Monday Pebble Report: Chacin rocked at Tulsa; Cleary and Roling each get hits in Asheville debuts

Colorado Springs: W 7-5

Dan Ortmeier hit a clutch, two out, two run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning that proved to be the difference maker for the Sky Sox on Sunday. Carlos Gonzalez doubled and tripled, scored twice and drove in one in the victory. Josh Fogg pitched six innings but had troubles with the long ball at Colorado Springs, he gave up four runs, all coming via three homers. Steven Register allowed one more solo shot in the ninth, but got out of the inning with no further damage to pick up the save.

Tulsa: L 3-9

Is Jhoulys Chacin getting exposed against stronger competition? Is there something wrong physically, as in an undisclosed injury, or mechanically with the way he's pitching? Is he just a victim of bad luck? Without seeing him pitch or talking to somebody who has the last couple of times out it's hard to say, but the numbers are pretty clearly saying that something's amiss here. Chacin allowed ten hits and nine runs in four and two thirds innings with a weak (for him) GB/FB rate. Four of the hits went for extra bases including one homerun. Springfield's stadium is offense friendly and the Cardinals have compounded that by adding a solid offense oriented club to play in it, but results this bad can't be spun away so easily for Chacin. Let's hope that whatever the issue from this start was, a fix is found soon. Michael McKenry hit a home run and Chris Nelson had a pair of hits in the loss.

Modesto: W 3-2

Visalia is now 4-4 against the Nuts on the season, but 9-1 against everybody else. Yesterday pitching was the story as Kenny Durst pitched one out into the sixth allowing just one run, while Joey Williamson came on with an impressive bridge to the eighth by striking out four in an inning and two thirds. Set-up man Matt Reynolds struggled a bit to collect two more outs, allowing the Rawhide to score one more time, but closer Craig Baker came on for the last inning and a third to pick up his seventh save of the season.

The Nuts offense had a tough task going up against top D-backs prospect Jarrod Parker, scoring their only run off him in the fourth inning when Warren Schaeffer scored on Parker's fourth wild pitch after doubling and getting to third on Parker's third wild pitch. The Nuts would score twice more off the bullpen in the sixth thanks in part to two errors from Rawhide third baseman Kyle Green (apparently errors at third are part of the development process for the Snakes). 

Asheville: L 6-10

Kiel Roling tripled in his first Asheville plate appearance and Delta Cleary doubled two batters later in his as part of a three run second that provided about the only highlights on an otherwise dreary day to be a Tourists fan. Thomas Field brought Cleary home with a single and then scored himself on a Scott Robinson double. The Tourists would score three more in the seventh, but the pitching just couldn't keep Greenville quiet for very long. Starter Ethan Hollingsworth gave up three runs but only got one out into the fourth and Isaiah Froneberger gave up four more in a disastrous sixth inning to lowlight the day's performance.