Last night's Mariners game was pretty awesome... well, before they blew the 5-1 lead, and only in the 11th.
The VSLM's did not have a good day, and then they got rained on. Kyle Parker looked okay, but Bad Justin Souza returned, just as we were starting to get used to Good Justin Souza. High Desert sent someone back to the space park overnight to get their offense, and Adam Moore led the charge (again) as they showed it off last night against the Ports. The DIAMOND JAXX got shut down as Andrwe Baldwin was dealing and missing bats, but not all of them, and those that didn't miss absolutely hammered him. They did get to the bullpen and did stage a rally, but was it enough?
Also, the Rainiers are playing Arena Baseball in Colorado Springs, except they're outside and the playing field is 5000 feet above sea level, so it's kinda the same.
Rk: VSL Phillies 10, VSL Mariners 3, 7 innings (weather)
Yorjans (Johalbi?) Chourio: 3.1 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, walk, hit batter
Manuel Campos: 1.1 IP, 6 H, (4 R) 3 ER (HR), 2 K, hit batter
Reynaldo Sabala: 1.1 IP, 1 H, K
Carlos Ramirez: 2-3, double, R, K (.355)
Cesar Fuentes: 1-3, double, 2 RBI, K (.281)
Eduardo Garcia: 2-3, R (.205)
This was a pretty competitive game under cloud cover until Señor Chourio imploded in the 4th and Manuel Campos imploded with him through the 5th, and the VSLMs bats just couldn't get going after a promising 1st and 2nd innings. Rain mercifully ended this contest early.
A: Kane County 8, Wisconsin 6
Kyle Parker: 4 IP, 5 H, (2 R) 1 ER, 3 walks, 3 K, wild pitch
Rollie Gibson: 1 IP, 2 H, (4 R) 2 ER, 2 walks, 3 K, wild pitch
Justin Souza: 1 IP, 1 H, (2 R) 1 ER, walk, K, wild pitch
Drew Fiorenza: 2 IP, 3 K
Michael Wagner: 0.2 IP, 1 H, walk
Brian Kappel: 0.1 IP
Trevor Lawhorn: 1-3, GRAND SLAM, 2 K
Alex Liddi: 0-4, 4 K: The Golden Sombrero (.220)
Jair Fernandez: 1-4, solo HR, K (.270)
Kalian Sams: 1-4, double, 3 K (.203)
The Cougars touched up an erratic Kyle Parker for a run in the 1st and another in the 3rd. The T-Rats grounded in a run in the bottom 3rd, but there was no more scoring until Kyle Parker made a curiously early exit after 4 innings, ceding to Rollie Gibson, who gave up a leadoff double to Jermaine Mitchell, walked the next batter, then gave Mitchell 3rd on a wild pitch, then gave him home on a bad pickoff throw to 1st.
Gibson did escape the 5th, and Jair Fernandez got the run back on a solo shot in the bottom half, but Gibson would not escape the 6th. Samuel Hernandez drew a leadoff walk. Matt Sulentic grounded to 3rd, Alex Liddi threw to 2nd and Juan Diaz totally muffed it, as the ball sailed into the outfield and the runners took 3rd and 2nd.
Michael Massaro hit a flyball that Kuo Hui Lo looked like he would catch, but he did not. However, the runners were on the bags and they did not advance as Massaro took 1st, loading the bases... for Larry Cobb... whoever he is.
And that was it for Rollie Gibson, who gave way to a much improved Justin Souza. However, Cobb worked the count to 3 balls, and Souza walked him to force in a run. 4-2 Cougars, bases still loaded... for Jermaine Mitchell.
And Mitchell hit a towering double to left to clear the bases, 7-2 Cougars, and Mitchell took 3rd as Kalian Sams fumbled with the ball in RF. Souza got the next three batters, but in the interim, uncorked a wild pitch to score Mitchell and make it 8-2 Cougars.
There appeared to be no hope until the bottom 8th, when with one out Juan Diaz grounded a ball to 1st and beat it out somehow. Greg Halman got plunked with two outs, and Kuo Hui Lo drew a walk to load the bases... for Trevor Lawhorn.
