Link Report for Mon. 7/27 -- Only Huntsville Wins on a Miserable Organizational Night

[Mass Haas]

Final: Missoula (Diamondbacks) 11, Helena 6

 

Link while active, text follows:

 

O's hand Brewers 4th straight loss

By NICK LOCKRIDGE - Missoulian

 

The Missoula Osprey won for the fifth night in a row Monday, taking an 11-6 decision from the Helena Brewers before 2,209 fans at Ogren-Allegiance Park.

 

There was no pitchers' duel or come-from-behind, walk-off home runs leading the charge, as was the case in the Osprey's three previous wins, just solid baseball being played. The current run of good fortune is Missoula's best over the last three seasons of baseball.

 

"We're coming down the stretch and it feels good," said Osprey first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. "These guys (Helena) and Great Falls have been real close to us, and it seems like we lost four in a row before we started this streak. I don't know what it was, but something just clicked."

 

Goldschmidt went 2-for-2 with three runs driven in to lead Missoula offensively. O's reliever Charles Brewer allowed two earned runs, but picked up his third victory of the season with 2 2/3 innings of work. The best statistic of the day, though, is two, which is how many games Missoula (19-13) leads by in the Pioneer League's Northern Division.

 

Coupled with Billings' 4-3 win over Great Falls, the O's have a two-game advantage on the Voyagers and are three up on Helena with six games left to play in the league's first half. Missoula hosts the Brewers tonight in its final home game of the first half. A win would give the O's a big lead heading into a five-game road swing.

 

"We won't be happy until we clinch this thing, whenever that is," Goldschmidt said. "But, as even we've shown, anything can happen. You can't look too far ahead."

 

Missoula never trailed after any inning, but it held just a slim 3-2 lead coming into the fourth. That's when the O's scored six runs - all with two outs - to take a 9-2 lead.

 

The first run came home on a wild pitch by Helena reliever Donald Brandt. He seemed to let the mistake get the better of him as he hit Missoula slugger Bobby Stone with the next pitch. Stone, the hitting hero the past two nights, glared at Brandt but took his base. A fan rose to his feet and yelled "That's Bobby Stone you just hit." O's DH Ramon Castillo had Stone's back, though, as he hit a two-run double. Goldschmidt followed that with an RBI single, Keon Broxton had an RBI triple and Raywily Gomez had another RBI single.

 

"After they hit Bobby, Ramon hit that double to the wall and then I got a little jam shot to fall in and we got hot," Goldschmidt said. "It's a lot more fun when you're up four or five or six runs."

 

It was all the support Brewer (3-0) needed. He struck out three batters and pitched a scoreless sixth before giving way to Scott Allen, who didn't give up a run in two innings of work, and Ryan Robowski, who gave up a pair of runs in the ninth, but closed out the game with a pair of strikeouts.

 

Missoula's David Nick added a two-run blast to left field in the seventh to help put the game away. Castillo and Ender Inciarte both finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Inciarte is leading all batters in the month of July with a .414 average. Stone, who is second in the Pioneer League in RBIs, helped turn a double play with a diving catch in right field in the third inning. The O's scored twice in their half of the third after chasing Helena starter Eric Arnett, Milwaukee's first-round draft pick this season. The Brewers (16-16) were led by Cutter Dykstra, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

 

Helena Box Score

Eric Arnett just registering a shrug of the shoulders from us in his debut season; kid named Brewer gets the win, huh?

 

Helena Game Log

[Mass Haas]

David Weiser's starsboxscore.com

 

Flat Biscuits

Stars hand Montgomery franchise-record 7th straight loss

 

Playing Montgomery for the first time this season, Lorenzo Cain, Taylor Green, and Shane Justis put HRs onto the concourse and hand the hapless Montgomery Biscuits their franchise-record 7th straight loss. It was the first time since June 7 that the Stars hit three home runs in a game....... How hapless? The Biscuits were 0-for-30 with runners in scoring position over six straight games before going 3-for-11 tonight.

 

The Biscuits took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning on three leadoff singles off Mike Jones, but Brian Baker, who retired nine straight batters, walked Jonathan Lucroy with two out in the 4th. Green followed with a double off the wall in right to score Lucroy, then Cain homered to the right of the scoreboard onto the concourse and the Stars had a 3-1 lead, one they would not give up. Green would later hit a 6th inning home run off Eduardo Morlan (a Rule 5 pick of the Brewers last winter, later returned), the first time this season he's hit two extra-base hits in a game....... Montgomery brought the game back to a run-margin on an RBI single by Pedro Powell in the bottom half, but the Stars got the two-run margin back on Green's home run to right.

 

Jones threw 90 pitches, the most in a start since June 1 vs. Birmingham in a 14-5 loss that went to Juan Sandoval...... Mike McClendon, in picking up his 3rd save, ran his shutout string to 9 2/3 innings over six games dating back to July 10...... Tuesday, Brandon Kintzler, who was purchased by the Brewers July 24 and assigned to Huntsville will make his first start -- and his debut -- for the Stars. Opposing him, and trying to end Montgomery's losing streak, will be Heath Rollins (8-9), who is 1-7 at home with a 6.26 ERA....... The Stars added pitcher Wes Littleton to their roster Monday, sending Sam Narron back to Nashville. Littleton, a 6.-3" right-hander, was 0-4 with a 7.14 ERA for the Sounds and 0-1 with a 5.51 ERA in his last 10 appearances. He was 7-1 for Oklahoma City last seaosn, the Texas Rangers' top farm club.

