Link Report for Tue. 8/3 -- Mark Rogers dominates

[battlekow]

Final: @Huntsville 10, Carolina 2

Huntsville box score

So, I guess Mark Rogers likes having all of his pitches at his disposal: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, 1 WP, 5/2 GO/AO, 99 pitches, 66 strikes. That strikes-to-balls ratio is particularly solid from Rogers, and of course the strikeouts are lovely. The Stars scored three in the 1st inning and never looked back, blowing open a 4-2 game with six runs in the 7th & 8th. Milwaukee native Chris Nowak doubled and homered, and Drew Anderson doubled twice as part of his three hits. Zelous Wheeler had two hits but committed two errors. Caleb Gindl was on three times on the strength of a single and two walks before being pinch-run for in the 8th. Brett Lawrie was 1-4 with a double and a walk.

 

Huntsville play-by-play

The offense is nice, but we're going to instead highlight Rogers' entire outing:

 

Carolina Top 1st

• Kris Negron strikes out swinging.
• Jake Kahaulelio strikes out swinging.
• Dave Sappelt flies out to right fielder Drew T. Anderson.

Carolina Top 2nd

• Devin Mesoraco reaches on fielding error by shortstop Zelous Wheeler.
• Sean Henry strikes out swinging. Wild pitch by pitcher Mark Rogers. Devin Mesoraco to 2nd.
• Coaching visit to mound.
• Eric Eymann strikes out swinging.
• Brandon Yarbrough strikes out swinging.

Carolina Top 3rd

• Carlos Mendez grounds out, catcher Dayton Buller to first baseman Chris Nowak.
• James Avery strikes out swinging.
• Kris Negron singles on a ground ball to center fielder Caleb Gindl.
• With Jake Kahaulelio batting, Kris Negron steals (30) 2nd base.
• Jake Kahaulelio walks.
• Dave Sappelt singles on a line drive to right fielder Drew T. Anderson. Kris Negron scores. Jake Kahaulelio to 3rd.
• Devin Mesoraco strikes out swinging.

Carolina Top 4th

• Sean Henry singles on a line drive to right fielder Drew T. Anderson.
• Eric Eymann grounds out, pitcher Mark Rogers to first baseman Chris Nowak. Sean Henry to 2nd.
• Brandon Yarbrough strikes out swinging.
• Carlos Mendez flies out to right fielder Drew T. Anderson.

Carolina Top 5th

• James Avery walks.
• Kris
  Negron grounds into a force out, shortstop Zelous Wheeler to second
  baseman Brett Lawrie. James Avery out at 2nd. Kris Negron to 1st.
  
• With Jake Kahaulelio batting, Kris Negron steals (31) 2nd base.
• Jake Kahaulelio strikes out swinging.
• Dave Sappelt triples (8) on a fly ball to right fielder Drew T. Anderson. Kris Negron scores.
• Coaching visit to mound.
• Devin Mesoraco grounds out, third baseman Taylor Green to first baseman Chris Nowak.

Carolina Top 6th

• Sean Henry lines out to right fielder Drew T. Anderson.
• Eric Eymann grounds out, shortstop Zelous Wheeler to first baseman Chris Nowak.
• Brandon Yarbrough strikes out swinging.

[DHonks]

not sure how accurate the minor league gamecasts are, but if the Huntsville one appeared to show a lot of pitches barely missing the strikezone

[Mass Haas]

Final: @Billings 5, Helena 3

 

Amber makes the road trip to cover the game -- nice!

 

Hamilton, Mustangs rally past Brewers

By AMBER KUEHN, Helena Independent Record

 

BILLINGS — The Helena Brewers didn’t have an answer for Billings Mustangs pitchers Tuesday night, and they certainly didn’t have an answer for second baseman Billy Hamilton.

 

The Brewers jumped out to a 3-0 advantage only to have that lead erased after an inning, and Helena managed just one hit over the final eight frames to fall 5-3 in a Pioneer League game to the Mustangs in front of 2,891 fans at Dehler Park.

 

Every player in the hosts’ lineup had a hit, but Hamilton was the one who caught Helena manager Joe Ayrault’s attention.

