Link Report for Sunday 8/14 - AZ Box Score Now Available

[Mass Haas]

Final: Idaho Falls (Royals) 18, Helena 10

 

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.helenair.com/articles...505_01.txt

 

Chukars home runs hurt Helena

By KEVIN SHIVELY - IR Sports Writer

 

Home runs can hurt.

 

The Helena Brewers felt that pain Sunday night, as the Idaho Falls Chukars posted six on their way to a 18-10 win.

 

The Chukars (24-28) led 16-0 after just three innings of play, evening their series with the first place Brewers (35-16) at one apiece.

 

Kiel Thibault did half the work for Idaho Falls. Thibault homered three times in the contest, sending a two-run shot, three-run shot and a grandslam over the wall, collecting nine RBI.

 

It looked like the spree wouldn't end, but with two outs in the third inning, Christopher Jean took the mound and brought a new energy with him.

 

Jean got out of the inning and followed by posting four consecutive scoreless innings. He struck out three and allowed only three hits.

 

Meanwhile, the Helena offense went to work.

 

Ken Holmberg hit a home run to put the Brewers on the board in the fourth, and in the sixth, Stephen Chapman hit a three-run dinger to make the score 16-4.

 

In the seventh, RBI doubles from Carlos Gallardo and catcher Bryan Opdyke gave the Brewers a a pair of runs. Freddy Parejo singled to score Mat Gamel and Chapman hit a sacrifice fly to make it four runs in the inning.

 

In the eighth, Adam Mannon hit a two-run homer to make it 10, but the crew wasn't able to score again.

 

Cody Harkcom (3-5) was awarded the win for his 1.1 innings on the mound, but Chris Nicoll pitched the first 4.2, striking out five and allowing only five hits.

 

Robbie Wooley (5-4) got the loss for the Brewers, pitching into the second inning and allowing seven earned runs and three home runs.

 

The two teams will square off again tonight at 7:05 (8:05 Central). Mathew Kretzschmar will take the mound for the Brewers and Bennett Cromer will pitch for the Chukars.

 

Helena Box Score:

Robbie Wooley's 2005 can best be described as inconsistent; knuckleballer Luis Bernal shelled -- listening to the Huntsville game, it was mentioned that RHP Keith Stamler shelved his new knuckleball, at least for a while...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_helrok_1

 

Helena Game Log:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_helrok_1

[Mass Haas]

Brevard County Site Game Summary:

 

Manatees Fall to Mets in Rain Shortened Game

The Manatees fell behind early and were unable to recover in a 5-0 loss to the St. Lucie Mets that was called after five innings due to rain.

 

Manatees starter Forrest Martin found the top of the Mets batting order tough to deal with. Martin recorded only one out and allowed four runs, three on Jamar Hill's fourteenth home run of the year, before being relieved by Bo Hall. Hall would record the final two outs and allow a home run to Wilson Batista before leaving in the third.

 

Adam Heether and Nestor Corredor were the only two Manatees to get hits off Mets starter Tim Worthington. Worthington breezed through all five innings before a sudden rain storm called the game.

 

With Vero Beach's loss on Sunday to the Palm Beach Cardinals, the Manatees remain 3.5 games out of first place in the East Division. On Tuesday the Manatees head to Jupiter to take on the Hammerheads after a scheduled off day Monday.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Birmingham (White Sox) 8, Huntsville 2

 

Huntsville Site Game Summary:

 

Darren Blakely knocked in four runs for a second straight game to back the pitching of Daniel Haigwood in Birmingham?s 8-2 victory over Huntsville Sunday night to complete a four-game series sweep at the Hoover Met. The Barons won their sixth straight game to improve to 30-15 in the second half and maintained their game and a half lead over red-hot Jacksonville, which won its? 10th consecutive game earlier in the day, in the South Division, while the Stars lost for the ninth time in their last ten games to drop to 20-29 in the second half. The Barons won nine of the 11 games in the season series, including five in a row and six out of seven in Birmingham.

