Link Report for Sun. 5/8 -- Thornburg honors his mother, Sounds pitchers embarrass theirs

[Mass Haas]

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

[Mass Haas]

Sunday's Daily Menu:

Times Central; pitchers subject to change --

 

Nashville: LHP Chase Wright at Round Rock (Rangers), 12:50 PM pre-game; 1:05 gametime; Seth McClung opposes

Live Audio Link

iPad/iPhone: Listen

MiLB.TV (for subscribers)

Huntsville: Idle

Brevard County: Idle

 

Wisconsin: RHP Tyler Thornburg at home vs. Quad Cities (Cardinals), 12:45 PM pre-game; 1:05 gametime

Live Audio Link

[Mass Haas]

Follow Sunday's action as it happens:

 

Nashville (Gameday also available)

Wisconsin

[Mass Haas]

PCL American North
	Club	W	L	PCT	GB	*ELIM #	Home	Away	L 10	Streak
	Omaha	17	12	.586	-	-	10-4	7-8	5-5	W1
	Iowa	14	15	.483	3.0	113	7-6	7-9	4-6	W1
	Memphis	10	18	.357	6.5	110	8-7	2-11	4-6	L5
	Nashville	9	19	.321	7.5	109	6-8	3-11	1-9	L6

SOU North
	Club	W	L	PCT	GB	*ELIM #	Home	Away	L 10	Streak
	Tennessee	18	12	.600	-	-	7-3	11-9	5-5	W1
	Huntsville	17	12	.586	0.5	41	10-4	7-8	4-6	W1
	Jackson	16	12	.571	1.0	41	6-7	10-5	8-2	L1
	Chattanooga	16	14	.533	2.0	39	9-11	7-3	4-6	W2
	Carolina	9	21	.300	9.0	32	7-13	2-8	4-6	L1

FSL North
	Club	W	L	PCT	GB	*ELIM #	Home	Away	L 10	Streak
	Daytona	22	8	.733	-	-	10-4	12-4	8-2	W6
	Clearwater	20	10	.667	2.0	39	11-5	9-5	8-2	W1
	Dunedin	14	16	.467	8.0	33	5-8	9-8	7-3	L1
	Lakeland	14	16	.467	8.0	33	9-7	5-9	4-6	L1
	Brevard County	10	20	.333	12.0	29	4-12	6-8	2-8	L7
	Tampa	10	20	.333	12.0	29	4-11	6-9	1-9	W1

MID Western
	Club	W	L	PCT	GB	*ELIM #	Home	Away	L 10	Streak
	Burlington	21	7	.750	-	-	10-2	11-5	8-2	W3
	Cedar Rapids	19	10	.655	2.5	-	9-5	10-5	6-4	W1
	Beloit	16	11	.593	4.5	41	10-5	6-6	6-4	L2
	Peoria	15	14	.517	6.5	38	7-4	8-10	4-6	W1
	Quad Cities	14	15	.483	7.5	37	5-10	9-5	5-5	W2
	Wisconsin	11	15	.423	9.0	37	5-9	6-6	5-5	L1
	Clinton	9	21	.300	13.0	31	4-13	5-8	4-6	L1
	Kane County	9	21	.300	13.0	31	5-11	4-10	2-8	L2

[Mass Haas]

Probably like many, I'll DVR the big league boys today and will enjoy the day with family.

 

Look for the respective media notes for the two minor league games here and here later on.

 

Eric will be back some time this evening with recaps. It was nice to re-visit the post-game side of things for a day, but Eric's fantastic and much-appreciated efforts allow me to maintain some semblance of life away from the Link Report http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif.

[TheCrew07]

I just looked at the Nashville boxscore and didn't get past the score, my goodness.

 

Thornburg was pretty awesome.

