Anthony Misiewicz throws eight shutout innings for Bakersfield

Anthony Misiewicz turned in the most impressive start of his young career, hurling eight shutout innings in the Bakersfield Blaze's 4-3 win over the Inland Empire 66ers. Misiewicz, an 18th-round pick out of Michigan State in 2015, struck out four and took a no-hitter into the 7th inning before surrendering a single to 66ers' center fielder Caleb Adams.

For Misiewicz, the game was a total command clinic. The 21-year-old lefty relentlessly worked the edges of the zone all game long and made few mistakes. Both hits he surrendered came on pitches up at the top of the zone and wouldn't necessarily qualify as poor pitches, but instead good pieces of hitting. In every way, Misiewicz was a force tonight, placing the ball wherever the heck he wanted on command.

Leading the charge for the Blaze's offense were Drew Jackson (2 for 4, 2B, R), Jay Baum (1 for 3, 2B, RBI, R), and Chantz Mack (1 for 3, HR, BB, R, 2 RBIs). A potentially disastrous situation lurked when the offense perpetually failed to get on the scoreboard while Misiewicz's no-hitter strolled merrily along, but Mack's two-run home run provided some breathing room. An inning later, Jackson and Baum both collected RBI base-hits to push the lead to 4-0.

The Blaze turned to Ronald Dominguez to finish Misiewicz's work and Dominguez responded by surrendering three hits, a walk, and three earned runs without recording a single out. The Blaze then turned to Ryan Horstman, who shut down the 66ers the rest of the way to secure the victory.

With the win, the Blaze are now 6-4 over their last ten games. They have two games remaining in their series with Inland Empire before heading over to Rancho Cucamonga for a four-game series.

Notes time? Notes time:

• Double-A Jackson was rained out today which is unfortunate because they've been great so far. They're 13-7 overall and have won 7 of the last 10. Dylan Unsworth turned in another strong performance in Thursday's win and could be the first guy called up to Tacoma if they need the starting pitching depth at any point. Unsworth has organization guy written all over him, but a big improvement in command has him looking good in Jackson.
• Speaking of Tacoma, things haven't been great. The Rainiers have lost 6 of 7 and have been absolutely dismantled in the process. For the third consecutive start, Joe Wieland failed to make it out of the second inning. He's now surrendered 22 ER in his last 4.0 IP. Donn Roach has looked pretty poor after shifting back to starter, too. We can blame the PCL's offensive environment as much as we want, but yikes.
• Mike Zunino is hitting .400/.434/.786 at the moment. The home runs have slowed down, but things are still looking good.
• Stefen Romero is at .392/.430/.676. While he's still thoroughly unproven at the MLB level, Romero has looked better in AAA this year, cutting down on strikeouts and boosting the hard contact. The improvement is probably worth another look at some point this year.
• Class-A Clinton won their second consecutive game on Friday night. Logan Taylor entered the night with zero extra base hits in 63 at-bats this season. He doubled twice. Baseball.
• Art Warren tossed seven innings of one-run ball for Clinton in their win Friday night. The 23rd-round-pick in 2015 has allowed just two earned runs this season over 23.1 IP.
• Dalton Kelly continues to just get on base. The UC Santa Barbara product sits at .372/.457/.487 through 78 at-bats and still plays a dynamite first base. High-OBP first basemen are pretty neat. Besides, the man on the TV told me that home runs are rally killers so gimme all of the singles.