Sunday, April 15, 2007 - Posts

Rochester wrap and clutch recap

Thanks to a wonderful mid-April snowstorm, today's Knights-Red Wings game was called off.  However, you can re-live yesterday's game like you're seeing it for the first time with a photo gallery and a YouTube gallery!

That same big weather clustersomething also postponed Winston-Salem's game, and suspended Kannapolis' game tied at 2 in the fourth inning.  Birmingham had the day off.

(By the way, the video to the right is the helmet-popping I referenced yesterday.  This was the first time.)

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Also, thanks to Vince for his pinch-hit recap of today's game in State of the Sox, a better effort than the Sox deserved.  While he just closed down Exile in Wrigleyville, he'll still be making occasional appearances here from time to time.  Hopefully he'll also liven up the comments with his presence, hint, hint.
posted Sunday, April 15, 2007 11:30 PM by Jim with 1 Comments

Minor charge

Greetings from Rochester, where I spent the day watching a 1 1/2 baseball games for the price of one, with the Charlotte Knights beating the Rochester Red Wings 6-3 in 14 innings ... 14 cold innings, the bulk of them with no signs of offense.

The Charlotte bullpen threw a complete game shutout in relief of Vladimir Nunez, who didn't pitch all that poorly himself.  Boone Logan pitched out of a couple of jams, and the herky-jerky sidewinder Ehren Wassermann allowed only a hit in 2 2/3 innings, earning the win.

Most of the bats were cold, and it seemed like both sides had issues with the strike zone.  Josh Fields might've been one rotation of the helmet away from being ejected by the home plate umpire.  On two occasions, he struck out looking, and with his next motion, popped off his helmet in disgust. 

The second time, the helmet came off and he had some words to say walking away from the plate.  The ump watched as the helmet rolled towards him and stopped right before his feet.  It looked like he may have taken action if it touched him.

Fortunately, Casey Rogowski put us out of our misery with an RBI single, and Fields added a two-run base hit to open up the game.

I'll have pictures and video tomorrow.

More minor league action:
  • Birmingham 7, Mobile 5
    • Dewon Day is on fire -- he earned the win in relief by striking out the side in the eighth and ninth innings, including the last five in a row (he allowed a single).  In 5 2/3 innings, he has 16 strikeouts.  If you don't want to do the math, 5 2/3 innings is 17 batters.  So 94 percent of his outs are strikeouts, including his last 10 over three games.  Unbelievable.
    • Speaking of strikeouts, the Barons racked up 13 hits and struck out 11 times.
    • Jason Bourgeois had four hits, two of them triples. Thomas Collaro hit his second homer of the year.
  • Winston-Salem 6, Kinston 4
    • Pedro Jest, AKA Daron Roberts, had three hits and three RBI, one of them his first homer of the year.
    • Aaron Cunningham went 1-for-4 and has hit safely in all eight games.  Micah Schurstein had a pair of doubles and two RBI.
    • John Lujan, acquired in the Chris Stewart trade, pitched two scoreless innings of relief.
  • Kannapolis vs. Savannah, PPD
posted Sunday, April 15, 2007 1:02 AM by Jim with 0 Comments