I'll get to Tri-City in a moment, but first I wanted to point out that another hot streak was broken last night at Casper as Andrew Johnston blew his first save, allowed his first runs (none of them earned as the runners got on via errors by EY Jr and Rhadames Nazario) and took his first loss. Erick Young had another error besides in the field, but he had a pretty good day at the plate, going three for five including a bases loaded triple which had given Casper the lead in the first place. Corey Wimberly had two hits and a walk and stole his fourteenth base of the season.
Tri-City's Shane Lindsay had similar troubles to Johnston in the first inning of the Dust Devils' game against Boise, and wound up giving up five runs that inning (two earned) with the help of two errors a wild pitch and a pair of walks. After that first however, Lindsay got it back together and pitched three more innings allowing only one walk, no hits, and striking out seven. Bouncing back within the same game from adversity like that is a very good sign as far as his mental game goes. The Dust Devils pen, namely Ethan Katz, Darren Clarke and George Delgado shut down the Hawks the rest of the way, but the offense never got it together to mount a comeback. I am still hoping that next year that Katz is given a shot as a starter as I like him better than James Freeman or David Patton for instance in that role.
Marc Kaiser spread ten hits and a walk over seven innings, allowing only three runs and Ian Stewart hit his ninth homerun (a two run shot) in the top of the ninth to give Modesto a lead, but Jim Miller couldn't hold it this time allowing Lancaster a tying run in the bottom frame and then giving up a winning homerun in the tenth as the Nuts lost five to four. Stewart finished two for four with a walk and three runs batted in as he continues with his hot bat of late.
Tulsa used a five run fourth against Texas top prospect Thomas Diamond to win over Frisco. Diamond walked four straight leading off the inning before a Jud Thigpen single and Luis Guance double cleared the bases and knocked Diamond out of the game. The Drillers wound up winning seven to five as Guance finished with a pair of hits.
Ryan Shealy finished with a hit, a run and and an RBI in two at bats in the PCL's eleven to five romp over the IL in the AAA all star game. Congratulations Ryan!