Link Report for Fri. 5/9

[TheCrew07]

Pagnozzi, Velez Power Sounds Past Sky Sox

Nashville Avoids Sweep, Reclaims First Place

Nashville Sounds

 

http://www.milb.com/assets/images/8/5/2/74956852/cuts/VelezRed_p4kztf1y_qp2kva0o.jpg

(Mike Strasinger / Nashville Sounds)

 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Catcher Matt Pagnozzi belted a pair of home runs and Eugenio Velez collected four RBIs to lead the Nashville Sounds to a 9-7 victory over the Colorado Springs Sky Sox on Friday evening at Security Service Field in the finale of a four-game series.

 

The Sounds (19-16) -- who moved back into first place by a half-game over Round Rock -- plated seven unanswered runs at one point en route to the victory, which snapped the club's four-game losing streak. Nashville's nine runs marked a season high for the club.

 

Pagnozzi, who was activated from the disabled list earlier in the day, produced Nashville's first multi-HR effort of the year during his 2-for-4 evening. Velez also went deep for the Sounds in the contest.

 

Colorado Springs took 3-0 lead against Sounds starter Ariel Pena in the bottom of the first inning.

 

Jason Pridie -- who belted two home runs of his own in the game -- put the home team on the board when he drilled a one-out solo shot, the outfielder's fourth of the year. Later in the frame, the Sky Sox tacked on a pair of two-out runs when Kyle Parker (3-for-4) doubled and Ben Paulsen walked before both scored on Angelys Nina's triple into the left field corner.

 

In the top of the second inning, Pagnozzi homered in his first at-bat since late April to cut the Nashville deficit to 3-1. The backstop smacked a two-out solo homer to right-center off Sky Sox starter Christian Friedrich.

 

The Sounds got another run back in the third when Pete Orr drew a one-out walk and later scored on Sean Halton's RBI single up the middle, making it a 3-2 contest.

 

The Sky Sox extended their lead to 4-2 in the fourth when Nina legged out his second triple of the night then scored on a safety squeeze bunt laid down by Jackson Williams.

 

Nashville tied the contest at 4-4 with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth, chasing Friedrich from the game in the process. Elian Herrera (2-for-4) singled and moved to second when Halton drew a walk before scoring on a single by Hunter Morris (3-for-5). After reliever Chad Bettis took over on the hill for Colorado Springs, Velez hit a run-scoring fielder's choice to plate Halton and knot the game.

 

Velez, who tied the game in the fifth, gave Nashville its first lead of the night in the seventh when he slugged a three-run homer to right to greet new Sky Sox reliever Greg Burke. The two-out shot, which plated Halton and Morris to give the Sounds a 7-4 advantage, was Velez's fourth roundtripper of the year.

 

After Hector Gomez singled off Burke to extend the inning, Pagnozzi continued his stellar night when he belted his second longball of the evening to stretch the lead to 9-4.

 

Pena (2-2) picked up a win for Nashville for the second straight start. The right-hander allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings of work, striking out five batters along the way.

 

Brent Leach worked two perfect relief innings behind Pena; the southpaw has now worked 10 1/3 straight scoreless frames over his last seven appearances.

 

Dustin Molleken took over in the ninth and surrendered a two-out, three-run homer to Pridie to allow Colorado Springs to draw within a pair at 9-7.

 

Closer Donovan Hand was summoned from the bullpen by Rick Sweet and retired Ryan Wheeler on a groundout to slam the door and earn his seventh save of the year.

 

Irving Falu went 1-for-4 with a pair of walks in the contest to extend the Sounds' longest hitting streak of the year to 10 games. He has reached base safely in each of his last 20 games, hitting in 19 of them.

 

The Sounds continue their road trip on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, where they will play the 7:05 p.m. opener of a four-game series against the Iowa Cubs at Principal Park. Right-hander Mike Fiers (5-1, 1.86) will toe the slab for Nashville to face I-Cubs left-hander Eric Jokisch (2-2, 3.65).

 

Nashville Boxscore

Quite the offensive outburst after yesterday's exercise in futility. Ariel Pena's up and down season continues, if you looked at the stats I posted earlier today you noticed he has one of the lowest strike percentages on the team. Not that it's ever a good thing, but you don't want to be pitching from behind in the extremely high elevation of Colorado Springs.

