Well, that's not bad. How did you do after that?
Ouch.
A pair of pitching performances by two pitching people we all have a pair of peepers on. Make that "on which we have peepers," if you don't like ending a sentence with a preposition.
Durham 7, Syracuse 6
Box score
After Durham scored one, Syracuse answered in kind. The Bulls got five in the fourth, the Chiefs also got five in the fourth. Durham scored their seventh run of the night in the top of the ninth, but Syracuse didn't. Oh, and how does a team get five runs in one inning without any doubles, triples, or homeruns? Answer: with eleven batters, four singles, three walks and catcher's interference by Kevin Cash. Even more bizarre? The SkyChiefs had two outs with just a man on first before all the insanity happened.
Alas, Matt Whiteside, the Ted McGinley of the late-inning pitching change, showed up in the ninth and gave up a homer to Pete LaForest (ou Pierre-Luc LaForest, il n'a pas d'importance pour moi).
Bryant Nelson had three hits. Not much else from this one, so let's move on to Manchester.
New Hampshire 4, Portland 1
Box score
Zach Jackson, welcome to New Hampshire. Eight innings, five hits, only one run and a couple of strikeouts. A Game Score of 70, thank you very much. Oh, and did you have enough groundballs there, Zach? Fine AA debut for Jackson -- the jump from A to AA being the hardest in the minors. I might have to apply the Mike Wilner Chad Bradford Rule and call him Jack Zachson soon, though it's not nearly as cool as "Jack Zackson."
On the other side of promotions, Justin Singleton was not only demoted for the first time in his pro career recently, he's also 26 years old and hitting seventh in a AA lineup. No matter if he deserved it, that has to suck. At least he was involved in the action last night, hitting a single and scoring one of the four runs. Ryan Roberts reached base three times.
No triples in this game, nor homeruns for either side. And Portland only managed one double. I would really like to see the park factor for this new stadium at the end of the year -- it looks like it will be a doozy.
Clearwater 15, Dunedin 5
Box score
Dustin McGowan, how was your first inning last night in your first game since Tommy John surgery?
Well, that's not bad. How did you do after that?
Ouch.
So, what the hell happened? McGowan's first inning went bunt single-strikeout-caught stealing-strikeout. That's almost as good as you can get. His second inning, or fraction of an inning, went (deep breath) homer-single-single-homer-walk-single-balk-popout-single. Five runs in, McGowan out. The man was so rattled on the mound, he balked while a non-base stealer was on second. He now has a 47.25 ERA, which ranks behind each and every MLB player to throw a pitch this year. It's so bad, it's twice as poor as Matt Whiteside.
This is my way of saying: cheer up, Dustin. This is the worst start you'll have this year. As for the rest of the game, that ever-present Big Bang Theory held true with Clearwater's 8-run second. Joey Reiman hit a homerun and Carlo Cota doubled twice to RF and CF to complement a single to left. Good job -- keep them on their toes, Carlo.
The game log for this game has perhaps the funniest first inning I've seen:
Jayce Tingler hit by pitch.
With Carlo Cota batting, passed ball by Marc Tugwell, Jayce Tingler to 2nd.
With Carlo Cota batting, wild pitch by Gabe Ribas, Jayce Tingler to 3rd.
Carlo Cota strikes out swinging.
I hope Cota wasn't swinging at either of those pitches.
Lansing 7, Clinton 5
Box score
Not even a pair of homeruns by 19 year old Ian Gac, Enemy of Scrabble, could keep the red-hot Lugnuts from extending their winning streak to one game in this matchup of 19 year olds in Lansing. Aaron Wideman, obviously not a fan of my Mississauga bashing, only lasted five innings in this one, surrendering three homers (but just one non-Gac HR). Michael Schlact showed Wideman that only one 1985-born pitcher was allowed to pitch well on June 1, 2005. Though, I must say, Wideman picked two batters off last night. Not bad at all.
Daryl Harang was excellent in relief and picked up a win for his efforts. Jason Armstrong made a throwing error while playing at third base to lead off the top of the first, then reached on a throwing error by the Clinton third baseman to lead off the bottom of the first. Baseball can be weird sometimes. Armstrong made another error in the second, directly leading to one of the homeruns by the aforementioned Gac.
Three-Star Selection:
3. Daryl Harang
2. Carlo Cota
1. Zach Jackson, obviously
Today’s Games:
Syracuse (League) vs Durham, 7:00 ET.
New Hampshire (Banks) vs Portland, 6:35 ET.
Dunedin @ Clearwater, 7:00 ET.
Lansing (Yates) vs Clinton, 7:05 ET.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050601233230895