“I’ve been sitting in the stands the last three games seeing what these guys like, so it was easy to have a game plan,” Chiavacci said. “(Catcher J.R. House) and I were on the same page, especially the last five innings. I don’t remember waiving him off very often.”

Saturday, the Express went down 6-3. Sunday, Jack Cassell continued his dominance of the PCL leading the Express to a 6-2 win. Monday, the Express broke out the bats and beat Sacrameno 9-3.

Corpus Christi lost Friday (11-0), Saturday (8-6), Sunday (12-4) & Monday (11-2). They have lost 6 straight games. This is prompting some roster moves.

The Hooks lost even more afterward as they saw their leading hitter, third baseman Chris Johnson, called up to Class AAA Round Rock. Meanwhile, reliever Sean Walker was sent to high-A Salem to become the Avalanche’s closer.

The Hooks are expected to receive second baseman Jonny Ash, a member of their 2006 Texas League championship team, and reliever Jose Oyervidez from Round Rock to fill their empty roster spots.

Salem’s Tim Torres had a night to be proud of Friday in the Av’s 7-4 victory.

“Two home runs and 11 ground balls,” (Starter Cory) Bass said of Torres. “Derek Jeter better look out.”

Saturday, Torres homered again in Salem’s 5-4 victory. Sunday, they completed the sweep of Lynchburg with an eight run 8th to win 11-3. Monday, the game was suspended due to rain and will be completed prior to today’s regularly scheduled game.

Lexington has gotten hot of late. They have the best record over the last 10 games (8-2) but are still have the worst record in the league. Friday, they shut out Delmarva. Saturday, they allowed runs but ended the game on top. The Legends pitching staff has only allowed runs in 1 out of the last 27 innings. Sunday, the Legends lost after blowing a 5 run lead. Monday, they returned to their winning ways with the help of Brian Pellegrini’s 16th homer of the season and Kyle Miller’s 4th in 9 games since his call up.

Tri Cities got solid starting pitching Friday night from Robert Bono but still lost 1-0. Saturday, the VallyCats played the Tigers at Double Day Field as a part of Hall of Fame Weekend.

David Duncan, the ‘Cats pitcher scheduled to start the game, said his focus will be on getting his team a win. After that, he’ll be able to sightsee, and, like Disher, it will be his first time in Cooperstown.

“I’m trying to go about it as a normal game and then after the game, hopefully good results, and then I can soak it all in,” he said.

Duncan took care of the first part, pitching five perfect innings on Saturday night enroute to a 5-2 win.

“That was a masterful performance,” Rancont said.

“Getting out of (the losing streak) was pretty key,” Duncan said. “We had to squash it as soon as possible. Glad we did that, now we can start a winning streak.”

Maybe Duncan should add prophet to his list of abilities. Because the ValleyCats won Sunday & Monday as well. Sunday’s win involved a 3 run 12th inning to win 5-2. The number 12 was important again Monday as the VallyCats put 12 runs on the board in the 12-3 win.

It has been a rough few days for the Greeneville Astros. They lost Friday night to Elizabethon 10-7. Jordan Lyles had his roughest outing giving up 6 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Saturday, the Astros got a win against the Bristol White Sox. Sunday, the Astros played what Manager Rodney Linares said was “probably the worst game we’ve played all year”. Seventeen year old Luis Cruz was cruising through two innings and then in the 3rd he was removed due to an injury.

“It’s a shame we lost Cruz,” Linares said. “We are going to re-evaluate him (Monday). He’s going to go to the doctor. Hopefully he’ll be OK. He said he felt a little sting in the arm, and then he couldn’t lift it up. We’d rather go on the cautious side and take him out right then.”

Monday, Devon Torrence committed 2 of the Astros’ 4 errors as the G-Stros let the game slip through their fingers 7-3 in 10 innings. Torrence returns to Ohio State to begin football practice and will be taken off the roster before Wednesday’s game. It is expected that Brad Dydalewicz will be added to the active roster at that time.

