Colorado Springs, W 11-5 - Ian Stewart hit his 10th and 11th homers, his fifth and sixth on the road. The second one came in the eighth inning and was a grand slam. Jayson Nix had a solo homer in the first inning. Joe Koshansky hit his seventh in the third inning. Cory Sullivan drove in two runs, and Seth Smith had his second triple of the season and stole his ninth base.

Cedrick Bowers held Fresno to two hits in five innings. He struck out eight. Victor Zambrano allowed three runs in 2/3 IP. Juan Morillo pitched a clean ninth inning.

Tulsa, L 4-6 in 12 innings - Justin Nelson had his fourth homer of the season in this extra-inning affair, but it came in the fifth inning. Corey Wimberly went 3-for-5 with an RBI and two stolen bases (16). Matt Miller drove in two runs. Chris Nelson had his 16th error of the season.  The Tulsa World can tell you how the Drillers failed to win in the ninth, and how the game ended in the 12th.

Tomas Santiago didn't find the strike zone, as he walked six. He allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits in 5 1/3 IP. Casey Weathers walked two but did not allow a run in his one inning of work. Ryan Mattheus struck out two in the ninth.

Modesto, L 2-8 - Esmil Rogers allowed eight runs in four innings. He allowed seven hits, walked three, and struck out six. Tommy Baumgardner and Will Harris held San Jose hitless for the next three innings, while Andrew Johnston allowed the only hit after Rogers left the game.

Matt Repec and Travis Becktel had two hits each, but Victor Ferrante had a double, the only extra-base hit. He also walked twice. Cole Garner had the other hit.

Asheville, L 3-4 - Jeff Cunningham's two-run double and Brian Lapin's RBI single in the sixth inning put the Tourists ahead 3-1, but it was not to last. A bunch of singles and a fielding error by Brian Lapin in the bottom of the inning put Savannah ahead for good with a one-run lead. David Christensen had two hits and stole his sixth base, Brian Rike stole his ninth base, and Everth Cabrera swiped his 20th base. Cabrera also struck out three times, but Beau Seabury struck out in all four ABs.

In addition to Lapin's error, starter Sheng-An Kuo, Warren Schaeffer, and Jeff Cunningham each committed and error.

Sheng-An Kuo allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits and two walks in 5 1/3 IP. Edgmer Escalona pitched a scoreless 2 2/3 innings.

Colorado Springs: Off

Tulsa: L 3-5

Xavier Cedeno came back a day sooner than I thought, and did decent but unspectacular work with the 65 pitches he was limited to, allowing five hits, a walk a nd two runs in four innings. Jon George and Edward Valdez let the other three runs score over the next four and two-thirds and the Driller offense couldn't score enough to keep up. Corey Wimberly and Chris Nelson were the only Tulsa players with two hits, Wimberly doubled in two in the third and Nelson hit his first triple of the season with two outs in the sixth but was left stranded. Chaz Roe will return to action as early as next week.

Modesto: L 0-5

Two pitchers in the system won pitcher of the week honors last week, and both followed that up with stink bombs in their next appearance. Shane Lindsay didn't fare any better than Ching-lung Lo in defending his title, with a line of fives running across the board in innings, runs allowed, hits allowed and walks. He only struck out two. Not that his offense did any better, the lone highlight was that Cole Garner had his sixth multi-hit game out of the last ten with a double and single.

Asheville: L 2-4

Maybe it's a let down after their triumphal series against Charleston, maybe it's a road trip exposing weaknesses that are masked at friendly McCormick Field, personally I think it's a lack of patience catching up to the team against a pitching staff that has difficulty throwing strikes, but for whatever reason, the Tourists bats that were so hot a weak ago have been playing like duds this week, managing only four hits against the Sand Gnats yesterday. They did whiff thirteen times. Bruce Billings had a better start than his last couple, allowing just four hits and two walks in five innings, but the three runs he gave up were enough to earn the L yesterday.

These are the numbers that are exciting me the most at the various levels in the Rockies system thus far.

Colorado Springs: .260

That's Ian Stewart's road ISO. Since the Sky Sox started play as the Rockies affiliate, no hitter Stewart's age or younger has maintained that high of an isolated slugging percentage on the road over the course of a season. Few have passed it when you even include their home stats. Of course, Stew's overall ISO of .319 would be the best for the Sky Sox since Brad Hawpe's .330 mark in 2004. Hawpe at the time was two years older than Stewart is now.

