Only one game yesterday due to Easter Sunday, but the Chiefs played 13 innings to compensate and won. Francisco Rosario gets the lone star.
Syracuse 5 Indianapolis 2 - 13 innings
Francisco Rosario was outstanding striking out ten in five innings of work. He gave up one run in the fifth inning on a two out double, one of four hits he allowed. 2006 is a make or break year for Rosario and so far he is making the most of his starts. It's not that 2005 was bad, Rosario needed to step up to a major league level of dominance.
Jason Phillips hit his first home run to tie the game in the seventh but Ben Weber allowed a Gookie Dawkins home run in the eighth, his first run allowed this season. Syracuse tied it in the ninth, with two out Chad Mottola doubled and Wayne Lydon was called to run for him. John Hattig then singled home Lydon. Shaun Marcum, Adrian Burnside and Lee Gronkiewicz shut down Indy through 12. In the thirteenth Luis Figueroa led off with a single and later in the inning Kevin Barker singled him home. Wayne Lydon then finished it with a two run home run. New arrival Brian Tallet pitched the last half inning for the save. Figueroa, Ryan Roberts and Phillips had two hits each.
Stars - only one today
Francisco Rosario
Standings
Syracuse are 5-5 and are 2 games back of Rochester
New Hampshire are 4-6 and are 4.5 games back of Connecticut
Dunedin are 5-5 and 2 games behind Fort Myers
Lansing are 7-3 and lead their division by 0.5 games
Notes:
Among AAA pitchers Ty Taubenheim, Francisco Rosario and Brandon League have WHIP's under 1. Casey Janssen and Dustin McGowan have started slowly, but with all these notes we have to remember it's early.
New Hampshire hitters are off to a slow start, just like last year. The hitters are ninth in the league in most offensive categories. Only two hitters are batting over .250, Adam Lind and David Smith. Smith has shown more power than Lind and leads in OPS. Curtis Thigpen and Chip Cannon are off to slow starts. On the pitching side Jamie Vermilyea has been dominant, his WHIP is 0.58.
Eric Nielsen is off to a fast start in Dunedin, he has 9 walks to add to his 12 hits and that makes for a .524 OBP. The "Ryan's", Klosterman and Patterson, are each hitting .316 and have hit two home runs. For Patterson it is good to see him hitting well after his excellent debut season. Klosterman started slowly in 2005 but improved in the second half of the season. Should he be able to continue his good start in 2006 he will find his way onto the prospect lists.
Orlando Trias leads the Dunedin starters with a 0.82 ERA after two starts. Jesse Litsch leads in WHIP at 0.77. Litsch has had one bad inning in two starts. Eric Fowler has been a disappointment so far with a 7.94 ERA.
Lansing hitters lead the league in average, slugging and OPS. Their pitchers lead the league in ERA for a great combination. The two first basemen are hitting well, David Hicks is hitting .400 in 6 games, Joey Metropoulos .375 in nine games. Hicks has only one extra base hit but the hasn't struck out yet this season. Metro has four doubles. The best news out of Lansing might be that 5 tool prospect Yuber Rodriguez is off to a good start hitting .400 with a .991 OPS. After a poor 2005 Rodriguez was dropping down the prospect lists, a good 2006 was vital to his career. The only negative in his numbers is ten K's in 30 AB's.
The bullpen has been outstanding for Lansing, Po-Hsuan Keng, Billy Carnline and Edward Rodriguez have pitched 27 scoreless innings between them. Among the starters Kristian Bell and Russell Savickas have a WHIP under 1 and Bell has 13 K's in 10 innings.
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