 

Nashville Recap

 

Nashville Gameday

[Mass Haas]

Final: @Huntsville 2, Jackson 1, 13 innings

 

Rogers Wins It For Stars In Extra Inning Game

 

Huntsville, AL - Jason Rogers saved his only hit of the night for the perfect time as it gave the Huntsville Stars a 2-1 win in the bottom of the thirteenth over the Jackson Generals.

 

The Generals and Stars were tied at 1-1 going into the thirteenth. With two outs, Nick Ramirez lined a double to right-center field. Then Rogers gave the Stars their 23rd win of the season on a game-winning hit over the left fielder Jamal Austin's head scoring Ramirez. Rogers' teammates mobbed him in between first and second base celebrating the win.

 

The win improved the Stars to a Southern League best 23-12. They also took four out of five from the Generals who fell to 15-20.

 

Jackson took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Jack Marder singled over shortstop Nick Shaw. That run came against Huntsville starter Jacob Barnes. Barnes took the no decision as he went five innings allowing four hits. He struck out a season high eight batters.

 

The Stars tied the game in the bottom of the fifth. Kentrail Davis hit a solo home run that just went over the fence in right-center field. It was Davis's first homer of the season. The home run allowed by Jackson starter Tyler Olson would be the only mistake he would make. Olson struck out ten in seven innings.

 

Eric Marzec (1-2) earned the win out of the Stars bullpen. Marzec pitched the top of the 13th. After allowing a leadoff single he left the go ahead run stranded at second base.

 

The Stars will travel to Chattanooga, TN Saturday to begin a five-game series with the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Double-A Affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. RHP Tyler Cravy (5-1, 2.08) will start for Huntsville. Chattanooga will have RHP Nick Struck (0-0, 7,71) on the mound. The game can be heard starting at 6:00 PM CT with Steve Jarnicki on 92.9 FM, 1450 AM, and wtkiradio.com.

 

Huntsville Box Score

 

Five Huntsville relievers combined on eight shutout innings, sweet.

 

It's a shame that the Huntsville Times and the media outlets there are pretty much ignoring the Stars again this year. These guys deserve some more ink and video, online audio.

 

"It was just a bad pitch," Tyler Olson said of the homer. "Changeup to a lefty that was up in the zone. I was actually trying to bury the pitch, just to kind of get a ground ball from him. And I just left it up -- home run."

 

Olson got the better of his next exchange with Kentrail Davis, finishing off his outing with a 10th strikeout.

 

That's from an MiLB article on the Mariners' prospect.

 

25-year-old catcher Adam Weisenburger continues to post fine numbers -- on base three more times here, and his line now stands at .302/.443/.429.

 

Huntsville Game Log

[Mass Haas]

Despite Friday's hig-scoring Nashville affair, here's a look inside Colorado Spring's having-an-impact humidor.

[Mass Haas]

Brief MLB.com pipeline article -- Prospect Coulter homers in third straight game

 

***

 

Rattler Radio blog - Postgame Entry

Audio, photos, video...

 

Chris speaks to RHP Mark Williams discusses the torn ACL injury that sidelined him, so we learn about his time away to begin 2014; Williams also updates us on RHP Chad Thompson (shoulder) and his rehab progress...

 

Learn about the outfield positioning shuffle in the Matt Erickson audio, too.

[Mass Haas]

Brevard County --

 

AUDIO: Catcher Cameron Garfield joins Justin Rocke on the Manatees Pregame Show.

 

AUDIO, Game Highlights: The Manatees defeat the Cubs, 5-2

 

***

 

Did you see the news we linked about the Manatees moving to Winter Park (Orlando) in 2016? If you're visiting the Link Report only via Twitter, be sure to bookmark this Minor League Forum to keep up with all the updated threads here. It's a pretty manageable daily visit.

[Mass Haas]

The Timber Rattlers play a usual home Saturday matinee today, look for yet another Link Report to debut by late morning to set you up.

[homer]

My man crush on Coulter is approaching Hernan Irribarren levels.

[fondybrewfan]

Coulter is really climbing fast for sure. Not inconceivable that he, Nelson, and Taylor finally start to crack some prospect lists. Coulter and Taylor especially. Denson has been pretty solid for a couple weeks and Reed has generally been good too. Haniger is also finally showing some signs of life. Lot to be excited about if you ask me. Now the short seasons just need to open up so I can follow Williams and Neuhas to see if they can take that next step.