Link Report for Tue. 6/4-- Now, that's what we're talking about! (Jungmann & Bradley)

[Minigoon]

Final: Huntsville 5 Birmingham 1

 

A night after Stars pitchers tied a season high with 12 walks, Taylor Jungmann and Greg Holle held the Barons to 1 run on 3 hits to lead Huntsville to the win. Jungmann (6-5) went 7 innings, giving up 1 unearned run, on 2 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5. This was Jungmann's 6th consecutive quality start. Over those 7 innings, Taylor threw 93 pitches, 57 for strikes. His ground out to fly out ratio was 9-3. Really solid night for Taylor. Holle made his team leading 23rd appearance tonight. Greg worked 2 innings and allowed only a hit while striking out 2. Holle also had a 3-1 ground out to fly out ratio.

 

Huntsville Box Score

 

Like last night, the Stars took an early lead. Unlike last night, the Stars pitching made it hold up. Huntsville was led offensively by catcher Adam Weisenburger. Weisenburger went 3-4 with a run scored and an RBI on his 2nd home run on the season. Weisenburger's batting average is now up to .388 as the Huntsville catcher group is really shining offensively this year. Rene Tosoni also carried a big stick tonight going 2-4 with a run scored and 2 RBI's. Tosoni hit his 5th home run on the season, a 2 out, 2 run shot in the 3rd that left a mark when it landed. Shortstop Hector Gomez put the Stars on the board in the first with an RBI triple. Gomez is now hitting .375 over his last 4 games. Shea Vucinich reached base 3 times, once on a single, once on a walk, and once on a hit by pitch. First baseman Jason Rogers drove in his league leading 45th run tonight. Every Stars hitter got a hit tonight except for second baseman Nick Shaw, but Shaw did draw 2 walks to tie Kentrail Davis for the team lead with 31.

 

Huntsville Play By Play

 

Stars grab the early lead

 

Huntsville Bottom of the 1st

 

Nick Shaw walks.

Hector Gomez triples (1) on a fly ball to center fielder Trayce Thompson. Nick Shaw scores.

Kentrail Davis walks.

Jason Rogers singles on a ground ball to right fielder Keenyn Walker. Hector Gomez scores. Kentrail Davis to 2nd.

Kentrail Davis out at 3rd, catcher Miguel Gonzalez to third baseman Cody Puckett. Jason Rogers to 2nd.

Brock Kjeldgaard called out on strikes.

Rene Tosoni strikes out on a foul tip.

 

Jungmann cruising! His last 3 innings worked tonight.

 

Birmingham Top of the 5th

 

Miguel Gonzalez grounds out, second baseman Nick Shaw to first baseman Jason Rogers.

Daniel Wagner grounds out, second baseman Nick Shaw to first baseman Jason Rogers.

Marcus Semien flies out to right fielder Kentrail Davis.

 

Birmingham Top of the 6th

 

Keenyn Walker grounds out, second baseman Nick Shaw to first baseman Jason Rogers.

Trayce Thompson strikes out swinging.

Andy Wilkins pops out to shortstop Hector Gomez.

 

Birmingham Top of the 7th

 

Dan Black grounds out, second baseman Nick Shaw to first baseman Jason Rogers.

Jared Mitchell flies out to center fielder Rene Tosoni.

Cody Puckett strikes out swinging.

 

Game 4 will be played tomorrow evening. Right hander Arcenio Leon (1-3, 5.45) will get the start for Huntsville (25-31) against one of the top pitchers in the Southern League, Erik Johnson. Leon's last start was skipped due to the cancellation of a couple games last series due to rain, but he did pitch an inning of relief Sunday afternoon. Game time is scheduled for 6:43 Central with Stars radio broadcaster Alex Cohen starting things at 6:28 with the pre game show.

[Mass Haas]

Early Scoring, Jungmann Lead Stars to Win

By Alex Cohen / Huntsville Stars

 

En route to snapping a five-game losing streak against the Birmingham Barons, the Huntsville Stars cruised to a 5-1 against the Southern League North Division leaders on Tuesday night at Joe Davis Stadium.

 

Even though they fell behind initially for the first time this series in the top of the first, the Stars came out scorching hot in the bottom half of the inning.

 

After Stars second baseman Nick Shaw drew a leadoff walk against Birmingham starting pitcher Spencer Arroyo (L, 4-3), an RBI triple from shortstop Hector Gomez tied the game up. Two batters later, an RBI single by first baseman Jason Rogers scored outfielder Kentrail Davis to make the score 2-1.

