I thought I would get on to the PreStros this morning, to give El Constable an opportunity to continue his excellent draft coverage.
Summary
* Good day for the organisation, bad day for the Affiliates (1-3, 130-111)
* Oklahoma City got overpowered on the road, giving up three home runs
* Corpus lost a tight one, and haven't won in Midland this season
* Lancaster won a laugher. Who hit for the cycle??
* Quad Cities lost a very tight one on an unearned run, but didn't hit a lick, so wadaya expect.
Oklahoma City (32-29)
The good news - the Oklahoma City bus arrived at Omaha (32-28). The bad news?? OKC conceded runs early and often to lose by a score of 6-3. This loss means that the RedHawks give up first place in the American Northern Division, PCL to the Storm Chasers.
Rubber: Brett Oberholtzer got the start, and had a rough night, giving up three home runs which resulted in an ugly line: 6IP, 8H, 5R/ER, BB, 6K. His AAA ERA stands at 5.00. Promote him now! Jorge DeLeon (in his second PCL game) gave up a run on 2 hits, striking out one. Kevin Chapman threw one inning, but without incident (K).
Obie can take solace in the fact that it was Former-Astro-Revenge-Night in Omaha - he gave up home runs to Justin Maxwell and human-wrecking-ball Jimmy Parades.
Plate: Nothing much of anything happened, unless you are Erik Castro, who has had a rough, rough season to date. He went 2-4, 2B, HR, R, RBI from the nine-slot. Austin Wates was on base twice (1-3, BB, R, SB), as was Marc Krauss (1-3, BB, RBI). Domingo Santana had the only non-Castro extra-base hit (1-4, 2B, RBI) and Max Stassi also had a hit (1-4).
Man of the Match: Erik Castro, whose season line stands at an April-Astro-esque .174/.283/.302 (but a May-Astros-esque .286/.375/.464 over his last 10 games)
Corpus Christi (29-30)
Corpus lost another tight one to Midland (32-27) by a score of 3-2. Midland got their three runs by the bottom of the 4th, and Corpus pulled one back to draw back to one-run-in-arrears in the top of the sixth, but didn't manage to trouble the scorers for the rest of the game. They run their record to 0-7 in away games against the Midland RockHounds.
Rubber: Mike Hauschild got the start, and went five innings, giving up 9 hits (no walks), and striking out five, while giving up all three earned runs. Alex Sogard finished, striking out three in three hitless innings.
Plate: It's a whole lot of ugly for the batting lines, with the exception of Preston Tucker (1-1, 3BB, HR, R, RBI) and Delino DeShields (2-4, RBI). No other player walked, and base hits (all singles) to Leo Heras (1-4), Jonathan Meyer (1-4) and Rene Garcia (1-3).
Man of the Match: Alex Sogard didn't allow a baserunner in three innings, whilst striking out three. The season ERA stands at 2.27 for the tall left hander.
Lancaster (39-23)
The Lancaster and Inland Empire (21-41) teams dumped their gloves and decided to play football instead, with Lancaster winning 16-7. This resulted in a three game sweep of Inland Empire, during which Lancaster scored 34 runs at home. Lancaster's 16 runs was a season high.
Rubber: Brian Holmes started, throwing seven good innings which were spoiled by two home runs. His line: 7IP, 5H, 4R/ER, 2BB, 3K. The home runs accounted for three of the four runs. J.D. Osborne... ummm... "relieved", going 1.1 innings, giving up three runs/earned runs, 2 hits, 2 walks and one strikeout. Mitchell Lambson bailed him out (0.2IP), allowing neither of Osborne's runners to score.
Plate: Dan Gulbransen had himself a ball-game, hitting for the cycle, and driving in six RBI. His line: 4-5, 2B, 3B, HR, 2R, 6RBI. The home run was of the three-run variety, and the triple also drove in three.
Also having a good night: Rio Ruiz drive in four (2-5, HR, 2R, 4RBI), Carlos Correa was on base four times and scored four runs (1-1, 3BB, 3B, 4R, RBI, SB), Teoscar Hernandez was on base four times (3-4, BB, HR, 3R, RBI, SB, CS), Anthony Kemp showed some pop (2-6, HR, R, RBI), Conrad Gregor walked a couple of times (1-3, 2BB, 3R) and Roberto Pena had an otherwise nice night (2-4, BB, R, RBI).
Man of the Match: Dan Gulbransen hit the sixth cycle in JetHawks history, and managed a robust 6RBI. Interesting, the last two JetHawks cycles were on back-to-back days, and were hit by Brandon Barnes and Freddy Parejo nearly exactly 4 years ago (8-9 June 2010).
Quad Cities (30-29)
Burlington (30-28) scored one in the first and one in the eighth to win 2-1 over the River Bandits. Quad Cities got just five hits, and committed three errors.
Rubber: Michael Feliz got the start and worked around at least seven base runners, throwing 4IP, giving up 3H, 4BB, but getting 6K's. He gave up a lead off home run to Kody Eaves. He kept the ball on the ground (6:1), as did the two relief pitchers (also a combined 6:1).
Chris Cotton relieved, and threw 2 innings, giving up one hit and striking out one. Tyler Brunnemann took the loss: 2IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, BB, K, but allowed the winning run to score on a wild pitch, after a 2-base error, and a bunt.
Plate: Tanner Mathis led off (2-3, R) and was followed by Chan Moon (2-4, CS), but sadly the 3-9 slots were filled by tumbleweeds, and nothing more happened.
Actually, in between tumbleweed at-bats, Brian Holberton (0-4, RBI) drove in Tanner Mathis with a groundout, Ronnie Mitchell was on base twice (1-2, BB, CS). Thomas Lindauer walked (0-2, BB).
Man of the Match: Tanner Mathis wins this one, because of his robust hitting night (in the context of the game), and his outfield assist, gunning down a Bee at home.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to typing Brady Aiken's, Derek Fisher's and A.J. Reed's names in the PreStros column soon. Thanks to the Constable for his excellent draft coverage.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
