Link Report for Wed. 9/12 -- Stars Take Game One; Ultra-Complete Coverage

[Mass Haas]

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

 

 

[Mass Haas]

Wednesday's Daily Menu: Great opportunity for you to listen in to Brett Pollock, the Voice of the Stars, tonight from Montgomery

 

Central time; pitchers subject to change --

 

Nashville: Season complete

 

Huntsville: LHP Sam Narron at Montgomery (Devil Rays), 6:50 PM pre-game, 7:05 gametime; Game One of a Best-of-Five for the Southern League Championship

 

Audio link:

http://www.huntsvillestars.com/

 

Brevard County: Season complete

 

West Virginia: Idle until Thursday; trail Columbus 2-0 in a Best-of-Five for the South Atlantic League Championship

Helena: Season complete

Arizona: Season complete

[Mass Haas]

Huntsville Box Score / Game Log:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_09_12_hunaax_monaax_1

MiLB.com's Series Preview:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070911&content_id=302147&vkey=news_l111&fext=.jsp&sid=l111

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

http://www.al.com/stars/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/sports/1189588915148130.xml&coll=1

 

After striking out in '06, Stars try again

Huntsville gets another shot at title, Montgomery

By MARK McCARTER

Huntsville Times Sports Staff, markcolumn@aol.com

 

The postgame celebration had dimmed to something more along the lines of a midweek frat party instead of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

 

Still in full uniform, Huntsville catcher Lou Palmisano returned to the field to retrieve some gear.

 

In a stadium dark and empty save for a couple of clean-up people and one of his teammates on a cell phone in the stands, Palmisano meandered quietly through third-base foul territory, alone with his thoughts. He walked over to one of the sprinklers and got a little spritz on his hand.

 

"When I got down there I was like, 'I'm going to sit here a little bit.' I couldn't believe it. We're back. Against Montgomery. Again."

 

"Montgomery, again" translates to a rematch of the 2006 Southern League championship series, which the Biscuits won in four games, outscoring the Stars 30-8 in the last three.

 

The series opens tonight in Montgomery at 7:05, and game two is there Thursday at 7:05. Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright has officially declared today "Biscuit Day" in the city.

 

Game three will be in Huntsville Friday at 7:05; games four and five, if needed, would also be at Joe Davis Stadium.

 

The Biscuits reached the finals by knocking off Mississippi in four games. The Stars are coming off an epic five-game series against Tennessee in which three Huntsville pitchers combined for a Friday no-hitter, Lindsay Gulin threw a three-hit shutout on Sunday and Luis Pena escaped a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the ninth on Monday.

 

Sam Narron, who started Thursday's opener against the Smokies and fell quickly behind, will be Huntsville's starter tonight.

 

"You hear it over and over, but it's the same thing. You try to get out there and give your team a chance to win. I've got to get off to a better start," he said.

 

It'll be his third start against Montgomery, with one good performance and one bad performance, that coming the first week of the season before his mechanics were perfected.

 

"This is the rubber match," he said. "I've worked on some stuff (since then) and feel a little more comfortable on the mound. We'll see how it goes."

 

"I have all the confidence in the world he's going to come out and throw his game," Palmisano said.

 

Safely away from some of the party, but hardly out of earshot of the music, Palmisano talked about the team's persona, which can best be summed up as "different game, different hero."

 

Where Ryan Braun carried the offense and Joe Valentine was a dependable closer in last year's run, it's been a cast of thousands. Steve Moss had two important but unsung hits to keep rallies going in the game five win over Tennessee. Three pinch hitters - Mike Goetz, Guilder Rodriguez and Ryan Crew - did their job with sacrifices.

 

"There's (Brendan) Katin. So many people overlooked him. But he's got 24 homers and 94 RBIs. Without that, where are we?" Palmisano said. "Look at the first half, me and Moss were swinging well. The second half, we slowed down but the other guys picked it up - (Adam) Heether, (Hernan) Iribarren and (Alcides) Escobar.

 

"Whether it's our bullpen picking up our hitters, or the hitters picking up the pitching staff, whenever something goes wrong, the other guys are there for it.

 

"When we started this year," Palmisano said, "you want to have a good year and play good baseball. Now, we're right back to where we were. Right back to the championship."

 

Montgomery. Again.

