The poor Constable is tired from his wee drive, and piling on the Phillies has sapped his remaining energy, so I thought that I would leave him free to work on other projects. I will do the PreStros again this morning!
Summary
* The Affiliates had a solid day, going 3-0, running their combined record to 136-112.
* Oklahoma City got up early, dominated in the middle, and held off Omaha.
* Corpus won on a walk off single in the 13th
* Lancaster continued to roll.
* Quad Cities was rained off, and will be made up with a doubleheader tomorrow.
Oklahoma City (33-30)
Oklahoma got off to a fast start, scoring a combined 5 runs in the top halves of the second and third inning. They managed to hold Omaha (33-29) to five hits and two runs, in a 5-2 win. This win arrests a three game skid, and suggests that a split is possible after Oklahoma City lost the first two of a four game series in Omaha.
Bump: The avid and interested reader will be dying to know who got the start for Oklahoma City today. Mike Foltynewicz kept the Omaha side very quiet until he ran into some trouble in the seventh. A missed pop-up with no outs in the seventh, then two strikeouts, then a walk, then a two-run triple over a shallow outfield, and Bad MF's night was done. Still, not a bad line, and he retired 12 of 13 hitters at one stage. His final line: 6.2IP, 4H, 2R/ER, 3BB, 8K. He threw 101 pitches, and managed 7 groundouts to 3 flyouts.
Bobby Doran relieved, and went 1.1, allowing 1 hit and striking out one. Josh Zeid got the save, striking out the side while walking one.
Plate: Carlos Perez continued his hot hitting in this series (3-5, 2B, 3B, R, RBI), and Marc Krauss also had a good night (2-3, 2BB, R, RBI). Enrique Hernandez continued his good form (2-5, R), and Matt Duffy and Ronald Torreyes managed to get on base twice each (1-3, BB, RBI and 1-4, BB, R respectively).
Man of the Match: Good to see that Bad MF is getting stretched out for his call-up to the big club, which should occur in September 2015*. His last six outings have seen him throw at least six innings, giving up a maximum to two runs each outing. His ERA for the last 10 games (i.e. since April 15) sits at 2.28, with a 57:22 strikeout to walk ratio.
* - just trying to wind the Constable up.
Corpus Christi (31-30)
Corpus head back over .500 with a walk off 3-2 win over the San Antonio Missions, who drop back to one game under .500, to 30-31. Someone wins, someone loses... the circle of life... Corpus scored one in the first and one in the fourth, then San Antonio tied it up in the top of the fifth with 2 runs, and then.... crickets... until the 13th, when Andrew Aplin singled to bring home Nolan Fontana, who doubled to open the frame.
Bump: Kyle Smith got the start, and was fairly solid in 5.2 innings: 5H, 2R, 1ER, 2BB, 4K. The bullpen was nails, with Michael Dimock, Travis Bellow, Andrew Robinson and Tyson Perez combining for 7.1 innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 walks, and striking out 8. Perez got the win (his first in AA), with two innings at the end, striking out 4 and walking one.
Plate: Andrew Aplin was the standout performer, going 3-6 with 2 RBI. He also, as you may have read, was responsible for the game winning hit. Nolan Fontana continued his walk-happy ways, going 1-3, 2B, 3BB and scoring the game winning run. Ruben Sosa had a double (1-6, 2B, R), and Jio Mier went 1-3, BB, RBI. His RBI was on a sac fly.
Man of the Match: Lets give it to the team of Aplin and Fontana, who combined to reach base seven times, and combined talents to score the game winning run.
Lancaster (41-23)
Break up the 2014 JetHawks!! They have a magic number of four to win the first-half title after a strong 7-2 win over a 33-31 Visalia team. Lancaster erected a wee picket fence, scoring one run in seven of nine innings, with only the 4th and the 8th innings not resulting in runs.
Bump: Kyle Westwood got the start, and fired five dominant innings (5IP, 1H, 6K, 7:2 Groundout to flyout ratio). He was relieved by Gonzalo Sanudo, who pitched to the following line: 2.2IP, 4H, 2R/ER, BB, 3K. Jamaine Cotton finished the game: 1.1IP, 2H, R/ER, K.
Plate: One would imagine that, if the scoring line involved a whole bunch of single runs, that some hits left the yard, because some of the 7 one-run innings must have involved a solo homer. Well... no. Not in this case. Not a single home run was hit. The JetHawks, however, managed a bunch of base runners: 11 hits, 8 walks, 5 doubles and a triple.
Anthony Kemp was solid up the top of the order (2-4, 2B, BB, 2R, RBI, 2SB). Carlos Correa hit the only triple (2-4, 2BB, 3B, R, SB), and Jordan Scott was also on base three times (2-4, BB, 2B, R, RBI). The other three doubles were hit by Danry Vasquez (1-3, BB, 2B, R, RBI), Jack Mayfield (1-4, BB, 2B, RBI, R) and Roberto Pena (1-5, 2B).
Man of the Match: Out of a run of dominant pitching lines recently, Westwood's may be the best of the lot. Again, 5IP, H, 6K. Kyle Westwood wins MoTM, and probably tomorrow's one as well, because he was just that good.
Quad Cities (31-29)
The River Bandits, mercifully for my raw typing fingers, were rained off. They have a double header at home to Peoria, kicking off at 1:15.
Thanks for reading, and stand by for more draft signing news after an exciting few days for the organisation.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
