Link Report for Thurs. 5/24 -- Fiers and Thornburg State Their Cases to Brewer Brass (and this year's debut of "Randomness")

[TheCrew07]

I'm posting this almost two hours after the earlier posts, but the Wisconsin WNAM audio link is working now (5-5 game in the 5th). The problem you described earlier has been an issue off and on recently.

 

Chris always appreciates a tweet @CMehring or an email to RattlerRadio at TimberRattlers.com to give him a heads-up when you encounter a technical issue. He'll contact engineers to investigate and correct.

 

I don't have a Twitter account and wasn't aware he checks the email during the game, my bad there.

[TheCrew07]

Final: Wisconsin 9, Quad Cities 6

 

 

Wisconsin Box Score

It's been awhile since I posted this... BEAT the Cards! Drew Gagnon has hit a cold stretch here allowing 10 baserunners and 5 runs in his 4 innings, though he did strike out 5. My boy Tyler Cravy came to pitch tonight though, easily his best performance of the season as he went 5IP, allowing 1ER, on 3H, 1HR, no BBs, while strike out 8! Outings like this have kept my hope alive for him, hopefully he can channel this and keep it going.

 

Gregory Hopkins had a night, 4-5 with a double, about the only thing he hasn't done this year is walk, he only has 3 on the season. Max Walla went 2-5, he's been hovering in the mid .200s for a while now, get hot Max. John Dishon also recorded a 2-4 effort and stole a base, pushing his AVE up over .200 again.

 

 

Wisconsin Play By Play

A Tyler Cravy salute!

Quad Cities Bottom of the 5th

• Pitcher Change: Tyler Cravy replaces Drew Gagnon.
  Roberto De La Cruz strikes out swinging.
  David Medina strikes out swinging.
  Virgil Hill strikes out swinging.

 

Quad Cities Bottom of the 6th

• Nick Martini strikes out swinging.
  Neal Pritchard strikes out swinging.
  Luis Mateo hit by pitch.
  With Matt Williams batting, Luis Mateo steals (12) 2nd base.
  Matt Williams called out on strikes

.

 

Quad Cities Bottom of the 7th

• Tyler Rahmatulla grounds out, third baseman Gregory Hopkins to first baseman Nick Ramirez.
  Juan Castillo pops out to second baseman Carlos George.
  Roberto De La Cruz pops out to first baseman Nick Ramirez.

 

Quad Cities Bottom of the 8th

• David Medina flies out to left fielder John Dishon.
  Virgil Hill grounds out, pitcher Tyler Cravy to first baseman Nick Ramirez.
  Nick Martini singles on a line drive to right fielder Max Walla.
  Neal Pritchard singles on a line drive to right fielder Max Walla. Nick Martini to 2nd.
  Luis Mateo pops out to first baseman Nick Ramirez.

 

Quad Cities Bottom of the 9th

• Matt Williams flies out to left fielder John Dishon.
  Tyler Rahmatulla homers (3) on a fly ball to left field.
  Juan Castillo strikes out swinging.
  Roberto De La Cruz strikes out swinging.

[TheCrew07]

Wisconsin beats Bandits to claim sixth straight win

By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

 

DAVENPORT, IA - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers claimed their sixth straight win with a 9-6 victory over the Quad Cities River Bandits on Thursday night at Modern Woodmen Park. It was probably just a coincidence that Wisconsin broke open a tie game with four runs in the sixth inning. Offensively, Greg Hopkins led the way with four hits and three RBI and Yadiel Rivera cracked a huge home run. Reliever Tyler Cravy worked five innings in relief and struck out eight to get the win.

 

Hopkins put the Rattlers (30-17) in front with a two-out, RBI single in the top of the first inning.

 

Wisconsin barely got the ball out of the infield in the second inning, but managed to score three runs to push their lead to 4-0. The Rattlers loaded the bases with no outs on a walk, an infield single, and a bunt single. Max Walla's infield chopper was good enough to drive in the first run. Nick Ramirez hit a flyball to shallow left-center. Shortstop Matt Williams made a sliding catch with his back to the infield. That allowed John Dishon, the runner at third, to tag and score on the short fly out. Hopkins was next and his double plated the third run of the inning for a 4-0 lead.

 

Quad Cities (21-25) cut Wisconsin's lead in half when Juan Castillo doubled home two runs with two outs in the bottom of the third inning.

