Link Report for Games of Monday, August 18th

[Mass Haas]

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Monday's Daily Menu:

 

All times Central except Arizona League; pitchers subject to change --

 

Nashville: LHP Lindsay Gulin at Round Rock (Astros), 5:50 PM pre-game; 6:05 gametime

 

Audio link via WNSR, be sure to select the proper date (game will also archive at this link):

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/clubs/ip_index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=t556

 

Huntsville: RHP Jeremy Jeffress at Birmingham (White Sox), 6:50 PM pre-game; 7:05 gametime

 

Audio link via WUMP, be sure to select the proper date (game will also archive at this link):

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/multimedia/audio.jsp?sid=t559

Brevard County: TBD at home vs. St. Lucie (Mets), 6:00 PM gametime; it's your guess, Bobby Bramhall pitched on three days' rest Sunday, perhaps Amaury Rivas will do the same today...

 

Sorry, no audio for this series...

West Virginia: RHP R.J. Seidel at Greenville (Red Sox), 5:50 PM pre-game, 6:00 gametime

 

Audio link via WSWW, be sure to select the proper date (game will also archive at this link):

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/clubs/ip_index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=t525

 

Helena: RHP Liam Ohlmann at home vs. Ogden (Dodgers), 7:55 PM pre-game, 8:05 gametime

 

Audio link via KCAP, be sure to select the proper date (game will also archive at this link):

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/clubs/ip_index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=t433

 

Arizona: TBD vs. the Giants' kids at home in Maryvale, 7:00 PM local Mountain Standard Time

 

Never any audio for the Maryvale Crew

[Mass Haas]

Follow Monday's action as it happens:

Here's what you do, right click on each of the links below and choose "Open in New Window". Open the Nashville Gameday. For the others, choose "Recap". While you're listening to your minor league game of choice (or watching/listening to the big league Crew when they are playing), simply refresh your game log browsers every so often.

 

Nashville:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2008_08_18_nasaaa_rreaaa_1

 

Huntsville:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t559&t=g_box&gid=2008_08_18_hunaax_biraax_1

 

Brevard County:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=t503&t=g_box&gid=2008_08_18_sluafa_breafa_1

 

West Virginia:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2008_08_18_wvaafx_capafx_1

 

Helena:

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2008_08_18_ogdrok_helrok_1

 

Arizona:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2008_08_18_giarok_brrrok_1

[Mass Haas]

This link will be included in each daily report when the Nashville Sounds are scheduled to play. Normally it is updated several hours prior to gametime.

 

Nashville Media Notes (Adobe .pdf format):

 

[Mass Haas]

 Pacific Coast League (AAA) - PCL American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Iowa 76 52 .594 - 46-22 30-30 W6 Memphis 68 60 .531 8.0 33-30 35-30 L1 Omaha 54 75 .419 22.5 25-38 29-37 L2 Nashville 53 76 .411 23.5 25-38 28-38 L1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Southern League (AA) - SOU North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carolina 35 20 .636 - 18-7 17-13 W1 Tennessee 27 28 .491 8.0 13-17 14-11 W1 Huntsville 26 29 .473 9.0 14-16 12-13 L1 West Tenn 23 31 .426 11.5 11-18 12-13 L1 Chattanooga 23 32 .418 12.0 11-14 12-18 W1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Florida State League (A+) - FSL East Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jupiter 32 22 .593 - 15-11 17-11 L1 Daytona 30 22 .577 1.0 19-9 11-13 W1 St. Lucie 29 24 .547 2.5 12-11 17-13 W1 Palm Beach 28 27 .509 4.5 16-13 12-14 L1 Brevard County 26 30 .464 7.0 12-16 14-14 L1 Vero Beach 16 40 .286 17.0 6-22 10-18 W1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 South Atlantic League (A) - SAL Northern Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- West Virginia 38 18 .679 - 20-6 18-12 W4 Lakewood 35 21 .625 3.0 17-12 18-9 L3 Delmarva 31 24 .564 6.5 15-14 16-10 W4 Lake County 27 28 .491 10.5 12-14 15-14 W2 Greensboro 23 33 .411 15.0 10-16 13-17 W1 Hagerstown 21 35 .375 17.0 9-18 12-17 L5 Lexington 19 36 .345 18.5 9-18 10-18 L3 Hickory 16 40 .286 22.0 5-23 11-17 L3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Pioneer League (R+) - PIO North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Billings 12 4 .750 - 9-3 3-1 L1 Great Falls 10 10 .500 4.0 6-4 4-6 W1 Helena 6 14 .300 8.0 1-8 5-6 L4 Missoula 4 16 .200 10.0 4-5 0-11 L2 