 

But wanting a different ending.

[Mass Haas]

Feel free to comment on the happenings tonight in more of an in-game format.

 

Yes, some eyes and ears will be focused on Cubs - Astros, but here's hoping some of the minor league regulars will be tuning in and will fashion an in-game commentary tonight as well.

 

Go Stars!

[Mass Haas]

Because Tampa's in the A.L., this is a designated hitter series, so Mat Gamel's in the strating lineup for his AA debut:

 

Brantley LF

Escobar SS

Iribarren, H 2B

Heether 3B

Sollmann 1B

Katin RF

Gamel DH

Palmisano, L C

Moss, S CF

Narron P

[hsvstarsfan]

I now work at WAFF-TV in Huntsville and just want to say that Game One between Huntsville and Montgomery can be seen courtesy of our sister station, WFSA in Montgomery, via streaming video at www.waff.com

Just click on SPORTS and click on the link.

[bretsky07]

Thanks for the link to the live game! Are any of the other games going to be shown there?

[mls4]

Good team effort on the offensive side, with every starter either scoring or driving in a run.

[colbyjack]

Nice job by the Stars tonight coming back from an early 3-0 deficit against one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball (RHP Wade Davis), driving him out of the game in the 5th, and then piling on late in the game to take the first game of the series.

 

Sam Narron with a strong game after giving up 3 runs in the 1st and thankfully Robert Hinton has been tossing the ball a lot better as of late.

 

Plus, it's nice to see the Stars not dig themselves in the same early hole the Manatees and Power did in their championship series.

 

Also, thanks for the video link hsvstarsfan!

[Mass Haas]

Final: Huntsville 8, Montgomery (Devil Rays) 4

Huntsville Site Game Summary:

Link, text follows --

 

http://www.huntsvillestars.com/news/news.asp?newsId=1364

 

Stars Come Back to Win Game One of Title Series!

Brendan Katin's seventh inning home run put Huntsville ahead to stay and Sam Narron worked through seven gutty innings in an 8-4 win to open the Southern League Championship Series Wednesday night at Riverwalk Stadium. The Stars took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series after falling behind by three runs after the first inning and coming back to score eight of the last nine runs in the contest.

 

Katin clubbed his home run with two outs and nobody on off of Richard De Los Santos, who had allowed three home runs in 72 innings during the regular season. De Los Santos took the loss after allowing the decisive run and two hits over 2 2/3 innings of work. Evan Meek took over in the eighth and gave up singles to start the frame to Lou Palmisano and Steve Moss and was replaced by Brian Henderson, who gave up a sacrifice bunt to Michael Brantley and walked Alcides Escobar to load the bases to face the left-hand swinging Hernan Iribarren. The strategy backfired when Henderson hit Iribarren with his first pitch to force in Palmisano to make it 6-4 and then made it worse when he walked Adam Heether on four pitches to force in Moss to push the lead to three. Steve Sollmann finished off the rally with a sacrifice fly, the third of the game for the visitors.

 

Robert Hinton closed out the win with two scoreless, hitless frames and has now tossed six shutout innings in the playoffs, allowing only one hit. Narron earned his first win in the playoffs after overcoming a bumpy beginning, allowing four runs, three earned, on seven hits and walk, while fanning four. He grabbed his first win since August 12.

 

The Stars had runners at first and third and nobody out in the first inning but could not score after Iribarren popped out into a double play, with Escobar breaking from first, and Heether was called out on strikes. The Biscuits then seized the momentum after a Heether throwing error, a Reid Brignac double and a three-run home run by Chris Nowak. Narron gave up four runs in the first inning in his first post-season start and was scored on in the first frame for an eighth time in 15 turns away from home.

 

Michael Brantley's sacrifice fly in the third got the Stars on the board but they left Moss stranded at third base with one out. The visitors then pulled to within 3-2 in the fourth inning on a two-out run-scoring single by Mat Gamel, playing in his first game at the double-A level. Gabriel Martinez belted a home run in the bottom of the frame to push the home side's advantage back to a pair.