[battlekow]

Final: @Wisconsin 3, Quad Cities 0

Wisconsin returns the favor; Shut out the Bandits

Chris Mehring/Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

GRAND CHUTE, WI – Less than 24 hours after the Quad Cities River Bandits shut out the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, three Rattlers pitchers combined on a 4-hit shutout of the Bandits. Wisconsin beat Quad Cities 3-0 on Sunday afternoon at Time Warner Cable Field. Tyler Thornburg tossed six scoreless frames and struck out eight for his second win of the season. Eric Marzec and Greg Holle pitched the final three frames to close out the victory.

All the offense Wisconsin (12-15) needed came in the third inning. Reggie Keen tripled with one out. An RBI grounder by Nick Shaw drove Keen home for a 1-0 lead.

Cody Hawn homered, his second of the season, to lead off the Rattlers fourth inning. Later in the frame, Tyler Roberts drove in the third run of the game with a sacrifice fly and Wisconsin was up 3-0.

Quad Cities (14-16) got a double from Greg Garcia to start the game and a two out single from Cody Stanley in the first inning. But, Thornburg did not allow a River Bandit past second base. Thornburg walked two, hit a batter, and gave up just one more hit in the game.

Marzec worked around a walk in the seventh and a hit in the eighth to keep the River Bandits off the scoreboard.

Then, Holle pitched a perfect ninth for his fifth save in five attempts this season.

The final game of the series between the Rattlers and River Bandits is Monday evening at Time Warner Cable Field. Matt Miller (1-3, 4.34) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Trevor Rosenthal (1-3, 3.00) gets the start for Quad Cities. Game time is 6:35pm.

Monday night is a bonus Bang for Your Buck Night with soda, beer, and hot dogs available for $1.

If you can’t make it out to the ballpark, tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:15pm.

Wisconsin box score

Thornburg was indeed pretty awesome. He's throwing a pretty good amount of strikes (64 in 103 pitches). He went six innings for the second straight start, and this time he brought the strikeouts along. One minor quibble: with Thornburg allowing so few hits, it really doesn't give the outfielders much of a chance to pad their assist totals. Hope Hawn is slowly heating up and at-'em balls from earlier in the year are now being hit where they ain't. Greg Hopkins had two hits, and TJ Mittelstaedt and Mike Walker each drew two free passes. Nice to see Marzec turn in another solid, healthy-sounding outing after his DL stint.

Wisconsin play-by-play

[battlekow]

Final: @Round Rock 18, Nashville 9

Teagarden Powers Express To 18-9 Rout Of Sounds

Nashville Sounds

ROUND ROCK, Texas - Catcher Taylor Teagarden belted three home runs and drove in seven RBIs to power the Round Rock Express to an 18-9 romp over the Nashville Sounds on Sunday afternoon at The Dell Diamond.

The loss was the seventh in a row for the Sounds (9-20), who fell to 3-12 in road contests this season.

Teagarden - who became the first opposing player to hit three home runs against Sounds pitching in a single game since Nashville joined the Pacific Coast League in 1998 - did all of his damage in the early part of the contest, swatting a home run in three consecutive innings from the second through the fourth. He belted a solo shot in the second before delivering three-run blasts in the third and fourth. The backstop now has five home runs and 11 RBIs on the year.

Dating back to the final two innings of Saturday night's game, the Express offense scored in nine consecutive frames against Sounds pitching before being blanked in their final inning at the plate today.

The 18 Express runs marked a franchise record-high for Round Rock and were the most allowed by Nashville pitchers in 2011, one short of the club record of 19 runs permitted on three occasions (most recently last summer). The nine-run margin of defeat matched the largest suffered by the Sounds this season.

Mat Gamel, Brendan Katin, and Mike Rivera all homered for Nashville in the losing effort. The three longballs matched the most by Sounds batters in a single game this season (also on April 12).

Round Rock opened the game by taking a first-inning lead against the Sounds for the third straight time in the series.

The Express jumped out to the early lead against Nashville starter Chase Wright, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Ex-Sound Brad Nelson drew a one-out, bases-loaded walk from Wright to force home Omar Quintanilla with the game's first run. Another former Sound, 2010 team MVP Luis Cruz, followed with an RBI single to center that made it a 2-0 contest.

