Thursday Pebble Report: Mortensen Rocked Upon Return to AAA

AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox (37-49, 4th PCL Pacific North)

Sky Sox 13, Rainiers 18

Not a single Sky Sox pitcher escaped the Thursday Night bloodbath. Clay Mortensen, having just been reactivated for the Sky Sox, allowed 9 runs on 10 hits over 3 innings. Mortensen allowed 2 HR, 1BB, and only managed 1 K. I guess the upside would be the 3 groundouts to 1 flyout. Andy Graham recorded all of 2 outs while surrendering another 4 runs and another home run. Joey Williamson pitched 2 innings and allowed 2 homers, allowing 4 more runs. Keith Weiser pitched 3.1 innings, allowing only 1 run in his PCL debut.

On the flip side of the game, Nate Robertson (yes, that one) went 5 innings, surrendering 10 runs (9ER) on 14 hits and 2 walks, with nary a strikeout to show for the outing. However, he did emerge with the W, so that counts for something, right? Probably not a MLB stint, anyhow.

Eric Young Jr and Dexter Fowler had 3 hits apiece. Mike Jacobs, Joe Mather, Jordan Pacheco, and Willy Taveras had 2 hits apiece, and every other batter contributed a hit as well. That all said, nobody hit a home run for CSprings, yet they surrendered 6.

Oh, by the by, the Rainiers committed 4 errors. And yet the Sky Sox still lost. 

AA Tulsa Drillers (39-43, 3rd TEX North)

Off Day

A+ Modesto Nuts (40-44, 4th CAL North)

Giants 3, Nuts 2

A 9th inning rally off of Mike Marbry broke the 2-2 deadlock to give the Giants the 1-run victory. After loading the bases on a Tommy Joseph single, Nuts' manager Jerry Weinstein got the thumb from 1B umpire Jeremiah Faleafnu.

Daniel Perkins pitched quite well in this tight game, going 5 innings, scattering 7 hits and allowing only 1 run.

Nolan Arenado went 1-for-4 on the night with a single, one of the Nuts' 4 hits on the night. 

A Asheville Tourists (40-43, 3rd SAL Southern)

Tourists 5, Drive 4

Joshua Mueller tossed a decent 5 innings tonight, allowing only 2 runs during his outing. The Tourists struck early against Charlie Rosario, tallying 5 runs in the first 2 innings of the game. The bats went dry from that point on, but Taylor Reid, Kraig Sitton, and Juan Perez were able to keep the Drive bats at bay long enough to squeak out the narrow margin of victory.

A- Tri-City Dust Devils (11-9, T-3rd NOR East)

Dust Devils 13, Indians 2

John Kukuruda and Andres Perez-Lobo combined to allow 11 of the Dust Devils' 13 runs (9ER) within the first 3 innings. The Dust Devils scored those 13 runs on 11 hits and 7 walks with 3 players having multi-hit games, including Tyler Massey and Jordan Ribera.

Ben Alsup got the start, although he only lasted 3 innings, allowing 2 runs. Nelson Gonzalez pitched the final 6 innings in shutout fashion, striking out 3 and walking none, lowering his season ERA to 1.13 in the doing.

Rk Casper Ghosts (6-11, 4th PIO South)

Ghosts 4, Chukars 8

Raul Fernandez continues to struggle in the Pioneer league, letting 6 runs (5ER) cross the plate in his 5 innings of work. Fernandez is sitting on an 11.00 ERA. His K/BB is solid, punching out 12 to only 3 walks, but 6HR in 18 innings is going to keep that ERA up in the clouds. Part of it might just be altitude effects up there in Casper, but Fernandez' only outing IN Casper was a 5 inning outing where he allowed only 1 run. I'll freely admit that only 18 innings is hard to really judge a 21 year old pitcher, but for his level and age, he'll need to turn his game around soon if he wants to last much longer in this organization.

On the plus side, Will Swanner had another 2 hit day with 2 doubles, but he also had 2 strikeouts. For a 20-year old Catcher, I'm willing to let high punchout numbers slide if they're accompanied by a .950 OPS. His .718 Road OPS is a bit more disconcerting, however. Again, it's early yet for the Pioneer League, so we may have to revisit the situation come August.

DSL Rockies (16-15, 4th BC Baseball City)

Off Day