 

Iribarren tripled with one out in the fifth and scored when Heether followed with an infield hit to bring the Stars back to within a run and chase Biscuits' starter Wade Davis. Brignac then misplayed a Sollmann grounder, allowing Heether to remain on the bases, advance to third base when Brendan Katin was hit by a pitch and score to tie the game on a Gamel sacrifice fly. Elvis Andrus in right field made a tremendous leaping catch up against the wall to take away a potential extra-base hit with the bases loaded for the second out of the frame. Huntsville reached double digits in hits (12) for a fourth straight game in the post-season and have scored 36 runs in their first six games.

 

The series continues on Thursday night with right-hander Corey Thurman taking the hill for the Stars against Biscuits' southpaw Jake McGee. Coverage begins at 6:50 pm central time locally on SportsRadio 730 WUMP and through the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

 

Huntsville Box Score:

Five of the Stars' eight RBI came without benefit of a hit; welcome to AA, Mat Gamel; tale of two seasons for Robert Hinton, pre- and post-All Star game...

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_09_12_hunaax_monaax_1

 

Huntsville Game Log:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_log&gid=2007_09_12_hunaax_monaax_1

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

http://www.al.com/stars/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/sports/1189675007132620.xml&coll=1

 

Katin crushes ball, Biscuits in Stars' rally

Towering home run sparks Huntsville in series opener

By MARK McCARTER

Huntsville Times Sports Staff, markcolumn@aol.com

MONTGOMERY - Let's tally up the damage for the poor rascal. A foul ball off his foot - even if the umps wrongly called him out. A fastball in the thigh. A broken bat on a foul ball. Another broken bat on another foul ball on the very next pitch that left the guys in the Huntsville dugout trying to hide their giggles.

 

And, oh yeah. Brendan Katin also had a line-hugging, jaw-dropping, nine-story home run that put the Stars ahead for good in their 8-4 victory over the Montgomery Biscuits Wednesday night.

 

It also put them ahead 1-0 in the Southern League championship series. Before anybody does any champagne shopping, recall that Huntsville had a 1-0 lead over Montgomery exactly a year ago, only to drop the final three games.

 

"It was a different kind of game," said Katin. "Last year, they gave it to us. This one we came out and won. It'll be a little more momentum for us."

 

Game two will be here in Montgomery tonight at 7:05 - though there is a 70 percent chance of rain - with the Stars' Corey Thurman (5-8) going against Jake McGee (3-2).

 

The Stars made two roster moves Wednesday. Mat Gamel, who'll serve as designated hitter, and right-hander Patrick Ryan were promoted from Class A Brevard County after the Manatees' playoff run ended. Pitcher Jeff Housman was released and pitcher Vince Perkins was placed on Nashville's roster.

 

Gamel made a quick contribution with an RBI single and a sacrifice fly.

 

"He's probably thinking this Double-A stuff has got to be easy for him," said starting pitcher Sam Narron, who gave up seven hits in seven innings, and withstood a three-run Montgomery first on a three-run Chris Nowak homer.

 

After that, Narron said, "You've just got to bow your neck and give 'em what you can and try to finish with a bang."

 

Despite the homer, he remained composed.

 

"One thing I've always prided myself on is the ability to bounce back after a bad inning," he said. "When you wear your emotions on your sleeve, you show them (opponents) they're getting to you.

 

"If you stay on an even keel, it's like 'We just hit a three-run homer off him and he looks like he's sleeping out there.' "

 

A Michael Brantley sacrifice fly cut the Biscuits lead to 3-1 in the third, then Gamel singled home Heether in the fourth. However, the Stars left the bases loaded that inning, and had left runners on third in two of the previous three.

 

Gaby Martinez homered with two out in the fourth, but the Stars responded in their half as Hernan Iribarren tripled and scored on a Heether single. Steve Sollmann reached when shortstop Reid Brignac booted a sure double play ball, then Katin was hit by a pitch. Gamel followed with a sacrifice fly against the right-field wall to make it 4-4.

 

Katin's homer came with two out in the seventh, off Richard De Los Santos, the second of five Biscuit pitchers. In the eighth, Iribarren was hit by a pitch and Heether walked with the bases loaded, then Sollmann hit a sacrifice fly.

 

"We kept pecking and kept pecking and kept pecking, then Katin hits the big home run for us," manager Don Money said. And though it's a 1-0 edge, he was quick to caution, "You've still got to win three to win it all."

