Link Report for Sun. 8/3 -- Where else will you get three walk-off audio clips?

[Mass Haas]

Final: Huntsville 3, Mississippi (Braves) 2, 11 innings

 

Huntsville Site Game Summary:

 

Walk-Off Win For Stars!

De La Rosa Delivers in Clutch

By Brett Pollock / Huntsville Stars

Anderson De La Rosa singled in the winning run in the 11th inning to lift Huntsville to a 3-2 win over Mississippi Sunday night in the middle of a five-game set at Joe Davis Stadium. The Stars won their second straight after an eight-game losing streak to improve to 20-23 in the second half, while the Braves lost a second in a row following an eight-game win streak and fell to 28-15 in the half. The Stars have won ten of the 13 games between the two teams.

 

Chris Errecart was hit by a pitch by Steve Marek to open the 11th and moved to second base on a single by Lorenzo Cain, after he had failed to execute a sacrifice bunt on two tries. Freddy Parejo did get the bunt down to move the runners and De La Rosa, in his second double-A start, grounded a single past a drawn-in infield to deliver Errecart with the winning run and the Stars third win in 11 extra innings games. Mississippi's lead in the South Division was trimmed to two games and could be cut further based on the outcome of Montgomery's game with West Tenn.

 

To hear the winning rally, click on the WUMP audio archive of August 3rd. The bottom of the 11th begins at the 03:07:00 hour / minute mark, and the actual game-winner from De La Rosa is at the 03:14:00 hour / minute mark -- the inning's build-up includes correct remarks about Lorenzo Cain's need to improve his bunting skills...

 

J.C. Holt's home run in the eighth inning had tied the game at two. It was his first home run since June 6 and the first allowed by Stars' starter Brae Wright since June 8 over 62.1 innings. Wright went eight innings, giving up six hits, walking three and striking out a season-high eight but remained winless since June 26 and without a victory at home since May 24. David Johnson tossed two scoreless innings behind Wright and Steve Bray grabbed the win with a scoreless 11th, fanning Jordan Schafer to end the frame with two runners on base.

 

Cain's two-out, two-run single in the first inning gave the Stars a 2-1 lead and the Stars missed out on an opportunity to extend the lead when they couldn't drive in Wright from third base with one out in the fifth. Braves' starter Kris Medlen went seven innings, giving up eight hits and striking out four, as he matched his longest outing of the season. Sung-Ki Jung retired all six hitters he faced before Stephen Marek took over in the tenth and fanned Cole Gillespie to end the inning with runners at the corners.

 

The series continues Monday evening with left-hander David Welch taking the mound for Huntsville against Braves' right-hander Tommy Hanson. Coverage begins at 6:50 pm central time and can be heard locally on SportsRadio 730 WUMP and through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com and www.730ump.com.

 

Huntsville Box Score

Eight innings from Brae Wright, excellent -- wonder why the AA Texas League box scores (Inman, Garrison) provide pitch counts, but the AA Southern League boxes do not; Wright was also 2-for-3 at the plate with a double; reliever Dave Johnson, 26 years old later this month, continues his impressive stretch; Lorenzo Cain finished with four hits, including a double, stole a base...

 

Huntsville Game Log

Stars turn four double plays...

[Mass Haas]

Final: Delmarva (Orioles) 10, West Virginia 5

 

West Virginia Site Game Summary:

 

SHOREBIRDS DOUBLE UP POWER

The Delmarva Shorebirds scored early and often at Appalachian Power Park on Sunday night and took the second game of the series with a 10-5 victory over the West Virginia Power.

 

Matt Angle walked to start the contest and stole second before reaching third on a passed ball and Paco Figueroa brought him in with a sacrifice fly. Victor Castillo ripped an RBI double in the top of the second before Curt Rindal cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning with an RBI groundout. The Shorebirds took a 4-1 lead in the third on Joe Nowhicki's two-run homer.

 

Delmarva pulled away with a three-run fifth inning. Nowicki knocked in another run with a sacrifice fly, Anthony Martinez doubled in the next run and scored on Tyler Henson's base hit. Figueroa brought in another run with his second sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to give the Shorebirds their largest lead of the night. The Power plated their second run in the sixth inning on Zelous Wheeler's RBI triple.

 

Delmarva plated their final two runs in the eighth. Figueroa's third sacrifice fly of the night scored Pedro Florimon and Ryan Adams singled in Matt Angle. In the bottom of the eighth, Adams' throwing error at second base allowed Caleb Gindl to score and Rindal's sacrifice fly brought Wheeler home. Eric Fryer brought in the final run of the game and extended his hitting streak to nine games with a two-out RBI single in the ninth inning.

 

Sean Gleason (9-1) pitched six strong innings and allowed just a pair of unearned runs on five hits while striking out five in a winning effort. Michael Bowman (1-1) allowed six runs on five hits with five walks over four and a third and was tagged with the loss. The Power pitching staff allowed nine free passes on the night.

