(8-9, 3rd–PCL American South)
Game Notes:
The Express for the second day in a row use the big inning to put a 15-4 stomping on the slumping I-Cubs, losers of 6 in a row and 10 of their last 13. RR puts up 5 spots in both the 3rd and 5th frames, blasts a franchise record-tying 22 hits and generally makes life miserable for the ‘lil scrubbies.
Okay, rather than start off focusing on the guys who did get hits, let’s identify the only one of 12 Express players who came to the plate who didn’t get one: reliever Chris Baker, come on down! While the rest of the lineup had all sorts of time to find out from the I-Cubs first basemen where the best places to eat were in Des Moines, Baker was whiffing and popping out in his 2 trips. His 5-inning/2-run relief effort, though, kinda made up for that.
In terms of hit count, 3B Joe McEwing (4 singles) and 1B Royce Huffman (3 singles, 3 runs scored, 2 RBIs) were at the top of the leaderboard.
As far as driving in runs, 2B Brooks Conrad led the pack with a 5-RBI day as a result of a couple of doubles.
RF Brian Gordon singled, doubled and plated 2.
LF Luke Scott and SS Jesse Garcia were both 2-5, with the former scoring 4 times and the latter belting out a pair of 2-baggers.
CF Charlton Jimerson singled, doubled and scored a run. What’d he do in his other 4 plate appearances? Whiff, whiff, whiff and whiff!
Chris Sampson made another PH appearance and…again comes up with the base hit! 2 runs scored on the single and Sampson later scored himself in the inning.
Jared Gothreaux preceded Baker on the hill, going 4 innings and surrendering 2 runs on 4 hits/3 walks. He threw 76 pitches.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Gordon left the game after getting hit by a pitch on the hand. (2) That’s 3 golden sombreros in 17 games for Jimerson.
(10-7, T1st–Texas League South)
Game Notes:
The 10-2 slaughter of Frisco was accompanied by loud wailing and gnashing of teeth in the DFW area as another one of the Rangers’ pitching prospects gets lit up in the early going.
Another D in the DVD trio got his head handed to him by the Hooks. Round Rock’s John Danks (whose brother Jordan was having a pretty darn good freshman season for the UT baseball squad until recently breaking an ankle) started for the RoughRiders and went 4 and 1/3, allowing 5 runs on 6 hits.
There were 2 huge bats in the game for CC: CF Josh Anderson and C Kevin Davidson.
Height-challenged Davidson, whose career total for home runs over 4 professional seasons is just 12, sent 2 balls out of the park on Sunday (his 1st home runs of the year). One of ’em was a 2-run job and along with his 3rd hit of the day, a run-scoring single, gave him a total of 4 RBIs. Matching his runs scored in the game. He also drew a free pass.
Anderson had 5 hits (all singles, natch) and scored 3 runs. He also nabbed his 4th SB of the year.
1B J.R. House keeps truckin’ along, banging out 2 hits (2-run single, double) and moving the hit counter to 17 straight games.
SS Ben Zobrist did it in pairs Sunday: 2 hits, 2 runs scored, 2 RBIs, 2 walks, 2 tri…errr, no…just 1 triple.
RF Hunter Pence also had a triple and since it came with the bases loaded you can add 3 to his RBI total for the year.
Righty Matt Albers goes to 2-1 with a very smooth start (6 IP 7 H 2 R 2 ER 2 W 5 K).
Dave Rollandini has arguably his best outing of the young season with 3 scoreless to close it out, notching save #1 in the process.
Other News and Notes:
(1) CC is 6-2 versus Frisco this season. (2) Davidson had just 2 RBIs in 7 games entering play on Sunday. (3) The Hooks have won 5 of their last 6 games.
Quoting:
Clark on Albers:
“He’s pitching really well and we’re not going to put that (ace designation) on him right now – we’re going to wait and see what happens. He’s definitely a competitor and goes out there, sticks to his plan and gets it done.”
(8-8, 2nd-Carolina League Southern)
Game Notes:
Salem hangs on by their fingernails to get the 7-5 win over the Lynchburg Hillcats.