Tulsa: .871

I mentioned this morning that Dexter Fowler now ranks #10 in the Texas League in OPS. I didn't mention how impressive this was. Of the TL's top 20, only three are Fowler's age. Joining him in the just turned 22 year old club is Rangers prospect Chris Davis, and Padres prospect Kyle Blanks turns 22 in September. The latter two are both  plodding and huge first basemen. Fowler, as you might know, is an athletic center-fielder. In fact, just three of the top 20 play up the middle positions and the two second basemen, Brett Dowdy (4 years older than Dex) and Kyle Sutton (almost 3 years older), aren't natural fits and will probably have to be moved to a corner at some point.

Modesto: 5.40, 11.88

It's hard to find something that truly stands out as particularly special with this team. They could well have the best defense in the California League, but it would take somebody with more math skills than I have to figure that out. I'm just going to go with Shane Lindsay's H/9 and K/9, both of which are second among California League starters to Trevor Cahill. In 2007, only one Cal League pitcher (reliever or starter) with over 50 innings had a lower H/9, and no starter had a better K rate than James McDonald's 11.41. In 2006, the starter with the rates closest to that was Jose Arredondo, who the Angels are grooming to be K-Rod's successor. Shane may wind up going that route with the Rockies. The walk rate for Lindsay continues to be problematic, but the stuff seems to have returned with a vengeance. BTW, it's a lot easier to live with his walks if he keeps on going without allowing any HR's.

Asheville: 17

Speaking of allowing HR's, that's how many dingers Asheville pitching has given up thus far this season. It's a pace to allow 63 over the course of the Tourists season. How good is that? Let's go back a few seasons..,

• 2007: 111
• 2006:  89
• 2005:  151
• 2004: 158

And beyond that I really don't know because they didn't keep track of HR's allowed by pitchers in the minors and I'm not inclined to dig through data to count for myself. Let's just say it's very, very good.

At any rate, the five Asheville starters have thus far allowed nine homeruns in 208 1/3 innings or a rate of 0.39/9IP. It's like these guys are suddenly playing with a deadball. Their home park  had a three year weighted HR factor of 1.22 heading into 2008, meaning that balls fly out of McCormick Field 22% more on average than they do at other SAL parks, and the three teams to allow fewer HR's than Asheville this season all play in stadiums that suppress homers as much as McCormick enhances them. I am really liking the prospects of that rotation, Chacin, Riordan and Graham in particular, and looking forward to how they develop over the next couple of years.

I did a review of the Rockies past five drafts yesterday at the RMN's Farm Report blog.

Colorado Springs (18-20, 12 GB): W 9-6

Jayson Nix, Seth Smith, Christian Colonel and Eduardo Cornejo all had multi-hit games for the victors last night. One of Smith's two hits was his fourth homerun of the season off of former Rockie Marcos Carvajal. John Koronka pitched with some traffic, but got the job done with four runs allowed over eight innings. Colonel has an amazing pinch hitting streak going (six straight, tying the PCL record, as TulsaDriller pointed out Monday) but he's just been swinging the bat well in general with three more hits yesterday to bring his average up to .375 on the season, which is tops on the team of those over 50 PA's. Of course, we're not the only ones to notice, his manager had this to say to the Colorado Springs Gazette:

"Anybody that hits .375 is a bit of a surprise," Runnells said. "What I'm most impressed with is his pinch-hitting."

You could ask Jeff Baker how difficult, and how much of a skill pinch hitting can be as you rarely have the luxury of getting a second look at a pitcher. The one drawback for Colonel, and it could be important outside the PCL, is that only five of his 21 hits have gone for extra bases -all doubles- so his value is almost entirely in that average.

Tulsa (14-24, 6 GB):  L 4-7

Ching-lung Lo followed his best outing of the season with a fairly disappointing one, giving up nine hits -including two HR's- and six runs in 5 2/3 innings. Much of the Drillers offense has been slumping lately, including Dexter Fowler until two days ago, but he at least seems to have broken out of the doldrums following Monday's two hit performance with a four for four night last night. He's back in the top ten in the Texas League in OPS, barely, but he's rising. I'm going to have a little more on him later today. Matt Miller had two hits, including his eighth double of the season in the loss.

