A 2 out of 3 night for the affliates, as Tomo Ohka was not the only Japanese import in the system to help his team emerge victorious.
On a personal note, I think this week's headline is a nice bounce back effort from last week's debacle, which I apologize for. I was pressing last week but now I'm back on the beam and I'm ready to carry on the momentum for the rest of the season and finish up strong.
Lousville, KY - Josh Banks toed the rubber for the Chiefs in a morning/afternoon affair. The Bats would score first as former Jay DeWayne Wise got aboard on a Ray Olmedo error, stole 2nd, and eventually scored on a single by Aaron Herr (son of Tommy). Banks struck out 2 in the inning but gave up 2 singles and a walk. Curtis Thigpen also bailed him out by tagging out Toronto native Joey Votto at home on a tapper in front of the plate to end the inning.
In the 3rd, Syracuse tied the game at 1-1 as Jeff Duncan singled, moved to 2nd on a Wayne Lydon bunt, and came home on Kevin Barker's 2 out single. Lousville would regain the lead as Joey Votto drew a 1 out walk and Aaron Herr burned Banks again, this time with a 2 run homer to put Louisville up 3-1.
Banks was burned by the long ball again, this time by Chad Moeller to make it 4-1. The Chiefs would reply in the 5th as Jeff Duncan walked and Wayne Lydon singled him to 3rd. However,Curtis Thigpen rapped into a double play that did score Duncan but utlimately killed the rally as Kevin Barker walked and John Ford Griffin singled afterwards but Chad Mottola would strike out for out number 3.
The bottom of the 5th would see an interesting defensive change as Curtis Thigpen took over for Russ Adams at 2nd while Erik Kratz would come in to don the tools of ignorance. Kratz would make an impact with the stick in the top of the 6th as he took Louisville starter Mike Gosling deep with a leadoff homer to cut the Lousville lead to 4-3.
Josh Banks was burned again by the all of a sudden "Masher of Greater Reknown", Chad Moeller, who took Banks deep for a 2nd time to make the score 5-3 Bats after 6.
Righthander Justin James, in his Triple A debut, relieved Josh Banks and gave up a couple of singles but Chad Mottola started a 9-3-6 putout to nail Aaron Herr for trying to stretch his single into a double.
In the 8th, the Chiefs got something started with Chad Mottola reaching 2nd on a 2 base error by the centerfielder Chris Dickerson and that was followed by an Erik Kratz walk. Ray Olmedo cashed in Mottola with a base knock to chop the Bats lead to 5-4. However, the rally went kaput like a bat out of hell as Brad Hassey tried to move the runners into scoring position but he bunted foul for strike 3. Then Jeff Duncan and Wayne Lydon struck out conventionally to end the threat.
After Justin James took care of business with a clean inning in the 8th, Marcus McBeth was called upon to close the game for Louisville in the 9th. "Whether tis' nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms"....ah, never mind! The Chiefs went down in order and that was the ball game.
At the dish, the standouts were Erik Kratz with a dinger and a walk in his 2 times up, replacing Curtis Thigpen, who replaced Russ Adams. He's now batting .278 on the season. Kevin Barker had an RBI single and 3 walks in his 5 plate appearances but is only up to .235. Ray Olmedo had 2 singles in 4 at-bats and an RBI but his clank in the 1st led to Louisville's 1st run. Jeff Duncan had a single and walk in his 3 official at-bats and scored a pair of runs. He's now upped his BA to .259.
On the mound, Josh Banks suffered his 1st loss of the season to fall to 4-and-1 as he was victimized for 3 long balls. In 6 innings, he gave up 5 runs (4 earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks but on the positive side, he punched out 7 batters, all swinging. Of the 106 pitches he threw, 76 were strikes but he was a little too much around the plate as evidenced by the 3 homers. Justin James gave up 2 hits in 2 shut-out innings of relief by landing 17 pitches out of 29 in the strike zone.
