Link Report for Games of 6/19 -- Manny Parra Wows Us

[MassBrew]

Daily Press High Desert Game Story:

 

Mavs get gem from Parra

Boyd, Frost homer in High Desert's shutout of Giants

By TIM HARAN/Staff Writer

 

ADELANTO ? Scouts were out in force at Mavericks Stadium for the second straight night. This time, though, the radar guns were fixated on High Desert hurler Manny Parra.

 

The talented left-hander, rated in the preseason as the Milwaukee Brewers' top pitching prospect by Baseball America, didn't disappoint.

 

Parra (3-1) pitched the Mavericks' first complete game of the season and led the team to a 4-0 victory Saturday over the Giants on a night when the Mavs notched their first sellout of the year (3,867).

 

"They don't take too many swings and miss," Parra said of the Giants' hitters. "They're a tough team to strike out. And when they put the ball in play like that, you can go deep in the game without throwing too many pitches per batter."

 

Parra threw 106 pitches, gave up just five hits, struck out a season-high nine ? including the side in the ninth ? and has yet to allow an earned run at home this season. During one stretch he retired 14 straight San Jose batters. Parra's previous longest outing this year was a seven-inning effort against Inland Empire on June 13.

 

"Usually at the end of their time (on the mound) I'll shake hands, but (at the end of the eighth inning) I gave him the (fist) bump and he said, 'I'm going back out there, I'm going back out there,' " High Desert pitching coach John Curtis said. "I don't think he would have given up the ball if we had gone out and asked for it anyway.

 

"He's pitching to a higher standard."

 

The Giants (37-32) mustered a pair of hits with two outs in the ninth before Parra struck out Randy Walter to end the game.

 

"He winds up giving a total of five hits, including two weak hits in the ninth," High Desert manager Mel Queen said. "He could have gotten out of there with a three-hit shutout."

 

Providing Parra with run support, High Desert's (24-45) Dan Boyd blasted the first pitch he saw in the fourth inning over the center field wall. The left fielder's 10th home run this season tied him with Travis Hinton for the team lead. It could have been potentially a two-run shot had San Jose right fielder Carlos Sosa not made a remarkable grab, nearly tumbling over the fence to catch a slicing foul ball hit by previous batter Scott Candelaria.

 

Jeremy Frost, left standing in the batter's box in the fourth as the Giants gunned down Froilan Villanueva on a delayed steal attempt, returned to the plate in the fifth with a flourish. He launched a solo home run over the left field wall.

 

Boyd would add another RBI in the eighth, driving in Callix Crabbe on a single to right off Giants reliever Jason Waddell. Following a pair of singles, Boyd scored on a Frost sacrifice.

 

Julio Pavon (0-1) made his first start for San Jose and allowed two runs in five innings.

 

The Mavericks, which lead the California League in stolen bases with 87, were 0-for-3 Saturday in swipe attempts. The Giants, meanwhile, were tagged out in a pair of key rundowns. San Jose in the first inning had runners on the corners with one out. But the Mavs were able to pick off Anthony LaBarbera trying to score after catching Walter in a rundown between first and second.

 

NOTES: Parra faced just 30 batters on the night. ... The Mavericks are now 3-11 this season against North Division teams. ... In celebration of Father's Day, children can play catch with their fathers on the field at Mavericks Stadium from 1-2 p.m. before today's series finale against San Jose.

[igor67]

Not sure if this belongs here, but since it involves promotion talk. So I was thinking about the Ben Ford situation, and if I'm right we have to send someone down to bring him off the DL. And presumably we just want to send Ford down as well at this point. The issue is we can't recall the same person we send down without waiting 10 days. So isn't this the opportunity to take care of 3 problems and send down Wes when Ford comes off the DL and Promote Little Ben as the replacement??

[biedergb]

Anyone hear any news on him? Two starts for Helena, and no Fermaint in the boxscore.

 

Also I was surprised to not see Clay Blevins catching his HS and JuCo buddy Wahpepah.

[MassBrew]

So I was thinking about the Ben Ford situation, and if I'm right we have to send someone down to bring him off the DL.

 

Ben Ford could be activated from the disabled list and then designated for assignment all in one fell swoop. The Brewers will not need to clear a roster spot just to then move Ford himself.

