Minor League Recaps

DSL Indians 3 DSL Astros 0

The DSL woes have returned in earnest it would seem.  The DSL Astros got 4 hits and a walk over 33 trips to the plate the entire game.  That's a .125 team-BA for the game.  Add to that 3 errors and it becomes pretty hard to take the "W".  Edwin Villarroel (2-7) took the loss Friday, giving up 2 runs (1ER), with a walk and a K.  On a day when the bats weren't too hot, Cristian Murillo proved to be the deviation from the norm, collecting half of his teams hits while going 2 for 4 at the dish.

GCL Nationals 6 GCL Astros 4

Agapito Barrios (1-3) allowed 6 runs (3ER) on 8 hits through the first 4 innings Friday and paired with a couple of early errors, it proved to be a little too much for the offense to recover from.  Juan Mojica and Ambiorix De Leon came on to pitch after Barrios left and kept it scoreless; both had 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.  De Leon allowed only 2 hits and Mojica allowed none.  Juan Santana picked up 2 RBIs and a hit in 3 ABs, moving his season RBI total to 19.  Luis De La Rosa, who is hitting .143 so far this season in 28 ABs, wheeled out his second three-bagger of 2012 on Friday. 

Kingsport Mets 2 Greeneville Astros 18

No, this isn't an errant, arena league football game recap.  It's the result of an outstanding team effort in Greeneville on Friday.  The Astros had 19 hits, 17 RBIs, 5 doubles, a triple, a homer, 2 stolen bases and all while swinging the bat; there were also 9 strikeouts.  Greeneville also set club records for win-margin and RBIs in a game.  Brad Propst took the win after coming on in the fifth inning for two frames of work.  Propst (1-0) allowed 2 hits, struck out 4 and walked 1.  Michael Dimock earned save number 4 after coming on for the final 3 innings, keeping them scoreless, hitless, and striking out 3.

Here's the box, straight from milb.com.  The offense was simply overwhelming:

Batavia Muckdogs 2 Tri-City ValleyCats 7

The ValleyCats had an outstanding team performance of their own on Friday.  It started with another strong showing from Brian Holmes (5-1), who also picked up the win.  Holmes was charged with 2 runs (1ER) on 4 hits and he struck out 8 through 6 innings of work.  When Holmes sat down in the sixth inning, Tri-City already had the 5-run lead.  The lead was created in large part by the bats of Andrew Aplin (2X4, 2B), Jesse Wierzbicki (1X3, HR) and Tyler Heineman (2X4, 2-2B) who all had 2 RBIs each.  Joe Sclafani (0X3) had the other RBI Friday with a sac-fly in the 6th inning to score Tri-City's final run of the game.

Lexington Legends 3 Hagerstown Suns 6

Lexington had this game in the bag until the 9th inning Friday when Murilo Gouvea (2-7) came in for the save, loaded the bases and then gave up a 2-out, walk-off grand slam.  That was Gouvea's fifth blown save this season.  Jonas Dufek started the game, going 5 innings and allowing 2 runs on 4 hits.  Dufek also walked 5 and struck out 2.  On the offensive side, Justin Gominsky went 2 for 4 at the plate and scored a run.  Nolan Fontana drew a couple of walks and scored a run.  Fontana has drawn 35 walks this season.      

High Desert Mavericks 11 Lancaster JetHawks 2   

As Jayne tweeted yesterday, Lancaster could of really used a "mulligan" last night.  It was a tough loss for the JetHawks at home but they did keep from being shutout with back to back homers from Jonathan Meyer and Chris Epps in the 8th inning.  Tyson Perez (7-4) took the loss after allowing 7 runs on 11 hits through the first 5 innings on the bump.  Perez also walked 1 and struck out another.  Aside from the 2 homers the only other batter of note was Rafael Valenzuela who hit 2 for 3 on the night.

Corpus Christi Hooks 5 Midland RockHounds 6 (10)

The Hooks were coasting to a victory on Friday after great pitching by starter Andrew Wojciechowski who allowed just a run on 2 hits, walked 2 and K-ed 5 through 5 and a third innings on the hill.  Alex Sogard, who came on for the next 2 frames, allowed a run on 1 hit, 1 walk and struck out 3 batters of his own.  Sogard picked up his fifth hold of the season.  Fast forward now to Jason Stoffell, who came on for the save in the ninth inning and left with his second blown save.  Stoffel had an interesting inning.  After walking back-to-back batters, he gave up an in-the-park, 3-run homer to the next batter to tie the game (Drew Locke made the failed dive in right field that allowed the round tripper).  At the plate, Drew Locke had an outstanding night however, going 3 for 5 with a double and RBI.  Bobby Borchering went 2 for 4 with a double and pair of RBIs of his own. Jonathan Singleton went 1 for 5 at the plate Friday, but his single hit was good for a RBI, his 59th of the season.

Oklahoma City RedHawks 3 Tacoma Rainiers 4 (11)

This was another tough extra-innings loss for the Astros system on Friday.  Brian Bass put the quality into his start on Friday, going 7 innings and allowing only 2 runs.  The runs came on a first inning homer.  After that, Bass settled in and allowed just 5 more hits and struck out 1; he didn't issue a walk.  Fernando Abad picked up his second blown save after allowing the game-tying solo shot in the 9th.  Abad also K-ed 2.  Jose Valdez (0-4) took the loss.  After having a 1-2-3 tenth inning, Valdez gave up the game winning home run to the first batter he faced in the 11th. At the plate, Jimmy Paredes was on fire, going 4 for 5 with a double, a homer and 2 RBIs.  Paredes now has 52 RBIs this season. Brandon Barnes went 2 for 5 with a double.        

Player of the Day: Every single player on the Greeneville Astros deserves the honor today.  Those guys put forth a great team effort and put up a number so crooked it required two digits.  Great game. 

Pitcher of the Day:  Brian Bass gets the honor today, simply because he had a tremendous outing Friday and even though he didn't take the win, he pitched a great game.