TL;DR
(Seriously, this TL;DR business is driving me crazy. Help me out, someone!)
* Affiliates went 2-1 on the day, for a current combined record of 54-46
* Oklahoma wins a pitching duel
* Corpus Christi has a seven run inning... and loses.
* Lancaster pitchers give up 1 ER whilst striking out 17. They win, but closer that it needed to be.
* Quad Cities have another double-header rained out.
Oklahoma City (15-11)
Pitching Duel at Bricktown tonight. The RedHawks scored two in the first... and that was it for the offence! Oklahoma City beats the 13-12 Round Rock Express by a score of 2-0.
On the Mound: Bad MF, Rhiner Cruz, Chia-Jen Lo and Josh Zied combined for 9 shutout innings of 4 hit, 4 walk, 8 strikeout ball. Mike Foltynewicz went 4IP, giving up 2H and 4BB, with 3K, throwing 75 pitches in the process. Rhiner Cruz got the win, and gave up two hits in two innings, striking out 3. Lo and Zeid combined with three scoreless.
At the Plate: Gregorio Petit (1-3) mashed a two-run dinger in the first, driving in Bob Grossman, who had walked. Ronald Torreyes (1-3) and Max Stassi (1-3) got the other two hits.
Justin Germano pitched a pretty strong 8-inning, 3H complete game for the Express.
Man of the Match: I am going with Chai-Jen Lo and Josh Zeid, who closed this one out quickly, and without fuss. The entire game was done in 2:07, which saves considerably on babysitting costs.
Corpus Christi Hooks (14-11)
Where the abovementioned RedHawks closed their tight game out quickly (and without fuss!), the Hooks did the opposite against the 15-9 Midland outfit. After going up 7-2 after 2, Corpus gave up 3 in the 6th, and 4 in the 9th to lose, 9-8. Note is made of the strong wind (24mph) blowing out to right field, which is likely to have affected the game significantly. Well, this is going to be fun to summarise!!
On the Mound: Matt Heidenreich started, going 4.2IP, giving up 1H / 6BB (!), striking out 2. This resulted in 2R / 1ER. Jordan Jankowski "relieved", pitching 1.1, giving up 4 hits, 3R/ER, walking one but striking out three. Then, Travis Ballew pitched 2 scoreless, giving up 2 hits and 2 walks.
And that was the good part of the pitching equation. That's right, the good part. Here is the bad part: Jorge De Leon came on to pitch the ninth, and got one out, giving up 4 hits, 4R/ER, 3BB, 0K.
So the combined pitching staff game up 11 hits and 15 walks over 9IP.
At the Plate: Corpus had one great inning, with a seven-run second. But it wasn't enough. Chris Epps hit a 3 run HR, going 1-5. Andrew Aplin, whose name appears in these internet pages fairly frequently, had a 2-5 day with a double, but also committed 2 throwing errors, possibly (again) something to do with the wind. Matt Duffy and MP Cokinos both went 2-4. Every batter scored one run except Joe Sclafani, who did not score, but ironically (the 'situational' subtype) was on base the most with 3BB while going 0-2.
Man of the Match: Whilst it is tempting to get passive-aggressive and award the MOTM to the umpire, ticket sales clerk, bat boy or someone, I think it is hard to go past Chris Epps, with his 3R blast accounting for much of the 2nd-inning run-fest.
Lancaster (15-11)
Lancaster beat the 15-11 High Desert Mavericks 5-3. They draw equal-level (with the Mavericks and Lake Elsinore Storm) at the top of the California League South.
On the Mound: Lance McCullers Jr channelled his inner Collin McHugh and twirled 5 innings of 3H, 1BB, 10K (!!) ball. Nasty, nasty stuff from Junior. He was relieved by Kyle Smith, who also had his nasty on, throwing 3.2IP, yielding 6H, 3R, 1ER (error by Ruben Sosa), and striking out 7. Jamaine Cotton got the last out, running his scoreless streak to 5.1 IP / 6 appearances.
Everyone in the Mavericks lineup struck out at least once. The 17 strikeouts administered by LMJ and Kyle Smith tied the JetHawks's franchise single-game record.
At the Plate: Brandon Meredith has been getting some pixels arranged in his honour recently, due to his good play with the bat. He has been referenced in the PreStros report for 3 straight reports. Well, he went 4-2, 2R, solo HR to take his "referenced in the PreStros report" streak to four straight. I am sure he is delighted.
Shortstop Carlos Perdomo clearly does not realise that he is expected to play second fiddle to Carlos Correa, as he went 2-3, R, RBI, and catcher Jake Rodriguez went 2-4, R, RBI.
Man of the Match: Lance McCullers Jr. Any questions? Didn't think so.
Quad Cities (10-12)
For the second day in a row, the River Bandits had a double-header versus the 9-12 Clinton LumberKings rained off.
One other game in the Midwest was suspended after 3, and Burlington and Wisconsin also had a double-header canned. I would have to be the Midwest League Scheduler. He or she has some headaches now.
