MiLB Notes 8-19-08

Red Wings:

One night after being two-hit and shutout, the Red Wings had yet another tough evening at the plate, this time mustering only three hits. However, they also managed to draw three walks and all three of their hits went for extra bases, including homeruns from Garrett Jones (20) and Bobby Kielty (4). That would prove to be enough as Kevin Mulvey pitched another solid game as he delivered six innings, allowing just one unearned run on just three hits. He walked five (yikes) and struck out seven (yay). After Mulvey departed the Wings tandem of Ricky Barrett and Bobby Korecky lashed the game down, allowing just one hit and one walk over the next three innings while combining to strike out five.

The Wings are continuing to surge over the second half of their season as numerous offensive players such as Jason Pridie, Garrett Jones, Alejandro Machado and Luke Hughes have all been contributing strong numbers. Yankees pitching prospect Mark Melancon pitched two solid innings of relief tonight. Melancon has moved quickly this year from A ball to AAA now and could make a September appearance for the Yanks.

Rock Cats:

In a chance to get an early look at some of the Tigers up-and-coming players, the Rock Cats squared off against the Erie SeaWolves for the first of a three game set. On the mound for the Cats was Jay Rainville who has struggled mightily through what has been a terrible season. Today he managed to pitch a pretty good game however, going five innings while allowing three runs (all earned) on seven hits and a pair of walks while striking out five. Hardly a dominant or impressive game, but still decidedly better than many of his starts this year. For the SeaWolves, twenty two year old catcher James Skelton, who crushed A ball and is playing well in 47 AA at-bats had three more singles and a walk. He could certainly be someone to watch. Wilkin Ramirez, the Wolves left fielder has been someone to keep an eye for awhile now and he went 2-5 with a double. Hes carrying a .929 OPS this year as a twenty two year old. The Cats would go on  to win this game late however with a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth to walk off. Contributing to the Rock Cats six runs were shortstop Felix Molina and first baseman Toby Gardenhire (who hadn't been seen or heard from in awhile) as each had a pair of singles. Matt Tolbert started the game at short before being relieved by Molina, and he went 1-3 with a single, a strikeout, a stolen base, and was caught stealing once. Also chipping in were DH Steve Tolleson who went 1-3 with a single and three walks and third base prospect Danny Valencia who was 1-4 with a single.

Miracle: No game scheduled.

Snappers:

The Snappers avenged a couple tough losses to the Kernels the past two nights with a turtle-time 11 run beat-down. Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit tonight, but no one had as good of a game as the one guy we care most about - Alexi Casilla. Casilla went 3-4 with three singles and is hitting .571 in his two games at Beloit. Four other players had two hits apiece including DH Jeanfred Brito, right fielder Yangerves Solarte, center fielder Mark Dolenc, and third baseman Juan Richardson. While the Snappers plated 11, and had 16 hits in all, only two went for extra bases, both doubles. On the mound for the Snappers was righty Steven Hirschfeld who picked up his 10th win of the season by going seven inning sand allowing just one run. He gave up three hits, walked three, and struck out six.

E-Twins:

Elizabethon suffered one of its worst losses of the season in this one, falling 10-1 to Princeton. Righty Bradley Tippett had been having a great season coming into this one, but from the start nothing went right, and while he didn't pitch a good game, his defense didn't help him out at all either. Tippett made it just 2.2 innings and allowed nine runs - though only three of them were earned - on nine hits and a pair of walks. Yuck. Offensively the only player to have more than one hit for the Twins was third baseman Nicholas Romero, who had a pair of singles.