 

In the second inning, catcher Adam Weisenburger led off the frame with a towering blast over the left field wall to put the Stars up by two.

 

One inning later, following a two-out throwing error from Barons catcher Miguel Gonzalez allowed Stars outfielder Brock Kjeldgaard to reach base and extend the inning, a two-run homer from outfielder Rene Tosoni gave Huntsville a 5-1 lead that they would not relinquish.

 

After giving up an RBI single to Barons outfielder Keenyn Walker in the first inning, Stars starting pitcher Taylor Jungmann put together his best start of the season. The Brewers 2nd ranked prospect (per MILB.com) improved to 6-5 on the season after giving up that one run (unearned) on just two hits through seven innings of work while striking out five.

 

With his third win in a row, Jungmann also put together his sixth consecutive quality start since being activated from the disabled list. He now is 5-1 in his last seven starts and leads the Stars in wins with six.

 

Aside from Jungmann, Huntsville reliever Greg Holle shut out the Barons offense through the final two innings of the game.

 

Combined, Jungmann and Holle held the Barons to just three hits on the night.

 

On offense, the Stars cranked out double-digit hits (11) for the second game in a row against the Barons pitching staff. Individually, Weisenburger led the way with three knocks while Tosoni chipped in with two hits.

 

For Tosoni, the multi-hit game was his third in a row.

 

On Wednesday, the Stars and Barons will play game four of a five-game series at Joe Davis Stadium. Huntsville will send RHP Arcenio Leon (1-3, 5.45 ERA) to the bump as Birmingham will counter with RHP Erik Johnson (5-2, 2.26 ERA). First pitch is at 6:43 CT.

[Mass Haas]

Jungmann shines in sixth Double-A win

No. 2 Brewers prospect allows unearned run in seven frames

By Josh Jackson / Special to MLB.com

 

Judging by the box score, Taylor Jungmann's Tuesday night outing was his finest of the season and maybe the finest of his pro career. But don't try to tell him that.

 

"My last outing was better," he said. "I just had one bad pitch and gave up three runs on a home run after six almost perfect innings."

 

The No. 2 Brewers prospect limited Double-A Birmingham to an unearned run on two hits and three walks while striking out five over seven innings in Huntsville's 5-1 victory. He will admit it was a pretty good performance, though.

 

"Tonight was huge to me," he said, mostly because it was easy for him to see the progress he's made working in the Brewers system since he was drafted out of the University of Texas No. 12 overall in the 2011 Draft.

 

Jungmann (6-5) went 11-6 with a 3.53 ERA over 153 innings in the Class A Advanced Florida State League last season, his first in pro ball. His start Tuesday lowered his Southern League ERA to 4.22.

 

The only run the Barons scored off him came in the first inning after he walked Birmingham leadoff hitter and 16th-ranked White Sox prospect Marcus Semien. Semien stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by Stars catcher Adam Weisenburger.

 

"Tonight started pretty ugly. I didn't have my fastball command and I had to rely on my offspeed stuff more than usual," he said. "I've been working on being able to throw my offspeed pitches for strikes for the past year-and-a-half. A year ago, I wouldn't have been able to do what I did tonight and use them to get me through the first few innings. It's nice to see a little improvement."

 

Specifically Jungmann's been working with a new curveball grip and being able to attack the zone with that pitch and his changeup.

 

"My curveball, that's been frustrating," he said. "I think it's been frustrating for my coaches, too -- it has to be."

 

But his coaches had to be pleased with the way he got through this win.

 

Keenan Walker, the White Sox's No. 8 prospect, drove in Semien with a single, but not because Jungmann threw a bad pitch.

 

"I did get down in the count, but then I threw exactly what I wanted to throw," he said. "I went in on him and he hit it anyway."

 

What can you do?

 

"Get a better count," Jungmann joked. "Get him to an 0-2 count instead of a 2-2 count."

 

With one run in and Walker standing on first, Jungmann got second-ranked White Sox prospect Trayce Thompson to pop out to second base. At that point, he began to feel more in control.

 

"For me, for a long, lanky, tall guy, it's pretty easy to get out of your rhythm," said Jungmann, who's listed at 6-foot-6. "The difference between having a good outing and a bad outing is being able to realize and acknowledge that you're out of your rhythm in the game, and to make an adjustment after three pitches instead of after 10."

 

Walker stole second and Jungmann buckled down to whiff Andy Wilkins.

