Diamonds in the Rough 6.30

Royals affiliates didn’t fair well with just 2 wins in 8 tries.  HR Roll Call Max Ramirez (10) 

pic via David Kilgore FB

Pine Tar Press Pitcher of the Day Yordano Ventura 5.2 IP 3 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 10 K 6-2 GO-FO

Pine Tar Press Hitter of the Day Brian Fletcher 2-4 2b, R, 2 RBI

Rookie League Player of the Day Alexis Rivers AZL Royals 3-3 2 BB, RBI, R 

Omaha Storm Chasers 8 Albuquerque Isotopes 7

Plenty of offense early by the Storm Chasers and Isotopes with the bullpens taking over late.  Albuquerque wasted no time getting on the board against Omaha starter Nate Adcock putting 3 runs up off a single, a walk and back to back doubles by Jerry Sands and Luis Cruz.  The Chasers countered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the first inning with three two out hits by Wil Myers, Clint Robinson and Tony Abreu.  The Chasers would continue to score putting five runs on the board the next two innings to take an 8-3 lead.  The Isotopes struck back with 4 runs in the fourth to cut the lead to 8-7.  From there though that two pitching staffs took over not allowing a run the rest of the way while reliever Louis Coleman was on his game firing the final 3.1 innings with six strikeouts and just one hit allowed to finish off his 3rd save of the season.  Outfielder Wil Myers went 2 for 4 with a walk and a run scored.

W: Hardy (3-1, 3.51) L: Montgomery (1-1, 2.31)
S: Coleman (3)

Corpus Christi Hooks 13 NW Arkansas Naturals 7

The Naturals offense couldn’t keep pace with Corpus Christi Saturday evening as the Hooks with plenty of help from NW Arkansas defense and pitching took a comfortable victory.  Starter Noel Arguelles continued his less than stellar season giving up 6 runs (5 ER) on 4 hits and 3 free passes in just 1.2 innings to get the quick hook while earning his 8th loss of the season.  The Naturals starter wasn’t the only pitcher giving away free passes as relievers Bryan Paukovits and Brendan Lafferty each walked a pair of hitters while allowing 3 earned runs each.  The Naturals had four different hitters collect two hits including Rey Navarro who finished off an impressive June with a 34 hits and a .370 average.

W: Doran (2-0, 6.55) L: Arguelles (2-8, 6.62)

Lynchburg Hillcats 1 Wilmington Blue Rocks 0 

The Rocks dropped a pitching duel in their finale versus Lynchburg Saturday night.  Starter Yordano Ventura put together one of his best starts of the year absolutely dominating the Hillcats in his 5.2 innings.  The Dominican right-hander according to Zach Mortimer, who was at the game was leaning on his fastball-curveball combination plenty to strikeout 10 hitters while on the mound, giving up just 3 hits and a walk.  The Hillcats starter matched Ventura inning for inning lasting 1/3 of an inning longer while striking out 6 of his own and shutting out the Rocks.  The bullpens would match the starters effort keeping the game knotted at zero until the 9th inning when back to back singles put a runner at 3rd with no outs that would eventually scored via a sacrifice fly.  That one run defeated Wilmington causing them to miss out on a series sweep of the Hillcats.

Vance Wilson Postgame Audio

W: Chaffee (2-0, 3.56) L: Rogers (2-3, 2.17)
S: Jaime (15)

Burlington Bees 5 Kane County Cougars 0

The Cougars offense was shut down getting just four hits to drop the finish of their three game series with Burlington.  While the Cougars offense couldn’t get much done the same couldn’t be said of the Bees as they punched out 13 hits including 10 off starter Aaron Brooks who gave up 4 runs in his 6 innings.  A’s starter AJ Cole, acquired in the Gio Gonzalez  seems to have righted the ship after a difficult start to his season allowing just 4 runs in his last five starts including the six shutout innings Saturday.  The Cougars had plenty of trouble making contact against the 2010 fourth round pick striking out 9 times in six innings.

Johnson City Cardinals 6 Burlington Royals 4

The Royals jumped out to a quick 4-0 scoring three in the first inning and another in the second giving them a good opportunity  to finish off the three game sweep of the Cardinals.  Starter Jake Junis wasn’t missing bats, unable to get a K in his 5.2 innings, but he was getting through innings with unscathed throwing 3 scoreless until a run crossed in the 4th.  While Junis was tossing up zeroes the Johnson City bullpen righted the ship shutting down the Burlington offense, allowing just 2 hits the rest of the game.  The dormant offense would spell bad things for the Royals when Junis ran into problems in the sixth giving up 3 runs to tie the game.  Reliever Freddy Gonzalez who allowed an inherited runner of Junis to score to tie the game in the sixth would struggle in the seventh giving up a pair of runs on a hit by pitch, a double and a single.  Those two runs were enough to defeat the Royals as the Cardinals shut out Burlington hitters for the final 7 innings.  Royals 2011 1st round pick Bubba Starling went 1 for 2 with a single, HBP, walk and his first 2 RBI of his professional career.

W: Llorens (1-0, 0.00) L: Rodriguez (1-1, 3.52)
S: Shaban (4)

Ogden Raptors 10 Idaho Falls Chukars 5

Both teams offenses got out of the game well, each scoring 5 runs in the first inning.  The Chukars couldn’t keep pace from there going scoreless while the Raptors tacked on 5 more.  All four Idaho Falls pitchers gave up runs while allowing 15 hits.

W: Frias (1-1, 4.11) L: Allen (0-1, 14.54)

AZL Cubs 12 AZL Royals 8

W: Henrie (2-0, 4.15) L: Nina (0-1, 9.53)

DSL Royals 5 DSL Cardinals 2