Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Memorial Day Highlights

Memorial Day featured a 5-4 win for the Phillies in our nation's capial. Ryan Howard belted his 12th home run, and drove in 2 on the day (42 RBI), Domonic Brown had an RBI (4) single, and Carlos Ruiz had a single and a double and scored a run. Antonio Bastardo used 2 pitches to retire 1 hitter, and was replaced! For his effort, Bastardo was awarded a "hold", his 3rd this year.

The Phillies have sent Vance Worley back to Lehigh Valley and brought back Mike Zagurski. I also noticed that the Pirates have placed Ryan Doumit on the DL, and am hopeful Jason Jaramillo will get recalled.

In the game I mentioned earlier-in which Sergio Escalona was awarded a victory in the Astros 12-7 win over the Cubs- Michael Bourn (.271) had 2 singles and a triple, and he stole base #19.......In Seattle, the Mariners topped the Orioles, 4-3. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, with the bases loaded and 1 out, the Orioles called on Alfredo Simon to bail out Jake Arrieta. Alfredo struck out Carlos Peguero and Chone Figgins to strand the runners, and then pitched 3 more scoreless frames to keep Baltimore in the game. Overall 3.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 walk, 4 Ks in an excellent outing for Simon.

In Durham, R.J.Swindel was in the right place at the right time, entering the game to strike out the only hitter he faced, and watching as the Bulls rallied for 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th en route to a 7-4 win over Columbus, with Swindel notching his 2nd win of the year.........In Reno, the Sacramento River Cats collected 19 hits in a 16-5 beating of the Aces. Adrian Cardenas (.339) had 2 hits and a walk, scored 2 runs and drove in 2 more........In Gwinnett, the IronPigs put a 10-2 beating on the Braves. Drew Carpenter (4-0, 2.23) was the winning pitcher, throwing 3 innings of relief, 1 run, 3 hits, NO walks, 6 Ks. Chance Chapman also was effective for 2 innings, just 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 Ks.

In Jacksonville, Quintin Berry (.324) followed up his 3 hit-2 walk-2 stolen base performance on Sunday with 2 more hits on Monday in the Mudcats' 8-0 win over the Suns.........In Birmingham, Will Savage threw a good game,but was just out-pitched in a 4-1 Barons win over the Lookouts. Will went 6.1 innings, 4 runs on 6 hits and 1 walk, and 4 Ks, and is now 5-2, 3.58 on the year for Chattanooga..........In Manchester, Anthony Gose hit his 4th home run and drove in 3 runs for the Fisher Cats as New Hampshire beat New Britain 7-6. Gose also reached base on an error and scored a run in the 9th inning, an inning which saw New Hampshire come from behind 6-2, scoring 5 times to win it! New Hampshire has now won 7 in a row and has a 3 game lead over Trenton. Reading is 7.5 back, keeping pace with a 7-4 win in Erie. Mike Spidale (.319) and Derrick Mitchell (.255) had 2 hits each for Reading, with Mitchell driving in 2 runs (31). Tyson Brummett (1.78) threw 3 shut out innings of relief (3 hits, NO walks, 4 Ks) for a hold, but Jacob Diekman gave up 2 runs on 2 hits in his inning.

The starting pitching continues to be the story for the BlueClaws and Garrett Claypool did not disappoint on Monday. Claypool was great again, going 7 strong shut out innings, 4 hits, 1 walk, 7 Ks. No decision but his ERA down to 2.00. Jim Murphy's RBI single in the bottom of the 8th turns out to be the game winner, as the 3-2 win is the 11th in the last 12 game for the Claws. Lakewood is now in 4th place, 3.5 games out of first with 19 to play.

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