Will you marry me Lei Chan?
You bet I will...
Sorry for this being up a little later than I hoped, my bill paying gig took up more of the morning than it normally does. Also I'm sorry for the gratuitous Rushmore quote.
Starting at the bottom, Asheville rallied with four runs to tie it in the ninth and another in the tenth to win after George Delgado and Darric Merrell nearly wasted a solid performance by starter Ryan Mattheus. A glance at the box score doesn't show Merrell's questionable job with runners on in the bottom of the sixth because the run was charged to Mattheus. In the following inning, Delgado let the roof cave in before the Tourists bats, led mostly by Matt Miller and Joe Koshansky, brought them back. After Delgado and a solo shot given up by Chris Buechner, Matt Daley and Scott Beerer came on to shut the door in relief. Beerer picked up his second win to go with six saves, and he's really starting to get a feel of the closer's role.
Modesto and Visalia were rained out for the second day in a row, they'll play two today weather permitting.
Tulsa used two big innings, the five run fourth and the three run seventh to pound the Frisco rough Riders 8-2. Jeff Salazar had two hits including a double and Jayson Nix doubled twice (one in each of the two big innings) for the second day in a row bringing his average up to a robust .217. Several other Drillers had key hits and even hitless Cory Slavik had two walks and got around to score twice as the wealth at the plate was spread pretty evenly. There were no remarkable pitching performances, journeyman Christian Parker tossed six innings to get the win.
Colorado Springs also won, 6-2, behind a fairly strong pitching performance by my perennial favorite, Mike Esposito. He allowed just three hits and walked one more in six innings of work. He only struck out one so we can't proclaim him ready yet, but I expect the K's will come soon enough.
Ryan Shealy and Choo Freeman had two hits apiece to lead the offense.