Link Report for Thurs. 7/26

[Mass Haas]

STARS WIN FIFTH STRAIGHT WITH VICTORY OVER PENSACOLA

Huntsville Stars

 

PENSACOLA, FL. – On Thursday night, the Huntsville Stars edged out the Pensacola Blue Wahoos by a score of 3-2 at Blue Wahoos Park for their fifth consecutive victory.

 

Trying to rebound from two straight losses, Pensacola took an early lead off of Stars starting pitcher Josh Stinson. In the second inning, left fielder Donald Lutz launched his second home run on the season over the right field wall to give the Blue Wahoos a 1-0 lead.

 

In the third inning though, the Stars were able to even up the ballgame. With one out, center fielder Josh Prince doubled off of Blue Wahoos starter Daniel Corcino. As shortstop Tommy Manzella stepped into the batters box, Prince drew a balk from Corcino to take third base. Later on in the at-bat, Manzella singled home Prince to tie it up at 1-1.

 

The score remained that way until the fourth inning where each team traded runs. In the top half of the frame, Stars left fielder Khris Davis hit a solo home run to put the Stars up 2-1. For Davis, the homer was his fourth in as many games and his seventh on the season.

 

However, in the bottom half of the frame, David Vidal began the comeback for Pensacola with a one-out double. After advancing to third on a single by Lutz, a throwing error on a pickoff attempt by Stinson allowed Vidal to score to tie up the ballgame again.

 

With the score remaining tied until the seventh inning, the Stars played some small ball for their last run. To begin the inning, third baseman Hainley Statia and right fielder Kentrail Davis led off with back-to-back singles. They then advanced to second and third respectively on an error by Pensacola shortstop Billy Hamilton on a Domnit Bolivar grounder. With the bases loaded, Prince put down a successful suicide squeeze that scored Statia to put Huntsville up for good.

 

On the pitching side, Stinson improved to 11-5 on the season after giving up two runs and six hits in six innings of work. The win moved the 24-year-old righty into a tie for the league lead in victories with Tennessee Smokies starting pitcher Nick Struck.

 

Aside from Stinson, the Stars got two innings of scoreless relief from RHP Darren Byrd and a scoreless ninth from RHP Brandon Kintzler for his sixth save on the year.

 

For the Stars, their five straight wins is their second-longest winning streak of the season. The five straight wins on the road is their longest such streak away from Joe Davis Stadium this year.

 

The Stars and Blue Wahoos will continue their series on Friday night with game four of a five-game set. First pitch is at 7:00 PM.

[Mass Haas]

Calgary pitcher gets call up to majors

Wes Gilbertson, Calgary Sun

 

After a decade of minor-league balls and strikes, Calgary’s Jim Henderson finally got the call he’s been dreaming about.

 

Turns out, Brandon Newell received a call he’s been waiting for, too.

 

Henderson was summoned late Wednesday by Major League Baseball’s Milwaukee Brewers, and the right-handed relief pitcher didn’t wait long to deliver the news to his longtime supporters.

 

“I think I was one of his first phone calls,” said Newell, a former scout for the Brewers organization and the current director of baseball for the Okotoks Dawgs. “He was pretty emotional on the phone, and the main reason is that I was the one that recommended that the Brewers sign Jimmy.

 

“I told my bosses ‘This guy is worth a shot.’ And it’s worked out. It was a very, very proud moment.”

 

Henderson, 29, took the hill for one three-up/three-down, nine-pitch inning in Thursday’s tilt with the Washington Nationals, striking out one and officially becoming the first graduate of the Dawgs program to reach the biggest stage in baseball.

 

“I’m thrilled that it did happen,” Henderson told milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com. “(Wednesday) night, I really just didn’t know what to do — pack, call people. Just a bit of shock and just awe at the situation. I’m just going to come in and do my job — whatever they want me to do. I’ve done long relief. I’ve done short relief. I’ll just do whatever they want right now.”

 

His call-up is the result of a breakout campaign with the Nashville triple-A Sounds, where Henderson posted a 1.67 earned-run average and 15 saves. He was named a Pacific Coast League all-star last month.

 

It’s been a long road to the big leagues since Henderson was drafted by the Montreal Expos — in the 26th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft — and finished up his junior career with the Newell-coached Calgary Dawgs in 2003.

 

His lengthy professional resume includes stints with the Gulf Coast League Expos (Melbourne, Fla.), the Vermont Expos, the Savannah Sand Gnats, the Potomac Nationals, the Tennessee Smokies, the Iowa Cubs, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Brevard County Manatees and the Huntsville Stars. Along the way, he was plucked from the Expos by the MLB’s Chicago Cubs through the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft in 2006.