 

“He’s an all-around pure athlete,” Ayrault said. “He was a second rounder last year and I had the opportunity to watch him in the Gulf Coast League. He can fly around the bases and he’s starting to hit to all parts of the field. He’s the most exciting player in this league to watch, he’s a tick above the rest.”

 

The speedy Hamilton was a big reason for Billings’ victory. Hamilton ran his hitting streak to 12 games, had three of the Mustangs’ five stolen bases in the contest (he also leads the Pioneer League in thefts by a lot, 10 more than anyone else), and is hitting over .500 during his streak.

 

Billings starter Daniel Tuttle started slowly, and Helena, typically a late-inning team, came out hot. Shea Vucinich reached base in the first with a one-out double, bringing Cody Hawn to the plate. Hawn hit a hard shot that went over the left field wall and appeared to fall foul, but the ball was ruled a home run. Helena’s designated hitter rounded the bases to a chorus of boos.

 

“Honestly, I didn’t see it,” Hawn said of the two-run shot. “When I first hit it I thought it was fair, but I thought it was a double; I didn’t think I hit it well enough to be out. When I got halfway down to first I thought it might be foul the way it was curving, but I turned around and they signaled fair.”

 

Brent Dean would hit a two-out, RBI double later in the inning to score Mike Walker. But Billings had an answer of its own.

 

Hamilton had a leadoff single on Jose Oviedo’s first pitch of the game, and it was all downhill from there for the Brewers. Devin Lohman and Oliver Santos both had RBI singles and Dominic D’Anna added an RBI groundout to quickly tie the game.

 

“It’s frustrating,” Hawn said of the Mustangs’ quick comeback. “We felt like we came out doing what we wanted to do, swinging the bats early, then they answered. Baseball’s all about momentum. When you get three and then they come out and score three it hits you in the gut.”

 

Tuttle would settle down and earn the win, striking out seven. Billings (2-2) used two relievers, and neither allowed a Brewers’ baserunner.

 

Oviedo was tagged with the loss, but the Brewers had a bright spot out of the bullpen in Rob Currie, who hurled 3 2/3 innings of shutout ball, facing the minimum. He gave up no hits and walked one, which was later erased on a double play.

 

“Currie was excellent in relief,” Ayrault said. “(Carlos) George played solid defense, (Billings) just did an excellent job getting hits tonight.”

 

The first inning provided plenty of excitement for fans, with a couple of runs coming home involving collisions. When Walker scored the Brewers’ final run, he plowed into Billings catcher Tucker Barnhardt, who was unable to come up with the ball. The play would be mirrored half an inning later, when Hamilton came crashing into Helena catcher Dean. John Dishon had a solid throw from right field, but Dean was unable to apply the tag at home.

 

Watch video of the fair /foul home run and Brent Dean's home plate collision in this report from Billings.

 

“It was an exciting first inning,” Ayrault said. “There were two collisions at home, the home run and both teams were able to string together a bunch of hits. Those are the fun ones for the fans.”

 

Photos by BOB ZELLAR/Billings Gazette Staff

Billings catcher Tucker Barnhart loses the ball as he collides with Helena's Mike Walker (54) at Dehler Park on Tuesday.

 

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/1/e2/208/1e2208fc-9f8f-11df-a101-001cc4c03286-revisions/4c59049169572.image.jpg

 

Billings' Donald Lutz, 48, steals second as Helena's Carlos George, 7, and Shea Vuchinich, 15, lose the ball.

 

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/7/5e/daf/75edaf78-9f8f-11df-926c-001cc4c03286-revisions/4c590524348ca.image.jpg

 

More on future Reds' second baseman Billy Hamilton's big night from the Billings Gazette

 

Helena Box Score

21-year-old Venezuelan RHP Jose Oviedo finding too much of the plate, faced 21 batters -- allowed 11 base hits and two walks; Oviedo was drafted out of a Florida JUCO, so while born in Venezuela, he may have been in the States for some time...

