Jason Hirsh was cruising along with a no-no through five innings and not one of the Oakland A's AAA players were even coming close to hitting him hard. It was amazing to watch him work. Sometimes he'd throw a four seamer in the mid 90s, just a showme fastball. Most of the time it was his pinpoint control of the black with sinkers and then a sweet changeup or cut fastball/slider in the 88 mph range to have them swing out in front of his pitches. The RiverCats really were overmatched.
Then in the sixth inning Jeremy "Tub-o-Goo" Brown ran into one, first pitch fastball, to jack one and the no-no was gonzo. Interestingly enough, in the next inning the RiverCats scored two more runs off Hirsh and they had two runners in scoring position with two outs and up steps Brown. Before the confrontation, Hooton goes out to talk to Hirsh, mostly it's Burt talking and Hirsh listening intently.
First pitch swinging again, this time he pops out weakly to shortstop Jesse Garcia. Hirsh threw him a four seamers in his eyeballs and this freak swings at it like madman! Made me chuckle out loud.
But as much as Hirsh did to distinquish himself as a man amongst boys as it were, J.R. House (playing first base) was even more impressive. A double to start the second and score a run. A single to key a rally in the fourth. A single to drive in the fifth run by the Express in the fifth. His only out of the game came in the seventh when he flew out to right field going with a pitch well. Most of the night he was getting around any pitch thrown to him middle-in. He has a very quick bat. His swing on the last at bat was impressive because they weren't going to give him any more inside pitches it seemed. So he went with the outside pitch and even though it was a fly out, he put a good swing on the ball.
I liked what I saw of House... he is a hitter!
