Work got into way of the last two day’s recaps so I am doing a little catching up today.

Lexington split a double header with West Virginia on Monday night.  Game 1 showed stellar pitching as Kyle Greenwalt went 6 innings giving up 3 harmless hits and a walk while sending 4 Power batters back to the bench with their bat in their hands.  Daniel Meszaros picked up his 4th save of the season by striking out 2 in the 7th.  He has giving up 1 hit and a walk in 5 IP this season while fanning 8 batters.

In game 2 the offense put up 3 runs again but it wasn’t enough this time.  Frederico Hernandez accounted for a 3 runs with a 3 run homer to tie the game in the 4th.  The power responded with 3 more runs off Jose Trinidad in the 5th to give them a 6-3 win and a split of the double header.

The Lexington pitching is getting a great deal of praise.  Tom Lawless, Lexington manager had this to say after the split.

“It boils down to the pitching,” Lawless said. “If you go out there and attack the strike zone … and we make most of the plays, we’re in the ball game.”

Also Tuesday, Brian McTaggart of the Chronicle did a blog on the Lexington pitchers citing praise from Ricky Bennett.

“They all have enough talent to pitch at the major league level,” Bennett said. “But we all know there are bumps in the round along the way. From a talent standpoint and maturity standpoint, we’re hoping they’re up to the challenge.”

McTaggart also checked the enthusiasm with this tid bit.

The last time the Astros had such a talented group of young pitchers come through their system was a decade ago when Roy Oswalt, Wade Miller, Carlos Hernandez and Tim Redding were turning heads.

Oswalt is a bona fide star, Redding had limited success and Miller and Hernandez were slowed by injuries. If the Astros can get at least two of these guys to stick, they’ll be thrilled.

Tuesday, Jordan Lyles had his roughest outing yet and the offense called in anemic as the Legends got trounced 12-0.

Lyles gave up 4 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.  He fanned 6 but gave up 9 hits, hit a batter and issued an intintional walk.  Brian Wabick was shelled for 5 earned runs in the 2/3 innings he pitched.

Brandon Barnes got one of the two hits the Legends had on the night.  Barnes is hitting .333 on the season, however his splits tell us a different story.  The right handed hitting Barnes is hitting leftiess at a .778 clip (7 for9).  He is only hitting right handers at  a .200 clip (6 for 30).

Before we get to Wednesday’s outcome, let’s look at the manager had to say about Tuesdays effort:

“We came … six hours on the bus (Monday night and early Tuesday morning) and these young kids don’t know what travel days are about and we just weren’t ready to play,” said Lexington manager Tom Lawless of Tuesday’s first game in the series. “We got a good night’s rest and came out today ready to play and focused.”

Being ready to play and focused lead to a 4-3 Legends win.  Ross Seaton got the win and Daniel Meszaros earned the save putting out a fire in the 9th, striking out a batter with the tying run on second.  Phil Disher hit is first homer of the season.

Lancaster

On Monday, Jose Duran gave up 3 solo home runs before the pitching coach said “no mas”.  J. B. Shuck had 3 hits but the JetHawks only had 4 as a team as they went down 3-1 in defeat.

Tuesday, their offense improved but the pitching got worse in an 11-4 drumming at the hands of Inland Empire.  Not much more needs to be said about this game.

Wednesday, the JetHawks broke a 6 game losing streak by riding Chris Hick’s pitching peformance to a 4-3 victory.   Hicks fanned 6 and pitched out of basesloaded jams in two innings.  Brian Pellegrini hit his 7th homer of the season, tying him for the most homers in all of minor league baseball. J. B. Shuck had his had his 4th multi hit game in 5 games.  He is currently riding a 7 game hitting streak (12 out of 30) and has reached base in each of his last 10 games.  On the flip side, Jason Castro is cooling off.  He is hitless in his last 4 games.

Corpus Christi had 8 starters get 2 hits in Monday’s game.  Only Wlad Sutil didn’t but he did get a hit as the Hooks batters battered NW Ark. pitching for 17 hits and 12 runs in a 12-6 victory.

Tuesday, the Hooks got home runs from Colin DeLome and Mitch Einertson but it wasn’t enough as they went down 9-7.  Apparently there was some issue as to whether Einertson’s homer really left the park.  The Natural’s manager had this to say:

I’m still not sure about the second home run. For it to bounce like it did, I thought it had to hit the top of the pad (on the outfield fence). That’s a tough call.”

Round Rock is in the midst of a 4 game slide.  Jose Capellan saw his record drop to 0-3 and his ERA balloon to 12.21 after giving up 6 runs in 5 1/3 IP on Monday.  The Express was defeated 7-5.

Tuesday, the Express were defeated 4-1.  J. R. Towles had to leave the game after fouling a ball of his face.

Wednesday, the Express went 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position.  You squander those opportunities, you most likely will lose.  The Express did just that, dropping their 4th straight 8-3.

“It wasn’t pretty,” said Express manager Marc Bombard, whose team is hitting just .208 this season with runners in scoring position. “We had some chances. We’ve just got to keep plugging away.”

The will get some major league help as some rehabbing pitchers come to visit.  Brian Moehler is scheduled to start on Friday and Brandon Backe will join the team on Monday.