Syracuse, New Hampshire, Dunedin, and Charleston were all in action again last night. Those of you who were disheartened by the poor pitching performances of David Bush, Josh Banks, Jamie Vermilyea, and Danny Core on Thursday night will find this update more to your liking. Oh, and members of the Big Vito Fan Club will also be pleased.
Rochester 4, Syracuse 2
Syracuse dropped its second straight game to the visiting Rochester Red Wings yesterday. Dave Gassner, acquired by Minnesota in the Bobby Kielty trade, pitched five innings of one-hit shutout ball for Rochester. He struck out four and walked none. Justin Miller, making his second start in two years, pitched four-plus innings, giving up four runs (two earned; errors were made by Russ Adams and Howie Clark) on a walk and seven hits while fanning five. Josue Matos, Mark Lukasiewicz, and Mike Smith threw four-plus innings of shutout ball in relief of Miller. The SkyChiefs scored their first run in the seventh when Alexis Rios doubled Jorge Sequea to third and Guillermo Quiroz followed with a sacrifice fly. Chad Hermansen hit a solo home run (his second jack in as many days) in the eighth to pull the SkyChiefs within two, but relief über-prospect Jesse Crain slammed the door on them in the ninth. Adams led off the game with a double for the second straight day.
New Hampshire 3, New Britain 2
New Hampshire's second consecutive 3-2 victory in New Britain kept the Jays' affiliates even with the Twins'. Both Fisher Cats starter Gustavo Chacin and Rock Cats starter Boof Bonser (acquired from San Francisco in the A.J. Pierzynski deal) seemed to have left their control in the clubhouse, and neither pitcher made it through five innings. The Fisher Cats struck in the first on a Dominic Rich-Aaron Hill-Rob Cosby single-walk-single sandwich, but New Britain took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Bobby Munoz's two-run homer off Chacin. Chacin left after that inning having allowed two hits and four walks while striking out four; he also made an error. Bonser departed in the fifth with six hits, four walks, and one strikeout to his credit. New Hampshire reclaimed the lead for good in the sixth. Mike Snyder and Maikel Jova opened the frame with singles and were moved over to second and third by Tim Whittaker's sacrifice bunt. Jason Waugh followed with a hard-hit single up the middle to plate Snyder, and Danny Solano's fielder's choice brought Jova home with the winning run. The Fisher Cats' bullpen (Jordan DeJong, Dan Jackson, Kevin Frederick, and Adam Peterson) contributed five innings of shutout ball, allowing only three hits and one walk against seven strikeouts. Rich went 2-for-3 with two walks and a double, and Waugh finished with three singles in four trips to the plate. Hill walked twice but made two errors.
Dunedin 12, Clearwater 2
That's not a 2002 flashback. In his first professional start since tearing his ulnar collateral ligament in the Arizona Fall League back in 2002, Francisco Rosario picked up right where he had left off, stifling the Clearwater Phillies over five frames. Vince Perkins was less effective in relief (3 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP), but the four strikeouts are encouraging. Santo Valdez pitched an uneventful ninth to hold the Phillies to just the pair of runs.
Oh, and the hitters? Dunedin put on one of the biggest offensive performances since Freddy Got Fingered, scoring twelve runs on six walks, eight singles, three doubles, and three home runs. Vito Chiaravolloti had three walks, a single, and a home run in five trips; Raul Tablado had two doubles and a dinger. Ron Davenport hit the third home run; for each of the three players it was his second tater in as many nights.
Charleston (WV) 4, Delmarva 3 (10 innings)
Charleston avenged Thursday's 6-4 defeat with an extra-inning thriller that included a number of absurd pitching lines. Justin James, Davis Romero, and Mark Sopko apparently have not been told that they aren't in Auburn any more:
That's nineteen strikeouts for those of y'all who are keeping score. Bryan Bass was the only Shorebird who didn't face the long walk back to the dugout at least once. Nate Spears, Dustin Yount, and Matt Houston all wore the sombrero, and Lorenzo Scott added gold as an option to his. James threw sixty-five pitches, only sixteen of which were balls.