Third baseman Taylor Green halved the Sounds' deficit to 2-1 when he rattled a two-out double around the right field corner to plate Gamel, who had opened the frame by drawing a four-pitch walk from Round Rock starter (and former Sound) Seth McClung.

Round Rock responded immediately, tacking on two more runs against Wright in the home half of the frame to increase its advantage to 4-1. Teagarden, in his first at-bat back with the club after being sent down by Texas, mashed a one-out solo homer to right-center off Wright. The blast was the backstop's third longball of the season. Later in the inning, Quintanilla singled to left, advanced to second on a Wright wild pitch, and came around to score on Brian Barden's two-out RBI single to left.

Teagarden (3-for-4) struck again in the third, crushing a 3-0 Wright fastball over the wall in deep center for his second home run of the afternoon. The blast increased the Round Rock to lead to 7-1. After Wright retired the first two batters of the inning, he hit Doug Deeds with a pitch then allowed a Matt Kata single before falling behind Teagarden and ultimately surrendering the homer.

Wright (0-3) dropped his second start of the year for the Sounds after surrendering seven runs (six earned) on seven hits over just three innings of work.

Gamel continued his recent hot hitting in the fourth when he belted a one-our solo homer to right off McClung, his fourth big fly of the year and third in the past two games. Nashville tacked on another run later in the inning when Anderson Machado's two-out single to right plated Brett Carroll to make it a 7-3 contest.

Again, Round Rock had an immediate answer and then some for the Sounds' rally, batting around in the bottom of the fourth to plate six runs off Sounds reliever Jim Henderson to stretch the Express lead to 13-3. Teagarden delivered the big blow in the frame, walloping a massive three-run homer to left-center with two outs in the inning.

The high-scoring affair continued in the fifth when Katin hit the longest home run of the day by any player, launching a hanging McClung slider well past the wall in left-center for his team-leading eighth home run of the season. The two-run shot, which drew the Sounds within 13-5, also scored Eric Farris, who opened the inning with a single.

For the third time on the day in the bottom of the fifth, Round Rock answered a Nashville score in the top of an inning with a rally of their own in the home half. After the Express put runners on the corners with a walk and single to start the frame, Tracy lifted a sacrifice fly to center that chased Henderson and made it a 14-5 game. Henderson gave up seven runs in his 1 1/3 innings of work on the afternoon.

The Round Rock offense didn't slow down, adding a run in the sixth when Endy Chavez blooped an RBI single to left off Justin James to bring home Deeds for a 15-5 advantage.

Sidearming right-hander Sean Green made his Sounds debut in the seventh and gave up singles to four of the first five batters he faced, resulting in three more runs that upped the Express lead to 18-5. Green worked the final two frames for Nashville, allowing three runs on four hits.

The Nashville offense didn't surrender without a fight in the late innings as the visitors plated four runs over the final two frames.

Rivera (2-for-4) belted a three-run homer to left off Express reliever Chris Mobley in the top of the eighth inning, the Nashville backstop's third roundtripper of the year.

In the ninth, Katin doubled off the top of the center field wall with two outs against Express reliever Yoshinori Tateyama then came around to score on a Gamel opposite-field RBI single to left to bring the score to its final 18-9 standing.

Jordan Brown went 1-for-5 for Nashville to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. Sounds outfielder Caleb Gindl went 0-for-4 on the afternoon to snap his longest hit streak of the year at six games.

McClung (2-0) picked up the victory against his former team after allowing five runs on nine hits over six frames of action.

The Sounds will attempt to avoid their second consecutive series sweep when the clubs wrap up the series with a 12:05 p.m. finale on Monday afternoon. Nashville right-hander Amaury Rivas (3-2, 2.83) will make the start and face rehabbing Round Rock right-hander Tommy Hunter, who will make his first Triple-A appearance of the year.