 

Jerry Owens opened the home first inning with a single and moved to second base on a walk to Andy Gonzalez and remained there when Huntsville starter Dennis Sarfate struck out Casey Rogowski for the first out of the frame. Chris Young was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Darren Blakely doubled down the left field line on a check swing to drive in all three runners to give the home team the lead in the first inning for a second straight night. However, one run was wiped off the board when the Stars successfully appealed that Young had missed touching third base on his way to the plate. Birmingham would make up for the aborted run when Ryan Sweeney followed with a single to plate Blakely to make it 3-0.

 

Sarfate allowed a leadoff bunt base hit by Pedro Lopez in the second inning and then left the game after missing with a pitch to run the count to 3-1 on the next hitter, Antoin Gray. Sarfate dropped his glove, clutched at his right elbow and was escorted off the field by trainer David Yeager. No report on Sarfate?s status was issued during the game. Keith Stamler came on to replace Sarfate and wound up walking Gray and Jerry Owens to load the bases. Gonzalez followed with a double to score two and Blakely capped the inning with a two-out, two-run triple. Blakely singled in his final at-bat in the seventh inning and missed hitting for the cycle by one leg of the quadrant for a second straight night.

 

Haigwood retired the first nine hitters he faced before Tony Gwynn, Jr. opened the fourth inning with a single and moved to second base on a Nelson Castro bunt base hit. Vinny Rottino followed with a chopping single fielded by Lopez at shortstop in shallow left field. Gwynn rounded the bag at third thinking the ball had gotten through to left field and was thrown out at the plate for the first out of the inning. The Stars finally got on the board when Gwynn opened the sixth inning with a triple and scored on a Rottino ground out.

 

Haigwood went seven strong innings, allowing one run on five hits and a walk to improve to 5-1. The southpaw struck out nine and defeated the Stars for the first time in three tries. He has allowed only five earned runs, three scored by the Stars, in his first 47 1/3 innings at the double-A level.

 

The Stars are off on Monday and begin a three-game series Tuesday night in Chattanooga with right-hander Glenn Woolard taking the mound against Lookouts? right-hander Jeff Bruksch. Coverage of the game gets underway at 7:00 p.m. central time on ESPN 1450 AM and through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

 

***

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.al.com/stars/huntsvil...amp;coll=1

 

Covering the bases (through Friday's Games)

Mark McCarter, Huntsville Times

 

It is all but a mathematical lock that the Stars will finish with their second consecutive losing season. This will be only the third time in franchise history the Stars have had back-to-back losing seasons, and only the eighth losing season in 21.

 

"You want to win every game, but you have to be realistic,'' said manager Don Money. "We're not going to win the second half. We dug ourselves too big of a hole.''

 

Still, said Money, sitting behind his laptop and a pile of stats in his Joe W. Davis Stadium office, "You can salvage something in the second half if you wind up at .500.''

 

With six losses in their last seven games going into Saturday night, even .500 looks a distant goal.

 

In Money's day in the majors, players "talked about the salary drive,'' the late-season push to build stats and, in turn, perhaps earn a juicy raise during the offseason. It's still applicable here, and at this level, at least in terms of earning notice and respect from the player development gurus. "If a guy's hitting .245, maybe he goes 32 for his last 100," he said. "Now he's gone from .245 to .260 and he can feel good about himself.''

 

The season may be extended for several Stars. Once Huntsville's final game is played, some may be promoted to Nashville to help the Sounds in the playoffs, while Nashville players are given call-ups to the majors, according to a story in The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. ...

 

The Stars are next-to-last in the league in turning double plays, at 87. That's a sour stat for Money, the former infielder. Worse yet, they have hit into 111. ... Perhaps most disappointing in the Stars clubhouse is that they went 1-5 against Mississippi and Mobile, both of which are otherwise struggling. ... Reliever Jerome Gamble has big-league quality velocity, but if his fastball isn't moving, he's hittable. Hence his 33 strikeouts in 26 innings - and the 43 hits allowed.

 

The Stars are also last in the league in homers, at 57. "We can't ever get an error, a base hit and a three-run jack,'' Money said. Instead, to produce any sort of rally, the Stars need to knit together "an error, two hits, a walk, another hit. Four or five runs, for us, is Mount Everest. We can't climb that high.'' ...

