Triple –A: Colorado Springs 3-2 L (54-50)
The Sky Sox used five pitchers to piece together a solid pitching performance, but they were eventual losers on a walk off single from Michael Taylor of Sacramento. Steven Hensley started and pitched two scoreless, he was followed by Jeff Francis who pitched three innings allowing a run. Michael Solbach took the ball next and gave up a run in 1.1 innings and then it was Coty Woods turn. Woods pitched 1.2 innings scoreless before giving way to Logan Kensing who gave up two hits and the winning base hit in a 0.1 of an inning. Kensing fell to 1-2, but he holds a very strong 1.97 ERA.
Josh Rutledge hit his third homer as a member of the Sky Sox in the first inning, but the offense got just one run the rest of the way. Charlie Culberson tied the game at two in the eighth with a line drive single to center field, but in the ninth with Xavier Nady at second, Tim Wheeler grounded out to end the threat.
Double-A: Tulsa 2-0 L (48-54)
Tulsa was also victim to a ninth inning defeat as Leuris Gomez gave up two runs in the top of the ninth to spoil Chad Bettis’ excellent performance. Bettis was lights out, throwing seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball while striking out eight and walking three. He threw 63 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
Tulsa had just two singles, a walk, a hit batter and a runner reach via an error for a total of just five base runners all night. The singles came in the third and the ninth innings off the bats of Delta Cleary Jr. and Jaron Shepherd respectively. The only real threat for Tulsa was in the 5th when a hit batter and an error gave the runners at first and second with one out, however, Joey Wong grounded into a double play and the offense never threatened again.
High A: Modesto 4-2 L (50-55)
Daniel Winkler fell to 12-4 on the season as he picked up the loss after giving up three runs in five innings. He struck out seven, but he gave up to much traffic as he also gave up seven hits and two walks. Kraig Sitton worked two perfect innings followed by an inning from Bruce Kern that saw one run score. Scott Oberg pitched the ninth keeping the deficit at 4-2, but Modesto failed to rally.
Modesto scored both of their runs in the first inning off of RBI knocks from Taylor Featherston (triple) and Jared Simon (single). In the eighth, Modesto loaded the bases with two outs, but Pat Doyle foiled Modesto’s comeback bid by striking out Harold Riggins to end the frame.
Low A: Asheville 9-6 W (52-47)
Matt Carasiti gave up six runs an 4.1 innings, but the bullpen picked up him up with 4.2 innings of scoreless work and Asheville held on to win. Patrick Johnson threw 1.2 innings immediately following Carasiti, then it was one frame each for Raul Fernandez (the eventual winner), Andrew Brown, and Rayan Gonzalez.
Asheville saw two players pound out three hits as Rosell Herrera and Dillion Thomas did the honors. Francisco Sosa picked up his 65th and 66th RBIs and Herrera also notched his 66th. Matt Wessinger knocked in a pair from the leadoff spot to give him 40 for the season and Dillon Thomas and Matt Argyropoulos also collected ribbies.
Tri-City 6-0 L (20-21)
Konner Wade exited after just 0.2 innings after giving up four hits, a walk, and four runs. Jonathan Vargas pitched 4.1 innings allowing two runs. Huascar Brazoban threw two scoreless innings and Marc Magliaro one, but it hardly mattered as the Dust Devils did nothing offensively.
Tri-City didn’t pick up a hit until there was one out in the seventh—a single from Alec Mehrten-- and that was the only hit they managed as they were shut down and shut out offensively. They generated a little bit of traffic thanks to five walks and four Everett errors, but they were 0-for-5 with RISP and had 6 men LOB.
DSL Rockies 3-2 W (24-21)
The DSL Rockies beat the DSL Marlins! (I wish that sentence didn’t have DSL in it.)
Lorenz Ozuna pitched four scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Andres Matos pitched one clean inning before Hector Guerrero gave up two runs (one earned) in 2.2 innings. Gustavo Brazoban got the win with 1.1 innings of scoreless work to end it.
RBIs from Jonathan Piron and Denzel Richardson coupled with an unearned run was all the DSL Rockies needed. Despite going just 2-for-15 with RISP , the DSL Rockies managed to win. Hamlet Marte, Joel Diaz and Piron all had two hits.
Grand Junction 9-4 L (20-13)
Peter Tago pitched six effective innings allowing just two runs, but William Waltrip took the loss as the wheels fell off in the seventh. Waltrip allowed six runs (five earned) in just a third of an inning and Grand Junction never recovered.
Raimel Tapia (Tapioca pudding?) extended his hitting streak to 23 games. GJ got multi-hit games from Emerson Jimenez, Ryan McMahon and Correlle Prime, but they went just 2-for-13 with RISP and had 11 LOB. Dom Nunez hit his second HR of the year in the eighth.