Nashville box score

Well. At least they didn't score 20. Henderson has been quite bad, allowing two or more runs in four of his last five games; his ERA now sits at 11.08 on the year. Gamel, on the other hand, is now hitting .316/.386/.518, which is about a billion points of OPS higher than the big-league team lately. Katin's doing his part too, running his line to .265/.351/.721. Farris and Taylor Green each had two hits; Gindl went hitless but drew a walk.

Nashville play-by-play

[battlekow]

Express' Teagarden hits three homers

Josh Jackson/Special to MLB.com

Taylor Teagarden obviously isn't moping about his return to the Pacific Coast League. He's too busy bashing home runs.

Two days after he was optioned to Triple-A, Teagarden went yard in three consecutive innings and collected seven RBIs on Sunday, powering the Round Rock Express to an 18-8 romp over Nashville Sounds.

"I don't know how it was working out for me today, but it's nuts," Teagarden said. "It was just one of these crazy days. Everything went my way."

The 27-year-old backstop started the year with Round Rock, homering in consecutive tilts and hitting .389 in six games before getting call up by the Rangers. He went 0-for-4 in two big league games and returned to the Express when Neftali Felix came off the disabled list.

"I've been swinging the bat pretty good since start of the season," Teagarden said. "I got some good pitches to hit and some fastball counts, and I scored up on the ball pretty good today."

It was Teagarden's first three-homer game as a pro and his first multiple-homer game since going yard twice in the California League on July 24, 2007.

Facing Sounds left-hander Chase Wright with one out in the second inning, Teagarden drilled a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right-center field for a solo shot. He also took Wright over the center-field fence for a three-run homer in the third.

An inning later, Teagarden stepped in against reliever Jim Henderson with runners on first and second and two outs. Was he thinking homer No. 3?

"No, because I never thought I'd ever do it," the University of Texas product said. "After the first two, I thought, 'Wow, that's a great start. Now let's just try to stay on track.'"

With a 3-1 count, he got an inside heater.

"I don't even know how I hit that one out. The guy was trying to come in on me and I just kind of reacted to it and got the barrel on it."

Teagarden pulled the ball and didn't need to wait to see it clear the left-field wall to know it was gone.

"I hit that one better than the first two, to be honest with you," he said.

He walked in his next plate appearance and grounded into a forceout in the seventh.

Teagarden admitted it was especially nice to have a good game in his return to Triple-A.

"I mean, yeah, it feels good for myself," he said. "I just want to come down here and play as good as I can and build up as much confidence as I can. I can't really control all the decisions that are made in terms of my career in the big leagues, but I can play as hard as I can.

"I want to be ready whenever that time comes when I have the chance to go back up. Circumstances are a little different with the Rangers and all the catching depth up there this year, but I feel like I can play up there."

Still, he doesn't feel any resentment about playing in the PCL.

"I want that [big league] opportunity, but I'm not going to be a 'me' guy," he said. "I'm with the Rangers and I want whatever's best for the team."

[battlekow]

Chris Mehring's postgame thoughts include the note that Tyler Thornburg?was up to 97 mph today.

[Mass Haas]

Video of the first two Teagarden blasts

[Mass Haas]

Reminder that we'll have Monday's Link Report up early on as we hope to provide Nashville moral support in their 12:05 PM contest, 11:50 AM pre-game. RHP Amaury Rivas on the rubber.

[Mass Haas]

Mother's Day is special for players, fans at Timber Rattlers game

by Tim Froberg, Appleton Post-Crescent

GRAND CHUTE — Every time Jackie Keen applied stain remover to the dirt-caked baseball uniforms of her son, Reggie, she would shake her head and wonder why he seemed determined to make her laundry chores so difficult.

 

But Jackie would always laugh it off, knowing how important the game was to her son.

 

Jackie's days of washing Reggie's uniform are long gone, but her close relationship with her son is for keeps.

 

The Danville, Va., woman was one of the many moms who attended the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers' 3-0 win over Quad Cities Sunday at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

 

And Jackie received a Mother's Day present she will never forget.