 

After trying to work his way back into action after arm woes, the Stars are going to shut down pitcher Khalid Ballouli for the remainder of the season. ... Even though it was a rather late call-up, surely ex-Star Rickie Weeks will get some support in NL Rookie of the Year voting. He's batting .264 with nine homers and 25 RBIs in 55 games, with two homers Friday. Manager Ned Yost installed him as leadoff hitter on Friday, and that may be a perfect role for him in the majors, with his occasional power and speed. Still, he is striking out too many times and has too many errors, say Brewers officials.

 

Around the league

 

Birmingham has had two players with six-RBI nights this year, Chris Young and Casey Rogowski. Both came against the Stars. ... Tennessee's Dustin Nippert threw a nine-inning shutout Friday, his second of the season. ... Jacksonville took an eight-game win streak into Saturday's play and is threatening to sweep the pennant for both halves in the Southern League South. If so, the Suns would potentially host four of the five playoff games against the team from that division with the second-best overall record, likely Birmingham. ... The Barons' Jerry Owens had an 18-game hitting streak end Friday against the Stars. ... With the West Tenn franchise likely to move after the 2006 season, Diamond Jaxx manager Bobby Dickerson told Jeff Elliott of The Florida Times-Union, "Jackson is a small city. It's a single-A city. Look at the size of the other cities in the Southern League, with Jacksonville, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Mobile, Montgomery and some others. These are all relatively decent-size cities. Jackson, Tenn., is a town.'' ... Ex-Star Johnny Raburn had four hits and four RBIs Friday for Montgomery. He's having a nice season, batting .296 with 30 RBIs.

 

Brewings

 

Triple-A Nashville Sounds (68-52, first place in Pacific Coast League American Division): 1B Prince Fielder, eight-game hitting streak, 22-for-44 in August, 26 homers on the season

 

Single-A Brevard County Manatees (27-21, third in Florida State East Division this half): 3B Adam Heether .306, 48 RBIs

 

Single-A West Virginia Power (25-21, third in South Atlantic League Northern Division this half): OF Will Lewis .275, 46 RBIs

 

Rookie League Helena Brewers (10-2 in second half in Pioneer League): DH Mat Gamel .353, 5 HR, 28 RBIs in 39 games.

 

On deck

 

The Stars end a four-game series at Birmingham tonight, then take Monday off. (Tee times have long since been reserved.) They travel to Chattanooga for three, Tennessee for three before returning Aug. 22.

 

Huntsville Box Score:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_biraax_1

 

Huntsville Game Log:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_biraax_1

[Mass Haas]

Nothing in yet on Sunday's Arizona game, but the box score is available from the A-Crew's Saturday victory in which Tony Festa hit for the cycle:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_giarok_1

[JohnBriggs12]

"How can Wes be so good at AAA, and so bad for the Brewers"?

 

The answer is simple but first the question is flawed and therein lies the explanation.

 

Wes has had his moments as a Brewer. So he wasn't always bad. But his position whether as a starter or reliever was always a tenuous one so his work was irregular. One bad outing and he put added pressure on himself, and he would end up making things worse.

 

Wes' stuff is good enough to dominate AAA hitters and be at least serviceable at the major league level. But his career started late, got interrupted by injury, and he was in the major leagues before he had enough experience to be comfortable pitching through adversity. Putting a guy like that in role of spot starter was not a wise move.

 

His getting regular turns at AAA now is the best thing that could happen. He'll resurface in the majors at some point and be a pretty good pitcher. Whether its with the Brewers or not is a question.

[dadofandrew]

Wes had a good ERA in relief, about 3.50 I think. That'll be his role, he just needs to throw strikes and hit the corners.

[clancyphile]

With Wes Obermueller, I think we are looking at a key component in the 2006-2008 bullpens. A setup guy who can go 1-2 innings and get the game to the closer.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Arizona Brewers 4, Arizona Royals 3

No linescore or game log, but box score intact...

 

Arizona Brewers Box Score:

2005 7th round OF Michael Brantley has really picked it up as of late, on base four times in this one -- there's an example of a player (high school draftee) who benefited from an Arizona Rookie season; Canadian RHP Alexandre Periard just turned 18 in June -- fellow Canuck Mark James is a month younger; Alirio Ledezma, who closed things out, only turned 18 in April; 35 in attendance in Maryvale; at 8-5, the A-Crew is only a game and a half out of first place...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_brrrok_1