 

Henderson has also represented Canada at several international events, including a good-as-gold performance at the 2011 Pan-American Games.

 

From those supporters the Central Memorial graduate called Tuesday after receiving his promotion, they could attest it was a special moment for the well-travelled reliever.

 

“He was almost speechless — you could tell he was just so excited,” said Lancaster Barnstormers catcher Emerson Frostad, Henderson’s longtime buddy, former Dawgs teammate and off-season workout partner. “Ever since we were 10 years old, we both dreamed of playing major-league baseball. We were always hanging out on the baseball field or in our front-yards, always playing catch and hitting. That’s not very typical for kids in Canada, where it’s mostly hockey, but we always loved baseball — and to see him finally achieve that goal is pretty special.”

 

It’s pretty special for everybody in Alberta’s baseball circles.

 

Henderson returns to Okotoks in the off-season to serve as a coach at the Dawgs Baseball Academy and still has a lot of supporters in his home city.

 

“He’s a kid that’s very easy to root for,” Newell said. “I told Jimmy last night, we’re definitely going to celebrate this properly when he gets home. I’ve known him since 1999, and to see him grow from where he started — the physical and mental maturation of a player like that — and to see him go through adversity and to see him get released by (the Cubs), a lot of guys would just pack it up.

 

“He just basically made somebody rip his jersey off his back. He said, ‘You know what? I’m not done yet.’ He just, through fire and work ethic, showed exactly that.

 

“He’s made us all very, very proud.”

 

Jim Henderson delivers the goods for the Nashville triple-A Sounds. Photo courtesy Mike Strasinger/Nashville Sounds

 

http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297291649645_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x

[Mass Haas]

by Nick Cole, The Tennessean

 

Approaching record: Sounds pitcher Tim Dillard, a Franklin, TN resident, is just one win short of tying the Sounds’ career victories record. After spending most of the last six seasons with the Sounds, Dillard has 34 wins, trailing only Keith Brown, who set the franchise record with 35 from 1988-92 (Reds' organization).

 

“Hopefully I can be in win situations,” the right-handed reliever said. “But I’ll take anything. I don’t really have a specified role, but I’d like (the record). That’d be fun.”

 

Dillard made 34 appearances in relief for the Brewers this season before being sent to Nashville earlier this month. He was 0-2 with a 4.38 ERA with Milwaukee.

 

“I guess they felt I was the guy they were willing to part with for the time being,” Dillard said of the demotion. “I’ve been in the game long enough to know that things like that happen. My numbers weren’t terrible. I was getting a lot of ground balls, they just weren’t always going at somebody. You just have to pitch through it.”

 

***

 

Baker the baseball player? With Brian Baker’s return to professional tennis after a six-year absence this summer, the Sounds’ starting pitcher who shares the same name was quite surprised to see his name all over the local media.

 

“It was funny because the other day he (tennis player) was playing and the newspaper covered it and it said, ‘Brian Baker this and Brian Baker that,’ ” the Sounds’ pitcher said. “I was showing everybody in the clubhouse that I’m a (great) tennis player.”

 

The pitcher had no idea that he shared a name with another local professional athlete but says he would love to meet the tennis player.

 

“Maybe we could work it out so he could throw out the first pitch on a night where I start,” Baker said. “I could go out there with him. We really should do something, I‘d love to do that.”

[Mass Haas]

Wahoos' slump now at 3 straight to Stars

Costly error the difference in 3-2 defeat

by Brady Aymond, Pensacola News Journal

 

The Huntsville Stars switched it up Thursday night.

 

After flexing their muscle in taking the first two games of the series, the Stars used small ball for a 3-2 win over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in front of 5,038 at the Community Maritime Park stadium.

 

Hainley Statia came home with the game-winning run on a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning to allow the Stars (51-52 overall, 16-17 second half) to squeeze out the win and clinch the five-game Southern League series.

 

The chance to play small ball was set up by a Billy Hamilton error — his third since joining Pensacola — on a tailor-made double play ball. Hamilton bobbled a grounder hit by Domnit Bolivar, loading the bases for Josh Prince.

 

Prince delivered a perfect bunt in front of the mound and reliever Brian Pearl’s only play was to first as Statia crossed the plate.

 

“We didn’t turn a double play, that’s the reason they got an opportunity to play small ball,” Wahoos manager Jim Riggleman said. “(But) giving up only one run that inning, there’s still a lot of baseball left for us to score a run. We just didn’t score one.”