“There’s a mental side of this game with catching that’s very, very important. He has shown the ability to handle a staff (and handle) game-calling on the zone and as well as throwing runners out,” Heck said.

Castro’s arm strength rates as “solid to above-solid, major league average,” Heck said. “Is it a bazooka? No, but it’s very functional and very efficient.”

And on his chances for moving up?

“Due to the state of the system, there’s not a lot blocking a lot of guys at different positions, so each case is going to be handled individually, but there is room for advancement for a lot of players that are having success at any given level,” Heck said.

Oh, and the VallyCats won.

There was a major league sighting in Salem with Ryan Zimmerman rehabbing with the P-Nats. The Avs came from behind to win the game 8-6. There was some adventure on the base paths for the Avs.

With one out, Buchanan was supposed to go to about halfway between second and third. If the ball was caught, then he could get back to second safely; if it dropped, he’d still have time to get at least to third if not score. Instead, he thought he’d go back to tag up at second.

The ball wasn’t caught, it banged off the upper tier of outfield wall. By the time Ori got to second base, Parraz was only a few steps ahead of him and Buchanan was still only at third. Salem manager Jim Pankovits shooed Buchanan toward home and Ori shooed Parraz toward third and because the P-Nats outfield miraculously didn’t notice the Keystone Kops routine on the basepaths, everyone made it safely to their intended destinations.

“I was hoping and praying somebody would get a hit and bring them all in to score,” Buchanan said, acknowledging his mistake. “Fortunately it worked out.”

Round Rock wasn’t able to take advantage of great pitching from Jack Cassell & Chad Reineke. It was the 7th inning before an Oklahoma batter got a hit but the Express lost 5-1 in 11. As they head to the PCL All Star break, Mark Saccomanno joins the All Star team.

“He’s been a big bat in the middle of that lineup all year,” manager Dave Clark said. “He’s always been that guy who wants to be in the lineup every day and goes about it with the right attitude.”

Corpus Christi couldn’t get a clutch hit and had base running errors and fielding errors that lead to a 4-3 loss. The Hooks left 11 runners on base last night.

Lexington lost 2-1 in the 14th inning. Brian Pellegrinni accounted for the Legends lone run with a solo home run. Brandon Barnes was the only Legend to get two hits but had a part in the game ending play.

Sand Gnats base runner Casey Craig stole second, and Lexington catcher Jonathan Fixler’s throw sailed into center field. The ball then rolled under center fielder Brandon Barnes’ glove, allowing the winning run to score.

Greeneville had their winning streak snapped by Elizabethton last night. They battled back from a 5-0 hole in the 9th but couldn’t make it all the way back as they fell 5-3.

The Express lost to Memphis last night 8-2. The Statesman focused more on J. R. Towles working out his swing than on the game report. That gives us some pretty decent quotes to share with you.

Towles on what was happening in Houston:

“My mind overloaded,” he said. “It was just one of those things that they were telling me to do a lot and it’s not like it was necessarily wrong but I was trying to put everything together at once.”….

“It’s maybe good to come down here to have no pressure,” said Towles. “It felt at times like I was letting the (Astros) down at the plate. I felt comfortable behind the plate and I was separating the two.”

Corpus Christi

Polin Trinidad put in 5 solid innings (95 pitches) allowing only one run but the Hooks lost 2-1 when a pop up dropped between Eli Iorg & Drew Sutton and allowed an extra out in the 8th.

“To me, that ball has to be caught by somebody,” Pujols said. “That ball was high enough and spent a lot of time in the air and needs to be caught.”

Lexington & Salem are off for the All Star Break

Lexington’s Matt Cusick gets some praise from Greg Langbhen in today’s Lexington World Wide Web Fish Wrapper.

“You could throw him in Double-A right now and he’s gonna hit,” Legends Manager Gregg Langbhen said. “As the saying goes, when guys go higher up some of them become better hitters because the pitchers are around the strike zone more. And I don’t think that’s any exception with him. He could go up to Double-A right now, and Triple-A, and hit.”