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/mmccarter.ssf?/base/sports/1189674934132620.xml&coll=1

Newest Star gets fashion tips and a pair of hits

Contact Mark McCarter of the Huntsville Times at markcolumn@aol.com or visit his al.com blog at http://blog.al.com/mccarter

 

MONTGOMERY - It took Mat Gamel, oh, about an hour to become a full-fledged, initiated Huntsville Star.

 

"What were you wearing on the bus? What do you think this is, Beach City, or what?"

 

It was Stars manager Don Money, off on a teasing rant as he stood by the batting cage.

 

"Did you see him walk on the bus today?" Money turned to Steve Sollmann. "Gol-l-l dog."

 

This, only a few minutes after Gamel had even addressed his manager as "Mr. Money."

 

Gamel pleaded that, hey, at least he was dressed nicely on the airplane flight into Montgomery.

 

"Why didn't you wear it today? Geez," Money said. "It's embarrassing."

 

"Not a very good first impression," Gamel would say later of his lived-in jeans and polo shirt ensemble as he sat in the Stars' dugout before Wednesday's Game 1 of the Southern League championship series.

 

"I just rolled out of bed and looked kind of ragged," he explained.

 

In truth, if you're getting needled by Money, you officially belong. The real first impression would come at game time. Gamel - "Camel, with a G," he offered as a pronunciation tip (and only one T in Mat) - was immediately placed in the starting lineup, as the designated hitter.

 

Any qualms about a kid just promoted this very day from Single-A ball inserted into the lineup under this pressure?

 

"None," said Money.

 

Gamel's first at-bat wasn't so impressive. With two out, none on in the second, he whiffed on an 94 mph fastball from Biscuits starter Wade Davis, up and in.

 

The second impression was much better. As were others. Gamel cracked a resounding two-out RBI single to right in the fourth, then hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth and a double in the ninth. Not a bad debut: 2-for-4, 2 RBIs.

 

That Gamel, a 22-year-old native of Jacksonville, Fla., was rolling out of bed to catch the Stars' bus to the ballpark Wednesday afternoon is understandable. He had only recently flown in, having been promoted to the Stars from Brevard County after the Manatees were eliminated Tuesday in Clearwater.

 

"At first, I had a little mixed emotions, to be honest," Gamel said. "I was looking forward to some time off before I head out (to instructional league in Arizona). Then I started thinking clearly. It's obviously a good thing if they wanted me to come up here and help them. I'm pretty excited about moving up."

 

Gamel and the Manatees made the cross-state bus ride from Clearwater to Viera, near Melbourne. Then "I cleaned out my stuff a little bit at the ballpark, got what I needed to bring here, then went back to my house, threw together some stuff and got in the truck and headed to the airport."

 

He and pitcher Patrick Ryan, also promoted to Huntsville, were on a 7:15 a.m. flight to Atlanta, then on to Montgomery.

 

And to Don Money's fashion review.

 

At Brevard County, Gamel batted .300 with nine homers and 60 RBIs. He made headlines with a 33-game hitting streak in midseason.

 

A three-game streak now could make a really good first impression in Huntsville.

[Mass Haas]

Mark McCarter Series Blog Entries:

http://blog.al.com/mccarter/2007/09/narrons_determination_wins_out.html

 

Sam Narron has always been one of the more interesting Stars to talk with. Partly because of his enthusiasm, partly because he's a fascinating story, as one of eight Narrons to play pro baseball.

He's a guy who can be easy to root for -- especially after he had a tough start in the first round of the playoffs with some devastating walks and a couple of small but deadly hits against him. He took the loss hard.

I asked him the other day if this start in the Southern League championship would be a mulligan of sorts for him. "Yeah, I hope so. You just want to give you team a chance."

He then promptly gave up a three-run first-inning homer -- and settled down wonderfully to give his team a chance to win Wednesday night. And they did, 8-4 over Montgomery.

Narron was sprawled on the training room floor, doing some postgame weight work, when I found him. He hopped up and visited for a second, and talked about shrugging off the homer.

"One thing I've always prided myself on is the ability to bounce back after a bad inning. When you wear your emotions on your sleeve, you show them (opponents) they're getting to you," he said. "If you stay on an even keel, it's like 'We just hit a three-run homer after him and he looks like he's sleeping out there.'"