 

The Wahoos’ struggles at the plate continued, as they stranded six runners, including two runners at third base.

 

The Wahoos also had a runner thrown out at the plate, as Donald Lutz was gunned down on a short fly ball to right field in the fourth inning on a throw from the Stars' Kentrail Davis.

 

“The play at the plate was a long shot with the depth of the ball,” Riggleman said. “But with the pitcher coming up next, we thought to take a chance with two outs.

 

“The other missed opportunities are what we’re doing. We’re not driving in runs and somebody has to drive in runs.”

 

Lutz provided half of Pensacola’s scoring output with a solo homer in the second inning to stake the Wahoos to a 1-0 lead. David Vidal scored the Wahoos’ other run on an error on a pickoff attempt at first base.

 

Daniel Corcino had another strong home start for the Wahoos, but left with the game tied in the sixth inning and didn’t figure into the decision. He gave up two runs on five hits while striking out five batters and walking only one. In his last six starts at home, Corcino has allowed only seven earned runs and 22 hits in 40.1 innings of work.

 

Unfortunately, Corcino didn’t get much run support as Huntsville starter Josh Stinson scattered six hits over six innings of work and Pensacola native Darren Byrd worked a couple of perfect innings in the seventh and eighth to set up the save for Brandon Kintzler.

 

“(Corcino) competes every time he goes out there,” Riggleman said. “He gave us a chance to win the ballgame.”

 

The Wahoos (52-50, 18-15) will look to snap a three-game skid today when they play the Stars in a 7:05 p.m. contest.

 

The Blue Wahoos' Donald Lutz is tagged out by Huntsville catcher Adam Weisenburger following a collision at home plate in the fourth inning. / Photos courtesy of the Pensacola Blue Wahoo

 

http://cmsimg.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=DP&Date=20120727&Category=SPORTS&ArtNo=307270008&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&Wahoos-slump-now-3-straight-Stars

 

Pensacola's Miguel Rojas attempts to turn a double play over the Huntsville Stars' sliding Hainley Statia on Thursday night.

 

http://cmsimg.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=DP&Date=20120727&Category=SPORTS&ArtNo=307270008&Ref=H1&MaxW=600&Border=0

[Brewers ST920]

I'm hopeful that Wily will be the one to get the call to fill out the 25-man once ZG is traded. Really great to see him turn his season around & pitch like we all knew he was capable of doing.

 

I think this is also very possible, but what about Mark Rogers? Minus his Gallardo-like pitch count in games he has been just as dominate.

[Outlander]

Rogers has been real good the last couple of starts but Peralta has a 1.83 ERA over his last six starts. Nice to see that Peralta has turned it around.

[GormanHarvey]

I was at the Stars game in Pensacola last night (down here visiting a buddy), a few observations...

 

- the Wahoos stadium is very nice. Great back drop with the ocean right there

 

- I cannot overstate how good Kentrail Davis's arm is. It is UNBELIEVABLE!

 

-Stinson and Byrd were both impressive. Byrd was hitting 95 on the stadium gun and has a nice smooth delivery to go along with a good frame.

 

- It was nice to see Kintzler get the save. Really hope he can make it all the way back.

 

Going again tonight, so hopefully I will have some more tidbits...

[Brewers ST920]

Thanks for your sharing. I am actually really surprised to hear Byrd reaches middle 90's with his fastball, I always pictured him in the low 90's-high 80's.

[GormanHarvey]

Thanks for your sharing. I am actually really surprised to hear Byrd reaches middle 90's with his fastball, I always pictured him in the low 90's-high 80's.

 

Our seats were actually in the 2nd row right next to/behind the Brewers bullpen (which is down the 3rd baseline there) and when he was warming up you could tell how good his stuff was. He was really popping the mitt even in the pen. His first pitch when he came in was 94. The Wahoos fans were riding him pretty good while he was warming up...obviously it was lost on them that Byrd is a native son of Pensacola . He has a very live arm

[And That]

Last year in spring training (I think?) there were reports of Byrd throwing that hard as well. He gets ground balls, too. Interesting guy that I hope stays in the organization next year.

[X-TAI]

Another great night in PCola.Great win for the stars.Hoping for 4th win tonite.

 

^^^^I believe the gun was having issues last night. At one time it read at 104, and 102.hopefully they get it fixed tonight.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, thank you for sharing GormanHarvey (& X-TAI, as usual ). Great to get firsthand reports.

[Brewers ST920]

Do I win anything for mentioning Rogers as a call-up?