Syracuse is 15-and-21 on the season, 8 games back of Buffalo in the IL North.
New Hampshire - Scheduled Day Off
The Fisher Cats are 19-and-13 on the season, 3 1/2 games back of Trenton in the Eastern League's Northern Division.
As I'm sure you know by now, Jesse Litsch gets the start for the big club tonight. He's featured in milb.com.
Meantime, fellow hurler Ricky Romero made an entry into his player journal at milb.com last week.
Dunedin, FL - It seems like every week I'm writing about the D-Jays and the TB Yanks and I'm happy to say that once again, the D-Jays opened another can of whoopass on their Florida State League rivals. Mentioning the Jays beating the Yankees never gets tiring at all!
Yusaku Iriki, who spent most of last season with the New York Mets triple A affiliate, Norfolk, got the call on the mound for Dunedin. Iriki was given a 50 game suspension last season after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Despite this trangression, I'm willing to throw my support behind the former Nippon Ham Fighter. Click here and guess why.
Anyways, the 35 year-old righthander set the tone early by retiring the first 6 hitters he faced, including 2 punchouts. The D-Jays got on the board in the bottom half of the 2nd as they scored twice with two out. Brian Jeroloman singled home the first run and Anthony Garibaldi doubled home the other as the D-Jays collected 4 hits in the frame. Dunedin added another 2 runs the next inning thanks to another 2 out rally by using a double, single, two walks, and a hit by pitch. Kyle Phillips base knock cashed in the first run while Brian Jeroloman drew a bases loaded walk to score the other.
The D-Jays added to their lead with yet another 2 run inning in the 6th. Kyle Phillips added his 2nd and 3rd RBI's of the game with a bases loaded single to make it 6-donut Dunedin. Then the D-Jays (sensing a pattern here!) scored another 2 runs after the final chords of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" resonated at Knology Park. Carlo Cota delivered the 7th Dunedin run with a double and a Cory Patton sac fly capped off the scoring.
With the exception of Anthony Garibaldi, all of the Dunedin starters scored a run but Garibaldi did contribute with a run scoring double. Catcher Brian Jeroloman was perfect at and behind the plate, with 2 singles, 2 walks, and 2 runs driven in. His average is up to .268. Kyle Phillips also had a big night, going 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. Anthony Hatch, Carlo Cota, and Cory Patton all had 2 hit nights atop the order going a combined 6-for-14 to spearhead Dunedin's 14 hit attack. Josh Kreuzer was hitless, going 0-for-3, but did draw 2 walks while Joey Hetherington picked up a hit, a walk, and a plunk in his 5 trips to the dish. He's now batting .326.
On the mound, Yusaku Iriki delivered 7 shutout innings of 4 hit ball, striking out 4, and walking none to go to 1-and-0. Sean Stidfole walked one and struck out one in a scoreless 8th. His ERA and WHIP are below 1. He has given up 10 hits and 9 walks in 20 innings, and has struck out 16. Adam Rogers, the Jays 31st round pick in last year's draft, made his season debut, working a clean 9th.
Dunedin is over the .500 mark at 19-and-18, 6 games back of Sarasota in the Florida State League West.
Lansing, MI - The Lugnuts sent Kyle Ginley to the bump of dirt. He came out guns ablazin' by striking out the side in the 1st but in the 2nd, things went horribly askew. Ginley gave up 3 runs on 4 hits, including a homer, as South Bend jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The Lugnuts would rally with 3 runs of their own in the 3rd as Chris Gutierrez drove in 2 with a double and Travis Snider knocked home the tying run with an RBI single.
Lefty Benjamin Harrison took over for Ginley in the top of the 5th and he would surrender a 2 spot on two doubles and a single but Yuber Rodriguez contributed to the final out of the inning by starting an 8-6-5-1-5 play to cut down a runner at 3rd. Harrison's troubles continued in the 6th as he gave up a single and double. Seth Overbey came out of the pen but he yielded a 2 run triple to allow South Bend to grab a 7-3 advantage. The Nuts would get those 2 runs back in the next half inning as Josh Bell connected for a 2 run homer, his 5th of the year, to score Scott Campbell's double to make it 7-5.