 

"I don't rely on the strikeout too much, but I pride myself on being able to strike a guy out when I need to," said Jungmann. "That was a situation where I needed a strikeout, and it was big that I was able to get it."

 

He got the final out of the turbulent first with a groundout, the first of nine he'd induce through the night.

 

"Later in the game, when I'd found my fastball command, I had them swinging at first-pitch fastballs down in zone," he said. "That's what I live on -- fastballs down in the zone. It was nice later on to be able to locate my fastball after using the offspeed stuff earlier."

 

After that, he didn't allow more than one runner in any single inning, and he retired 11 in a row from the bottom of the fourth through the end of the seventh.

 

"The next time [through the lineup], I didn't throw very many offspeed pitches," he said. "Even though it would have been nice to have that fastball command earlier, it ended up setting them up nicely so they weren't expecting it the next time around."

 

Jungmann felt no fatigue and would have preferred to keep pitching -- he'd lasted seven innings only once previously this year and has never gone deeper in his pro career -- but he also understands the reality of being a 23-year-old in Double-A.

 

"In Minor League ball, that's always going to be the coaches' decision, with innings limits and pitch counts and all that," he said. "They told me when I came in from the seventh that was it. You can't argue.

 

"[still] I pride myself on being an innings eater," he said. "To be an innings eater, you've got to go six, seven, eight, nine every time out. I've been getting through six a lot instead of seven or eight. But going longer comes with being able to throw all your pitches for strikes, and I'm getting there."

 

Brewers' No. 19 prospect Kentrail Davis singled in the win, and Weisenberger was 3-for-4 with a homer.

 

"He did have a good night at the plate," Jungmann said of his backstop, "but he had an even better night behind the plate. He did a good job of keeping me in rhythm. That's something that's really important to me and makes a big difference for me. After that first inning, we were on the same page through the whole game."

[Mass Haas]

Bradley turns in finest start of 2013

Brewers southpaw allows one run over six innings in victory

By Ashley Marshall / Special to MLB.com

 

http://www.milb.com/assets/images/5/0/2/49613502/cuts/bradley480_3ubyeny8_n120qyvh.jpg

 

Jed Bradley has struck out 43 batters and issued 28 walks this year. (Cliff Welch/MiLB.com)

 

With the First-Year Player Draft just two days away, 2011 first-rounder Jed Bradley has been thinking a lot about his journey over the past week.

 

His conclusion? Time flies when you're living your dream.

 

"I was just thinking about that the other day," Bradley said. "It has flown, these two years. I hope they all don't go by this quickly, but it's been fun. It has been a journey and I'm looking forward to the rest of it."

 

On Tuesday, he savored every moment of his time on the mound.

 

Bradley allowed one run on three hits and two walks while striking out three batters over six innings in the Class A Advanced Brevard County Manatees' 3-2 win over the host Fort Myers Miracle.

 

The win helped Bradley (4-3) lower his ERA to 4.68 and it put him one win away from equaling his rookie total with two-thirds of the season to go.

 

"I pitched to my strengths and pounded the zone with a good two-seam [fastball] and I got a lot of ground balls," the 22-year-old left-hander said. "I've had some good starts this year, my last one was a good one. But as far as efficiency was concerned, this one was one of the best -- 72 pitches in six innings.

 

"I had a pretty good changeup and a good slider, a good three-pitch mix, but it was predominantly my two-seam fastball. Tonight my second-best pitch was my changeup, but so far this season, it has been my slider. It's been something I've been working hard on throughout the season."

 

The Brewers' No. 5 prospect set down the side in order in the first inning and he worked around consecutive baserunners to begin the second.

 

He used a double play to get out of trouble in the third after the first two batters reached base, and he retired nine of the following 10 batters before Miguel Sano broke his shutout bid with a one-out homer to right-center field in the sixth.

 

"He's a good hitter, you can't argue that," the Alabama native said of MLB.com's No. 11 prospect Sano, who extended his team lead to 14 homers. "I thought I handled him pretty well. I had him in an 0-1 count and I wanted to go back to back with my changeup. I left it up and he didn't miss it. It was definitely a good piece of hitting to take a changeup out to the opposite field."

 

Selected by the Brewers 15th overall in 2011, Bradley is pleased with the progress he has made since signing with Milwaukee.

 

Last year, he went 5-10 with a 5.53 ERA in 20 games with the Manatees. He struck out 60 batters and issued 43 walks over 107 1/3 innings, but he says he has improved all areas of his game.

