Modesto has the big news so I'll just skip Asheville and come back to it in a minute after cutting to the chase. Ian Stewart hits his first homerun of the season, goes four for five, takes a walk, helps lead the Nuts to a seventeen to eight pounding of the Stockton Ports. Stewart's homer came in the top of the ninth when the game was pretty much already decided against a mop-up pitcher no less, but it capped off his best offensive output of the season and has to give him some much needed confidence. Joe Gaetti hit his sixth and Chris Ianetta his second, and Ianetta and Jordan Czarniecky also had four hits apiece in the rout. I just realized that I completely left Czarniecky out of my top twenty, an oversight on my part as I rushed to get it up (sorry, the perils of blogging under self imposed deadlines). He should be there instead of Jonathan Herrera, so slot him into that #18 spot for now, and I think he probably ranks even a spot or three higher. Gaetti would be in the twenty to twenty-five range, but he could crack it by the end of the year if he gets his walks up. Anyway, someone who I did put in, Jud Thigpen, went only one for six as he let some of the struggling prospects like Stewart and Ianetta shine for the day. The offense covered another mixed outing by Aaron Marsden, and Eudy Morel struggled as well. A Purple Row darkhorse prospect fave, Ryan Newman, pitched two scoreless innings with four K's (albeit two walks) to improve his already impressive K/9IP rate.
Update [2005-5-15 15:12:13 by Rox Girl]:Normally I don't do the pebble report on Sunday, but I did want to report that Stewart hit his second homerun of the season in the nightcap of a doubleheader Saturday night.
Alright, back to the Tourists, who also won behind Joe Koshansky's big bat. Koahansky had the more difficult three parts of the cycle down plus a walk but couldn't get that elusive single, popping out to short in the ninth. I'm not sure how exactly he got a triple, as he isn't the most nimble of athletes but his ten homers lead the entire system. Dragon Lo was pretty good through five, but ran into trouble as he got tired in the sixth and seventh and wound up allowing five runs. His strikeout numbers weren't there, and he did get hit pretty hard especially at the end of his outing, but despite the ten hits I'm satisfied by the steps he's making in adding a change-up to his repertoire. Scott Beerer picked up his seventh save by finishing out the ninth.
Tulsa was the only team in the system to lose, four to one, as they couldn't string any meaningful rally together scoring only the once in the ninth. Jayson Nix had two hits, including his ninth double of the year as he continues to climb out of the cellar he dug to start the season.
Jeff Baker (his first in the minors this year) and Choo Freeman each homered for the Sky Sox, and Jason Young pitched six innings of three hit/four walk/zero run/three K baseball to pick up the victory.
After staying up too late to watch the Rockies make my pretty purse (see the recap below), I'm a little tired after work so I'm going to go take a nap once I send my partner off, but I'll have a pre-game and maybe some other stuff later this afternoon. In the meantime, check out the AZ Snakepit to hear confused D-backs fans wonder what the truck that just hit them was, or check out the other Rockies' blogs in the sidebar on the right to continue the happyfest.