 

Adam Stern picked up his 100th and 101st hits of the season, but is hitting just .200 this month and hit .250 for June after a great start in April (.321) and May (.327)...... Shane Justis hit his first home run since June 12 and is having another great month with a .324 July. Shane has been hit by pitches seven times this month and 14 times this season, something only seven other Huntsville players have done in their 25-year history. Matt LaPorta was hit 15 times last year before being traded to Cleveland....... Speaking of LaPorta, he's hitting .301 for the last-place Columbus Clippers of the Class AAA-International League's West Division. He has 13 HRs and 49 RBIs...... Drew Anderson, 4th among hitting leaders in the Southern League, hit his first triple since May 30 and is 14-for-32 (.438) in his last eight games. Anderson's two-run triple in the 9th inning broke the game open for the Stars, giving them a final 8-3 lead. Drew has driven in a run in 12 of his last 15 games...... Michael Garciaparra is 4-for-28 since the Southern League All-Star break........ Jonathan Lucroy has drawn 21 walks this month and 60 for the season. Cole Gillespie was last year's leader with 75. In 2007, Steve Moss lead the team with 69 walks. No one has drawn 100 walks in a season since Gary Jones in 1989.

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Rattlers bats are silenced

Bibens-Dirkx shuts down Wisconsin with Chiefs' first complete game since '06

By KEVIN CAPIE

OF THE JOURNAL STAR

 

PEORIA - One-run games never are easy, but they don't come much easier than the Peoria Chiefs 2-1 win over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Monday night to complete a three-game series sweep.

 

The ease came because starter Austin Bibens-Dirkx pitched Peoria's first nine-inning complete game since Aug. 2, 2006.

 

"I just put down fingers (to call the pitches) and could have had a drink back there, as easy as he made it," catcher Michael Brenly said. "It's easy to catch a guy like that when he's in the zone."

 

Bibens-Dirkx allowed just five hits and seven strikeouts against his former team. He pitched for the Timber Rattlers in 2006, when they were with affiliated with the Seattle Mariners.

 

"I didn't even see it that way," the right-hander said. "The last game was kind of rough, I gave up a couple of bombs and gave up another one tonight.

 

"I just wanted to go out there and pitch well."

 

A home run to designated hitter Erik Komatsu in the fourth was the only blemish on Bibens-Dirkx's night. He had two things working for him - the Chiefs defense and downright nasty off-speed and breaking pitches.

 

In the first inning, third baseman Jovan Rosa made a pair of nice plays, charging a slow roller to throw out leadoff runner Juan Sanchez and then spearing a sharp liner from Peter Fatse, the very next hitter.

 

In the ninth, with Peoria clinging to the lead, Fatse was robbed again. First baseman Rebel Ridling, whose solo homer in the sixth gave the Chiefs the lead, knocked the ball down and then tossed quickly to Bibens-Dirkx covering the bag for the first out of the inning.

 

"I had great defense behind me; in the last inning, it was Rebel, and in the first inning Rosa had a great play (on the liner)," Bibens-Dirkx said. "Luck comes with pitching and having a good team behind you to always help."

 

Bibens-Dirkx needed no help in keeping the Timber Rattlers off balance. He mixed in breaking and off-speed pitches with a fastball that sat in 89-91 miles-per-hour range all night. By hitting spots with those pitches early, Bibens-Dirkx worked his full arsenal.

 

"When you can throw your off-speed pitches for strikes you can get away with the fastball middle or up," Bibens-Dirkx said. "That gets in their head and the breaking ball allows you to throw every pitch so they're guessing up there, which is always a plus for me."

 

Since Bibens-Dirkx pitched the way he did, the Peoria offense got by with the bare minimum of two solo homers - Ridling's and a first-inning shot by Ryan Flaherty - even though the Chiefs picked up 12 hits against Wisconsin starter Daniel Meadows.

 

Meadows, a Midwest League all-star, went eight innings for Wisconsin after Peoria ran themselves out of a potentially big inning in the second, getting two runners thrown out at the plate.

 

But again, with Bibens-Dirkx, none of that really mattered.

 

"He threw strikes, kept the ball down, got some ground balls and the defense made some nice plays for him early," Chiefs manager Marty Pevey said. "All the stars were aligned."

 

Photo by JOSH BIRNBAUM/JOURNAL STAR

Peoria's Ryan Flaherty tags out Wisconsin's Eric Komatsu at second and completes the double play at first to win the game for the Chiefs, 2-1, on Monday evening at O'Brien Field.

 

http://www.pjstar.com/photos_graphics/x592698999/072709-Baseball01-JPG/g1a91904eeb90ccae6242a7b202d550637b49bb388a3cbf.jpg