Two of our four active affiliates had the night off, but thanks to one of those still playing, there was no loss of excitement.
A: Rancho Cucamonga 8, High Desert 3
Aaron Cotter: 5 IP, 4 H, (4 R) 2 ER, 3 walks, 2 K, wild pitch
Jason Snyder: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, walk, 2 K, 2 wild pitches
Brian Kappel: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, K, 3 wild pitches!
Roman Martinez: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, K, 4 wil- no, just kidding, 0 WP.
Casey Craig: 0-5, K (.282)
Jeff Dominguez: 3-4, 3 doubles (!!), R, RBI, K (.321)
Jesus Guzman: 1-4, 2 run HR, K (.322)
rest of Mavs lineup: 2-19, R, 3 walks, 4 K
It must be mentioned that Rancho Cucamonga is 13-7 and leading their division, so the Mavs aren't exactly laying down to garbage here.
It must also be noted that with his 2 run HR (his 4th HR this year), Jesus Guzman already has 24 RBI on the season.
I'm only noting these to try and ease the sting of 6 wild pitches by Mavs pitching, Aaron Cotter returning to Earth and allowing four runs in five innings, and the Quakes having this game well in hand by the 6th inning. The Mavs showed life in the 8th with 3 runs, including Guzman's blast, but coming in trailing 7-0, the game was still out of reach, and the Quakes added another run in the bottom 8th.
NEXT: Marwin Vega's turn to get fed to the Rancho Cucamonga buzzsaw, tonight at 7:05 pm PDT.
A: Wisconsin had the day off. 3-12 PITY PARTY AT TRIUNFEL'S PLACE! BYOB (but don't tell the cops because he's underage... and, I guess, so is most of the team... nm)! Nathan Adcock, who has been solid so far, will hope to match Fort Wayne's Nathaniel Culp (who's been even better) with more zeros and fewer baserunners today at 4:35 pm PDT. The T-Rats batters will hopefully not get the message mixed up and respond by putting up a bunch of zeroes.
AA: West Tenn 13, Jacksonville 12
Joe Woerman: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 walks, 4 K
Kam Mickolio: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 3 K
Chad Fillinger: 1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER (HR), walk. Yikes.
Craig James: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 5 ER, 3 walks. YIKES.
Juan Sandoval: 0.2 IP, 1 H, walk. Whew.
Sebastien Boucher: 2-4, double, 2 R, RBI, walk (.169)
T.Marshall Hubbard: 2-5, R, 2 RBI, K (.289)
Matt Tuiasosopo: 5-5, HR, 4 R, 3 RBI. Good lord. (.380)
Chris Minaker: 3-5, 3 doubles (!!), R, 5 RBI (.257)
Jeff Frazier: 1-5, double, RBI (.177)
Luis Oliveros: 2-4, R, K (.353)
Clearly, Tui was feeling jealous of WLAD and the DIAMOND JAXX were feeling jealous of the Rainiers, as they both exploded for huge offensive outbursts. Hilariously enough, Jacksonville was out of fresh pitchers, so after West Tenn pounded lefthander Michael Megrew for 4 runs in the first, one more in the 3rd and 3 more in the 4th, Jacksonville left him out there to die. Finally, after 6 horrifying innings, and 3 more runs in the 6th, Jaxtown trailed 11-3 and Megrew was likely emotionally scarred for life. Catcher A.J. Ellis, taking the day off, warmed up and went into the game to relieve Megrew, because at this point, why not?
Luis Oliveros flew out, Alex Meneses and Sebastien Boucher hit back to back doubles to plate another run, and Brent Johnson and Prentice Redman flew out. So let's call A.J. Ellis a flyball pitcher. 12-3 DIAMOND JAXX. At this point there isn't much else to say, right?
RIGHT?
