Link Report for Thurs. 7/16 -- Late Report on Nashville w/Photos

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Triple-A baseball: Iowa Cubs make a joyful noise, blast Nashville

By RICK BROWN, Des Moines Register

 

It is a special sound, a baseball exploding off a bat's sweet spot.

 

"It's probably the best sound in the world," said Iowa Cubs first baseman Matt Craig. "It's loud, and it's pure."

 

The sound of a three-run homer off Craig's bat in the seventh inning helped turn a 4-0 deficit into an 11-4 victory over division-leading Nashville Thursday before an announced crowd of 7,798 at Principal Park.

 

"We were hitting balls right at people all night," Craig said. "They were bound to fall sooner or later. I'm glad we put it all together in the last couple of innings."

 

Craig's home run was the first blow in a six-run seventh that took starter Esmailin Caridad off the hook. Caridad had been 0-7 in his previous seven starts at Principal Park, and left the game trailing 4-0 after six innings.

 

Iowa sent 11 batters to the plate in the seventh, and got five outs to play with because of third baseman Adam Heether's two errors.

 

Nashville starter Tim Dillard had been cruising, needing just 54 pitches to get through the first six innings.

 

But So Taguchi's bloop single behind second base led off the seventh, then John-Ford Griffin walked. Craig followed with his three-run blast to right.

 

"I wasn't trying to hit a home run," Craig said. "I was just trying to hit it hard somewhere."

 

Heether couldn't handle Steve Clevenger's shot, and Clevenger got to second on the play. After Bobby Scales popped out, Matt Camp and Darwin Barney drew walks off Dillard to load the bases.

 

Nate Spears, who had entered the game in the sixth to pinch hit for Caridad, gave Iowa the lead with a two-run single. Taguchi drove in the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.

 

"Dillard, hats off to him," said Spears, who also hit a two-run double in Iowa's five-run eighth inning. "He had his sinkerball working for him. We had some hard outs. Nothing was falling for us. Luckily, they made a couple of mistakes and we were able to capitalize."

 

Iowa's Matt Camp steps on the bag as Nashville first baseman Joe Koshansky waits for the ball in the fifth inning Thursday at Principal Park. Camp was called out on the play.

(Photos by BILL NEIBERGALL/The Des Moines Register)

 

http://cmsimg.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D2&Date=20090716&Category=SPORTS1402&ArtNo=907170372&Ref=AR&Profile=1053&MaxW=550&MaxH=650&title=0

 

Iowa's Matt Camp slides in to score Thursday night ahead of the tag by Nashville catcher Angel Salome in a six-run seventh inning. The Cubs won 11-4 at Principal Park.

 

http://cmsimg.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D2&Date=20090716&Category=SPORTS1402&ArtNo=907170372&Ref=H2&Profile=1053&MaxW=550&MaxH=650&title=0

[Mass Haas]

FYI -- LHP Chris Narveson is scheduled to make a start (spot start?) for the Sounds on Sunday.

[brewpitch]

I wonder what the story is with Billings... he gives up far too many hits for the amount of BBs and Ks...

Can't judge a pitcher's performance by looking at a box score (most of the time) especially milb.com rookie league. I'm not even sure how qualified their scorekeepers are. From what I can tell, they can't judge a wild pitch from a pass ball and an error from a hit most of the time. Billings gave up two maybe three earned runs last night and was in position to not give up any. Two of the doubles were swinging bunts that got chopped over the third baseman's head. The triple was literally kicked into the gap by the centerfielder. He's a better pitcher right now than he was last summer with a 2.25 ERA. The staff is still really high on him.