Monday Pebble Report: Signs of Life from Christian Friedrich; Chad Bettis is the Man

AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox (26-32, 2nd in PCL Pacific North)

Sky Sox 10, River Cats 12

Neither starter was worth their salt in this classic Colorado Springs barnburner. Josh Muecke gave up 7 runs in 3.2 innings of work, while River Cats starter Travis Banwart allowed 8 in his 4 innings. Things didn't get any better as the game progressed, as Bruce Billings let 4 runs cross over his 4-out appearance, and Andrew Johnston allowed the 12th run over a 2 inning relief appearance. Edgmer Escalona looked pretty decent, striking out 3 over 2 innings of 1-hit ball.

Offensively, Ian Stewart, Josh Fields, Cole Garner, and Mike Jacobs all had 3 hits and Alfredo Amezaga notched 3 of his own. All 9 Sky Sox starters had at least one hit, and Stewart hit a homer.

AA Tulsa Drillers (28-26, 1st in TEX North)

Tulsa 0, RoughRiders 3

Signs of life fro Christian Friedrich! Over 7.1 innings of work, Friedrich allowed all 3 of Frisco's runs (2ER), 7 hits, 1 hit batter, and 0 walks while striking out 7. The one unearned run came on an error from Friedrich attempting to pick of Leonys Martin in the first, and the other two were allowed to cross by reliever Joe Torres.

Scott Beerer and Thomas field both had 2 hits, and Michael Mitchell posted one of his own. That was the Tulsa offense on Sunday.

A+ Modesto Nuts (28-28, 4th in CAL North)

Nuts 5, Rawhide 0

Chad Bettis tossed 8 innings of 2-hit ball, walking 2 and striking out 8. Coty Woods allowed a runner to reach via the free pass, but pitched a clean 9th to bring the Nuts back up to .500. Rawhide starter Trevor Harden was on the rough end of the Rawhide loss, allowing all 5 runs to cross over 7 innings 4-hit ball. Baseball's a funny game.

2 of the 4 hits were homers from Carlos Martinez and Kent Mathes, and the other two were singles from Nolan Arenado and Dallas Tarleton.

Luckily, the Martinez homer was a nice Grand Salami.

The game took a mere 2 hours, 2 minutes.

A Asheville Tourists (27-30, T-4th in SAL Southern)

Tourists 5, Sand Gnats 8

With a name like the Sand Gnats, no team should ever have a good reason to lose to them. Seriously? The Sand Gnats? Well, Josh Slaats and Bradley McAtee didn't see it that way, letting 8 runs cross over 8 innings. Slaats went 7.1 innings, striking out 5 and walking 3 while allowing a homer and 8 other hits, and all of McAtee's runs came in the top of the 8th. Credit that man with a BS, L.

The Tourists weren't entirely helpless at the plate, though, getting multi-hit games from Rafael Ortega, Bryce Massanari, and Russell Wilson. Chandler Laurent hit a solo homer and Russell Wilson had a 2-run homer as one of his 3 hits on the outing.

DSL Rockies (3-3, 5th in the Dominican Summer League)

Off day