Modesto (18-21, 8 GB): L 1-2

Keith Weiser was the hard luck loser for the Nuts, pitching a strong seven innings and allowing just a pair of runs to cross the plate, but the offensive woes that plagued the team early in the year have returned to the Nuts in San Jose, with just one run in eighteen innings thus far. Cole Garner has been a bit of an exception with two hits yesterday. He's batting .359 over his last ten games to bring his average to just below the .300 threshold for the season. Michael Paulk and Geoff Strickland both also knocked out a pair of hits, but there wasn't enough punch to overcome the Giants.

Asheville (27-12 1st Place): L 6-2

Craig Baker doesn't figure to stay on top of Jason McGill's Tourist Power Rankings in week nine after giving up four runs in the eighth inning last night. Baker and Matt Reynolds let another strong start by Connor Graham result in a no decision. Graham pitched six innings, giving up one unearned run on three singles and four walks. He struck out six. Darin Holcomb had three hits in three attempts and Jeff Cunningham had a pair of singles in the loss.

Colorado Springs, L 8- 13 - . . . And the next night, the Sky Sox allowed their opponent to score in seven of nine innings. Albuquerque scored at least one run in each of the first seven innings of the game. Valerio De Los Santos allowed nine of those runs in 4 1/3 IP. Matt Daley finished the fifth and allowed one of the two inherited runners from De Los Santos to score. Juan Morillo allowed three runs in the sixth inning. Victor Zambrano allowed the last run (unearned, it was), went two innings, and struck out three. Josh Newman pitched the last inning for the Sky Sox and struck out one.

It was a night for doubles as Cory Sullivan (3-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 SB), Seth Smith (2-for-5, 1 RBI), and Rick Guarno (2-for-5, 1 RBI) each had two doubles. Ian Stewart hit his fifth triple and drove in a run.

Tulsa, W 7-3 - Monday was a good night for both Chris Nelson and Neil Wilson. Nelson started the night with a two-run homer (3) in the first inning (he also had a sac fly in the seventh), and Wilson banged a three-run homer (1) in the seventh inning to make it 7-2 game in favor of the Drillers. Tony Blanco hit his first homer for the Drillers to complete the scoring. It was also a good night for Dexter Fowler. He had a bunt single in the first (and scored on Nelson's homer), and then tripled (4) in the seventh (and scored on Nelson's sac fly).

Brandon Hynick turned in seven solid innings. He allowed two runs on eight hits (one run came off a homer). He walked one and struck out two. Casey Weathers allowed one run on two hits and a walk in the eighth inning. He struck out two.

Modesto, L 0-4 - Victor Ferrante and Cole Garner both had three hits in four at-bats last night. One of Ferrante's hits went for his fifth double.

Simon Ferrer allowed four runs on eights and  four walks in five innings. He also struck out three. Brandon Durden pitched the last three innings and did not allow a base runner.

Asheville, W 3-2 - The sixth inning was the decisive once in last night's contest. In the top half of the inning, Beau Seabury and Everth Cabrera led off the inning with walks. Mike Mitchell put down a sac bunt, but made it to first after catcher Jordan Abruzzo committed a throwing error. Brian Rike and Darin Holcomb got out in the next two ABs. Jeff Cunningham hit a three-run triple to give the Tourists the 3-0 lead. Brian lapin hit a triple in the ninth, but nothing came of it.

In the bottom of the sixth, Cory Riordan allowed a lead off triple, and that guy scored on a double in the next AB. A sac fly scored the second run that inning. That was all Savannah was able to score. Riordan wound up going 7 2/3 innings and allowed those two runs on six hits. He also struck out six. Craig Rodriguez struck out the one batter he faced to end the eighth inning. Randall Taylor picked up his 10th save.

If you go over to milb.com's homepage as of this writing, you'll note that the first two featured performances yesterday came from our pitchers.

Colorado Springs: W 5-1

The good news in this one was that four Sky Sox pitchers combined on a no-hitter. The bad news would be that it took four of them to do it. Franklin Morales' six walks and only five innings are a good indication of how much he was laboring , unhittable that he may have been. Teekalong asked in the gamethread discussion yesterday why I would think Morales needed to go back to AAA to develop while Greg Reynolds could further his developing at the MLB level. It simply has to do with a lack of efficiency on Morales' part costing the team more in bullpen usage. Reynolds at this point both gives the Rockies about as good a chance to win that Morales was, but promises to eat more innings. Having four inefficient pitchers -adding in Jimenez, Mark Redman and 2008's Jeff Francis- was absolutely destroying any hope of holding leads by overextending the pen early this season. Reynolds, will take a lot of that burden away.

