Greeneville was beaten by two different teams on Wednesday. Kingsport drove down for a 10:30 game and defeated the G-stros 9-2. Kyle Greenwalt started this game. He made it through the first two innings unscathed. In the 3rd a sequence of HBP, Walk, error put runners at 2nd & 3rd with no one out. The inning ended with the K-mets getting 4 runs off 2 hits. Greenewalt was only charged with 2 of the 6 runs that scored off him. Urbina continues to be ineffective out of the pen. He went 1 2/3 innings and faced 14 batters allowing 2 inherited runners to score and 3 earned runs of his own. The pitching highlight was Duran who pitched 4 scoreless innings but the damage was already done. Kyle Miller hit his 5th homer of the season for the offensive highlight. Defensively, Anderson, Brown, Rosario and Axel Gonzales all committed errors.
David Denilli made his first start of the season in game 2 of the day against Bluefield. He gave up 4 runs in the first off a hit batter, a walk and 3 hits. He got the first two batters out in the 2nd but by then he had reached his pitch count limit. Greeneville only mustered one hit off Bluefield pitchers in a 6-0 loss. Patrick Egan of Bluefield went 7 innings while striking out 8 Astros and walking two. Devon Torrence got the games only hit on an infield single in the 3rd. Torrence now has a 3 game hitting streak, which is significant when you are hitting .149 for the season.
Tri Cities’s 3-4-5 hitters struck out 2 times each in a 4-0 loss to the Aberdeen IronBirds. Matthew Cusick singled and walked twice out of the lead off spot. The ValleyCats have lost 3 in a row and 8 out of their last 10.
Lexington lost their forth straight, by allowing a come from behind win by the Rome Braves 4-3. The Legends jumped out to a 3-0 lead with single runs in the first three innings. The Rome bullpen held the Legends scoreless from there. Errors allowed Rome to come and win the game. Koby Clemens committed 3 errors in the game to bring his total for the year to 24, which leads the team. The last error was costly as with two outs and the bases loaded in the 10th, he missed fielded a ball that allowed a run to score. For a link to some nice video highlights of the game read the Rome paper account.
Salem was no hit for the first 7 innings against Winston-Salem but found their bats with 2 runs in the 8th, one in the 9th and 3 in the 10th for a 6-4 victory. Former Longhorn Kyle McCulloch went 6 innings for the Warthogs, striking out 4 Avs batters. The Avs scored their first two runs prior to their first hit with 2 outs in the 8th.
The Salem paper continues its nice work doing features with a piece on Mitch Einertson today. Here are some snippets:
Quote
“In my first three years [of pro ball], I learned a lot,” he said. “But I’ve probably learned as much this year as in all three before….”I’m back to being coachable. My ears are open. I listen to things.”
Quote
“He’s got bat speed. He’s aggressive. He’s got confidence,” Pankovits said. “On defense, he gets really good jumps in the outfield. He has a strong, accurate arm…”And he works at it. He continues to improve.”
Quote
“It was immaturity stuff,” Einertson said. “I didn’t have a full understanding of what I wanted to accomplish and what I needed to do to get there. …”I let other things cloud my choices.”…”Those were two years wasted,”
Corpus Christi lost as Jimmy Barthmaier struggled again. The San Antonio Missions beat the Hooks 5-1.
Clark on Barthmaier:
Quote
“When he goes out and runs his pitch count up that high in the first couple innings or so, it’s going to be a long night,” Clark said. “That’s basically what he did tonight. He got hurt twice on home runs, but when you looked up, he was 3-2 on just about everybody.
“He’s got to pitch to contact and hopefully get some luck on his side. Right now, it seems like he’s got a black cloud over his head, and it just seems like he can’t get it going right now.”
Bartmaier’s take:
Quote
When asked if he felt snakebit, Barthmaier said “There’s nothing you can do about it.
“You can’t control that side of the game,” he said. “You’ve just got to go out there and try to make your pitches. I obviously failed there tonight, so we’ll just keep working harder. If you take two pitches away tonight, it’s a lot different story.”
Backe makes his first rehab start tonight with a 75 pitch count limit….. Johnny Ash is out for the year…Paulino’s next start delayed… Dan Foli has been released.
Round Rock:
Cody Ransom is making a strong case for a September call up. He hit 2 home runs last night, including a grand slam and now has 20 on the season. Danny Ardoin hit his first homer, Tim Raines hit his 6th and Josh Anderson hit his second as the Express beat Colorado Springs 9-5. Juan Gutierrez gave up a few dingers himself. He gave up 5 runs, allowing 3 home runs in 6 innings. He still got the win however.
Ransom on the fact that Timmy P & Ricky Bennett were in town watching his power show:
Quote
“I didn’t even know they were in town,” Ransom said of Purpura and Bennett. “But I can’t worry about that. If I do what I am supposed to do, hopefully the rest will take care of itself.”
Ransom is riding a 6 game hitting streak. He is 7 of 13 in his last 3 games with 3 doubles, 3 homers, 6 runs scored and 8 RBI. He hit .309 for the month of July with a slugging % of .573.