(9-10, 3rd–PCL American South)
Game Notes:
In what was just one of a slew of piss-poor games for the junior ‘stros on the night, the Express go splat in Omaha by a 10-1 score at the hands of the Royals.
Like some of his other starts in this early portion of the season, Jason Hirsh just wasn’t sharp with his command in this one. 4 walks and a couple of plunks in just 3.1 IP, along with 6 hits allowed, resulted in 5 runs while he was out there on the hill (4 were earned).
Reliever Justin Huisman added logs to the bonfire with a 5th inning stint that involved 2 walks, 2 more plunks and 3 hits. Result? 5 more runs.
David Lee and Brandon Puffer finally plugged the leak (after the flood had already washed everthing away) with a combined 3 scoreless frames.
4 singles, two by 1B Royce Huffman, and a triple belonging to SS Jesse Garcia was the extent of the RR offensive production.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Hitting streaks: Charlton Jimerson had a 6-gamer. Had. As in the past tense. (2) RR pitchers tied a PCL record from 1926 for most batters plunked in a game, 5 (Lee also had a HBP).
(12-9, 1st–Texas League South)
Game Notes:
4 home run balls in the game, but unfortunately 3 were hit by the other side as the Hooks fall to the Springfield Cardinals 7-3.
It was a schitzo outing for starter Juan Gutierrez, who whiffed 8 in just 4 innings. On the Mr. Hyde side of things, he walked 4 and served up 2 longballs. The total damage was five runs, 3 of which were earned.
Paul Estrada gave up just 1 hit in his 2-inning appearance. Unfortunately, it was a gopher (off the bat of Reid Gorecki, the Texas League’s leading HR hitter with 9). It was twice as unfortunate that he had walked one of the preceding batters.
Sandwiched between Gutierrez and Estrada was Jon Skagg’s very nice 3 scoreless innings.
SS Ben Zobrist reached in all 5 plate appearances with a single and 4…count ’em…4 walks.
Josh Bonifay had a solo shot. On the other side of the ledger, playing out of position at 3B he incurred two errors which resulted in the 2 unearned runs.
CF Josh Anderson walked, singled in a run and swiped his 7th base of the year.
RF Hunter Pence and C J.R. House were a combined 0-10 in the game.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Although sometimes flirting with disaster due to a lack of control, Skaggs hasn’t allowed a run over his last 4 appearances totaling 10.2 innings. (2) Blaise Ilsley, a former ‘stros minor leaguer who was a 4th-round pick back in 1985, is the pitching coach for Springfield. (3) Josh Muecke has been put on the DL.
Quoting:
Gutierrez, on his struggles over the last several games and this one in particular:
“I don’t know. I threw good pitches sometimes, but I didn’t get a couple of strikes and lost a little concentration,” (he) said. “Right now I’m working on mechanics. I’ve got a little problem with my mechanics. I’ve got to do better with my balance. So I’ve got to keep working on my mechanics, and we’ll see.”
Manager Dave Clark on Guti:
“It is a concern. His command is off. It’s not the Juan we know and what he’s capable of doing. But he’ll bounce back. He’ll get his side work in the next couple of days or so and hopefully everything will work out.”
(8-12, 4th-Carolina League Southern)
Game Notes:
The Avalanche lose both games. In the completion of the suspended game from Wednesday, they go down by a 2-1 count. Myrtle Beach then takes the regularly-scheduled game 6-4.
Felipe Paulino pitched 2 innings on Wednesday before the rains came, giving up one run. Ryan Thompson went to the mound to start the 3rd inning Thursday and ended up throwing a total of 3 scoreless. Anthony DeWitt surrendered a run in the 6th while Enyelbert Soto and Robert Stiehl pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th, respectively.
We called Troy Patton’s last start one of the worst of the young career. Weeeell, that one looks pretty good in comparison to the results of his start in game #2 Thursday. The 20-year old lefty again appeared to be really struggling with his command as he gets bonked for 6 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks in 4 innings. Patton’s record falls to 0-3 this season.
Rory Shortell followed Patton to the hill with 2 scoreless.
RF Frankie Caraballo has been a notoriously streaky hitter over his career and he appears to be entering a hot phase. He hit a home run in the first game and then another in game #2 (unfortunately, both were solo shots). He also added a single to go a combined 3-6 over both games.
CF Ervin Alcantara had hits in both games and was a combined 3-8.
Double-play combo Drew Sutton and Edwin Maysonet were the only other players with multi-hit days: both had a pair of singles.
Manager Jim Pankovits tried to jump-start the offense by sending runners 6 times in the second game. They were successful on four of the attempts.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Thompson hasn’t given up a run over his last 6 appearances. (2) All 3 of Caraballo’s home runs this season have come in the past 3 games. (3) After the extremely hot start, Sellers is now hitless (0-13) in the last 4 games. (4) Hitting streaks: Alcantara is now at 10 games. (5) You know things are going bad when Jeffrey Mackor pinch hits for you. The backup catcher, a career .219 hitter who hit just .178 for Salem last season and is hitting just .176 this year, stepped into the box in game #1 in lieu of DH Mario Garza. Garza hit .292 for Salem in ’05 but has just an .083 BA this year.
(12-8, 1st–SAL Northern)
Game Notes:
The Hickory Crawdads sweep the Legends by 4-1 and 7-2 scores.
Sean Walker started game #1 and might have had a more successful evening had he not given up a couple of gopher balls. 3 of the 4 runs yielded by the California native were the product of those homers.
Game #2 starter Brian Bogusevic gave up a run on 2 hits and a walk thru 3 innings, but the ceiling fell in on him in the 4th as 4 runs are charged to his account. A walk, single and a plunk loaded the bases with one out and a following single scored a couple. After whiffing the next batter, Bogusevic was pulled (presumably for pitch count reasons) for reliever Scott Sarver who promptly gave up a double, scoring the 2 remaining runs belonging to Bogusevic.
Sammy Gervacio was the only truly effective Lexington pitcher on the day, pitching 1.1 scoreless in the nightcap while whiffing 3.
The offense picked up 13 hits over the two 7-inning contests, but the fact that 12 were singles pretty much explains the lack of run-scoring.
J.R. Towles had a couple of hits in game #1 but was hitless in game #2. He was behind the plate in the former and DH in the latter.
CF Josh Flores was the only other Legends’ hitter with more than one hit on the day (single in the opener, double in the nightcap).
1B Ole Sheldon walked and singled in the opener, DNP in the nightcap.
SS Tommy Manzella had 2 strikeouts and a single in 6 plate appearances over the two games.
Wlad Sutil played 3B in game #2, walking and picking up an RBI single.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Gervacio still hasn’t given up an earned run this season (13 IP, 8 games). (2) Hitting streaks: Towles had a 12-gamer going until coming up empty in the second game. (3) Towles, redux: he has hits in 13 of the 15 games he’s played in this season. (4) Hickory 3B Tony Mansolino is the son of Doug.