 

"Holding runners on, varying my looks with runners on second base, fielding my position," Bradley said about where he has made the most growth. "If you have a weak link in your chain, that will be exposed at the next level.

 

"Last year, I had some physical issues, but I had to get better at pitching. I have definitely progressed and it is good to see the fruits of that progress. Typically you judge success by what you do against hitters. You can also judge it by how far you have progressed mentally and your mental preparation and by how far you have come physically, pure strength-wise."

 

Prior to turning pro, Bradley -- a Cape Cod League All-Star -- went 7-3 with a 3.49 ERA in 16 starts in his final college season. He still keeps in touch with his former teammates and he expects several current Yellow Jackets to hear their name called later this week.

 

"First day, I'm not sure, but Daniel Palka and Zane Evans will make a lot of noise," Bradley said. "Evans is a catcher, and even if he doesn't pan out as a catcher, he can hit 97 mph off the mound. Brandon Thomas went in the fourth round last year and didn't sign, but he's had a good year and I can see him going around the same spot. Kyle Wren will make some noise.

 

"I've talked with a few of those guys about [the Draft]. They had the same questions that I had because it's the first time they're going through it."

 

On Tuesday, Andre Lamontagne pitched a scoreless inning of relief despite allowing two hits and a walk, and Tommy Toledo earned his seventh save after giving up an unearned run on a pair of hits and two walks over the final two innings.

 

Fort Myers starter Jason Wheeler (5-1) surrendered three runs on nine hits over six innings. He struck out six batters and issued one free pass.

[Mass Haas]

Brevard County Game Audio Highlights -- nice!

[Mass Haas]

Brevard County Pre-Game Interview with RHP Cody Scarpetta

 

***

 

Here's Brevard audio highlights from Monday's 6-4 win as well as a collection of Manatee uber-highlights from the month of May.

[Mass Haas]

Audio highlights from the tough 9-8 Huntsville loss Monday night

 

Video as well

 

Here was Alex's game story on that contest --

 

Stars Lose Nailbiter to Barons

 

On Monday night, the Stars squandered an early three-run lead and failed to finish off a comeback from a four-run deficit, losing to the Birmingham Barons by a score of 9-8 at Joe Davis Stadium.

 

For the second game in a row, the Huntsville offense was able to strike first.

 

In the first inning, an RBI double from outfielder Kentrail Davis and an RBI single from first baseman Jason Rogers put the Stars on the board against Barons starter Stephen McCray (W, 6-3). The Stars then got a sacrifice fly from shortstop Hector Gomez in the second inning to go up 3-0.

 

Unfortunately for Huntsville, the Barons were able to get after Stars starting pitcher Ariel Pena after he began his outing with three scoreless frames. In the fourth inning, an RBI double from shortstop Tyler Saladino put Birmingham on the board. Then, in the fifth, a two-run double from outfielder Trayce Thompson and an RBI single from designated hitter Dan Black gave the Barons their first lead of the game and chased Pena from the game.

 

Pena was able to dodge the loss when Davis singled to start the fifth inning and then scored on a wild pitch from third with two outs to even things up at four. Overall, the Brewers MiLB Pitcher of the Month for May gave up four runs and six hits through five innings while striking out seven batters and walking four as well.

 

The game remained tied until the top of the sixth inning, where the Stars bullpen couldn't find the strike zone as they entered the game. Following a leadoff single by third baseman Cody Puckett, the combination of relievers Santo Manzanillo (L, 1-2) and Dan Meadows walked a combined six batters on the inning, bringing four runners home to put the Barons up by four.

 

In the bottom half of the frame, the Stars were able to cut their deficit in half with an RBI single from Gomez and an RBI groundout from Davis to make the score 8-6.

 

After an RBI single from Puckett off of Stars reliever Casey Medlen pushed the Birmingham lead back up to three in the ninth inning, Huntsville made one last push for late-game heroics.

 

With the bases loaded and nobody out against Barons closer Taylor Thompson, outfielder Brock Kjeldgaard came through with a two-run single to cut the Stars deficit to one and put runners at first and second with nobody out. Thompson then went on to strike out the next three batters in a row for his eighth save of the season.

 

On the pitching side, the Stars tied their season-high with 12 walks.

 

From an offensive perspective, the Stars cranked out 13 hits, with three apiece from Kjeldgaard and Davis. Gomez, outfielder Rene Tosoni and catcher Shawn Zarraga each had two hits.

