Link Report for Mon. 4/30 - Capellan's Non-Save Spoils Day

[Mass Haas]

Nashville Site Game Summary:

Link for Yovani Gallardo photo, text follows --

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/n...ewsId=2290

 

Sounds Drop Another Heartbreaker, 6-5 To Iowa

 

DES MOINES ? It was an unfortunate case of déjà vu for the Nashville Sounds on Monday evening at Principal Park.

 

One night after suffering a loss on a last at-bat homer in Omaha, Iowa pinch-hitter Geovany Soto belted a game-ending, three-run shot off Jose Capellan with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to hand the Sounds a heartbreaking 6-5 loss in the opener of a four-game series.

 

Soto?s blast, which was his first of the season, erased a 5-3 Iowa deficit, extended the Sounds? losing streak to a season-high five games, and bumped Nashville (13-11) out of first place in the PCL American Conference Northern Division.

 

The late heroics ruined an outstanding evening for Nashville starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo, who was in line for his fourth straight winning outing.

 

Gallardo, who took a no-decision, fanned nine batters while allowing three runs on six hits over a season-high seven innings, his fourth consecutive quality start. In addition, the right-hander smacked his first professional home run to aid his own cause.

 

The 21-year-old hurler has fanned at least seven batters in each of his five outings this season and ranks second in the Pacific Coast League with 42 punchouts on the year.

 

Catcher Mike Rivera gave the Sounds a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when he plated J.D. Closser with a sacrifice fly. Closser had opened the frame with a walk and moved to third on an Andy Abad single.

 

Gallardo helped his own cause in the third by belting a two-out, two-run homer to left off Iowa starter Carlos Marmol. Ozzie Chavez, who preceded Gallardo with a single, also scored on the roundtripper.

 

The blast was the first of the hurler?s career and the first home run by a Sounds pitcher since Jeff Housman on July 18, 2005 against Memphis. Gallardo is batting .429 (3-for-7) with two extra-base hits (double, homer) and three RBIs on the year.

 

Cubs left fielder Chris Walker put the home team on the board in the bottom of the third when he swatted his first career Triple-A homer, a leadoff solo shot to right that made it a 3-1 contest.

 

Nashville upped the lead to 5-1 in the fifth on a bases-loaded, two-run flyout by Abad. After Drew Anderson and Ryan Braun were each hit by a Marmol pitch to open the frame, Closser drew a walk to load the bags. Abad followed with a fly ball to left that allowed Anderson to score as part of a sacrifice fly. Closser was caught in a rundown as he attempted to advance to second, eventually being put out 7-2-3-4, but stayed untagged long enough to allow Braun to race home to score a second run on the play.

 

AUDIO: Two Runs Score On Abad Flyout --

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/a...204-30.mp3

 

Iowa got the runs back in the bottom half of the frame against Gallardo with a pair of back-to-back two-out RBI doubles off the bats of pinch-hitter Casey McGehee and Walker.

 

Reliever Grant Balfour, who joined the Sounds earlier in the day, made his Nashville debut following Gallardo on the hill and worked a hitless eighth inning, including one strikeout.

 

Capellan was summoned to close out the contest in the ninth but was unable to complete the task at hand. After walking the leadoff batter, the hard-throwing right-hander induced a lineout double play from Buck Coats to clear the bases with two outs. Capellan then walked Scott Moore and allowed an Angel Pagan single before Soto followed with his game-ending home run, which came on a 3-1 pitch.

 

Cubs reliever Federico Baez (1-0) was the beneficiary of Soto?s heroics, earning his first career Triple-A win after retiring the only batter he faced in the contest.

 

Capellan (1-1) took the loss after blowing the save, the Sounds? second blown save in as many nights and the club?s fifth of the season.

 

The Sounds will look to snap their skid when the teams continue the series with another 7:05 p.m. meeting on Tuesday evening. Left-hander Zach Jackson (3-2, 4.10) will make the start for Nashville and face Iowa right-hander Angel Guzman (0-1, 8.59).

[ReverendBrewmeister]

A late report from Des Moines:

 

Saw a number of Brewer fans in the crowd in the home stomping grounds in central Iowa, which was great! Didn't get any names of who was there.

 

Some impressions of the game include the following (from the layman's point of view):

 

1) Gallardo's Performance. Yo appeared to have a pretty good command of the strike zone. A few times, he was completely unafraid to throw a breaking ball or changeup in a tight count situation (2-2; 3-2), pounding the zone and getting the strike out. He was also consistently in the 88-90mph range, even in the 6th and 7th innings. Hopefully, his velocity will increase over the next couple of years, so that it will be in the 90-92mph range later in games.

 

2) Braun's Performance Not much to report. Drew a walk. Also was drilled by a pitch. Seemed to have pop in the bat, including some pitches he was just under and fouled straight back. The grandstand crowd had to duck and cover when foul balls struck the facade and caromed down. Would have loved to see those put in play to see the power Braun has. Fielding was minimal in this game, so nothing to comment there.

 

3) Capellan's Performance Unmitigated disaster. Didn't get to see the radar gun reports, since they refused to put it on the scoreboard display, but it appeared faster than the starting pitchers from both sides. Control was erratic. Was "fortunate" not to have lost the game before the walk-off, as a line-out double play wiped out a leadoff runner. Noticed there were quite a few scouts (or 6 people who all happened to have radar guns and clipboards) were monitoring Capellan's outing. He did nothing to gain trade value whatsoever, IMO.