 

Hopkins struck again in the top of the fourth inning. His two-out RBI single knocked in Jason Rogers to give Wisconsin a 5-2 lead.

 

But, Rattlers starting pitcher Drew Gagnon scuffled through the bottom of the fourth and the River Bandits tied the game. Gagnon walked a pair of batters early in the inning and allowed an RBI single to Luis Mateo. Gagnon issued his third walk of the frame to load the bases. Then, Tyler Rahmatulla singled in a pair of runs to tie the game 5-5.

 

Wisconsin retook the lead in the sixth inning by scoring four runs and receiving a little help from the Quad Cities defense. Walla was at first with one out when Ramirez sent a grounder to short for what appeared to be an inning ending double play. But, the ball was booted and the inning continued with a single by Hopkins, his fourth hit of the night, to load the bases against reliever Willy Paulino and bring River to the plate.

 

Paulino's first pitch to Rivera went to the screen and Walla scored on the wild pitch to put the Rattlers in front. Paulino's next pitch was crushed over the left field wall by Rivera for a three-run homer and a 9-5 lead. Rivera's homer, his fifth of the season, extended his hitting streak to a ten games.

 

Cravy took over for Gagnon in the bottom of the fifth inning and struck out the side in order. He also struck out the side in the sixth after the Rattlers took the lead. Cravy pitched a perfect seventh and had to work around a couple of two out singles in the eighth, but maintained the four run cushion.

 

Rahmatulla hit a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out. But, Cravy dialed it up a bit and struck out the final two Quad Cities hitters to nail down the win.

 

The Rattlers maintained their two game lead in the Midwest League's Western Division over second place Beloit. The Snappers beat Cedar Rapids earlier in the day on Thursday.

 

On a historical note, Wisconsin is thirteen games over .500 for the first time since they ended the 2005 season 76-63.

 

Wisconsin wraps up the Quad Cities leg of their 13-day road trip on Friday night. Chad Thompson (1-1, 6.48) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Dail Villanueva (3-2, 4.07) is set to start for the River Bandits. Game time is 7:00pm.

 

Tune in for the broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or timberrattlers.com starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:40pm.

 

HOME RUNS:

WIS:

Yadiel Rivera (5th, 2 on in 6th inning off Willy Paulino, 1 out)

 

QC:

Tyler Rahmatulla (3rd, 0 on in 9th inning off Tyler Cravy, 1 out)

 

WP: Tyler Cravy (1-1)

LP: Willy Paulino (1-3)

 

TIME: 3:01

ATTN: 2,347

[Tedaldtada]

So this BC game got suspended with the 'Tees being no-hit through 4 innings? Saved by the suspension...

[Tedaldtada]

For some reason, I get the feeling that Mass Haas is pulling for Michael Fiers. ;-) I'm trying to stay up for the finish, but I am fading fast after this eventful day of mine. Get some hits, Sounds! 5-5 in the 8th.

 

Edit: Annnnnd they just scored in the top of the 8th. 6-5 good guys.

[Mass Haas]

I'm trying to stay up for the finish, but I am fading fast after this eventful day of mine.

 

Get some ZZZ's, sir, I'll post the Sounds detailed game summary and audio in the AM. Thanks.

[Tedaldtada]

Get some ZZZ's, sir, I'll post the Sounds detailed game summary and audio in the AM. Thanks.

 

Thanks Mass!

 

*********

 

Attention Aspiring Link Reporters:

 

I am heading back up north this upcoming weekend. I could really use some help filing Link Reports for Brevard County and Nashville on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.

 

It is really quite fun and a great platform to express your thoughts on some of the youngsters.

 

Last time up there (Iron Mountain, MI) we discovered my wife, via Verizon, gets some 3G service. The problem is that I would be writing with her iPhone, making the process a bit more tedious.

 

So if there is anyone who could help me out some of those nights, please let me know.

 

Thanks!

 

Note: TheCrew07 has selflessly offered to do all four reports each night. He is the man. But, c'mon guys and gals! Can't someone take one of the nights at least? I know he would really appreciate it and I certainly would too. Let him know or post something here if you're interested.

[homer]

I'm out of pocket all weekend otherwise I would try to make up for my lackluster debut from a week ago.

