Link Report for Games of Friday, August 11th

[Mass Haas]

Nashville Pre-Game Audio Chat with Outfielder Tony Gwynn:

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/a...208-11.mp3

 

AUDIO: Andrew Beattie RBI Double --

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/a...208-11.mp3

[LouisEly]

After the home plate umpire Dan Oliver left in the seventh inning, his partner Tim Bretzke took over behind home plate, Delmarva pitcher Josh Potter became the third base umpire and Delmarva outfielder Danny Figueroa became the first base umpire.

 

 

Wow. You would have thought they would have pulled guys out of the stands before they would have allowed players from the home team to umpire. But it is a game of integrity, and if they compromised their integrity their names would be soiled forever. The fact that the Power lost by nine though says that it didn't make much of a difference.

[brewmann04]

what type of Prospect is Cory Thurman?

[Mass Haas]

David Weiser's

 

www.starsboxscore.com/

 

STARS MOVE INTO 2nd PLACE!

CHIPPER JONES FACES STARS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE '92

Hang onto your hats and buckle up!. The Stars are serious....... Need proof? They've won 14 of their last 18 games after tonight's cliff-hanger win over the M'Braves........ As play-by-play announcer Brett Pollock declared before this road trip, the Stars will need to win seven of 10 games to mount a serious challenge in this 2nd half race......... Well, they're 6-2 on this trip with two to go and after a doubleheader sweep Thursday, they are three games over .500, and with the Lookouts' loss to red-hot Tennessee, the Stars climb into 2nd place in the North Division for the first time since May 3rd........

 

The good news and the bad........ The Stars must get in the back door to take a playoff spot. They're done with Tennessee this year; as a matter-of-fact, they were done with them back in May, one of several injustices you can find with the schedule this year...... The good news: the rest of the Stars' schedule is weak, compared to the first half when they had to play 1st and 2nd place teams almost regularly in the last 30 games. The Stars come home to play Carolina Tuesday, then slumping West Tennessee at Pringles Park, the M'Braves for the last home series, and finally the Barons at Hoover Met to close the season.

 

A record crowd at Trustmark Park came out to see Chipper Jones start at 3rd base for the first of his two-game appearances......... Jones was placed on the 15-day disabled list by Atlanta on July 30 with a strained left oblique. Before his injury, he was the hottest man in the Braves? lineup, with a July batting average of .500 with seven doubles, one triple, seven HRs, 20 RBI, and 19 runs scored through only 16 games........ No Stars team had seen Chipper since August 28, 1992 when he went 1-for-4 in a 3-2 Huntsville loss at Greenville. Chipper hit just .227 with a HR in 22 ABs against the Stars that year, but he hit .346 for the G'Braves in their 100-win season on his way to the majors in 1993 and a possible Hall-of-Fame career. (He had a .303 career batting average coming into this season with 331 HRs.)....... Tonight, though, another future major league star, Yovani Gallardo, and Joe Valentine held him 0-for-4 at the plate.

 

The Stars struck first after Steve Moss (3-for-10 in this series) led off the game with a single to center. Ryan Braun drove a one-out 1-1 Kyle Davies pitch high to deep right-center against the wall, for his first triple with the Stars....... The opportunity to score Braun slipped, however, as Brad Nelson flied out to Onil Joseph in center and Ron Acuna struck out........ Davies, like Chipper, is on a rehab assignment from Atlanta, recovering from a groin injury. He was expected to throw 60 pitches, followed by Anthony Lerew (4-2, 2.03), but Lerew was called up to Richmond before the game, and Pedro Ascenio came in to throw three scoreless innings for the M'Braves.

