But first I'll lead off with Colorado Spring since it will be easy to get out of the way. Without Ryan Shealy the Sky Sox had nothing to show against Giants number one prospect Matt Cain, and got nothing from him either. In 2004 you might recall, Cain was one of a trifecta of teenage pitchers to start tearing up the California League, one of the others was Mariners' hurler Felix Hernandex and the third was our own Ubaldo Jiminez. Guess which one is still working it out in Cali while the other two have moved up to AAA at least... just one guess, come on it's not that hard. Anyway, it's just another sign of the miserable year our prospects are having.
In Tulsa the return of Jeff Salazar is welcome news, he only registered a walk in four plate appearances last night, but maybe his presence helped leadoff hitter Tony Miller get on four out of five times. No? I didn't think so either, the Drillers mostly seemed to benefit from an erratic and wild Wichita bullpen, socoring eight in two innings after the starter was removed. Luis Guance had two hits, including a run scoring double while starting at second instead of Jayson Nix.
Modesto won big, ten to one, where Smith had four hits and Macri three while Chris Ianetta had a double and bases loaded triple to back-up Steven Register's complete game. Christian Colonel was also perfect at the plate, getting walked four times (the last with the bases packed) to go along with his first inning, two-run single.
Asheville's game was similar to Tulsa's only this time it was the Tourists' bullpen that blew the lead as Chris Buechner, Scott Beerer and Matt Daley all got hit pretty hard. Can anyone tell me why Daley was an all-star rep, anyway? He's been one of the Tourists least consistent relievers despite his record.
Update [2005-6-15 11:9:35 by Rox Girl]:
Oops, I didn't even notice that this 8-4 win was the clincher for Tulsa to get into the playoffs. Congrats to the Drillers for their great first half!