Seth Overbey's 0.00 ERA was put to the test in the top of the 7th. He gave up a single, uncorked a wild pitch, and gave up another single but Yuber Rodriguez earned his 2nd assist of the night as he threw out the runner trying to score from 2nd to end the inning. That sparked the Lugnuts after the 7th inning stretch as they scored twice to tie the game at 7-7, thanks to a Travis Snider RBI and a Matthew Lane sac fly.
Overbey settled down in the 8th, retiring the side in order, and the Lugnuts offence went back to work, scoring 5 times on 5 hits to grab a 12-7 lead. Jonathan Jaspe's RBI single brought in the go-ahead run followed by Sean Shoffit's 2 run double and RBI singles by Chris Gutierrez and Matthew Lane. Paul Phillips gave up a walk as he mopped up in a non-save situation in the 9th.
The top of the Lugnuts order broke South Bend as Sean Shoffit, Chris Gutierrez, Travis Snider, and Matthew Lane drove in 9 of the 12 Lansing runs with a combined 9-for-19 performance. Shoffit and Snider had 3 hits apiece. Snider is now hitting a robust .353. Jonathan Jaspe got aboard 3 times with two hits and walk along with 3 runs scored and a run knocked in. Yuber Rodriguez went 1-for-4 with a run scored but contributed with the glove thanks to a pair of assists from center field. Despite belting a 2 run homer, Josh Bell is only hitting .209 on the campaign and Brian Pettway was 0-for-5, dropping his BA to . 229.
On the hill, Kyle Ginley allowed 5 hits and 2 walks in his 4 innings of work, but he did strike out 6 and did not issue a walk. However, his ERA is just above 7. Despite surrendering a triple that allowed 2 of Benjamin Harrison's runners to score, Seth Overbey's ERA is still 3 bagels, as his scoreless streak is up to 21 2/3 innings. He earned the victory to go 1-and-0 on the year.
The Lugnuts are 2 games above sea level at 18-and-16 but are a whopping 8 1/2 games back of Dayton in the Midwest League's Eastern Division.
3 Stars............
3. Brian Jeroloman, Dunedin - 2/2, 2 BB, 2 RBI, GW RBI
2. Jonathan Jaspe, Lansing - 2/3, 3 R, BB, GW RBI
1. Yusaku Iriki, Dunedin - 7IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 4K's
Honourable Mentions -
Syracuse - Erik Kratz, Kevin Barker, Jeff Duncan, Justin James.
Dunedin - Kyle Phillips, Anthony Hatch, Carlo Cota, Cory Patton, Luke Hetherington, Sean Stidfole, Adam Rogers.
Lansing - Chris Gutierrez, Travis Snider, Matthew Lane, Scott Campbell, Josh Bell, Jonathan Jaspe, Yuber Rodriguez, Seth Overbey, Paul Phillips.
Today's Schedule
South Bend @ Lansing, 10:35 a.m. Probable Starters - SB, Brett Anderson (4-3, 1.74) vs. LAN, Graham Godfrey (1-0, 3.00)
New Hampshire @ Reading, 6:35 p.m. Probale Starters - NH, David Purcey (3-1, 3.13) vs. REA, Matt Maloney (3-2, 3.29)
Tampa Bay @ Dunedin, 7:00 p.m. Probable Starters - TB, TBA (should be TBB for "to be bombed" considering what happened last night!) vs. DUN, Aaron Tressler (1-0, 1.88)
Indianapolis @ Syracuse, 7:00 p.m. Probable Starters - IND, Bryan Bullington (5-1, 1.90) vs. SYR, Ty Taubenheim (2-2, 5.34)
In other news.........
Baseball America is giving the big club props on its latest promotion, and no, it's not double loonie Tuesday, aka, drunken idiot night!