About his offense and the move over to 3rd from 2nd:

“He’s been working on his timing all year,” Langbehn said of Cusick. “It’s just a very minor adjustment with his footwork. As the ball approaches the hitting zone, his timing was off a little bit and I think that’s why he wasn’t getting to a lot of balls to his left. He’s going to have to work on his lateral quickness a little bit, especially playing third base. It’s a quicker response time.”

The article also explained Cusick’s missed time a few weeks ago by reporting he has been dealing with a wrist injury.

Tri Cities ValleyCats

The ValleyCats will have a local connection to cheer for when their season begins tonight. 26th round pick Shane Wolf grew up in the Tri Cities area and went to near by Division III Ithaca College.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Wolf said. “It was a three-hour trip for me to drive over here, and I have family close to here as well. So I’m really excited to be here.”

Greeneville Astros

The G-Stros begin their season on the road tonight at Kingsport. Jordan Lyle is already dealing with the pressure of the Greeneville media as he gets a feature in the sports section after the meet and greet with the season ticket holders.

His thoughts on being in Greeneville and about how he categorizes himself as a pitcher.

“It’s a nice town,” Lyles said of his first impression of Greeneville. “It resembles Hartsville. It’s a great ball park, the nicest park I’ve ever played in.”…

“Definitely not a power pitcher,” he said. “I like to work the ball inside, outside, hit the location and throw the off-speed stuff at any time in the count.”

Let’s start our quick trip around the farm with the only team that won last night.

Lexington Legends

Santo Luis climbed onto the mound to face his old team, Lexington, last night. Luis, claimed by the White Sox in the minor league portion of the rule 5(V)(five) draft last winter, did well but didn’t factor into the decision. Russell Dixon knocked in Max Sapp with a double in the top of the ninth to give the Legends a 2-1 win.

Dixon went 3 for 3 for the night and knocked in both Legends runs. So far, he is hitting .343 for the month of June.

Salem

The Avs let one get away late. They were up 4-0 after 6 innings. They gave up one run in the 7th, one more in the 8th and then 3 in 9th. The final was a disheartening 5-4.

Corpus Christi

Speaking of disheartening losses. How about a 15-0 shellacking? That disheartening enough for you? To make matters worse, Tip Fairchild left the game in the 3rd inning with an undisclosed arm injury.

Round Rock

The Express, like Salem, had a comfortable lead after 6 innings. They were up 6-2 and ended up losing 7-6.

Tri Cities & Greeneville should release their rosters tomorrow.

Lexington was shut out on Tuesday night. They have only scored 2 runs in 4 games, and one of those runs was scored with out a hit. Their pitchers held their own until the 8th when two runs were scored off small ball and an error.

Salem Avalanche

Cory Bass pitched 7 strong innings in his best start of the season to lead the Avs to a 6-1 victory. Bass went deeper than any previous start and here is why.

Bass said in past outings he would “be trying to think about what pitches to throw instead of taking it one pitch at a time.

“Trying to outsmart the hitter. And trying to be too fine, instead of just trusting my stuff.”

(Pitching Coach) Ruby said Bass was different on the mound Tuesday, particularly “his presence.”

The bats were hot too with Parraz going 3 for 4, C. Quintero and Clemens going 2 for 4. Mark Ori hit his 4th homer of the season.

“He’s (Ori) got some good power to the opposite field,” Pankovits said. “He’s been slow to learn to drive the ball pulling the ball, but if you can drive the ball the opposite way, driving it pulling will come. … Hopefully this is the start of a string of extra-base hits for him.”

Corpus Christi Hooks were off last night.

Round Rock Express

The Express has derailed. They lost 4-3 last night falling to 20-31 (.392) on the season. Reggie Abercrombie and Edwin Maysonet combined for 5 of the 9 hits. Maysonet has hit .370 in the month of May after hitting a lowly .190 in April.