 

It took Davies 56 pitches to get six outs. It looked like he would have an easy go of it in the 2nd inning, after retiring Drew Anderson and Lou Palmisano, but his third out was hard to come by........ Davies had Ozzie Chavez on the ropes 0-and-2, then walked him. Yovani then stepped up and chopped a 1-1 grounder up the middle to 2nd baseman Yuni Escobar. Escobar flipped the ball underhand to shorstop Luis Hernandez for the force, but Chavez slid in safely after Escobar's feed found its way underneath Hernandez's left arm......... Gallardo was given credit for a hit, but that was later changed to an error on Hernandez, the first of what would be three errors charged to him........ With the count 1-and-2 on the next hitter, Moss, Davies threw a slider that went right between the legs of catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia for a wild pitch. That moved Chavez to 3rd and Gallardo to 2nd. After being ahead, Davies then walked Moss, loading the bases......Moss was forced in on another error when Callix Crabbe, who went 6-for-7, driving in four runs in Thursday's double-header, hit a 2-2 pitch up the middle to Hernandez, who flipped to Escobar behind the bag at second, but Escobar couldn't handle the feed as he was trying to reach back with his bare hand........ Hernandez was charged with his 2nd error of the inning, but MiLB's web site gives the error to Escobar. But the result was the same. The Stars took a 2-0 lead.

 

The Braves got a run back in the bottom of the inning....... Michael Rosamond drew a two-out walk and went to third on a line drive single by struggling Josh Burrus, who was just 2-for-27 against Stars pitching....... Luis Hernandez, the goat so far for Mississippi, then cracked a first-pitch fast ball over a leaping Gallardo into centerfield for an RBI single.

 

Yovani held the 2-1 lead all the way to the 7th inning when they added the two most important runs in this game........ The Braves went to Ryan Basner (4-5, 4.31), who in four previous appearances this season against the Stars, allowed five runs in nine innings in relief......... Moss got things started with his 100th hit of the season, an 0-1 slider cracked back through the middle that kicked off Basner's back foot, anding on the infield grass behind him........ Callix Crabbe bunted him over to 2nd base, his 15th sacrifice bunt of the season. Crabbe now has 35 to add to his record career total....... Ryan Braun chopped Basner's first pitch, a slider, to short, where Luis Hernandez seemed indecisive over what to do with the ball. Hernandez looked at third, thought about it, then overthrew to Chipper Jones and was charged with an error, allowing Moss to score to make it 3-1....... Brad Nelson, the next hitter, bounced a 2-2 grounder through the hole on the left side. Braun, going on the pitch, made it to third easily........ After hitting .167 in July, Nelson is .273 on this road trip........ Ron Acuna then put the Stars ahead, 4-1, on a fielder's choice grounder to 2nd that forced out Nelson.

 

Gallardo was done after allowing a leadoff walk on four pitches to Mike Rozema, and going 2-0 on the next hitter Onil Joseph, who reached on a fielder's choice....... Joe Valentine, the Stars' closer-designate, came on for the two-inning save, but even with a little or a lot of wiggle room, Valentine's save opportunities have been messy........ On July 25 vs. Birmingham, with a 3-1 lead in his hands, he put runners on the corners before Pedro Lopez singled in a run, then in the 9th, loaded the bases with nobody out before retiring the next three hitters on two fly balls and a strikeout. That was his 1st save........ He blew an 8-3 lead in the 9th for the Stars on August 2 vs. the Lookouts, retiring only one hitter before the Stars came back to win in the bottom of the inning for a 9-8 victory in what so far in my opinion has been the Game of the Year. Just the night before, he pirated a win from Tim Dillard who had a 8-6 lead going into the top of the 9th. A walk and a home run tied the game before the Stars came back in the bottom half to win it.

 

Valentine retired Yuni Escobar for the first out, but the fly ball moved Mike Rozema to reach third........ Rozema had nearly been forced out at second by Joseph's grounder, but Ozzie's feed popped out of Crabbe's glove for an error. Rozema scored on Valentine's wild pitch, making the score 4-2....... It was just the third error on this road trip....... Onil Joseph got as far as third on Chipper Jones' ground ball, but he was stranded there after Brandon Jones grounded out..

 

It was hold your breath time in the 9th as Jarrod Saltalamacchia doubled to the alley in right-center to lead off the bottom half....... Valentine struck out Mike Rosamond, but Josh Burrus lined a single to right, scoring Saltalamacchia and bringing the Braves to within a run........ Josh Arteaga walked on five pitches to put Arteaga on second with the tying run, but Rozema ended the game by sending a sharp liner right to Brad Nelson on first, who doubled up Arteaga to end the game.

 

In Valentine's five saves, he's allowed one run while giving up seven hits, walking four. That's living dangerously. In the seven other games Valentine has come in to pitch, he's given up nine runs in 10 1/3 innings.