[Mass Haas]

Arizona League Standings

[Mass Haas]

From the Manatees staff:

 

(Viera, FL) Tonight's game between the St. Lucie Mets and the Brevard County Manatees has been postponed due to the impending rain and storms associated with Tropical Storm Fay. The game will be rescheduled at a later date. Brevard County will be taking on the Jupiter Hammerheads in a three-game series beginning on Wednesday at Roger Dean Stadium.

[twobrewers]

6 scoreless innings so far tonight for Jeffress in his first extended Huntsville action. (3 hits, 4 walks and 4 strikeouts)

 

Errecart has not picked up where he left off. I wonder if his injury is still giving him problems.

 

West Virginia went from 5 games under .500 in the first half - to 20 games above .500 in the second half! (And lost Lucroy in the process)

[trwi7]

For a 20 year old in AA that was a fantastic outing by Jeffress. Yeah, the walks are still too high and the strikeouts are down but 7 baserunners in 6 innings while being very young for the league is impressive.

[Minigoon]

Erik Komatsu continues to destroy Pioneer League pitching. 3 hits including a grand slam home run. Brock Kjeldgaard 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and 4 rbi's. You have to wonder where he would be if he hadn't started his career as a pitcher.

 

Stosh Wawrzasek with the start tonight for the A-Crew with 3 scoreless and 3 K's. Jake Odorizzi following him to the mound tonight.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Huntsville 2, Birmingham (White Sox) 0

 

Huntsville Site Game Summary:

Jeffress and Gamel Power Stars to Win

Second Inning Swing the Difference

By Brett Pollock / Huntsville Stars

 

Jeremy Jeffress and two relievers combined on a six-hit shutout, as Huntsville blanked Birmingham 2-0 Monday night in the opener of a five-game set at Regions Park. The Stars improved to 27-29 in the second half and 68-58 overall, while the Barons slipped to 27-28 in the second half and 67-58 overall. The Stars recorded their eighth shutout win of the season and their first since July 24 at Carolina.

 

Barons' starter Kyle McCulloch retired the side in order in the first inning before Angel Salome, named as the Southern League Hitter of the Week earlier in the day, led off the second inning and scored on Mat Gamel's home run, his 19th of the season. Gamel has hit home runs in back-to-back games for the first time since doing it in three straight games at Mobile from May 28-30. Gamel's long ball was the only extra-base hit of the contest, as the two teams combined for 16 singles.

 

Jeffress gave up back-to-back singles with one out in the first before retiring Javier Castillo and Brandon Allen to end the inning. He stranded a runner in each of the next two innings and was aided by a line drive double play to end the fourth and by catcher Martin Maldonado, who threw out Robert Valido trying to steal third base to end the fifth inning. Jeffress walked four, struck out four and set down the last four hitters he faced to earn his first win at the double-A level.

 

David Johnson threw a scoreless seventh inning before singles by Robert Valido and Miguel Negron opened the eighth inning. Victor Mercedes advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt but the rally was squashed when Ricardo Nanita lined out to Johnson, who threw to second base to double off Negron. Juan Sandoval took over in the ninth and set down the side in order to record his 17th save.

 

McCulloch, who gave up 13 runs, 11 earned, on 14 hits over 4 1/3 innings in his prior start, kept the Stars blanked over the next four innings and departed after allowing only one other runner to advance as far as second base. He gave up seven hits, walked one and fanned two but fell to 7-11. Kanekoa Texeira followed with two shutout frames, despite giving up three singles and a walk, before John Lujan blanked the Stars in the ninth.

 

The series continues Tuesday night with right-hander Donovan Hand taking the mound for Huntsville against Barons' southpaw Aaron Poreda. 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.

 

***

 

Link while active, text follows:

 

By DAVID MORRISON

Birmingham News staff writer

 

Barons starter Kyle McCulloch had only one bad inning against the Huntsville Stars on Monday. But it cost him the game.