[MassBrew]

David Weiser's www.starsboxscore.com Huntsville update:

 

ZAMORA NO MORA

I decided to make the trip to Hoover Met, isolated from Birmingham in the far-flung suburb of Hoover........ The Barons scheduled The Chicken tonight in competition with Birmingham's City Stages, and pulled only 5,195 --- a good crowd for the Stars, but not for more populous Birmingham. A waste of a good drawing card, if you ask me........ I should explain to those that read this and are not from this area that City Stages is Birmingham's most popular annual civic event. It's a three-day big block party......... They close off some of their downtown streets and replace the cars with stages from which some big-name music performers from a variety of genres entertain, surrounded by hot dogs, funnel cakes, gyros, and generally it's just a carnival atmosphere....... Huntsville's own minor league version --- the Big Spring Jam --- is an annual success every September.

 

The Stars released 27-year old minor league nomad Pete Zamora to make room for Saul Rivera, the right-hander acquired from the Expos in the trade that sent .289-hitting Jason Belcher and Indy closer Jason Childers to Montreal........ Some bill of goods, huh?........ Doug Melvin should have sent Reggie Rivard back to Canada, but it still wouldn't have made this a square deal......... Rivard, a winter pick-up from the Texas Rangers recommended by Melvin, formerly the Rangers' GM, seems to be writing his own ticket out of Huntsville. Rivard has now allowed 13 runs (nine earned) in 7 1/3 innings in his last five appearances.

 

The Stars kept the ballgame tight, down 2-1, until the 8th inning. After Glenn Woolard gave up a one-out worm-killer to Rob Sasser that slithered through the hole on the left side for a single, then walked Brian Becker on a 3-2 pitch, Rivard was called in to relieve the weary Woolie who had thrown 50 pitches in just 2 1/3 innings........ Rivard served up a single to right on his first pitch to Nate Murphy, scoring Sasser, and a single to left to Jon Acevas, scoring Becker. Before the inning was done, Rivard, responsible for Woolard's two baserunners, had put the Stars in a 6-1 hole, which is where they stayed....... After giving up a single to Brad Nelson in the 9th, Brad Murray, just back from Winston-Salem, retired the Stars on three fly outs to end the game......... The Stars have now lost nine of ten and are 4-15 in June.

 

Matt Ford dominated this game early, throwing just 23 pitches in a perfect three innings of work. After getting the first out of the 4th, Ford gave up a single up the middle to Ruddy Yan that took a high hop over his glove....... He hit Rob Sasser with a 1-and-2 pitch, but got dangerous 6'7" Becker to hit into a double play around the horn to end the inning.......

 

Just as it looked as if Ford could go seven innings tonight, he threw half his pitch limit of 60 in trying to get the Barons out in the 5th......... A leadoff single to Nate Murphy was followed by a four-pitch walk to Jon Acevas, one of several new additions to Birmingham's roster this weekend. A 1-1 pitch to Carlos Maldonado went way inside. Both runners were moving and Joel Alvarado's throw to 2nd was low and jammed inside the runner. Johnny Raburn could not come up with the ball and it skipped into centerfield for an error, sending runners to 2nd and 3rd........ Maldonado hit a shallow pop to right, the putout made by Nelson after a long run by Rickie Weeks, but Normand Martel, on 3-1, singled into the hole on the left side of the infield past a diving Raburn to tie the game at 1-1....... Guillermo Reyes (another returnee) followed on a 2-2 pitch with a slowly hit ball to short. Raburn was playing at double-play depth, taking him just a little bit longer to make the play on the ball, otherwise Acevas would have been dead at the plate had he been playing in with the score tied........ As a result, the Barons took their first lead, which they would never relenquish.

 

The Stars scored their only run on a leadoff HR by Ryan Knox, his first for the Stars since opening day, that just cleared the first level of billboards in left field.......... I have to give credit for the play of the day to Birmingham 2nd baseman on a rare unassisted out at first........ In the 8th with Ozzie Chavez on third, Tony Gwynn on first and two out, Prince Fielder hit a ball to the right side, not sharply hit, that found its way past Becker, looking like it would find a hole........ Yan came over on the outfield grass to field the ball, then realized with no one covering first, he'd either have to make the play himself or allow a run, so it was off to the races........ Yan slid into the base, ball in hand, just in time to get the oncoming Fielder, who tripped over him and fell in foul territory........ Fielder protested, but had no case. There was no interference since Yan was not blocking the bag or the baseline in the process. Manager Frank Kremblas came over to argue along with Fielder, but it was short-lived.

 

Sunday, Mike Jones (0-4, 4.82) will get a 60-pitch limit as he meets Birmingham lefty Heath Phillips in the finale of the first half. Game time is 2 pm CDT.... The Stars then take a couple of days off and then they get a whole new start Wednesday when they face the Tennessee Smokies at the Joe.