Galarraga. He started and went 3 innings, allowing 9 hits and 6 runs. Also getting hit hard in 2+ relief innings was Jesse Carlson, who spent some time in the Astros’ system.
Every player in the CC lineup had a base hit. All but 2 had multi-hit games.
CF Josh Anderson was 3-6 with 2 runs scored and 3 RBIs. Surprisingly, 2 of the hits were the extra-base kind. And even more surprisingly, one of those was a longball.
C J.R. House makes it hits in all 15 games with his 3-hit performance. He belted his 7th double and had 2 ribbies.
Also joining the 3-hit party were ex-Pirate minor leaguers 3B Josh Bonifay and LF Jorge Cortes. The latter only had 2 hits in 32 ABs entering the game. Cortes also made a spectacular catch to take a 3-run homer away from Frisco’s Jake Blalock (Hank’s bro).
SS Ben Zobrist singled, doubled and worked a couple of walks.
RF Hunter Pence had an RBI triple, his 2nd 3-bagger in as many games.
1B John Fagan was 2-4 and had a sac fly.
Starter Josh Miller, who absorbed much of that 26-hit explosion Sunday, was “slightly” better this time ’round as he surrendered 2 runs over 5 frames.
House did make his 4th error, this one on a catcher’s interference call.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Anderson’s dinger was just his 2nd in 1+ seasons at the AA level and only his 11th in 3+ seasons as a pro. (2) All former Pittsburgh property, House and Bonifay have played together on the same club before and Bonifay has played on the same club with Cortes. But until this season, all 3 had never played on the same team at the same time. (3) Hitting streaks: besides House, Anderson and Pence now have 7-gamers.
(7-7, T2nd-Carolina League Southern)
Game Notes:
Despite the top 4 hitters in the lineup going a collective 1-15, the Avalanche was (were?) able to put together a total of 9 hits and end up with the 3-2 win in the series opener with the Lynchburg Hillcats.
C Lou Santangelo, CF Ervin Alcantara, RF Frankie Caraballo and SS Wade Robinson each had a pair of hits.
Santangelo punched out his 4th double of the year.
Robinson drove in 2 of the runs and had zero freakin’ errors. His batting average is at .350, though in limited playing time.
Can’t keep a good man down as starter Felipe Paulino stimied the Hillcat hitters in his outing (6 IP 4 H 2 R 1 ER 3 W 3 K) to pick up his 1st Carolina League win. The only earned run he allowed scored after he left the game. Paulino’s previous starts this season had been rocky ones.
Enyelbert Soto (1 IP) and Rodrigo Escobar (2 IP) blanked ’em the rest of the way with the latter picking up save #2. Soto did allow one of the runners inherited from Paulino to score.
Other News and Notes:
(1) DH Neil Sellers took an 0fer in the game to snap his 7-game streak. He did draw his second intentional walk of the year. (2) This was the longest effort of Paulino’s career, spanning 4+ seasons.
(10-5, 1st–SAL Northern)
Game Notes:
Lake County gets a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 8th to carry them to the 4-2 win over Lexington.
The Lex lineup mustered all sorts of hits, 13 in fact, but can only push across the 2 runs. Take your pick as to the reason(s): 11 singles, a GIDP here, a popout with one out and the bases loaded there.
Koby had the especially tough night. Rajah’s boy was 0-4, hit the DP ball, and was responsible for 5 of the 10 men LOB for the Legends. Such is the adjustment to A-ball.
After having his butt firmly attached to pine for 4 games, SS Tommy Manzella returned to the lineup with a…not even what you’d call a whimper. 0-4 with a whiff, dropping his BA to .057.
The Lex troika (2B Eric King, C J.R. Towles and 1B Ole Sheldon) carrying the offense over the first 2 weeks again had good games. King was 2-5, Sheldon singled and doubled and Towles had 2 singles, reached on a plunk and put down a sac bunt (though he was tossed out on the basepaths for the first time this season).
LF Mitch Einertson was 3-5 with nary a strikeout.
3B Michael Thompson joined Einertson with the 3-hit night, one of which was a 2-bagger.
RF Eli Iorg singled and had an RBI groundout. He also threw out a runner for the 3rd time already this season. On the negative side of the ledger, he was the one who popped out with one out and the bases loaded.
Starter Brian Bogusevic (3 IP 4 H 2 R 2 ER 2 W 3 K) naturally for someone who experienced some arm soreness this spring continues on the short leash. Bad sentence structure there, I think, but you do get my drift. I hope.
The bully was doing an excellent job until Garrett Murdy gave up that 2-run job in the 8th. Scott Sarver (2.2 IP) and Chris Blazek (1.1 IP) preceded him w/ the much better results.