 

The Power fell to 61-51 on the year and 29-14 in the second half with the loss. The Shorebirds improved to 62-50 on the year and 24-19 in the second half with the win. Eric Farris paced the Power with a 2-for-5 performance at the plate. Matt Cline reached once to extend his on-base streak to 23 games and Gindl extended his to 26 games.

 

The Power will continue the four game series against Delmarva Monday night. The Power will start left hander Dan Merklinger (4-8, 5.71) and the Shorebirds will counter with right hander Luis Noel (9-6, 3.77). The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM (6:05 Central).

 

West Virginia Box Score

The Power maintains its two-game division lead, as Lakewood lost; after eight sparkling efforts at Helena and West Virginia, RHP Michael Bowman's last two outings have been rough; Delmarva's second baseman committed three errors, giving him 45 on the season...

 

West Virginia Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Final: Arizona Padres 13, Arizona Brewers 8

Arizona Box Score

Cutter Dykstra three singles on a 3-for-5 night with an HBP; Miguel Vasquez, normally a middle infielder, played first base and reached four times (a strong .880 OPS for Arizona desert numbers); rehabbing Lou Palmisano, Allixon Cequea, and Shawn Zarraga each reached base three times; Carlos George is hitting .302 but has only walked three times in 96 AB's; a bit of a shock to the system to see Jake Odorizzi's line -- after just two Padres batters had come to the plate, the Brewers had already committed three errors, including Odorizzi's on a pickoff attempt; an error on George (the Brewers committed six in the contest) didn't help Jake in the 2nd, but he was still roughed up pretty good; about as ugly as it gets among the relievers as well, as they walked 11 after Odorizzi's departure; it's been a very long and ugly road through injury and poor performances for 2006 8th round RHP Shane Hill, drafted out of a Florida high school...

 

Arizona Game Log

[brewmann04]

Cain seems to have adjusted to 2a pitching very nice to see.

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Shorebirds rebound to knock off Power

by Christopher Wade

For the Charleston Daily Mail

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- If a football team suffered a devastating loss in the manner in which the Delmarva Shorebirds did Saturday evening, it would have had to wait an excruciating week to get the loss out of its system.

 

Fortunately for the Shorebirds, after blowing an eight-run lead to the West Virginia Power during a nine-run seventh inning, they had the luxury of getting right back on the field one day later in hopes of putting the collapse behind them.

 

That's exactly what Delmarva did as it rebounded in a big way, once again leading by eight runs, and this time holding on for a 10-5 victory over West Virginia at Appalachian Power Park on Sunday evening.

 

"It was a disappointing loss," said Delmarva starting pitcher Sean Gleason, who was put in a tough position of trying to shut down the Power's explosive offense, which leads the South Atlantic League with 5.28 runs per game.

 

"A nine spot, you don't see that much in one inning in baseball. Everybody just brushed it off. It's one of those things that doesn't happen a lot. We came in with an open mind today -- swing the bats and see what happens."

 

Power Manager Jeff Isom was impressed with the way Delmarva shrugged off the disappointing loss, scoring early and often while it built a 10-2 lead before his team scored the last three runs of the game.

 

"I've always said, the good thing about baseball players is they have a good, short memory," Isom said. "They have to forget about the game and be ready for the next day. It's not like football when they play once a week."

 

Isom realizes his team needs to get off to a better start and can't expect to fight its way out of huge deficits like it did against Delmarva on Saturday.

 

"Tonight's game was a lot like yesterday's early on," Isom said. "We got into a big deficit, and unlike last night, when we came out and scored nine runs in the seventh inning, you can't rely on doing that a whole lot.

 

"We got ourselves in trouble again today and never gave ourselves an opportunity to win this ball game. Our starting pitching has to do a better job."

 

Delmarva had just the right person on the mound in Gleason, the ace of the Shorebirds' staff, who entered Sunday's game with an 8-1 record and 2.81 earned run average.

 

Gleason posted another solid performance, giving up five hits and two runs (both unearned) in six innings. Gleason knew facing the solid Power lineup would be a challenge, but he was looking forward to the opportunity.

 

"My last few starts have been pretty good," Gleason said. "I wanted to come out, throw strikes, get ahead and be effective with all my pitches. I just wanted to make sure I gave my team a chance to win.

 

"I did a pretty good job of attacking the zone. I mixed my pitches pretty good: a few changeups, mainly my curve ball, fastball on both sides of the plate and a few sliders."

 

Isom was equally impressed with the performance of Gleason, a 20th-round draft pick in 2007 for the Baltimore Orioles.

 

"We didn't get anything off of him pretty much all night," Isom said. "We scratched a run here and there, but that was about it. He had a very good performance and put up zero's right away."

 

Despite the loss that drops its record to 61-51 on the season and 29-14 in the second half, West Virginia remains two games ahead of second-place Lakewood, which also lost Sunday, 3-0 to Greensboro.

 

Shortstop Eric Farris had the only multi-hit game for the Power, going 2-for-5 on a pair of infield singles. Designated hitter Curt Rindal drove in a pair of runs.

[Mass Haas]

MiLB.com with a feature article on last night's Nashville win, which includes Chuck Valenches' audio calls of Chris Woodward's six RBI, including his grand slam.