Jimmy Barthmaier exited after 6 fine innings, allowing just 2 runs on 5 hits. His 3 walks did provide some extra traffic, though Barthmaier did an excellent job inducing a couple of DP balls to get himself out of trouble.
Rory Shortell entered in the 7th and gave up a run as the Pittsburgh affiliate narrowed the lead to 4-3. The offense added 3 runs in the 8th and 9th to build up a comfortable 4-run cushion. Shortell walked the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 9th but erased his mistake with a DP ball. Then things got interesting. A single and a HBP led to Shortell’s exit in favor of Rodrigo Escobar. A walk to load the bases, then another walk and finally a WP cut the margin to 2. With the tying runs on 2nd and 3rd, Escobar finally settled down enough to strike out the ‘cats cleanup hitter to end the game and earn his 3rd save.
The Avs were extremely efficient offensively as they scored their 7 runs on just 8 base hits. 4 doubles, 3 of which involved runners on base, aided the scoring.
CF Ervin Alcantara continues his little offensive upswing, getting his BA to .300 with the 2-3 day. The not-so-young Dominican out of San Pedro de Macoris doubled and drove 2 home. He also reached on a walk and put down a sacrifice.
Also hot of late, also going 2-3, also driving in 2, also laying down a sac bunt and also elderly for the Carolina League was SS Edwin Maysonet.
1B Neil Sellers doubled in 2, giving him 14 RBIs and ten 2-baggers on the year.
The Hillcats again were successful on the basepaths, going 3-0 in SB attempts (though today backup C Jeff Mackor was behind the plate).
Mackor, BTW, reached in all 4 appearances at the plate with a single and 3 walks.
The defense, rather inept yesterday with 5 errors, did the job today with no miscues and a total of 4 DPs.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Hitting streaks: Alcantara has a 6-gamer.
(11-6, 1st–SAL Northern)
Game Notes:
West Virginia put up markers in 3 different innings and every time they did the Legends came back in the bottom of the frame to score enough runs to either match or exceed those scored in the top half. The end result was a 7-4 win over the Power.
Like their Avalanche brethren, the Legends bunch scored their runs without benefit of a lot of base hits (just 6 in this case). Walks (
and errors (2) made it mostly self-inflicted damage for West Virginia.
LF Mitch Einertson singled, doubled, walked and scored 3 times. He also knocked in his 10th run of the year. Not so good for Mr. Einertson was the fact he apparently failed to run out a wind-blown pop fly that ended up dropping in. He should have been standing on 2B but ended up with a “single”.
C J.R. Towles walked and had the RBI single.
RF Eli Iorg plated two with a single, giving him a club-leading 11 RBIs.
1B Ole Sheldon walked 3 times and scored twice but without a base hit saw his 7-gamer vanish.
CF Josh Flores took the 0fer, K’ing 3 times in the process.
SS Tommy Manzella goes 0-2 with a walk but does get RBI #1 of the year on a sac fly.
Levi Romero goes to 3-0 with the very good outing (5 IP 6 H 2 R 2 ER 1 W 5 K).
Chris Blazek (2 IP, 3 K’s) and Sammy Gervacio (1 IP, 2 K’s) kept the Power off the board over the final third of the game. The latter gets his 1st save of ’06.
Other News and Notes:
(1) After being plunked in the 2nd inning, Koby Clemens was on 1B and dove back into the bag on an attempted pickoff and suffered a dislocated left pinkie finger. He was removed from the game and later was to fly to Houston for further evaluation.
Quoting:
Further on Koby:
“The finger just popped out of the joint, probably tore some tendons and broke the skin,” Legends Manager Jack Lind said. “He could be out awhile.”
Lind on Einertson’s mistake and some other shoddy play by his club:
“It was kind of a Twilight Zone, beer league baseball game. It was one of those days where we just had to work hard to make up for things that we probably caused to go wrong. And most of them were mental.”
Iorg, on working recently with minor league hitting coordinator Sean Berry:
“In baseball, it’s all about making adjustments,” (he) said. “You can make adjustments in your next at-bat. I’m very grateful to have a guy like Sean in town right now. It helps out a whole lot when you’re struggling. Even though I had a good at-bat yesterday, my swing’s still not perfect, and it never will be.”