[Mass Haas]

Sounds Edge 51s In 10 Innings In Series Finale

Nashville Overcomes Early Four-Run Deficit To Earn Series Split

Nashville Sounds

 

LAS VEGAS - The Nashville Sounds plated a run in the top of the tenth inning to record a come-from-behind 7-6 victory over the Las Vegas 51s on Thursday evening at Cashman Field in the finale of a four-game series.

 

With the victory, Nashville (18-28) notched consecutive road wins for the first time all season and gained a split of the four-game set with the 51s. The Sounds finished 4-4 on their West Coast road trip.

 

Nashville, which notched its eighth last at-bat victory of the year, plated the winner in the top of the tenth against Jim Hoey. After Andy Gonzalez drew an inning-opening walk, Jordan Brown and Eric Farris reached on consecutive bunt singles to load the bases with one out. Following a Hainley Statia strikeout, Martin Maldonado hit an RBI fielder's choice to third to plate Gonzalez with the go-ahead run (audio).

 

The 51s threatened in the bottom of the tenth, putting the first two men on base with a pair of singles against Jim Henderson. The Sounds right-hander recovered to strike out the next two batters in succession before inducing a game-ending flyout to left-center from Travis d'Arnaud, who had homered twice already in the game.

 

Henderson (3-1) picked up the win with two scoreless innings of work and ran his scoreless streak to 24.0 consecutive innings to open the year for Nashville. Hoey (0-2) took the loss after giving up the winning run in his lone inning of action for Las Vegas.

 

Red-hot Brooks Conrad went 3-for-4 on the night with three RBIs and another homer for Nashville to extend his hitting streak to 14 games, which includes an extra-base hit in each of his last eight contests. The veteran is batting .418 in 19 games this season.

 

Las Vegas got off to a quick start against Sounds starter Mike Fiers, plating four runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning including a pair of back-to-back homers.

 

Anthony Gose led off with an infield single and Adeiny Hechavarria drew a walk to get things started. After Gose advanced to third on a passed ball, he trotted home with the night's first run when Fiers committed a balk on a pickoff attempt.

 

Adam Lind then belted his third home run of the series, a mammoth two-run shot to right on a 3-1 fastball from Fiers. d'Arnaud followed with a wind-aided solo homer to right, his eighth longball of the season.

 

Conrad brought Nashville back within a run in the third when he extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a three-run homer to center off Las Vegas left-hander Aaron Laffey. The two-out blast, Conrad's eighth of the year and sixth in his last seven games, plated Logan Schafer and Maldonado to reduce the Sounds' deficit to 4-3 (audio).

 

Fiers, who took a no-decision after tossing a season-high 104 pitches over seven innings, recovered nicely after his rough start by retiring 19 of his final 20 hitters faced. Included in the stretch was a Sounds season-best 15 straight hitters retired from the final out of the first frame through the first two batters of the sixth inning, when d'Arnaud ended that run by slugging his second home run of the evening, a two-out solo homer to right-center that upped the Las Vegas lead to 5-3.

 

Nashville knotted the contest at 5-5 with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning. Erick Almonte led off with an infield single and advanced to second on third baseman Mike McCoy's throwing error on the play. Farris followed with an RBI single to center to pull the Sounds back within one at 5-4. Later in the frame, Schafer ripped a two-out, game-tying single to right to plate Statia (audio), who had reached on a fielder's choice then stole second to get into scoring position.

 

Gonzalez gave Nashville its first lead of the night at 6-5 in the top of the eighth inning when his second double of the game drove in Conrad (audio), who had opened the inning with a single to greet 51s reliever Jerry Gil. The pair of two-baggers extended Gonzalez's season-best hitting streak to eight games.

 

The back-and-forth scoring continued in the home half of the eighth when Las Vegas posted back-to-back doubles off Sounds reliever Rob Wooten to knot the score once again at 6-6. With one out, Anthony Gose hit a ball to right and hustled to second for a two-bagger as Caleb Gindl was slow to play the ball. Hechavarria followed with a liner to left that was just missed by a diving Conrad, bringing Gose plateward and chasing Wooten from the contest. Victor Garate came on for Nashville and got out of the inning with no further damage to keep it deadlocked.

 

Nashville was unable to cash in on a two-out, bases-loaded opportunity in the top of the ninth as Las Vegas reliever Chad Beck induced an inning-ending flyout from pinch-hitter Corey Patterson to stifle the attempted Nashville rally.