 

Helena Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Stars match their longest winning streak of the year with blowout win

By Aaron Morse, Huntsville Stars

 

Drew Anderson tallied three hits, Mark Rogers went six strong innings, and the Huntsville Stars (22-16, 55-53) rolled to a 10-2 win over the Carolina Mudcats (18-20, 48-59) Tuesday night.

 

It’s the Stars’ fifth consecutive win, a feat they’ve accomplished only twice before in the 2010 season. With the victory the Stars move into a tie for first place atop the Southern League North Division with the Tennessee Smokies.

 

The game was close through the first six innings of action. Huntsville did jump out to a 3-0 lead against Mudcats’ starter James Avery (0-1) in the first. With one away Caleb Gindl singled to center. Zelous Wheeler followed with a single of his own and Anderson singled through the right side to load the bases. That’s when Chris Nowak laced a double down the left field line, driving in two (audio) and setting up Taylor Green who smacked a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0 Stars (audio).

 

The Mudcats chipped away at the deficit as they got one run in the third on a two-out Dave Sappelt RBI single (audio). Sappelt delivered a two-out RBI triple in the fifth to cut the Stars’ lead to one (audio).

 

But he proved to be the only Carolina hitter who could figure out Rogers. The former first round pick went six innings, scattering four hits, giving up two runs (both earned), walked only two and struck out ten. The ten strikeouts are the most by a Stars’ pitcher this season.

 

Nevertheless the game was close even after Nowak blasted his second homer as a Star in the sixth to extend the lead to 4-2 (audio).

 

That’s when Carolina’s defense fell apart. With two outs and Gindl on first via a walk, Anderson hit a blooper into shallow center field. Sappelt attempted to make a diving catch and the ball got slightly behind him. Anderson attempted to stretch the single in to a double and in his rush to try and throw Anderson out, Sappelt made a poor throw back to the infield. The ball squirted away from second base and Gindl came around to score. The error also advanced Anderson to third (audio).

 

The saying is when it rains, it pours, and the Mudcats proved that when Nowak’s routine grounder went off the leg of shortstop Kris Negron, scoring Anderson and giving the Stars a 6-2 lead (audio).

 

The good Stars offense and the bad Carolina defense continued in the eighth. With one out, Dayton Buller and pinch hitter Andy Machado singled. Brett Lawrie followed with his 25th double of the year, driving in Buller (audio). After Gindl walked, Wheeler singled to right to drive in Machado. Mike Guerrero held Lawrie at third initially, but right fielder Sean Henry’s throw to the plate sailed to the backstop, allowing Lawrie to score (audio). A sacrifice fly off the bat of Anderson completed the scoring onslaught, leaving the Stars ahead 10-2 (audio).

 

Final out for Nick Green

Huntsville looks to extend the winning streak Wednesday night and clinch the series with Carolina as well. They’ll send Amaury Rivas (10-5, 2.67 ERA) to the mound. Tune in on www.huntsvillestars.com beginning at 6:45 PM central time for the Window World Pre-Game Report.

[Mass Haas]

New sod approved for Brevard's stadium

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Lasker sharp as Rattlers silence Chiefs

By Peter Lindblad, For The Post-Crescent

Being independent and stubborn, mavericks usually like to go it alone. This one wanted all the help he could get.

 

Allowing just one unearned run, three hits and one walk in seven innings of work, Maverick Lasker throttled Peoria hitters Tuesday as the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers downed Peoria 5-1 with a gritty effort in front of a packed house of 5,765.

"I really didn't have my best stuff tonight," Lasker said. "But I threw just enough changeups to keep them off-balance and found my fastball command late in the game."

One particular heater that tailed high and tight inside to the Chiefs' Jae-Hoon Ha in the seventh inning had the Peoria outfielder completely fooled. It started off like it was headed straight down the middle, the pitch took a sharp right turn into Ha, who swung at it just to protect himself. The weak pop-up dropped right in front of Lasker, who threw Ha out at first on a contested bang-bang play.

"Yeah, usually I have a lot more movement," Lasker said.

Retiring the side in the first, second and fifth innings, Lasker held the Chiefs in check by getting Peoria to fly out 12 times out of the 21 outs he recorded before reliever Matt Costello came in and tossed two spotless innings to get the save.

