Let’s start our trip around the farm up in Tri Cities this morning. The ValleyCats placed four players on the National League NY-Penn League All Star Team. The four are: Phil Rummel, Phil Disher, J. B. Shuck & T. J. Steele. One omission that raised some eyebrows was David Flores.
“I understand, everyone can’t make it,” Rancont said. “It’s a tough process picking those guys. I’m happy for our four.”
Monday night, the ValleyCats committed five errors in their 6-4 loss. Tuesday night, they lost a heart breaker 3-2. Closer Michael Hacker gave up his first earned runs in his 18 appearances to take the loss. David Flores homered in both games.
Let’s travel south to Salem to see the next crop of players on the farm. Salem has been without Jordan Parraz lately because of a jammed thumb. He was set to see a doctor yesterday. Other banged up Avs include some dinged up catchers.
Pankovits said catcher Koby Clemens was out with a bruised jaw after an “accident involving Rosales’ bat” in the batting cage in Kinston over the weekend. Catcher Jimmy Goethals is out with a hamstring strain.
Monday night, the Avs lost the the Myrtle Beach Pelicans for the 12th time in 13 games this year. Manager Jim Pankovits took the blame for the 9-5 loss and the Avs poor play.
“It’s bad managing,” said Salem manager Jim Pankovits. “Bad managing and bad coaching. I can’t get ’em to play as hard as I need ’em to play right now. … We’re not getting any clutch, timely hits. We’re not getting clutch pitches. It seems like all we do is talk about the negatives.
“It seems like this team is beat down. We need to find a way for this team to have fun.”
They had some fun Tuesday night, sweeping a double header from the Pelicans. Led by solid pitching by Sergio Severino, who got his first win since his call up from Lexington in May, the Avs won game one 8-2. In game two, it was Bryan Hallberg’s solid start that set the pace for the 6-0 shutout. Hallberg pitched 5 innigns of no hit baseball, allowing only one walk.
Colin Delome provided the offensive spark on both games. He went a combined 3 for 6 with all three hits being round trippers. He knocked in 7 runs. But after the games, he was focused on what the pitchers did.
“This is great. To get two wins and holding them to four hits,” DeLome said. “To do that against these people [the Pelicans] — they play some really good baseball.”
Now let’s head down I-81 and check on the Greeneville Astros. Monday was the brief debut of Ross Seaton, the 3rd round sandwich pick. He made a solid start in the one inning he was allowed to pitch. He competed the first inning in 4 pitches. He was on a one inning or 30 pitch limit so this outcome is better than him throwing all 30 pitches. The Astros added two runs in the first inning but it was down hill from there as the G-stros went down in defeat 7-2. Manager Rodney Linares confirmed some bus ride discussion about the players wearing down some.
“We’ve not been running the bases well,” Linares said. “The last couple of games we’ve scored early, then we don’t score any more. That’s part of the process. It’s getting late, guys are tired. You just have to keep battling.”
Tuesday’s game was the baseball equivalent of the machine. They committed four errors in the first inning, one in the second, one in the third, one in the sixth, one in the seventh, one in the eighth and one in the ninth. That is 10 errors leading to 11 unearned runs in Greeneville’s 19-8 loss. Jay Austin committed 4 of the errors (1st, 2nd, 7th & 9th innings), all of them of the fielding variety.
After cleaning up from that mess, let’s take the bus through the Cumberland Gap over to Lexington. The Legends lost their closer Jay Pacella to Salem when the Av’s released Josh Appell (who was the player the Astros got for Ralphie Henriquez from the Mets). Monday night, the Legend’s pen gave up four runs in the last two innings to lose 4-3. Tuesday, the pen didn’t come into play as the Legends lost 3-1.
Let’s fuel up the bus and take the long drive down to Round Rock. Monday, J. R. House was the hero at the plate as the Express won 7-6.
“He sets the stage for the team,” Express manager Dave Clark said. “You never have to worry about it when he’s in the lineup, you know he’s going to put together some good at-bats.”
Tuesday Night the Express stalled in Memphis losing 7-4.
Our last stop on our trip around the farm is down on Corpus Christ. The Hooks played late Monday, losing 4-3 in 11 innings. Tuesday they had the night off. Some word around the farm says that Paul Estrada’s rehab stay in CC may be longer than expected.
“He’s going to pitch every other day for now,” manager Luis Pujols said. “He’s still going to have a pitch limit (between 20 and 25).”