What's more, as the diary by NovaO pointed out, Morales' deficiencies have a lot more to do with mechanical adjustments that needed to be made, whereas Reynolds' task is just to learn to avoid mistakes. I think the two are apples and oranges in other words, and still think calling-up Greg was as good an option as we had at the time. Of course, you can go back to the offseason, when decent  experienced pitching was more available, and argue that the team made its mistakes then to leave us in this position. That is an argument that I can certainly see has its merits in hindsight.

Chris George, Matt Daley and Steven Register finished Morales' start, allowing three more walks in the next four innings, but that was it. Ian Stewart doubled twice, over the six games of the current homestand he has nine hits, seven for extra bases, three walks and just three K's in 25 PA's. He's both scored and driven in eight runs and he's on pace to hit the century mark in both.

Tulsa: Off

Modesto: W 11-0

When I stress the importance of efficiency, Aneury Rodriguez provides a great example. He was the sole pitcher in a complete game one hitter. 107 pitches over nine innings has a lot more value than the 90 over five that Morales threw. Rodriguez struck out six and walked two, and the one hit was just a bloop double according to this eye-witness account. Michael McKenry had two doubles as the DH and drove in three. Anthony Jackson also doubled twice and scored twice and Matt Repec hit his first homerun of the season. Michael Paulk, Nick Haley and Nelson Robledo got aboard three times each via walk or single, and Daniel Mayora added two singles as well.

Colorado Springs, L 1-6 - The Sky Sox had eight hits with three coming off Seth Smith's bat. Joe Koshansky drove in the love Sky Sox run. Ian Stewart's fifth double was the only extra base hit the team had last night.

Josh Towers lasted seven innings, allowed six runs on 11 hits, and struck out six. Victor Zambrano threw two clean innings and struck out three.

Tulsa, L 5-9 - Justin Nelson led the offense with three hits and two RBI. The two RBI came on his third homer of the season. Jeff Kindel had two hits and one of the three doubles Tulsa had. Jeff Dragicevich and Justin Nelson had the other ones. Daniel Carte, Dragicevich, and Neil Wilson drove in the other three runs.

The Tulsa defense committed five errors: Chris Nelson had two fielding ones for 15 on the season, Dexter Fowler committed his second on a missed catch, Neil Wilson erred on a throw, and Tony Blanco committed a fielding error. The Tulsa World says the wind takes some blame for the miscues.

Alan Johnson allowed eight runs on 12 hits to fall to 1-5 on the season. Hainley Statia's three-run triple in the sixth was part of a five-run inning. Adam Bright allowed two hits and struck out two in two innings of relief.

Modesto, W 7-5 - Anthony Jackson hit a two-run homer for his first of the season as part of his 3-for-5, two-RBI, two-run, two stolen base (11) night. Jay Cox fell a homer short of the cycle and drove in one run. Cole Garner hit his eighth double and stole his fourth base.

Esmil Rogers allowed one run on five hits and two walks over six innings. Tommy Baumgardner (2/3 IP) and Will Harris (1 1/3 IP) relieved for Rogers, and Baumgardner allowed a run. James Burok allowed a three-run homer and did not record an out in the ninth inning. Andrew Johnston came in and recorded his eighth save.

Brian VanderBeek sat down with Simon Ferrer and discussed his transition to the mound.

Asheville, W 8-0 - Jhoulys Chacin improved to 5-1 after last night's performance. He allowed no runs on four hits in seven innings pitched. He walked two and struck out five. Edgmer Escalona preserved the shutout by pitching the final two innings.

David Christensen hit his first two homers of the season, both were solo shots. His first came in the first inning right after Jeff Cunningham hit a three-run shot. The other came in the third inning. Everth Cabrera stole his 18th base, and Rike his eighth.

I always feel like celebrating when the entire system from top to bottom get victories on the same night. So I'm going to pop open the champagne here today.

Colorado Springs: W 5-3

Yorvit Torrealba -through no fault of his own, he's the same Yorvit he's always been- seems to be inching closer to being a piece that the Rockies could afford to lose in a trade to help the team by the end of July. Before any of the pilers on scoff at his having any value in that regard thanks to the misery he brings us at the plate, catchers are usually at a premium to begin with, and his September/October last year will have contending teams hoping that strong finishes are just part of his M.O. Plus the huge question that teams had with him in the winter -the health of his shoulder- has been minimized.