"I don't know if it's usual or not, but that's what was working for him tonight," said Timber Rattlers manager Jeff Isom. "He used the whole field."

Some sparkling defense by left fielder Khris Davis helped keep the Chiefs off the base paths.

In the top of the fourth inning, after Wisconsin had scored three runs to go on top 4-1, two coming on a Chris Dennis double, Davis crashed into the wall to take a hit away from Logan Watkins. Then in the sixth, Davis, on a dead run, dove to his right to snare what seemed to be a sure bloop single off the bat of Hak-Ju Lee.

"I told him after one of the innings, 'Great job, but I expect that out of you,' " Lasker said.

About the first of Davis' gems, Isom said, "That was when momentum was still in the swing, and I thought once he caught that one, things settled in pretty nice for Lasker on the mound. (Davis) probably had eight of the fly balls. The good thing about Khris Davis is he's struggling, that's no secret. He's struggling on the offensive side of the ball right now, but he's separating the offense from his defense and he continues to go out there and work his tail off in left field, not letting his at-bats carry over to the defensive side."

As for Lasker, redemption came with the victory. His last time out against Peoria, on July 28, he allowed five runs on five hits in five innings in the Chiefs' 8-3 win. This time, Lasker, whose record now stands at 7-4 with an ERA of 3.26, didn't give an inch.

"He located some off-speed stuff and he located his fastball as well, and he got some good defensive plays behind him," Isom said. "And he forced them to put the ball in play, executed the game plan and got out there and pumped the strike zone."

With some timely hitting from Dennis and Kentrail Davis, who combined to go four-for-six and drive in all five runs, this was the kind of all-around performance Isom would love to see more of as the Rattlers, now 17-20 in the second half of the season and 43-62 overall, make a push for a playoff spot in the Western Division wildcard race.

[SpaceCoastBaseball]

Check out the box score for last night's Jupiter - Brevard County game, Darnell Coles is listed as one of the umpires:

 

http://web.minorleaguebas...10_08_03_jupafa_breafa_1

 

The webcast is now on www.spacecoastbaseball.com.

[Mass Haas]

Manatees lose series finale, 7-6

By Frank Longobardo / Brevard County Manatees

 

VIERA, Fla. - One pitch was ultimately the difference on Tuesday night at Space Coast Stadium as Jupiter's Kevin Mattison crushed a grand slam to right field in the sixth inning off of Trey Watten to lead the Hammerheads to a 7-6 victory over the Brevard County Manatees.

 

The grand slam came after the Manatees (50-57, 23-15) rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the first inning, to take a 4-3 lead in the third. Josh Prince, Erik Komatsu and Sergio Miranda all had RBI singles in the inning. for the Manatees.

 

Brevard County starting pitcher Kyle Heckathorn went five innings and gave up three of the six hits that he allowed and all three runs, in that first frame.

 

The top of the first was prolonged even more when home plate umpire Roberto Medina was struck underneath the chin by the back swing of a Jupiter hitter. Medina left the game and both managers agreed to have Brewers roving hitting instructor Darnell Coles work as the base umpire and Matt Moisan moved behind the plate.

 

Watten came in for Heckathorn in the sixth and allowed three consecutive base runners to start the inning. Jupiter manager Ron Hassey was ejected by Moisan after he argued that there was obstruction by Manatees third baseman Peter Fatse, when Watten's throw to second got past Fatse, but Hassey argued that he was in the way of Thomas Hickman and that prevented him from scoring.

 

For the Hammerheads the arugment wouldn't matter, as Mattison tattooed the 2-0 offering by Watten over the right field wall for a grand slam to give Jupiter (36-69, 14-23) a 7-4 lead. The Manatees escaped the inning, not allowing anymore runs.

 

Brevard County wasn't out of it yet as a sacrifice fly by Miranda and a RBI single by Scott Krieger made it a 7-6 game. The tying run was on second with two outs, but Sean McCraw flied out to end the inning. The Manatees would not have another runner reach the rest of the game as the Hammerheads took three out of four games in Viera.