The AlleyCats scored three runs in the second inning off Canadian top prospect Adam Loewen (3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 3 K), who was clearly outpitched by James. Delmarva scored in the fourth, sixth, and seventh to tie the game at three. In the tenth inning, Brian Patrick walked and was sacrificed to second by Morrin Davis. After Eric Arnold walked, Willie Rivera beat out a bunt to third base to load 'em up for Juan Peralta, whose slow roller brough Patrick in with the winning run. Ryan Roberts had three singles and a hit-by-pitch in five trips for the good guys, and Joey Reiman was oh-for-one but walked four times.
Links Of The Day
1. Baseball America has boxscores for every minor league game.
2. Ed Gonser has a good piece on the Syracuse game.
3. Mike Whiteford of the Charleston Gazette has a nice writeup on the AlleyCats' victory.
4. Keith Law watched the Fisher Cats in action on Thursday night and was impressed by Brandon League and Adam Peterson.
5. John Sickels has a brief mention of Dustin McGowan in his latest column.
6. Aaron Gleeman weighs in on Mike Nakamura, the newest member of the Syracuse SkyChiefs.
7. Mark Sheldon's old MLB.com column about Nakamura is worth a read. Nakamura is a Japanese-born Australian playing an American game for a Canadian team. (Gotta love baseball!)
8. Alan Lessels has a writeup on Dustin McGowan in the Union Leader.
9. Jack Bogaczyk chips in another good account of the Charleston game.
(Thanks to Steve Z for the links!)
Three-Star Selection!
Our Third Star: Vito Chiaravolloti, Dunedin. 2 AB, 3 R, 2 H, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 1 HR. That's a .571/.750/1.429 line through two games. Vito is twenty-three-and-a-half years old, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a quick promotion to New Hampshire if he lays waste to FSL pitching for a few weeks.
Our Second Star: Justin James, Charleston. 5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 10 K, 0 HR. Did I mention that he outpitched Adam Loewen?
Our First Star: Francisco Rosario, Dunedin. 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 0 HR in his first game back after Tommy John surgery. Rosario had more at stake in his first game than any other player in this system, and he didn't disappoint.
Rochester 4, Syracuse 2
Syracuse dropped its second straight game to the visiting Rochester Red Wings yesterday. Dave Gassner, acquired by Minnesota in the Bobby Kielty trade, pitched five innings of one-hit shutout ball for Rochester. He struck out four and walked none. Justin Miller, making his second start in two years, pitched four-plus innings, giving up four runs (two earned; errors were made by Russ Adams and Howie Clark) on a walk and seven hits while fanning five. Josue Matos, Mark Lukasiewicz, and Mike Smith threw four-plus innings of shutout ball in relief of Miller. The SkyChiefs scored their first run in the seventh when Alexis Rios doubled Jorge Sequea to third and Guillermo Quiroz followed with a sacrifice fly. Chad Hermansen hit a solo home run (his second jack in as many days) in the eighth to pull the SkyChiefs within two, but relief über-prospect Jesse Crain slammed the door on them in the ninth. Adams led off the game with a double for the second straight day.
New Hampshire 3, New Britain 2
New Hampshire's second consecutive 3-2 victory in New Britain kept the Jays' affiliates even with the Twins'. Both Fisher Cats starter Gustavo Chacin and Rock Cats starter Boof Bonser (acquired from San Francisco in the A.J. Pierzynski deal) seemed to have left their control in the clubhouse, and neither pitcher made it through five innings. The Fisher Cats struck in the first on a Dominic Rich-Aaron Hill-Rob Cosby single-walk-single sandwich, but New Britain took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Bobby Munoz's two-run homer off Chacin. Chacin left after that inning having allowed two hits and four walks while striking out four; he also made an error. Bonser departed in the fifth with six hits, four walks, and one strikeout to his credit. New Hampshire reclaimed the lead for good in the sixth. Mike Snyder and Maikel Jova opened the frame with singles and were moved over to second and third by Tim Whittaker's sacrifice bunt. Jason Waugh followed with a hard-hit single up the middle to plate Snyder, and Danny Solano's fielder's choice brought Jova home with the winning run. The Fisher Cats' bullpen (Jordan DeJong, Dan Jackson, Kevin Frederick, and Adam Peterson) contributed five innings of shutout ball, allowing only three hits and one walk against seven strikeouts. Rich went 2-for-3 with two walks and a double, and Waugh finished with three singles in four trips to the plate. Hill walked twice but made two errors.
