Greeneville was well… Greeneville: The lost all three games this weekend. Some of the player development brass was in town so they used 13 pitchers Saturday and Sunday. Of those pitchers, only 4 had an ERA under 6 and only one has an ERA under 4 (Wabick 3.94). Andy Launier has returned from injury very hot. Since he returned on 7/31, he has a 6 game hitting streak. Greeneville still leads the league in attendance with averaging 1584 per night.
Tri Cities lost all three games this weekend as well. Sunday they had 8 hits but were still shut out. Steve Brown is hitting .394 over his last 10 games and his average is approaching .300 for the year.
Lexington lost all 3 games of the weekend as well. In Friday’s game, David Qualban went 7 innings allowing only one earned run. He picked of his 26th & 27th baserunners of the season. The Columbus manager was ejected arguing that Jordan Parraz’s homer was really a foul ball. The Catfish won it in the 12th 6-3. Sunday, they ran in to a buzz saw in pitcher Heath Rollins.
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Rollins (13-4) allowed four hits and two runs, striking out four. The 22-year-old right-hander is 7-1 in his last nine starts with a 1.98 ERA.
Salem only played 2 games this weekend but they lost both of them. Saturday’s paper had a this to say about Sammy Gervacio:
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the Avalanche is trying to get closer Sammy Gervacio more than one inning of work in his outings and thus fewer outings.
“It’s better for his [Gervacio’s] development,” Pankovits explained. “He can throw more pitches and more different situations come up. … Not that we want him to run into trouble, but down the road he’s going to have to pitch in more nonsave situations.”
What he didn’t say is where this was going to be happening. After closing out the game in Salem on the 4th, he closed out a Corpus Christi loss on Sunday.
Corpus Christi had the only winning weekend in the organization with a 2-1 record. The bats were alive as 5 Hooks had a 2 hit game. They helped over come a rough outing by Paulino. In his last 4 starts, Paulino has pitched 26 innings, 26 K’s but 16 walks. The defense gets some love from the local scribes:
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In addition to the offensive uprising, the Hooks flashed some stellar defense. Shortstop Tommy Manzella made a pair of spectacular diving catches, while outfielders Ray Sadler and Francisco Caraballo made timely running catches that erased potential Midland rallies.
Saturday, the Hooks overcame an even worse start by Brian Bogusevic. His AA debut only lasted 2/3 of an inning. The Hooks came back after giving up 6 in the first to win 9-6. Josh Muecke was stellar in relief of the ineffective Bogusevic.
Bogusevic on his bogus AA start:
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“I couldn’t put guys away when I was in the position to do that,” Bogusevic said. “Once you get back in the count, it goes into the hitters’ favor and I just couldn’t execute anything to put guys away and it hurt. I was a little bit (nervous), but not enough to lead into what happened.
Sunday, they got their best start of the weekend from Brad James but couldn’t get the big hit when they needed it in the 5-4 loss.
Edwin Maysonet had this to say about the hitting:
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“We left a bunch of runners on base and we aren’t going to win games doing that,” second baseman Edwin Maysonet said. “I swung at bad pitches tonight. I don’t know about the other guys, but myself, I swung at pitches that were high in the strike zone and you can’t do anything with those balls.”
Maysonet, who has been playing 2nd since the injury to Jonny Ash, has seen his average climb every month this season. April -.186, May .247, June – .345, and July .462. I doubt he will be hitting .500 for August but you never know.
Josh Flores misplayed a fly ball on Sunday that ended up allowing the winning base runner to reach base:
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“I couldn’t see it off the bat,” Flores said. “I found it at the last second, but it was too far away from me (to make a play on).”
At the plate, Josh is having little trouble picking the ball up of late. After a .179 month of July, he has hit well in his last 10 batting a strong .324 and is 9 of his last 15.
Round Rock went 1-2 for the weekend. On Friday, Chance Douglas pitched 6 innings of shut out ball but Gothreaux came on and gave up the lead. Then Estrada made it worse. Estrada has given up runs in 6 of his last 8 outings. Ransom hit is 5th homer in 4 days.
Saturday, Ransom’s home string ended but he still got another RBI. Conrad had 3 RBI and Reineke, Barzilla & Driskill combined for a 4 hitter in a 7-0 victory.
Sunday, Chan Ho Park gave up another homer and Brian Gordan returned home. Park gave up 6 runs in 5 innings in the 6-1 loss. Gordan who was called up from CC played at Round Rock High.
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“I’m definitely tickled,” Gordon said. “That was special out there.”
Gordon made the transition from the Express outfield in 2006 to a budding reliever in the Astros organization this season. He was 5-1 with a 2.88 ERA for the Hooks.
Moore on the pitching of Park:
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“One inning goes wrong, and it takes all the air out of him,”
Moore on the pitching of Salt Lake starter Kasey Olenberger:
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“He took all the fun out of hitting tonight,”
Beau Torbert whose playing time has increased since the Lane was called up has struggled at the plate but made two diving catches in last nights game.
So the record for the teams this weekend was 3-14.