Friday Pebble Report

Colorado Springs, L 2-6 - A Seth Smith sac fly in the first to score Q and Sean Barker's moving around the bases in the ninth on wild pitches after a double to start the inning were all the runs the Sky Sox got last night. Q walked three times and had his first stolen base.

Victor Zambrano went 4 2/3 IP, walked four, and allowed four runs on seven hits. Josh Newman allowed the other two runs in 2/3 IP. Matt Daley, Juan Morillo, and Steven Register held their opponent hitless for the rest of the game. Register struck out all three batters he faced.

Tulsa, W 4-3 - The balls soared out of the park last night during the Drillers' home opener, as the two teams combined for four home runs. Dexter Fowler had two of them (two-run and solo), his first two of the season. Matt Miller had his first homer of the season.

It was a quality outing for Brandon Hynick after he pitched six innings and allowed three runs over six innings. He struck out five and walked only one. The three runs came off a two-run homer in the third and a solo blast in the sixth. Kaz Matsui collected two doubles off of Hynick. Ryan Mattheus threw two shutout innings of relief before giving way to Pedro Strop in the ninth. Strop struck out one on the way to his first save of the season.

The Tulsa World has some quotes from Fowler and by Bo McLaughlin on Brandon Hynick.

Modesto, L 1-9 - Except for Andy Graham, three other Modesto pitchers had trouble finding the strike zone last night. Starter Simon Ferrer walked seven in three-plus innings. He walked four in the two-run first, none in the second, two in the third, and one in the fourth before giving way to Zach Simons, who walked three batters in that inning. Simons settled down over the next  three innings by not walking another batter, but he gave up two runs to go along with Ferrer's three. James Burok allowed four runs in the eighth, three coming off Sean Doolittle's second homer of the night (he had a two-run shot the previous inning off Simons). He also walked two. Graham struck out one in the ninth inning.

The Nuts had three hits last night. Anthony Jackson had a triple in the eighth and then scored on a wild pitch.

Brian VanderBeek has an interesting interview with Daniel Mayora in his latest entry.

Asheville, L 1-3 - Brian Rike has taken well to the Sally League. After eight games, Rike has four homers, his latest coming last night and accounting for the only Tourist run last night. Darin Holcomb had his fourth double in the losing effort. Everth Cabrera stole his sixth base of the season.

Cory Riodran made his second start and lasted 6 1/3 innings. Three runs crossed home plate on eight hits. He struck out four and walked two. Craig Rodriguez pitched a hitless 1 2/3 innings to finish out the game