Dunedin 12, Clearwater 2
IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
F. Rosario 5.0 3 1 1 0 5 0 1.80
That's not a 2002 flashback. In his first professional start since tearing his ulnar collateral ligament in the Arizona Fall League back in 2002, Francisco Rosario picked up right where he had left off, stifling the Clearwater Phillies over five frames. Vince Perkins was less effective in relief (3 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP), but the four strikeouts are encouraging. Santo Valdez pitched an uneventful ninth to hold the Phillies to just the pair of runs.
Oh, and the hitters? Dunedin put on one of the biggest offensive performances since Freddy Got Fingered, scoring twelve runs on six walks, eight singles, three doubles, and three home runs. Vito Chiaravolloti had three walks, a single, and a home run in five trips; Raul Tablado had two doubles and a dinger. Ron Davenport hit the third home run; for each of the three players it was his second tater in as many nights.
Charleston (WV) 4, Delmarva 3 (10 innings)
Charleston avenged Thursday's 6-4 defeat with an extra-inning thriller that included a number of absurd pitching lines. Justin James, Davis Romero, and Mark Sopko apparently have not been told that they aren't in Auburn any more:
IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
J. James 5.1 6 2 2 0 10 0 3.38
D. Romero 2.2 2 1 1 1 4 0 3.38
M. Sopko 2.0 1 0 0 0 5 0 0.00
That's nineteen strikeouts for those of y'all who are keeping score. Bryan Bass was the only Shorebird who didn't face the long walk back to the dugout at least once. Nate Spears, Dustin Yount, and Matt Houston all wore the sombrero, and Lorenzo Scott added gold as an option to his. James threw sixty-five pitches, only sixteen of which were balls.
The AlleyCats scored three runs in the second inning off Canadian top prospect Adam Loewen (3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 3 K), who was clearly outpitched by James. Delmarva scored in the fourth, sixth, and seventh to tie the game at three. In the tenth inning, Brian Patrick walked and was sacrificed to second by Morrin Davis. After Eric Arnold walked, Willie Rivera beat out a bunt to third base to load 'em up for Juan Peralta, whose slow roller brough Patrick in with the winning run. Ryan Roberts had three singles and a hit-by-pitch in five trips for the good guys, and Joey Reiman was oh-for-one but walked four times.
Links Of The Day
1. Baseball America has boxscores for every minor league game.
2. Ed Gonser has a good piece on the Syracuse game.
3. Mike Whiteford of the Charleston Gazette has a nice writeup on the AlleyCats' victory.
4. Keith Law watched the Fisher Cats in action on Thursday night and was impressed by Brandon League and Adam Peterson.
5. John Sickels has a brief mention of Dustin McGowan in his latest column.
6. Aaron Gleeman weighs in on Mike Nakamura, the newest member of the Syracuse SkyChiefs.
7. Mark Sheldon's old MLB.com column about Nakamura is worth a read. Nakamura is a Japanese-born Australian playing an American game for a Canadian team. (Gotta love baseball!)
8. Alan Lessels has a writeup on Dustin McGowan in the Union Leader.
9. Jack Bogaczyk chips in another good account of the Charleston game.
(Thanks to Steve Z for the links!)
Three-Star Selection!
Our Third Star: Vito Chiaravolloti, Dunedin. 2 AB, 3 R, 2 H, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 1 HR. That's a .571/.750/1.429 line through two games. Vito is twenty-three-and-a-half years old, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a quick promotion to New Hampshire if he lays waste to FSL pitching for a few weeks.
Our Second Star: Justin James, Charleston. 5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 10 K, 0 HR. Did I mention that he outpitched Adam Loewen?
Our First Star: Francisco Rosario, Dunedin. 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 0 HR in his first game back after Tommy John surgery. Rosario had more at stake in his first game than any other player in this system, and he didn't disappoint.