 

4) Gallardo's Hitting. Was great to see him at the plate. He just simply "looked" like a hitter: strong, aggressive stance; menacing curl of the bat; no hiding at the edge of the batter's box. His home run was simply crushed: a line drive shot to left that appeared to be rising when it hit the facade of the suites above the left field wall. Out in a blink of an eye, and the sound off the bat was sweet.

 

5) Miscellaneous Good group of Brad Nelson fans were on hand. Sat in the section next to where I was. Grant Balfour looked good in relief in the 8th inning. Can't recall velocity, since the scoreboard wasn't displaying the Nashville pitcher's speed in the 8th and 9th innings.

 

Perhaps some of the other faithful will give their firsthand accounts. Won't likely get to any other games this week, due to ministerial duties.

[Mass Haas]

Thanks for the report from Iowa!

 

Photo on MiLB.com this morning:

 

Freddy Parejo's grand slam capped the offensive barrage for Brevard County. (Jerry Hale/MLB.com)

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2007/05/01/5wj8HK2v.jpg

[Mass Haas]

David Weiser's

 

www.starsboxscore.com/

 

FAIR OR FOUL?

One month down. Let's look at the spreadsheet...... The Stars finish 11-12 with a .229 average at the plate. They had their problems in the 1st inning, allowing 30 runs, 16 more than they did last year, and they let opposing hitters clobber them for a .393 average, making last year's .309 look stingy....... The rotation's 8-9, 4.65 record was tempered by a very effective bullpen that had an ERA of 2.67 and struck out 87 batters in 81 innings. Most everyone with a bat in their hands finished up with a batting average .220 or under........ In the field, they made 21 errors, the most in three years.

 

But they had three steady bats in the lineup....... Lou Palmisano's start pleased and amazed us. His .373 April is the 5th best start in Stars history and Steve Sollmann threw in nine stolen bases with his .362 mark, 8th best April in Stars history........ Add Steve Moss, who climbed to .311 this month with a 2-for-2 finish, Monday, and you have the Stars in 1st place in as weak a division as I've ever seen.

 

Moss's big day at the plate was by grace, and a benevolent umpire at Manny Gonzalez, who watched his 2nd inning home run curl over and around the foul pole in left field -- resulting in a controversial call......... Barons' new manager Rafael Santana, catcher Jeremy Frost, and pitcher Ryan Wing came down on the ump who made the call, but it's like fighting city hall....... The call went our way, and Palmisano and Brendan Katin, who led off the inning with walks, crossed the plate ahead of Moss to give the Stars a 3-0 lead........ Moss has now hit safely in 14 of his last 16 games (22-for-66) and leads the club in RBIs with 16. It's more than he had in any month last year....... Greg Sain led the Stars in RBIs with 20 after the first month last year.

 

In the 4th inning, Jeff Eure came through with what turned out to be the game-winning blow, however....... Fernando Hernandez had come in from the bullpen to spell Ryan Wing, himself a middle reliever. He got Palmisano to fly out and struck out Katin, who has fanned in nearly every game this month, save for three....... Then he walked Moss and Hernan Iribarren singled to left, sending the speedy Moss to third....... Eure then stepped up and crushed a ball deep to center against the base of the wall for a bases-clearing triple to make it 5-0.

 

The Barons broke a scoreless string of 14 innings in the 5th when Cory Aldridge, in his 11th professonal season, pounded Mike Jones' fast ball over the wall in left-center to make it 5-1....... A fielder's choice on a double play ball in the 6th made it 5-2

 

The Stars would need all of the runs Eure drove in as it turned out, for Ricardo Nanita's 2-run homer in the 9th made it a 6-4 game, a game you either saw in Birmingham or listened to over the internet, for there was no radio coverage.

 

The Stars take Tuesday off, as does most of the league, but come home Wednesday to face Chattanooga....... Tyler Pelland (1-2, 3.33), the losing pitcher to the Stars in Game 3 of last year's Northern Division championship, will face Sam Narron (0-2, 6.30)........ The Lookouts are 11-14, but just one game in back of the Stars and Tennessee Smokies for 1st place.

 

The Stars finish the month last in batting in the league (.228) and 9th in pitching (3.86), but lead the league in stolen bases (30) and have issued the fewest walks (52)......... In addition to being 2nd among Southern League batting leaders at .383, Lou Palmisano is 3rd in slugging (.638) and leads the league in OPS (on base + slugging) with a 1.138 mark...... Steve Sollmann leads the league in on-base pct......... Brendan Katin went 0-for-9 in the last three games of this series and is 3-for-21 in his last six games........ Yohannis Perez is hitless in his last 14 at-bats and finishes April with a .176 average. It was as high as .278 after a 1-for-3 day against Jacksonville, April 19.

 

Was pleasantly surprised to get e-mail from former Stars pitcher Paul Stewart. Stew is studying for exams at North Carolina State. In June 2006, he and his wife Meredith had their 2nd daughter, Raleigh. Wonder where she was born. Hmmmmmmm.. Forgot to ask him what he's studying....... Stewart was a 12-gamer winner for the Stars in 2002 and also led the club in innings pitched.

 

Failed to mention a milestone....... Mike Jones' combined shutout over Montgomery with Joe Thatcher and Marino Salas on April 25 was the 200th in Stars history.

[dadofandrew]

Somehow, I doubt if the Sounds were "heartbroken", to be perfectly blunt. Jose C maybe, but I think they'd all rather go 3-4 and lose than 1-4 and win.

 

I still remember when Kremblas had one of his many tantrums to the press and it was reported how he had had a long closed door meeting with his team...which included Prince, Rickie, and Corey that season.

 

Somehow, I doubt it had much of an effect on them making the bigs.