 

Angel Salome had three hits, while Prince, Miranda and Kjeldgaard had two each. Miranda also drove in two runs and McCraw had Brevard County's only extra-base hit.

 

The Manatees will look to regroup and hit the road for an eight-game road trip. It will start with a four-game set against the Bradenton Marauders beginning on Wednesday at 7:05 PM (6:05 Central). In the series opener, Cody Scarpetta (6-8, 3.59) will take the mound for the Manatees, while the Marauders will counter with Nathan Adcock (8-6, 3.63).

[Mass Haas]

Reminder as you plan your minor league day, the Rattlers audio begins at 11:45 AM Central, although I imagine a few of you will also keep an eye on Wrigley Field, despite the lack of playoff impliations there. We'll have Wednesday's Link Report up just in time for the Wisconsin game.

[Ando Calrissian]

not sure how accurate the minor league gamecasts are, but if the Huntsville one appeared to show a lot of pitches barely missing the strikezone

Listening to the game, there were several instances where it sounded like Rogers thought he had strike three called on a batter only to have it called a ball. It also seemed like those moments were on breaking pitches.

[JohnBriggs12]

Rogers having a nice game, but he still is having pitch count issues. He's approaching 100 pitches in the 6th inning. We need him to get deeper into games in order to crack the 2011 rotation at some point.

66 of his 99 pitches were strikes. He's only walked 2 in each of his last couple starts and he got through 7 in one and 6 in the other. That's encouraging. You can't blame him if the opponent can't put the ball in play. 99 pitches in 6 innings coupled with 10K's isn't bad at all. The Cub rookie vs. the Brewers last night needed 122 pitches to get through 6 with 10K. Rogers is a power guy, and those guys run up pitch counts.

 

I'm hoping we get to see Rogers make at least a couple starts in Milwaukee before the season is over. If he continues to show he's commanding, I think that could happen.

[homer]

Rogers has only given up one home run this year. I wonder how many inning they'll let him throw?

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

I would think they'll let him throw up to 140 innings to build up his arm to a point where he could contribute at the major league level next year if called upon. That may be a bit progressive though.

[CheezWizHed]

He did leave the game on Saturday after being HBP twice; he was also hit twice in a game a few days before.

 

Obviously, no one respects our minor leaguers either...

[jjfanec]

Reports all year have been that batters rarely make good contact against Rogers. All he needed to do was trust his stuff a little bit more and pound the zone. Lately, he has been doing that a lot more. Maybe it has to do with him being able to use all his pitches, maybe he is just getting back in the groove at not pitching much over the past few years...it is probably a combination of both. Whatever the reason is we should be excited about his season. He really is not that old for a pitching prospect, even with the almost 3 years he lost due to injury. 64 hits in 93 innings, along with pretty much a K per inning is exciting.

[colbyjack]

I would think they'll let him throw up to 140 innings to build up his arm to a point where he could contribute at the major league level next year if called upon. That may be a bit progressive though.

 

I mentioned yesterday that Rogers is already up significantly from the 65 or so innings he threw last year, so 140 would more than double his '09 innings. While I'd like to see his arm built up to help sooner rather than later, the team has to continue to be aware of the pitch progression. I think roughly 120 would be rather progressive, as most seem to believe that an annual increase of 30 or so innings is appropriate.

[pete]

Left fielder Khris Davis helped Lasker keep the Chiefs from mounting any type of rally on the evening. He made three outstanding catches to rob Peoria hitters of extra bases

 

I thought he was a mediocre to poor defender. Am I confusing him with someone else or is he improving?

[CheezWizHed]

Hopefully he is improving, but someone "saying three outstanding catches" is rather subjective and a small sample... i.e. Did you see that great diving catch that Edmonds made in CF the other day? Doesn't matter that Gomez would have caught it without diving and it would have been a ho-hum play instead.

[MLS1965]

I'm interested to see what they'll do with Mark now...? Leave him in Huntsville till Sept call-up's....then..? move him up to Nashville, move him up to Milwaukee.? or just move him to Nashville now.