 

http://blog.al.com/mccarter/2007/09/forecast_raises_questions.html#more

 

MONTGOMERY -- There is a 70 percent chance for rain for Thursday's game two of the Southern League championship series between the Stars and Biscuits.

There are also 70 different ideas about what would/should/could happen. And nobody seems to know for sure.

Major league farm directors, who don't want to keep paying player salaries over an extended period of time, want the playoffs to end as quickly as possible. So the rumor is, next Monday's the drop-dead date to have the series end.

But if it's rained out tonight, do they play here Friday. Do they play a pair of nine-inning games in a Friday doubleheader in Huntsville, with Montgomery as home team in the first one? If they stay here, it kills Huntsville's best night for a good crowd. It'd be a financial crusher if the series went five games in Huntsville, going up against college football on Saturday night, then church on Sunday and Monday being a school night.

Here's an idea: Maybe it just won't rain.

[Mass Haas]

Montgomery Audio Call of Brendan Katin's Go-Ahead HR:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070913&content_id=302660&vkey=news_l111&fext=.jsp&sid=l111

Brendan Katin had one RBI in five playoff games before homering Wednesday. (Tom Priddy/MLB.com)

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2007/09/13/2kaBIWxc.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Montgomery Advertiser Photos:

Adam Heether

 

Alcides Escobar

 

Hernan Iribarren

 

Lou Palmisano

[Mass Haas]

David Weiser's

http://www.starsboxscore.com/

 

KATIN LEADS STARS TO GAME ONE VICTORY

PROVIDES GO-AHEAD HR IN THE 7th

Brendan Katin's 1st post-season homer, just inside the foul pole in left, provided the Huntsville Stars with the go-ahead run as the Stars went on to take Game One of the Southern League Championship Series vs. Montgomery at Riverwalk Park........ After Katin homered in the 7th, the Stars sent eight men to the plate in the 8th inning to open up an 8-4 lead......... Sam Narron threw 103 pitches in seven innings, walked one and struck out four, then gave way to Robert Hinton, who continued his shining post-July relief with two no-hit innings. That gives him a 1.32 ERA in 14 appearances that he's made since August. Quite a recovery from a May-June-July in which he gave up 32 runs in 27 1/3 innings....... As usual, Narron shook off a rough 1st inning, giving up a three-run blast to Chris Nowak, then settled down in the later innings..... What a debut for Mat Gamel!!... 2-for-4 a double and a sacrifice fly!...... Before you get too excited, remember the Stars won the first game of the series against the Biscuits last year. It's not over till it's over, Stars fans......

What can the Stars do for an encore after defending their Northern Division Title on a no-hitter, a three-hitter, and one of the most exciting finishes to a game this season?........ Simply, they can beat the Biscuits and win their first Southern League title outright since 1994 in the first championship rematch since 1976-77, which interestingly enough, involved Montgomery (then known as the Rebels) and the Orlando Twins.

By the way, you can see the game at Riverwalk Stadium by going to www.waff.com. Click on SPORTS, then follow the link to the LIVE streaming video.

What do the Stars and Biscuits bring to war?....... First, the Stars added some power. Grabbing Mat Gamel from Brevard County, which was quickly eliminated by Clearwater in the Florida State League Championship Series. And then they got some help in the bullpen, adding right-hander Pat Ryan......... Ryan, in 34 appearances, was 3-3 with a 1.75 ERA for the Manatees. Hopefully, he'll keep the ball low and induce some double plays (3.74 groundball/fly out ratio) when they're needed. Impressively, he held Florida State League hitters to a .204 average. Earlier in the season with West Virginia, he was 2-0, 3.23, holding Sally League hitters to a .213 average....... Gamel, a Florida State League All-Star, will be available for DH and pinch-hit duties (after all, he committed 53 errors at 3rd base for Brevard). Reportedly, he's a patient hitter (58 walks) with a power stroke (37 doubles, 8 triples, 9 HRs, .300 average). He finished his season 9th among FSL slugging leaders (.472) and 6th on on-base + slugging pct. (.850)

The Stars beat the Biscuits in 7 of 10 meetings this year and that included a 19-4 whipping on May 30, but this was a team that finished .500 in the first half. The Stars never saw the second half version that won 18 of their last 20 games. Keep that in mind when you look at what these two teams did head-to-head:

[align=center]

	Stars	Biscuits
Average	.303	.270
Runs	73	40
Hits	105	93
2bs	20	10
3bs	3	2
HRs	8	9
BBs	40	25
SBs	15	9
Slugging	.447	.388
On-Base	.388	.326
ERA	3.90	6.55
Saves	3	2
Strikeouts	80	73
Walks	40	25
HBPs	11	4
Errors	8	11

[/align]

Side-by-side, here's the way they finished in the Southern League::

[align=center]

	Stars	Biscuits
Average	.259 (6th)	.269 (3rd)
Runs	647 (4th)	695 (1st)
Hits	1,165 (8th)	1,284 (1st)
2bs	215 (10th)	251 (4th)
3bs	47 (1st)	40 (3rd)
HRs	73 (10th)	114 (4th)
BBs	507 (4th)	532 (1st)
SBs	142 (2nd)	102 (6th)
Slugging	.376 (9th)	.411 (1st)
On-Base	.717 (8th)	.757 (1st)
ERA	3.90 (3rd)	4.00 (5th)
Saves	39 (2nd)	31 (8thT)
Strikeouts	1,062 (4th)	939 (10th)
Walks	410 (10th)	502 (3rd)
HBPs	43 (8th)	75 (1st)
HRs	117 (3rd)	106 (5th)

[/align]

Individually, here are the top hitters, head-to-head:

[align=center]

	10 games
STEVE MOSS	.447, 2 hr, 14 rbi, 17 hits, 8 walks
STEVE SOLLMANN	.410, 3 2bs, 11 rbis, 4 SBs (led)
ADAM HEETHER	.407, 2 hr, 8 rbis, 2 2bs, triple
DREW ANDERSON	.438, 7-for-16
BRENDAN KATIN	.389, 2 hrs, 11 rbis

[/align]

Hernan Iribarren hit just .200 vs. Montgomery, but bear in mind, he was hitting .257 after the Stars' next-to-last meeting against them on May 31. Iribarren did not play the following day..... Lou Palmisano hit .286 vs. the Biscuits in 21 ABs.

Here's how the Biscuits did at the plate, head-to-head:

[align=center]

CHRIS NOWAK	.353, 1 hr, 4 rbis, .934 ops
EVAN LONGORIA	.333, 3 hrs, 9 rbis, 13 hits (led)
JOSH ASANOVICH	.321, 1 double, 5 rbis
JOHN JASO	.320, double,1 RBI, 3 walks
FERNANDO PEREZ	.294, hr, 3 rbis, 3 walks

[/align]

The starting rotation has not been very effective against Montgomery. Of the seven wins against this team, five came from the starters, and only two pitchers on the current roster picked up those victories....... On the mound, Sam Narron will start Game One, and we all know Sam's history -- rough start, particularly in the 1st inning, then marked improvement by the middle innings. (And as I say this, Chris Nowak his hit a three-run HR in the 1st inning, giving Montgomery an early 3-0 lead.)....... But he beat the Biscuits on May 28th, 12-3, thanks to 1st inning support from Adam Heether, who hit a three-run HR in a five-run 1st, but Narron has a 5.54 ERA in 13 innings........ Adam Pettyjohn was the only Stars pitcher to pick up a pair of wins against Montgomery. Two others came from Mike Jones and Manny Parra. Other than Narron, the remaining win from the current rotation came from Lindsay Gulin on June 1.

The Stars bullpen, on the other hand, was exceptionally effective, allowing just nine earned runs in 32 1/3 innings -- and seven of those came from Luis Villareal, who finished his season with the Class A-Clearwater (Fla. St.) Threshers....... Take out Villareal, and the bullpen has two wins (coming from Joe Thatcher and Corey Thurman), three saves (all from Marino Salas), and an ERA of 0.64!....... Factor in Villareal, who gave up seven runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings, and you have a bullpen ERA of 2.51 against Montgomery. But once again, keep this in mind, this all happened before Montgomery's torrid 2nd half, in which they finished 46-24.

[hsvstarsfan]

Thanks for the link to the live game! Are any of the other games going to be shown there?

 

Only Game 2 in Montgomery. Joe Davis Stadium does not have the necessities for further link-ups.