Starting down at the bottom, Casper won three to one as Dexter Fowler went two for three with a triple and homerun and wunderkind Aneury Rodriguez bounced back from a pair of rough outings with another very sharp five inning appearance last night, allowing just one run on five hits and two walks with four K's for our Northern juniors. Brett Strickland picked up the win in relief and though he's old for the level of competition, that 21/4 K/BB ratio in fifteen innings is still pretty impressive, as is his 0.933 WHIP in the extremely hitter friendly Pioneer League. Albeit, impressive as that WHIP is, it's still way high compared to closer Andrew Johnston's 0.473 figure. Johnston has yet to give up an earned run in twelve and two-thirds.
Zach Simons had his first rough outing for Tri-City, lasting only into the fifth and giving up five runs on seven hits. He only walked one batter, though and struck out four, so he still looks to be doing fine. Jason Van Kooten hit his fourth homerun on the year and Sandy Almonte had one hit and walked three times in the loss.
Asheville won seven to five, Samuel Deduno was sharp through the first five innings but then walked three, gave up a single and finally a three run homer before being pulled with two outs in the sixth versus Charleston. Deduno finished with eight K's and five walks but subtract the results of that bad inning and you can see how good he was through five. Kyle Wilson hit his ninth homerun and had another single and three walks (without striking out -a very good sign for him) for the Tourists and Nelson Robledo added three hits, including two doubles.
Troy's healthy, and so is his swing apparently.
Modesto's offense saved a fairly rough outing by Der Kaiser, mostly thanks to Troy Tulowitzki's three for three with two doubles, a homerun and a pair of walks and also Ian Stewart's twelfth homerun of the year in a three for five night. Hammerin Joe Gaetti also hit his sixteenth as the Nuts have to be pleased that he and Tulo are back from injury. Now they just have to figure out how to play everybody on their loaded roster. Michael Davies hit his eighth homerun as well and Jonathan Herrera had three hits in the twelve to nine victory. Jim Miller struck out three in the ninth for his twenty-third save.
Ubaldo Jiminez continues to struggle a bit in his move up to Tulsa. He allowed eight runs in four innings last night, and Matt Macri went hitless in his AA debut as well, but Tony Miller and Sean Barker were sensational. Each hit their eleventh homers of the season and both finished with two hits, Miller also was hit by a pitch and scored three times and had a stole base in the ten to seven loss.
Omar Quintanilla is adapting to altitude ball fairly well, he had three hits in the two games Colorado Springs played against Las Vaegas last night. Ryan Shealy also had three, including his sixteenth homerun and the Sky Sox wound up winning seven to two and four to three.
Update [2005-7-20 10:6:29 by Rox Girl]:
Third round draft choice Kyle Hancock is perhaps as little as a day away from making his final decision of whether to sign with the Rockies or play at college as he awaits the Rockies final offer according to the linked article in Hawgs Illustrated. Apparently the Rox have offered him just under $600,000 and will be coming back to the table tomorrow.