The affiliates only won one game but there were some encouraging pitching performances. Ismael Ramirez only allowed one earned run in seven innings for Syracuse. Russell Savickas made his AA debut and gave up two runs in six innings. Kristian Bell made his first start of 2007 and pitched five shutout innings and Nate Starner had one bad inning but struck out eleven in six innings. Curtis Thigpen played second base and made an error.
Curtis Thigpen played second base in this game as Russ Adams sat out. The move backfired in the second inning when Thigpen made a throwing error on a force attempt with two men on. The error allowed a run to score and put runners on second and third. Chad Moeller then doubled both runners home to make it a 3-0 game. Ismael Ramirez started for Syracuse and pitched his best game of the season, seven innings, one earned run on five hits and a walk, with 7 K's. This makes two good starts in a row for Ramirez, a sign that he might be settling in at AAA. The Chiefs got two runs back in the fifth, Jeff Duncan and Rey Olmedo singled and John Hattig walked. Kevin Barker singled with two out to drive in two runs. The Chiefs tied the game in the sixth, Thigpen led off with a double and a sac bunt and a sac fly brought him home. Blaine Neal replaced Ramirez to start the eighth and the first batter he faced, Canada's Joey Votto, homered.
Homer Bailey, Cincinatti's top prospect started for Louisville and the Chiefs did well against him, they had 6 hits and four walks in 5.1 innings. In total Syracuse had seven hits, Chad Mottola had 2.
Russell Savickas made his first AA start for New Hampshire and had a rude welcome, the first batter he saw tripled, and after a ground out the third hitter also tripled. But Savickas got a couple of pop outs to end the inning and settled down to hold Bowie off the board. In the fifth Aaron Mathews homered, his second, to tie the game. Savickas wasn't perfect but was good enough, he gave up a single in the second, a single in the third, a single and a walk in the fourth, a walk in the fifth, and then a home run to Jeff Fiorentino in the sixth. Savickas left after six, having allowed two runs, six hits, two walks and recording but one strikeout.
The Fishers Cats had a couple of chances to tie, Chip Cannon doubled with one out in the seventh but couldn't score, and Aaron Mathews and Cannon singled with two outs in the ninth but David Smith struck out. Robinzon Diaz, again, Mathews and Cannon had two hits each.
Kristian Bell made his first start of 2007 and it was a good one, five shutout innings with two hits, two walks and two strikeouts, and both walks were in the fifth, Bell's last inning. Palm Beach starter Tyler Norrick ran into trouble in the second, Josh Kreuzer singled, Anthony Hatch singled but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, David Corrente RBI single, Brian Jeroloman walked, Anthony Garibaldi HBP to load the bases, Luke Hetherington RBI walk to make it 2-0.
In the fourth Jeroloman walked again, Garibaldi singled and with two outs Eric Nielsen doubled them both home. In the seventh Kreuzer doubled with one out, Jacob Butler was hit by a pitch, Anthony Hatch had an RBI single and tghe sixth run scored on an error. Kreuzer was 3-5 with 2 runs scored; Hatch was 2-3 with 2 walks and a ribbie; Butler and Corrente each had two hits.
This game was tight until the wheels came off the wagon in the eighth when South Bend put up a very crooked eight spot. Nathan Starner started for Lansing and pitched well except for one inning, the third, where he allowed three runs on five hits. In his other five innings he gave up only two hits, his final tally was six innings, seven hits, one walk, three runs and eleven strikeouts. Lansing scored a run in the sixth, Scott Campbell walked, Yuber Rodriguez doubled him to third and a Travis Snider single plated the run. In the seventh Jonathan Jaspe homered, Chris Emanuele singled and scored on a Josh Bell double to tie the game. But then the fateful eighth with those eight runs allowed including a couple of Lansing errors, off Julio Pinto and Chris Reddout. Emanuele was the only Lugnut with two hits.
3 star selection
3rd star - Russell Savickas
2nd star - Kristian Bell
1st star - Josh Kreuzer
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