At any rate, the reason he's become expendable has more to do with the strong play of Chris Iannetta with the Rockies and of Edwin Bellorin with the Sky Sox. Bellorin went four for four yesteday with two doubles (10 on the year so far) and three runs batted in and picked a runner off second base. That's always an impressive play to me to have enough of a gun to catch somebody drifting from across the diamond. Anyway, he's having his second straight solid season with the Sky Sox.

Ian Stewart hit his fourth triple of the season and at 142 PA's, you can pretty much just quadruple his counting stats to see the kind of pace he's going at: 36 HR's, 16 3B's and 16 2B's. Of course, this would be assuming that his batting average on balls in play stays 43 points lower than it's ever been his career and he doesn't start getting even more hits. It's not going to and he will. Ian's seriously having an excellent season when you look past the batting average.

Tulsa: W 4-2

Daniel Carte went three for three and Chris Nelson hit his ninth double of the year in this win. Tomas Santiago pitched effectively and Casey Weathers showed signs that he's actually moving toward being the power pitcher we drafted with two K's in his perfect inning of work. I've started to pay close attention to the gifted base count (errors, wild pitches, balks, etc...) with Tulsa -sloppy play has been too characteristic of this team this season- and last night was thankfully clean in that regard save an HBP by Santiago.

Modesto: W 4-0

Shane Lindsay continues his teasing, mixing in another brilliant start after two crummy ones. Lindsay went seven innings last night giving up just three hits and a  walk and striking out nine. Meanwhile, I don't know where Daniel Mayora's three double night came from, but he needs to have more of them.

Asheville: W 9-3

I haven't spent a lot of time on Sheng An Kuo, partly because I haven't actually had the opportunity to see him pitch yet myself and there's a dearth of information about his pitches in general. Another reason was because three of his first four starts(he did well in his 2008 debut) this season weren't very good:15 2/3 innings with 28 hits, nine walks and fourteen runs allowed in those. In his last three starts, however, he's gone at least seven innings in each, had an exactly 2/1 GB/FB rate on his outs, and that WHIP has gone from a whopping 2.36 in his first four starts to a minuscule 0.96 in his last three. He's not going to be quite this good going forward with his very low K rate, but he could at least be useful to a MLB team if he continues to keep that groundball percentage around the 60% it's been for his career to date.

Brian Rike hit another homerun, a three run shot in the second, and also had an RBI hit in the first inning. The T's offense scored four runs total in each, added their ninth run in the third and then took it easy the rest of the night. Warren Schaeffer wound up with three hits. Rike, Everth Cabrera, Darin Holcomb, David Christensen and Jeff Cunningham had two apiece.

Colorad Springs, W 8-4 - Joe Koshansky drove in five runs last night, and only one came by the way of a home run. In the first inning, he drove in Juan Castro and Ian Stewart (both reached on walks) on a single. He doubled in Stewart and Sean Barker in the third, and then homered in the sixth. Barker went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

John Koronka went 5 2/3 innings and allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits. Matt Daley allowed two hits in 2 1/3 IP. Steven Register had a clean ninth inning.

Tulsa, W 7-0, L 3-9 - The first game saw Dexter Fowler hit his fourth homer, a a three-run shot. Matt Miller added two RBI, and Corey Wimberly and Tony Blanco had one each. Blanco and Chris Nelson had the other extra-base hits for the Drillers, both doubles. Nelson stole his fourth base.

Ching-Lung Lo beat Arkansas in a seven-inning, two-hit, complete game shutout. He walked two and struck out two.

The second game wasn't as nice for Tulsa pitching. Five errors contributed to the score. Jon George and Luis Gonzalez combined to allow eight runs, but only three were earned. George had a throwing error, and Duke Sardinha, Jeff Dragicevich, Tony Blanco, and Luis Gonzalez committed fielding errors. Casey Weathers pitched a clean ninth.

Jeff Dragicevich had a two-run homer and Dexter Fowler followed his fourth homer in the first game with his fifth in the second game. Jeff Kindel had two hits.

Modesto, L 3-7 - Keith Weiser went only 4 2/3 innings, giving up five runs (three earned) on nine hits and a walk. He struck out five. According to his manager, the defense led to some of Weiser's troubles:

"Weiser was outstanding," Weinstein said. "In the first inning, we have to make some plays behind him, and in the second inning, we have to make a play. It could have been 3-0 in our favor into the fifth. He had to throw a lot of pitches because we didn't do a very good job defensively."