 

In addition to throwing out the first pitch as an honored guest in a pregame ceremony, Jackie and her husband, William, watched with pride as Reggie, the Timber Rattlers' fleet center fielder, played a key role in the victory. Reggie tripled and scored the game's first run in the third inning. He also made a couple of nice running catches in the outfield, including one that halted a Quad Cities scoring opportunity.

 

What made things even more special for the Keens was that the weekend marked the first time that Jackie and William have seen their oldest son play professional baseball. The Keens arrived in town Friday morning and immediately drove to Beloit to watch Reggie and the Rattlers play a road game, before settling into their seats at Fox Cities Stadium to catch the back-to-back contests against Quad Cities.

 

"It's the best Mother's Day present I could ask for," said Jackie. "When we booked the trip, I didn't even realize that Sunday was Mother's Day, but then I was like, 'What a great opportunity.' He didn't know we were coming to the Beloit game and we tried to surprise him, but he saw me and just came running at me, shouting, 'There's my mom.' "

 

Reggie signed with the Milwaukee Brewers organization as an undrafted free agent last June, but his summer was cut short by a season-ending wrist injury before Jackie and William could travel to Helena (Mont.) to watch him play.

 

"It meant the world to me when they said they were coming up here to see me play pro ball for the first time," said Reggie, who leads the team with 12 stolen bases. "I was looking forward to this weekend for a long time. My parents have always been there for me with their love and support. I could always go to my mom for any type of problem I had. No matter what, she was always there for me. I love her to death."

 

Jackie, a secretary at a dental office in Danville, and William were always regulars at Reggie's baseball games going back to his Little League days.

 

"I'd be washing his baseball uniform all the time and there would be dirt all over my laundry room and I'd tell Reggie, 'Oh my gosh, what are you trying to do to me," said Jackie with a chuckle. "I'd be spraying and spaying trying to get the stains out and I'd be thinking, 'What is this all for? But doing all that laundry paid off."

 

Jackie Keen wasn't the only mom enjoying a sunny Mother's Day afternoon at the ballpark. Mary Hansen of Greenville brought her mom, Evelyn Bartlett of New London, to the game along with her own daughters, Hannah and Abbey, and her husband, Chris. The group first attended a Mother's Day brunch prior to the game. The 250-seat brunch was a sellout.

 

"I'm a Brewers fan and I watch them on TV, but this is the first time I've been to a baseball game," said Bartlett, 87. "The brunch was delicious and they're giving me gifts and it's a beautiful day. I couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day gift."

 

Hansen added: "We usually do the traditional Mother's Day brunch at a restaurant, but we found out about this and we all love baseball, so we thought we'd combine both of them."

 

Brooke Tank of Black Creek and her husband, Sam, were also enjoying a family outing on Mother's Day at the ballpark with their sons, Spencer, 5, and Joe, 3.

 

"It was actually my idea," said Tank. "The weather was so nice and we had some ticket vouchers, so we figured it would be a nice way to spend Mother's Day."

 

In addition to the brunch, the Timber Rattlers wore special jerseys to promote Breast Cancer Awareness. A silent auction was held during the game and the autographed jerseys were awarded to the highest bidders. Proceeds of the brunch and silent auction will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

 

Other items raffled off included Brewers tickets, autographed pink bats and hats and Timber Rattlers gift cards.

 

The day was a huge success for the Rattlers, capped by the pitching of Tyler Thornburg, Eric Marzec and Greg Holle, who combined on a four-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts.

 

"Thorny (Thornburg) was able to get ahead of hitters early and he kind of rolled from there," said Wisconsin manager Matt Erickson. "I thought the tempo of all our pitchers was very good."

 

A full photo gallery is available via the lead link in this post.

 

Wisconsin center fielder Reggie Keen gives his mother, Jackie, a kiss after she throws out the first pitch at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium on Sunday. / Post-Crescent photo by Ron Page

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[JohnBriggs12]

Rivera continues to rake. Meanwhile Nieves is hitting .152. I'm not saying, but I'm just saying shouldn't they have at least given Mike a true shot in spring training?