[Mass Haas]

Video from Monday:

 

Nashville's Caleb Gindl hits three-run homer as Sounds beat Round Rock, 7-5

[Mass Haas]

Instant classic via Jeff Hem's blog --

 

Audio from Round Rock — “The Voice(s) of Tim Dillard”

 

Tonight’s pregame interview is a rare treat and pure radio gold…a four-person panel of Sounds pitcher Tim Dillard, the late broadcaster Harry Caray (kind enough to come back for this interview), ESPN baseball reporter Tim Kurkjian and Sounds pitching coach Fred Dabney. Enjoy…

[Mass Haas]

Narveson Roughed Up In Sounds 6-2 Loss

Regular Starter R.J. Seidel Throws Five Scoreless Frames In Relief

Nashville Sounds

 

ROUND ROCK, Texas - A rough start by rehabbing big leaguer Chris Narveson (0-1) defined the night for the Nashville Sounds, who lost 6-2 to the Round Rock Express Tuesday at The Dell Diamond and dropped the series by a 3-1 margin.

 

Narveson, making his second rehab start for the Sounds this season, worked a 10-pitch 1-2-3 first inning before allowing six Express runs to cross in the second inning.

 

Express shortstop Yangervis Solarte started Round Rock's big inning by taking Narveson's 11th pitch to the left-field foul pole for a solo home run. Narverson followed with two consecutive strikeouts, but allowed another home run to Mike Olt to make it 2-0.

 

Narveson surrendered hits to the following five batters, four to the outfield and one through the infield, to add four runs to the Express advantage. Narverson, charged with the loss, was touched for his eighth hit at the start of the third inning and exited having thrown 45 pitches and 28 for strikes. He had three strikeouts and no walks.

 

Reliever Tim Dillard pitched out of the inning for Nashville to allow the Sounds regular starter R.J. Seidel to start clean in the fourth.

 

Seidel cruised through five innings to finish the game for the Sounds, holding the Express scoreless and limiting them to three hits while racking up six strikeouts. He faced only two more batters than the minimum.

 

Offensively, the Sounds picked up runs in the third and fourth innings. Hainley Statia hit a double into left field to score Anderson De La Rosa in the third (audio), while Josh Prince and Hunter Morris (audio) pieced together two doubles to start the fourth, which pulled the Sounds closer at 6-2.

 

Nashville worked a season-high six doubles off Express pitching, with catcher De La Rosa rapping a pair of two-baggers. Of the Sounds' eight hits, only two went for singles. Khris Davis (2-for-3) and De La Rosa (2-for-4) turned in multi-hit outings.

 

Ryan Feierabend (3-1) picked up the win for Round Rock, holding Nashville to two runs on five hits across five innings of work.

 

After a league-wide off day Wednesday, the Sounds will head to Memphis on Thursday to take on the division-rival Redbirds at Autozone Park at 7:05 p.m. Throwing for Nashville will be RHP Johnny Hellweg (4-4, 3.65) opposite Memphis' RHP Richard Castillo (0-1, 2.31). Baseball returns to Greer Stadium on Monday, June 10, when the Sounds host the Omaha Storm Chasers to a four-game series.

 

Nashville Box Score

That's three consecutive excellent outings for R.J. Seidel (stats), he has to be pitching with extreme confidence right now. He'll slot right back into the rotation once Chris Narveson's rehab wraps up, and (long way to go), but with a strong rest of 2013, has a chance to actually be considered for 40-man roster status by year's end. He has to be really psyched right now.

 

Nashville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

You'll notice that Monday's Nashville game story (7-5, 12-inning victory) has been updated with some exciting audio highlights

[Mass Haas]

Short but very sweet - video highlights from the Stars' 5-1 win Tuesday

[Mass Haas]

DVR ALERT!

 

We'll provide details in each day's report, but FYI, the next three Timber Rattlers' games are on TV:

 

Wed June 5 Beloit 7:05pm Time Warner Cable SportsChannel

Thu June 6 Beloit 7:05pm My NEW32

Fri June 7 Beloit 7:05pm My NEW32

[LouisEly]

Nice starts by our co former#1 picks . We need some good news.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1vTiNr6S3Lk/Tb8UGdRyiwI/AAAAAAAABMI/DfHDziw4BHM/s1600/NotDeadYet.jpg

 

And what's gotten into R.J. Seidel? Did he learn a new pitch like a cutter or something?