At Asheville Jarrett Grube pitched a sparkling gem in his second start for the Tourists, going six innings, allowing only three hits, striking out five and walking none as the Tourists bombarded West Virginia, fourteen to nothing. Joe Koshansky, Matt Miller, Justin Nelson, Dustin Hahn and Florentino Nunez all had two hits apiece for the Tourists who also walked seven times as a team. Grube was a tenth-rounder out of Memphis last year and his BB/K and K/9IP rates haven't been bad thus far although not spectacular either. He's a control pitcher who won't give up a lot of walks, which is something the Rockies obviously need and with Samuel Deduno going through shoulder issues and Juan Morillo headed back up to Modesto, the Tourists needed another starter period. If Grube keeps this up, however, he may get the Rockies to reconsider his role with the organization. While you're waiting for my sect post, you can check out today's Tourists action (Dragon Lo is pitching) as they have an early bird weekday in the Sally league today.
Modesto lost three to two despite a fairly strong pitching performance by Morillo on his return to the Nuts. Outside of Jordan Czarniecki and Chris Ianetta who always seem to be getting on, the offense just wasn't clicking. Czarniecki's another player who's been exceeding expectations through the last couple of years of his professional career and redefining his place in the Rockies' prospect continuum, rising from an unheralded outfielder and 25th round pick out of Tennessee to a ho- hum rookie campaign that was borderline cut-worthy at Tri-City, to a "Hello, who is this?" low A campaign at Asheville last year, to continuing that at Modesto thus far this year and the Rockies have to be seeing his stock rise on their depth charts. That's an 1.118 OPS through twelve games since coming off of a rehabilitation assignment at extended Spring Training that he's sporting right now, Todd Helton must be giving his fellow alumnus some hints.
At Tulsa Sandy Nin pitched well in his first game for the Drillers after being called up from Modesto, a welcome promotion since he was clearly advanced beyond the California League's standards in skill and a bit old for it too. Nin allowed three runs through six innings, Alvin Colina homered and doubled and Jeff Salazar and Ryan Spilborghs each had two hits as well to lead the offense in a five to four victory. Salazar's BA is up to .269 now after his recent slump, as it inches back up to the .300 level watch the Rockies get more and more eager to trade Preston Wilson.
Finally, Colorado Springs won eight to six behind the top of their lineup, Jorge Piedra (two doubles) Eddie Garabito (a double and a homerun), Jeff Baker (two hits incl a double), Ryan Shealy and AAAA-guy Jeff Pickler (both also had two hits). Justin Hampson pitched well, Alex Serrano had his worst outing for the Sox, Ryan Speier pitched alright, and Matt Anderson did well enough to earn the save.