 

The Stars will be looking for their 6th straight victory Saturday and Tim Dillard (8-7, 3.38) will get the ball. Dillard, who is just two hits away from tying a club record by pitchers for most hits in a season, is in an 0-for-9 funk. The Stars are currently 5th among Southern League team leaders in ERA (3.49). Dillard's 2nd out of tonight's game will give the staff 1,000 innings pitched, making them the last team to reach that milestone this year. The Stars have boosted their team average to .242, still 9th in the ten-team league....... Matt Harrison (3-2, 3.42) is scheduled to start for the Braves.

 

With rosters now expanding, the Stars filled a hole in their bullpen by acquiring former Southern League pitcher Luther Hackman........ Hackman was 4-3 in 10 starts and one relief appearance for the Carolina Mudcats in 1999. The 31-year old right-hander is now the oldest man on the Stars' roster, bumping Travis Phelps........ His last look at affiliated ball was with the Nashville Sounds in 2004, when they were hooked up with the Pirates. This season, though, he was an impressive 8-0 with a 2.81 ERA for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League....... Hackman was in uniform for Friday night's game.

 

Brett Evert, who was released by the Stars on July 15, was picked up by the Boston Red Sox and assigned to Pawtucket. He has since dropped down to Class AA-Portland (Eastern). Thursday, Evert pitched an inning against Harrisburg in the Sea Dogs' blowout 13-4 win.

 

Butler, Alabama native Johnny Ruffin, resigned as pitching coach for the Chillicothe Paints of the Frontier League after he was arrested in June for failing to register as a sex offender, according to the Chillicothe Gazette....... Ruffin, a 4th round pick by the White Sox in 1988, pitched for the Birmingham Barons in 1992 and 1993 before making it to the majors with the Cincinnati Reds in 1993........ Ruffin was 0-7 for the '92 Barons, losing to the Stars 3-1 in a May 2 game that saw only four hits between both teams, and 3-0 on May 17. The next season, he was 0-4 for Birmingham, losing to the Stars, 2-1, on April 24. On July 31, the Sox traded Ruffin to the Reds with pitcher Jeff Pierce for Tim Belcher -- yes, that Tim Belcher.

 

Former Mobile Bay Bear Nick Trzesniak was traded to the Texas Rangers, August 6, and assigned to Oklahoma..... Mobile, meanwhile, has picked up former Birmingham Barons pitcher Jim Bullard. Bullard started the season with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Blue Jays' AA farm club. Bullard pitched for the Barons from 2002-2005.

 

Baseball America released their annual "Best Tools" survey. No Huntsville Star received any notice this year, but Ryan Braun was named as best batting prospect from the Florida State League........ Former Stars 2nd baseman, now Mobile manager Gary Jones was named as the Southern League's best managerial prospect........ Nelson Cruz, who has since been traded to the Texas Rangers, was named the PCL's best power prospect......... West Virginia Power pitcher Will Inman was named best pitching prospect in the Sally League....... Alcides Escobar was named best defensive shortstop in the Florida State League.

[Prometheus ohm]

?Tonight, though, another future major league star, Yovani Gallardo, and Joe Valentine held him (Chipper Jones) 0-for-4 at the plate.?

 

This is nice to see.

 

Gallardo vs. Mississippi

Bottom 1st

Chipper Jones flies out to center fielder Steve Moss.

Bottom 3rd

Chipper Jones flies out to center fielder Steve Moss.

Bottom 6th

Chipper Jones strikes out swinging.

 

Valentine vs. Mississippi

Bottom 8th

Chipper Jones grounds out, second baseman Callix Crabbe to first baseman Brad Nelson. Onil Joseph to 3rd.

 

Gallardo pitched seven complete innings vs. Mississippi allowing two runs (1 earned) on four hits with just two walks and nine strikeouts.

 

This is the third game since joining the Stars that Gallardo has struck out nine batters or better. He last did it on July 20th against Carolina (6.0IP: 5 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts) and on July 1st against West Tennessee (7.0IP: 3 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk 10 strikeouts)

 

In those games Gallardo scratched out two wins, while scattering 12 hits on only 4 walks with 28 strikeouts in 20 innings. His ERA is now 1.44

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