 

After retiring the first three Stars hitters, McCulloch gave up a single to Angel Salome to lead off the second inning. Then, on an 0-2 pitch, Mat Gamel took McCulloch deep to right-center to give Huntsville a 2-0 lead it didn't relinquish. Center fielder Miguel Negron climbed the wall to try and bring Gamel's home run back, but he came up short.

 

"I thought the ball was going to be on the warning track," Negron said. "I was really close."

 

McCulloch kept the Stars' hitters at bay for the rest of the game, scattering seven hits over six innings and forcing four double plays.

He was coming off one of his worst outings of the year, when he gave up 13 runs on 14 hits in 4 1/3 innings against Tennessee last Wednesday.

 

"He did a nice job mentally after getting beaten up in his last start," pitching coach J.R. Perdew said. "He made one mistake, a ball out over the plate, and the guy hit it."

 

The Barons had trouble getting anything going against Stars starter Jeremy Jeffress, in only his second start at Double-A.

 

Jeffress, the Brewers' first-round draft pick in 2006, had trouble locating at times. He walked four but he overpowered the Barons with his fastball, which consistently clocked in at between 94 and 97 mph.

 

"Sometimes guys like that are effectively wild," Perdew said. "He's got a great arm."

 

When the Barons did get their chances, they were unable to capitalize because of a mixture of baserunning mistakes - Negron and shortstop Robert Valido were caught stealing - and bad luck.

 

The Barons looked to be mounting a challenge in the eighth, when Valido and Negron led off the inning with singles off reliever David Johnson. A sacrifice bunt by second baseman Victor Mercedes moved them to second and third with one out.

 

The next batter, Ricardo Nanita, sent a 1-0 pitch back through the box, but Johnson gloved the line drive and doubled Negron off of second base.

 

The loss drops the Barons to 27-28 in the second half of the Southern League pennant race.

 

Huntsville Box Score

Martin Maldonado three singles, Lorenzo Cain and Guilder Rodriguez two apiece as the Stars' offense was hardly "efficient"; continued kudos, David Johnson; can't wait to read about Jeremy Jeffress in the Fall League...

 

Huntsville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Final: West Virginia 8, Greenville (Red Sox) 3

 

West Virginia Site Game Summary:

POWER SWEEP DRIVE

 

The first six batters in the order hit safely twice and R.J. Seidel tossed six scoreless innings on Monday night at Fluor Field as the West Virginia Power won their fifth game in a row, sweeping the Greenville Drive with an 8-3 victory.

 

Eric Fryer gave West Virginia an early lead for the second night in a row, with an RBI single in the first inning. Zelous Wheeler doubled West Virginia's lead with a two-out RBI double in the fourth. The Power scored four times with two outs in the fifth inning. Michael Almamzar's fielding error allowed Logan Schafer to score the first run of the inning. Wilson scored on a wild pitch, and Caleb Gindl and Wheeler ripped back-to-back RBI singles to finish the inning.

 

The Power added a pair of runs in the seventh inning. Curt Rindal's bases loaded base single scored Steffan Wilson and Lee Haydel walked with the bases loaded to score Gindl. The Drive got on the board in the bottom of the eighth inning on a two-run homer from Will Vazquez. Greenville scored one final time in the ninth on Almanzar's sacrifice fly, which brought in Oscar Tejada.

 

Seidel (8-5) allowed just four hits over six scoreless frames and fanned two to get his first victory since July 18th. Terumasa Matsuo (5-5) allowed six runs, only one earned on nine hits over four and two-thirds and was tagged with the loss.

 

The Power improved to 71-55 on the year and 39-18 in the second half with the win. The Drive fell to 64-62 on the year and 24-32 in the second half with the loss. Eric Farris, Schafer, Fryer, Wilson, Gindl and Wheeler all hit safely twice. Fryer went 2-for-5, giving him six straight multi-hit games. He went 14-for-34 on the road trip.

 

The Power will begin a four-game series against the Asheville Tourists at Appalachian Power Park on Tuesday night. The Power will start right hander Reed Dickert (2-2, 1.86) and the Tourists will counter with right hander Bruce Billings (8-10, 4.09) The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM (6:05 Central).

 

West Virginia Box Score

Eric Fryer is like found money for the Brewers -- they didn't even have a place for him to play in all of April -- unbelievable, really; R.J. Seidel one run over his last 14 innings, and much more economical in this one; three-game lead as they begin their homestand, the kids must be psyched...