 

The Sounds return home to Music City on Friday to host the Round Rock Express (AAA-Rangers) in the 7:05 p.m. opener of a four-game series. Right-hander Seth McClung (1-4, 5.12) will toe the rubber for Nashville and face Round Rock left-hander Martin Perez (3-4, 5.72), the Texas Rangers' top pitching prospect.

 

Nashville Box Score

 

Nashville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Your most nutritious two-and-a-half-minutes each day -- the time you take to digest:

 

Rattler Radio's Nine After Nine

[Mass Haas]

Randomness:

 

Yes, that was a fun night -- another all-victory night, back -to-back, even if it was 3-0 instead of 5-0.

 

Stick with our affiliate announcers for full broadcasts when you can, but it's pretty easy to follow box scores and sample the audio choices we link to at critical junctures, especially when the big boys are idle. Within a single hour, I was able to join Chris for the critical mid-game rally that broke open a 5-5 contest, saw that Huntsville was coming down to the wire and caught Alex's closing call there, and then picked up with Jeff for the beginning of Mike Fiers' dominant run after his first inning trouble.

 

***

 

If Marco Estrada was missing just one start, I'd be fine with a Manny Parra and committee night next Tuesday. But it's going to be 4-to-5 starts minimum. Fiers makes so much sense on so many levels given his 40-man status, and he really showed us something tonight. Yes, Ben Hendrickson debuted in LA back on June 2nd, 2004 (as a then really young Adam McCalvy wrote up for us!), and it wasn't quite the disaster some remember. Too bad the rest of his career was...

 

Then again, a Tyler Thornburg debut would be sweet!

 

Mass Haas odds for next Tuesday:

Mike Fiers - 60%

Manny Parra - 35%

Tyler Thornburg - 4%

Ben Hendrickson - 1%

 

***

 

Sounds 27-year-old lefty reliever Victor Garate was hitting 95 on the stadium gun last night. He re-tweeted Jeff's notation on that, which I get a kick out of. Unfortunately, lefties are hitting .414 (12-for-29) against him this season.

 

***

 

That HBP forearm DL injury has to be really upsetting to SS Jeff Bianchi about now.

 

***

 

Brooks Conrad's Nashville OPS this year is 1.374. His MLB OPS is slightly lower.

 

***

 

Where the heck is the 2011 version of Martin Maldonado? A 2012 slash line of .198 / .256 / .353 has his OPS down exactly 200 points from last year. Plus six errors already in 2012.

 

***

 

Hang in there, Jim Henderson.

 

***

 

Never belittle calf injuries. They must suck. Huntsville's Khris Davis has missed a lot of time with his.

 

***

 

None of us said it out loud in April when rosters were announced, because you always want to give the kids all the benefit of the doubt, but no one, no one, could have predicted the incredible success the Rattlers have had thus far. The core of this team basically flat-out stunk last year in Helena. The list of prime prospects is short (at least it was to start the season). Talk about team chemistry both on and off the field, these guys are having a blast and we're enjoying the ride -- kudos to Matt Erickson and staff.

 

***

 

My Larry King ending:

 

Munchos are under-rated as a snack chip.

[JohnBriggs12]

Jesus saves another (though not without some drama).

 

Thornburg was sick and still goes out and gets into the 7th? That is impressive.

[Tedaldtada]

Announcement: bkrause2 has generously offered to do my share of the Link Reports (Nashville and Brevard) for Friday and Saturday night. Thank you, bkrause2!

 

I am still hoping to find a ringer for Sunday. Let me, Seth (TheCrew07) or Jim (Mass Haas) know.

 

Thanks!

[Tedaldtada]

I'm out of pocket all weekend otherwise I would try to make up for my lackluster debut from a week ago.

 

Thanks anyways, Homer! The only thing lackluster is my understanding of the phrase "out of pocket".

[And That]

Andy Gonzalez and Hainley Statia are both favorites of mine, and both could be role players in the big leagues. Glad to see their success in AAA.

[battlekow]

Announcement: bkrause2 has generously offered to do my share of the Link Reports (Nashville and Brevard) for Friday and Saturday night. Thank you, bkrause2!

 

I am still hoping to find a ringer for Sunday. Let me, Seth (TheCrew07) or Jim (Mass Haas) know.

 

Thanks!

I got Sunday.