Thursday Pebble Report:

Colorado Springs: Off

Tulsa: W 11-9

Let's hope that the two doubles he hit yesterday are a sign that Chris Nelson's ready to start performing this season. All told, the Drillers had eight extra base hits, including three homeruns. Matt Miller homered and doubled and drove in four, Jeff Dragicevich and Brian Esposito each hit homers as well. Xavier Cedeno picked up the win, and he continues to be doing a pretty good job of pitching to contact. He had a 12/4 GB/FB ratio, and just one of the seven hits he allowed went for extra bases. The Drillers defense had some issues behind him, as the five errors charged will attest to. EY Jr had two, and Dragicevich, Nelson and Dexter Fowler one apiece. Nelson certainly seems to have backslid a little in his defense from last season.

Modesto: W 3-0

We've waited two years to see this kind of performance from Shane Lindsay again, six innings pitched, one hit, three walks, nine K's. Nice. Here's hoping that he puts together a string of a few more just like that. Daniel Mayora, Cole Garner and Michael Paulk pretty much were the story on offense for the Nuts, each had two hits and their combined six were all that Modesto could muster against Lancaster.

Asheville: L 5-3

The Tourists loss was mostly the result of one swing of the bat; Luis Exposito's three run blast off Bruce Billings proved deadly. I mentioned this in the Rocky farm report blog yesterday, but with the way he pitches, the homerun and other damage from missing his location with elevated pitches is going to be Billings' downfall, and I don't know if there's a way around it without screwing him up. It's just important that he keeps it from happening on a consistent basis.

Meanwhile, Darin Holcomb had two roundtrippers -his fourth and fifth homeruns of the season- as he continues his recent tear.