 

West Virginia Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

First-place Power starts homestand

By Mitch Vingle

Charleston Daily Mail Sports Editor

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- If your September calendar is reserved for football, you can still get a taste of the South Atlantic League baseball playoffs - even before they begin.

 

The Asheville Tourists, first-half winners of the Southern Division, hit Charleston today for the first of a four-game homestand against the current Northern Division-leading West Virginia Power.

 

Tonight's game at Appalachian Power Park will match a hot Power team that holds a three-game lead over Lakewood in the Northern Division against a Tourists team now stuck in third place in the Southern.

 

In the Sally League playoffs, Asheville will probably face current Southern leader Augusta, while a successful Power team would face first-half Northern winner Lake County. The winners would face each other in the finals.

 

So consider these four games at The APP as trailers for what could be the marquee event.

 

West Virginia has been led by Eric Fryer, a 6-foot-2 left fielder / catcher from Ohio State, with a .348 batting average - tops in the league.

 

First baseman Steffan Wilson has a .291 batting average with 18 homers and 91 runs batted in.

 

Wilson is closing in on the franchise record of 102 RBI.

 

Asheville (30-26) has been led by third baseman Darin Holcomb, who had a .323 average with 13 homers and 90 RBI. He played collegiately at Gonzaga.

 

The pitching matchup is expected to be West Virginia righty Reed Dickert (2-2, 1.86 ERA in 48 1/3 innings) and Asheville righty Bruce Billings (8-10, 4.09 in 143 innings).

 

West Virginia has won four home games in a row and is 20-6 in home games over the second half

[Mass Haas]

Final: Helena 16, Ogden (Dodgers) 10

Link while active, text follows:

 

Brewers outslug Raptors

By CURT SYNNESS - Helena Independent Record

 

After dropping their previous four games, the Helena Brewers took out their frustrations on Ogden Raptors pitching Monday, clouting 21 hits in a 16-10 victory at Kindrick Legion Field.

 

In a contest that lasted 3 hours, 8 minutes, the only thing hotter than the 90-plus degree temperature were the Brewers' bats.

 

Things didn't look real promising for the local squad early on, as the Raptors scored three runs in the first inning and two in the second to take a 5-1 lead going into the third frame. But the Brewers rallied for four scores in their half of the third to knot things up, and then burst ahead 8-5 in the next inning.

 

The home team tallied all four of their third-stanza runs before Ogden starter Robert Boothe was able to record an out. After John Delaney reached on a base on balls, the Brewers ripped off five straight singles by Cutter Dykstra, Erik Komatsu, Brock Kjeldgaard, Chris Dennis and Corey Kemp. Dennis' line drive barely tipped off of the glove of a leaping second baseman. Kemp's two-RBI base rap just escaped the grasp of a diving shortstop into the hole, bringing Komatsu and Kjeldgaard plateward.

 

In Helena's three-run fourth stanza, Delaney and Komatsu both singled, ahead of Kjeldgaard's two-run double to center. The lanky first baseman then came home on a two-bagger by Dennis.

 

The Capital City group kept the momentum going in the fifth, powered by a grand-slam by Komatsu. With David Fonseca, Miguel Vasquez and Delaney on base with two outs, Komatsu's 11th tater cleared the right field wall and the sacks. This gave manager Rene Gonzales' crew a 14-6 lead.

 

But the visitors proved they weren't ready to give up yet, pushing across four runs of their own in the seventh. The most impactful blast was Steven Casares' three-run homer. Helena's Kjeldgaard scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to make it 15-10. The locals added another run in the eighth, with Delaney's double driving home Fonseca.

 

Komatsu finished with a 4-for-6 performance, raising his batting average to .353. Kjeldgaard was 3-for-4, with two doubles and four RBI. Dennis also rapped out three base knocks.

 

Collecting two hits each were Delaney, Dykstra, Erik Miller, Mike Roberts and Fonseca. Every single batter in the home team's lineup registered a base hit. And their run total may have even been higher, considering they had two base runners thrown out at the plate on the night.

 

Liam Ohlmann started for Helena. He was replaced in the fourth frame by Adam Arnold. Arnold went 1 1/3 innings and picked up his second win of the year. Brandon Ritchie and Mark Willinsky relieved the rest of the way. Javier Solano took the loss.

