Round Rock:
The Express jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first 4 innings and held on for a 7-4 victory. Brandon Backe got the win going 6 innings, giving up 3 runs and striking out 10.
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“I felt really good tonight,” said Backe, who also made one start for Double-A Corpus Christi. “Hopefully, what I’ve done here will help me solidify a spot in Houston.”
Lane homered, Conrad & Anderson had 3 hits each and Raines stretched his hitting streak to 6 with his 4th multi hit game in the last 6 games.
Corpus Christi:
The Hooks’ playoff chances are “mostly dead” (and Miracle Max is now where to be found) following a 4-3 loss that featured 16 Ks by Hooks batters. Self, Johnson & Torbert each got the hat trick.
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“It’s not pretty, that’s for sure,” Hooks manager Dave Clark said. “But again, there’s still a chance. It looks a little bleak, but there’s still a possibility.”
Brad James only gave up 4 hits and two walks while striking out 7 in 7 innings, unfortunately two of those hits were home runs.
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“He only had one bad inning,” Clark said. “That (third) was the only inning where I thought he was in trouble.”
Salem:
Billy Hart had 5 of Salem’s 13 hits in a come from behind 14 inning 7-3 victory that secured a playoff spot for the Avs. Hart, who went 5 for 7 was just one of the many heroes for the Avalanche.
Other heroes included:
Wlad Sutil RBI single in the 14th inning
Tim Torres who had a two run double to tie the score in the 9th and later scored a run that temporarily put Salem in the lead.
Diaz, Wigdahl, Englebrook, Sweeney & Blazek out of the pen allowed just one run in a combined 8 innings of relief.
You can hear the audio of the final out by following the link from the MILB account of the game.
Lexington:
Was off yesterday. Two news nuggets I missed yesterday:
– Koby Clemens left the game in the 8th with an injured right hand when a player slid into 3rd.
– Bud Norris was promoted to Salem
Tri Cities:
Brandon Barnes 3 run homer in the 3rd broke open a 2-2 ballgame. The ValleyCats went on to win 8-2. Anthony Bello struck out 8 in 6 innings, winning for the 3rd time in August.
Matthew Cusick was 3 for 5 with a homer and two RBI. He has now hit in 7 straight games and is 10 for 13 over his last 3 games. He is 16 for 30 of his last 7 with 4 doubles, a triple and a homer. He has scored 11 times in the last 7 games.
Axel Gonzalez also hit a homer in the game, his first since being called up from Greeneville earlier this month.
Greeneville:
Greeneville lost 5-2 to close out the season at 17-51. Robert Bono had a rough start allowing 3 runs (2 earned) in the first inning. He made it out of the first but manager Rodney Linares didn’t. He was ejected by his main umpiring nemisis, Will Little, over a disputed safe call at second. The history is that on July 4th, Little said Axel Gonzalez had fouled a ball off and it didn’t hit his hand despite the marks on his hand. Last night, Little missed a call at 3rd where the runner was out. Linares appeared to have had enough and earned an early end to his season by saying a few choice words. He then proceeded to share his thoughts with the ump all the way into short left field. Stubby Clapp eventually retrieved the ejected manager who has also been dejected by his teams play this year.
Bono was replaced by Eduin Ciriaco to start the 3rd. Ciriaco pitched three innings striking out the side twice and ending with 8 strike outs. He also allowed two more runs.
He was replaced by Colton Pitkin who’s ERA keeps on dropping. His ERA after his first 3 outings was 81. That was due to two outings where he didn’t retire a runner. In July, his line was ERA 81.00, 2/3 of an inning pitched, 4 hits, 5 walks and one strike out. In his 4 August outings, his line is ERA of 0.00 in 7 innings pitched with 7 hits, one walk and 5 strike outs. That is what development looks like.
On the offensive side, Greeneville pushed across two runs with two outs in the 7th on a single Ebert Rosario and Bryan Brown smashed that the first baseman couldn’t handle. In the 8th, Kyle Miller, who had walked was erased by a 6-4-3 double play that was again disputed. The second baseman was standing no where close to the bag when he received the throw from the SS. Hitting coach Stubby Clapp disputed the call made by Will Little but to no avail. In the 9th, a lead off single by Chris Frye was erased by another 6-4-3 double play ending Greeneville’s hopes for a come back and their season.
I will be posting a summary of Greeneville’s season in the G’vill thread of the discussion forum.