Kam Mickolio had just thrown some solid innings in relief, so he called it a night in the top 8th and ceded to Chad Fillinger. He wlaked John Lindsey with one out, then Anthony Ragliani, who has been a thorn in West Tenn's side all season, hit a 2 run bomb to right center. Still, 12-5 West Tenn, and Marshall McDougall popped out for two outs. But Luke Allen doubled, and Fillinger's gonna need to work on some things between now and the next mop-up appearance, because Alberto Concepcion took him deep to left for a 2 run bomb to make it 12-7. Juan Gonzalez lines a single to center and now this is getting ridiculous, but Chin Lung Hu's flyball to left found Brent Johnson's glove and West Tenn got out alive. Still, Chad Fillinger turned a blowout into something resembling a ballgame with poor pitching.
West Tenn didn't stop, though. Tui came to the plate with one out, and already 4 for 4 on the day, and belted a solo shot to left to make it 13-7. Shockingly, that was his 1st HR of the season: all of his damage this year has been on singles and doubles. Chris Minaker and Jeff Frazier went quietly.
Craig James came in to finish the ballgame despite the lack of save situation, likely out of paranoia after the Fillinger meltdown, just to make sure it didn't get out of hand. Luis Maza led off with a double to center, whatever. Xavier Paul drew a walk, but whatever, losers, you still need 6 runs to tie.
John Lindsey walked. The bases were loaded, nobody out. Still, whatever, losers, you still need 6 runs to tie.
Anthony Ragliani walked to force in a run. Okay, this is getting annoying, but still, losers, you still need 5 runs to tie.
Marshall McDougall hit a flyball to right that Prentice Redman caught, and Xavier Paul tagged up and scored. Still, whatever, losers, you still need 4 runs to tie and only a couple outs to spare.
Luke Allen grounded to the left side and it snuck through. Lindsey scored and ragliani moved to 2nd. 13-10. With the closer Craig James struggling, it looks like it's time to go get the closer- oh wait.
The DIAMOND JAXX had to settle for Juan Sandoval, probably tired after pitching in the extra inning loss yesterday, but still, with James missing the plate more than he was missing bats, West Tenn had to do something.
Sandoval showed Craig James how to find the plate... walking Alberto Concepcion to load the bases. Okay, what.
Sandoval got a pitch to Juan Gonzalez over and Juan lined to right to score Ragliani and Allen and move Concepcion to 3rd. 13-12 West Tenn. One out.
Chin Lung Hu killed the last rally. Would he kill this rally too?
Chin Lung grounded to the left side, and Chris Minaker at short gloved it and threw to Alex Meneses at 2nd for one: if Meneses didn't get Chin Lung at 1st, the game was tied. He gunned to 1st, and GOT HIM by a step or so. Whew. 13-12. Not exactly 14-2 in Cleveland, but quite the meltdown nonetheless. Kudos to the Jacksonville Suns for showing incredible resolve, with their catcher pitching the last couple innings, and never giving up despite a 9 run deficit. The Mariners org could learn a few things from you.
NEXT: The curiously named Juan Done goes today at 4:15 pm PDT as the DIAMOND JAXX head down the road to Chattanooga to play the Lookouts. LOOK OUT!
AAA: Tacoma had the night off, preferably not out on the town: they're in Las Vegas today to start a series with the oddly nicknamed 51's. Jake Woods, who pitches tomorrow, shouldn't need a mystic tanner given it's 90 degrees without a cloud in the sky in Las Vegas, but if he's insistent on fake tanning, Vegas has about 6347823234 tanning salons, which is strange given the climate. There are as many tanning salons in Vegas as there are Thai restaurants in Seattle.
A pointless aside: I remember when the 51's were the Las Vegas Stars, the Padres affiliate, and I hardly ever went to their games because they were a boring, sucky, perennial last place team (probably because the Padres were always a boring, sucky, perennial last place team). And as minor league ballparks go, Cashman Field, basically a field and some stands walled into a space adjacent to a Downtown convention center (seriously, you can take a wrong turn on the convention center floor and end up walking out onto the field), is as boring and generic as they come. Setting up some bleachers and grass in a random spot somewhere in the desert would have more character than Cashman Field.