And Lawhorn launched a shot over the left field wall for the GRAND SLAM to cut the lead to 8-6. Glad to see you, journeyman!
The T-Rats managed no more runs in the 8th, but instead of running out Random Reliever for the 9th, the Cougars had to use closer Brandon Dewing. And sure, Gerardo Avila, Jair Fernandez and Kalian Sams went down in order to end the ballgame, but IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS.
Wait, no it doesn't.
NEXT: Nathan Adcock in Game 1 of a DOUBLEHEADER against Kane County... pretty soon.
A: High Desert 12, Stockton 7
Marwin Vega: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER (HR), walk, 2 K, wild pitch
Aaron Cotter: 2.1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER (2 HR), walk, 2 K, wild pitch
Paul Fagan: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER (2 HR), 3 K
Austin Bibens-Dirkx: 1 IP, 1 H, wild pitch
Casey Craig: 1-4, triple, 2 R, 3 RBI, walk (.326)
Michael Saunders: 2-5, double, R, K (.299)
Jesus Guzman: 1-4, R, RBI, walk, K (.285)
Adam Moore: 3-5, GRAND SLAM, solo HR, that FREAK (.292)
Reed Eastley: 1-4, double, 2 K (.250)
Chris Colton: 1-5, solo HR, 2 R, K (.293)
Johan Limonta: 1-2, R, RBI, off the bench for Hargrove's kid (.307)
Now THAT'S High Desert baseball! Granted, they're in Stockton, but the Mavs brought their bats last night.
Pretty much all the scoring came in two big innings. Marwin Vega made a worrisome exit after only 3 innings (unless, of course, it was to get on a plane to Jackson, TN)... leaving former starter Aaron Cotter to come in and show us why he's been relegated to the bullpen, coughing up two long balls in the 4th for 4 runs in all, giving Stockton teh 5-0 lead and every indication that Stockton was gonna run away with another win.
And then the top 5th... Jeff Flaig singled with one out. Casey Craig drew a walk. Michael Saunders smoked a grounder into right to load the bases... for Jesus Guzman.
And JESUS HAS RISEN with a groundball into left to score Flaig and keep them loaded... for Adam Moore. But c'mon, Adam Moore has hit most of his 12 HRs in the space park and it showed, as all he did was hit a GRAND SLAM TO TIE THE BALLGAME.
Reed Eastley grounded back to the pitcher for two outs, but Chris Colton went crapped all over a Trent Peterson pitch and sent it over the left field wall, MAVS LEAD 6-5.
Trouble arrived again in the bottom 7th against another failed starter, Paul Fagan. Things were going fine until with two outs, Anthony Recker took him deep to tie the ballgame back up at 6. Fagan got the next batter, but still.
Thankfully, it didn't matter, as the Mavs unloaded salvo #2 in the top 8th. Reed Eastley led off with a double, and Josh Womack came in to pinch run for him. Chris Colton dribbled one in front of the plate, leading catcher Anthony Recker to try and get Womack at 3rd. Fail, everybody safe at the corners.
Jeff Dominguez walked to load the bases... for Andy Hargro-HAHA RIGHT. Johan Limonta came in and said, "Sit down, Nepotist, and let a HITTER handle this." And Limonta smoked a grounder into left to score Womack, MAVS LEAD 7-6, and keep them loaded... for Jeff Flaig.
... who popped out. That's Jeff Flaig for you. The Ports pulled their pitcher for some other pitcher, and Casey Craig tripled to clear the bases, and then SS Cliff Pennington threw the relay throw YIKES AND AWAY, and Craig scores! EVERYBODY SCORES! 11-6 Mavs!
And for icing on the cake... after the Ports added a run on a Jose Pineda homer in the 8th, Adam Moore took some reliever deep for his 2ND home run, a solo shot that made it 12-7, and the Ports would not mount any sort of comeback.
