Colorado Springs 5, Nashville 7
The Sky Sox scored all five of their runs in the 8th and 9th innings, but it wasn't enough to climb back in it. Kyle Parker had a pair of base hits and runs, and Matt McBride threw out three base hits. Despite the 10 hits and seven walks, the Sox went 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position.
Every Sky Sox pitcher allowed runs. Brian Burress started the game and allowed four in his five innings of work. He struck out six and walked two.
Jon Gray roughed up in Tulsa loss
It's been an up and down season for top prospect Jon Gray. Continuing that theme, yesterday he allowed four runs in his first inning of work, but threw four scoreless frames after that. In that first inning he retired two of the first three batters, but four straight base hits followed that up. Three stolen bases were included in that onslaught; is Gray slow to the plate or were they picking on catcher Chris O'Dowd?
But you gotta respect Gray settling down and throwing four scoreless innings after that bummer of an inning. His final line was five innings, seven hits, three Ks and one walk.
Offensively, Jared Simon had a nice day with two hits, one of them his 10th home run. Delta Cleary Jr. and Tyler Massey went back to back with home runs as well. In fact, the Drillers put up six runs in the sixth inning to take a 7-4 lead, but the relievers did not seal the deal. Springfield scored two in the sixth, two in the seventh, and one in the ninth to walk off.
Modesto loses slugfest, falls to 40 below .500
Rossell Herrera went 2-5 with a triple and three runs. Michael Tauchmann continued to rake with a 3-4 night, raising his batting average to .393. Dean Espy and David Bergin hit home runs. So there was lots of good offensive news for the Nuts yesterday.
But Nuts are gonna Nuts, and they lost this one by allowing 11 runs. Devin Burke and Tyler Gagnon got torched for six and five runs respectively. The Nuts winning percentage is now .304.
Other games
The Tri-City Dust Devils benefited from four Eugene errors to win 3-2. Josh Fuentes went 2-4. Joel Payamps worked three scoreless innings with two strikeouts.
The DSL Rockies beat the DSL Nationals 1-0. This must have been a boring one. Jonathan Piron and Luis Brito doubled.
It was all about the up-the-middle players for the Grand Junction Rockies yesterday, and the catcher, 2B, SS, and center fielder combined for nine hits. 2B Forrest Wall went 4-5, CF Wes Rodgers went 2-4, C Hamlet Marte went 2-3, and SS Max George went 1-3 with a home run. Wall's average is up to .362 and Marte's is now .382.
The pitching was a little suspect, but the Rockies maintained for a 8-7 win.