 

Helena moves to 7-14 in the second half and 27-32 overall. The Raptors and Brewers meet again tonight at Kindrick at 7:05 PM (8:05 Central) in the second of their three-game series.

 

Helena Box Score

A real feast for the eyes, at least offensively, behold crooked numbers galore...

 

Helena Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Final: Nashville 8, Round Rock (Astros) 2

 

Nashville Site Game Summary:

Link for Lindsay Gulin photo, text follows --

 

Sounds Use Big First Inning To Derail Express

 

ROUND ROCK, Texas - The Nashville Sounds put up six runs in the top of the first inning and cruised to an 8-2 victory over the Round Rock Express on Monday evening at The Dell Diamond.

 

Five Nashville hitters turned in multiple-hit efforts in the club's 13-hit output as the Sounds won for the third time in their last four games.

 

Lindsay Gulin (6-7) turned in his seventh quality start of the year to notch the victory for the Sounds. He allowed one run on seven hits while striking out six batters over six innings of work.

 

The Sounds got out of the gates quickly, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs in the top of the first inning against Express starter Jack Cassel. Hernan Iribarren - who recorded a pair of hits in the frame to become the first Nashville player to accomplish that feat since 2006 - led off the game with a triple and scored the first run on Joe Dillon's one-out RBI single.

 

Jay Gibbons added a run-scoring single before Chris Woodward delivered the frame's biggest knock, a bases-loaded, three-run triple to center to make it a 5-0 contest. Vinny Rottino plated the sixth Sounds run with a sacrifice fly.

 

AUDIO: Chris Woodward Three-Run Triple

 

Round Rock got on the board in the third against Gulin when Tommy Marzella led off with a bunt single and later scored on Ray Sadler's two-out RBI single to reduce the Nashville lead to 6-1.

 

Gibbons increased the Sounds' advantage to 7-2 in the top of the seventh with a one-out RBI double off Ray King that scored Dillon before Round Rock got the run back in the home half of the frame on Chris Johnson's two-out RBI single against Luis Pena.

 

The Sounds tacked on their final run in the eighth when Vinny Rottino led off with a walk off Nick Regilio, moved to second on a Brendan Katin single, and scored on Tony Gwynn's one-out RBI single.

 

Joe Bateman worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings behind Pena before Tim Dillard took over for Nashville and kept the Express off the board in the ninth.

 

Cassel (8-4) was saddled with the loss after giving up six runs on eight hits in six innings.

 

The teams wrap the series with a 7:05 p.m. CT finale on Tuesday. Left-hander Sam Narron (7-4, 4.64) will make the start for Nashville to face Round Rock right-hander Runelvys Hernandez (7-6, 4.56).

 

Nashville Box Score

Brad Nelson, Adam Heether, and Chris Woodward on base three times apiece; Luis Pena attmpting to get back on track in non-closing situations...

 

Nashville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Audio Alley:

 

Nashville Pre-Game Audio Chat with Infielder/Outfielder Callix Crabbe

Such a classy kid...

 

Helena Pre-Game Audio Interview with Coach Ned Yost IV

Click on the KCAP archive of August 18th, then browse to the 04:30 minute mark -- there's been a "Moustache Mania" in the clubhouse, and the fun focus of the conversation is on that -- Frito Bandito, Freddy Mercury, Tony Orlando, love the comparisons...

[Mass Haas]

Final: Arizona Giants 6, Arizona Brewers 0

Arizona Box Score

Fantastic pitching lines for still 17-year-old Stosh Wawrzasek and 18-year-old Jake Odorizzi, while another 17-year-old, Venezuelan RHP Francisco Rivero allowed an inherited runner to score, but has now tossed 7.2 scoreless innings to begin his career; LHP Kristian Bueno surrenedered all six runs in relief and took the loss; Brewers stranded ten while getting shutout, what a long summer in Maryvale...

 

Arizona Game Log

[battlekow]

Stosh is the youngest non-Dominican in the organization.

[Mass Haas]

Stosh is the youngest non-Dominican in the organization.

Youngest non-Latin player, yes, but Francicso Rivero of Venezuela is younger. But I think that's what you meant.

 

Maverick Lasker is the youngest American player.

[battlekow]

Venezuela, Dominican Republic, what's the difference to my xenophobic, jingoistic American brain? Seriously though, thanks for the heads up.