May, BlueClaws top Grasshoppers

The Lakewood BlueClaws completed their 9-game home stand with a 2-0 win over Greensboro, taking the series 3 games to 1 and improving to 5-4 in the second half (47-30 overall). The story was the pitching of Trevor May, who made his 4th start of the year his best. May went 6 shut out innings, allowing only 6 hits and 1 walk to record his first BlueClaw's victory. Rob Roth continued his comeback with a 1-2-3 7th inning and B.J. Rosenberg (1.38 ERA) notched his 13th save.

Coming on the heels of Heitor Correa's 6th win of the year, it appears Lakewood is ready to absorb the loss of 2 of their 5 starters from the first half. The BlueClaws will head to West Virginia to battle the Power (and the toastman) for 4 games beginning Saturday night.

In Reading Friday night, the R-Phils defeated Altoona 4-3 in 11 innings. Mike Stutes started and went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits, NO walks, and received no decision. Scott Eyre, Mike Zagurski, Alex Concepcion and Jason Mackintosh all threw scoreless relief. Quintin Berry lead the offense with 3 hits, scored 2 runs and stole 2 more bases to increase his league leading total to 28, as Reading improved to 46-33, 5.5 games behind first place Akron.

Thursday night in Allentown, Carlos Carrasco won again, 5-1 over Syracuse. Carlos is now 5-7, 4.70 on the year after not winning a game for the first 2 months. He is working on a slider, which when added to his fastball, change-up and curve, gives him a formidable arsenal of pitches. Lou Marson had a hit and 2 RBI in support of Carlos. Lou and Carlos have been teammates for 4 years in a row now, and were together for Lakewood's 2006 SAL title, and Clearwater's 2007 FSL crown.

Friday night in Clearwater, the Threshers dropped their 2nd straight after an 8-game winning streak, losing 10-5 to Dunedin. Fidel Hernandez is red hot, going 15 for 44 (.341) over the last 10 games to lift his average to .283 for the year. Julian Sampson absorbed the loss and falls to 1-9, 7.91 on the season. Things do not look bright for Julian if he does not have a drastic turnaround soon, like yesterday!! Tyler Cloyd, who was hit hard in his Clearwater debut last week, will get the ball this afternoon in Dunedin.