AA: Huntsville 7, West Tenn 5
Andrew Baldwin: 6 IP, 6 H, 5 ER (HR), walk, 9 K
Michael Hrynio: freshly arrived from Tacoma, 1.2 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, walk, 3 K
The Aircraft Carrier: 1.1 IP, 2 H, walk, K
Brent Johnson: 1-4, R, RBI, walk (.289)
Marshall Hubbard: 1-3, double, R, 2 RBI, walk, K (.237)
Matt Tuiasosopo: 2-4, double, R, RBI (.298)
Jeff Frazier: 1-3, RBI, walk, K (.236)
Rene Rivera: 1-4, 3 K (.199)
Luis Valbuena: 1-4, double, R, K (.222)
For today, Manny Parra > Andrew Baldwin, by far. Both ptichers were throwing strikes and dealing, but Huntsville tagged a lot of Baldwin's stuff while Parra, who's having a pretty good year, mostly could not be touched over his 7 innings. Parra allowed only one hit and walked 3 before taking a seat in the 8th with a 7-0 lead.
And he watched his reliever, Robert Hinton, do everything he could to crap away the game, putting all five runs on the plate in a big inning that got the DIAMOND JAXX within 7-5 and gave them a chance for a 9th inning rally against Marino Salas... except Sebastien Boucher (pinch hitting for Chris Minaker), Brent Johnson and Charlton Jimerson (who turned the power switch back off and went 0 for 5 with 3 Ks) all went down in order to end the ballgame.
AAA: Colorado Springs 12, Tacoma 6
Brad Thomas: 4 IP, 11 H, 10 ER, 2 walks, 2 K, wild pitch, hit batter
Ryan Rowland-Smith: 2 IP, 1 H, 2 K
Jason Mackintosh: 2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER (HR), walk, 2 K
Jeremy Reed: 3-3, triple, 2 R, RBI, 2 walks (.289)
Adam Jones: 3-4, double, R, RBI, walk (.310)
WLAD: 2-5, double, R, 2 K (.313)
Jeff Clement: 0-4, sac fly RBI (.244). YOU'RE 5000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL. HIT.
Brant Ust: 2-3, RBI, walk (.292)
In the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match, Muhammad Ali hit George Foreman with 12 lead right hooks in the 1st, showing up Foreman by showing he could hit him without setting up the hook with his jab... angering Foreman so much that he came out swinging in the 2nd round, and the 3rd, and every round thereafter, and Ali introduced and made famous the rope-a-dope, leaning back into the ropes to soften Foreman's blows until Foreman finally punched himself out sometime in the 6th round. Ali took advantage of a now-tired Foreman, beat him around and knocked him right the freak out soon thereafter.
Well, the Rainiers were hoping that, after the Sky Sox's 23 run barrage yesterday, that this scenario would come into play today and the Sky Sox would come out all punched out... but tough cookies, it's Colorado Springs. Brad Thomas got Weavered for six runs in the 1st and pounded for 4 more in the 3rd, and I don't care where you're playing ball: when it's 10-2 after 3, that game's about over. The Rainiers did pound in 3 runs in the 6th and another in the 7th to pull within 10-6, but teh Sky Sox added a run in the 7th and another in the 8th to put it back out of reach.
And where the hell has Mike Morse been?
NEXT: HEY, welcome back, Ryan Feierabend! I'm sure you're thrilled to be back in the minors after losing your spot in the Major League rotation after two capable starts to a pot-smoking loser with an ERA that's larger than the price one pays for breakfast at Denny's, simply because he's a veteran who's getting paid 24 times what you are to suck 24 times as bad, and he demanded to be brought back immediately!
And now you're in Colorado Springs to face the Sky Sox at 6:05 pm PDT, and sadly, your numbers stand a good chance of looking like his when it's all over... except you'll have the excuse of pitching 5000 feet above sea level, and he won't, since he's pitching in a cavern at sea level against a National League team that's batting Josh Bard cleanup! And he'll get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his performance while you'll get AAA money for your's! That'll show him, huh?