Daniel Mayora had an error in the third and fifth innings while Geoff Strickland had the other in the fifth inning. In his blog entry for the game, Brian VanderBeek writes that there were a few other plays on defense that should have been made (we also find out that Hector Gomez is progressing in Tucson). In the seventh inning, Will Harris allowed  four straight singles with two runs scoring on the fourth one. Andy Graham, James Burok, and Brandon Durden combined to allow two hits in 3 1/3 IP.

Cole Garner singled in Nick Haley in the first, which tied the game. Entering the bottom of the fourth, the Nuts were down by two, but a Victor Ferrante (who tripled to start the inning) scored when Matt Repec reached second base on a fielder's choice and an error. Anthony Jackson then scored Repec a little while later. The game was tied at three, but it wouldn't last for long.

Asheville, L 6-7 in 13 innings - Down four to nothing in the bottom of the sixth, Darin Holcomb hit his seventh homer to bring the score within one run. In the bottom of the ninth, Jeff Cunningham hit his sixth homer to send the game into extra innings. Fast forward to the bottom of the 12th, the Tourists are down two runs. Mike Mitchell doubled before Brian Rike came to bat. Rike hit his eighth homer, tying the game at six. Randall Taylor came in to start the 13th and promptly allowed a homer to the first batter he faced. There were no heroics in the bottom of that inning.

Mike Mitchell had four hits in the game, Helder Velazquez stole his second base of the season, and Kevin Clark stole second and third in the sixth (but did not score).

Bruce Billings went five innings, allowed four runs on nine hits, and struck out seven. Joey Williamson, Matt Reynolds, and Craig Baker held Charleston to one hit, two walks, and no runs over 4 2/3 IP.  Craig Rodriguez allowed two runs on three hits and three walks in 2 1/3 IP.

Colorado Springs: W 10-1

Apparently all Ian Stewart needed to get out of his slump was to get out of the state of Tennessee. After going 1 for 30 in the Volunteer State against Nashville and Memphis, Stewart's now 4 for 8 with three HR's since returning to the Springs, including two three run shots yesterday. Check this out, Stewart is almost exactly one tenth  the man he normally is, an average of .033 compared  to .330 everywhere else, when he visits the lands we call Opry and Grace.

Meanwhile, Greg Reynolds couldn't get out of the third inning for the second straight start, but for the second straight start it was due to events entirely out of his control. After his previous start had him pitching only two and two-thirds innings in Memphis before a game got suspended by rain, yesterday he got pulled after two innings showing his usual efficiency -just 23 pitches thrown- in order to make his MLB debut on Sunday. Congratulation Greg! We certainly wish you're up for good.

Tulsa: Postponed

Modesto: L 10-6

Bakersfield scored in six of the first seven innings against Simon Ferrer and Tommy Baumgardner in an unpleasant mid-day contest for the home team. Michael McKenry homered and had two hits, but had more trouble than usual controlling the running game, allowing three out of four stolen base attempts to be successful off him. Michael Paulk, Cole Garner and Jay Cox each also had a pair of hits. Cox is sporting his new number, Garner's sporting a new 'do . As long as they both keep hitting like that, they can run around naked for all I care. Of course, the Nuts front office and the Rockies developmental staff might draw the line there.

Asheville: W 9-3

Since most of the minor leagues, including the SAL, award playoff spots to both the first and second half champions, this series with first place Charleston could prove pivotal to the second place Tourists playoff aspirations. Things got off to a good start with the win yesterday, as Asheville climbed to just a half game back. Connor Graham didn't have quite the dominant start he had his last time out, but was still effective through five and two thirds, striking out six and allowing just three runs.

He actually was just about as dominant until that sixth inning which saw him give up one of his four hits and two of his three walks before leaving with the bases loaded and two outs. Craig Rodriguez came on and gave up a two run double to raise Graham's ERA a bit. A third potential run was caught at the plate by a good relay between center fielder Michael Mitchell, Everth Cabrera and Lars Davis for the third out. Rodriguez and Craig Baker clamped down from there, however, and the Tourists offense poured on. Brian Rike, Kevin Clark and Jeff Cunningham each had three hits and everybody else save Cabrera (who walked once) had at least one in the romp.