Cole Garner hit his ninth homerun for Casper and Bret Berglund his second to lead the Rockies in a five to four victory. Ross Hipke (Rosco) and Manuel Pichardo threw four innings of strong relief in support of a shaky, but not terrible start for Brandon Durden. Besides Berglund, who also hit a double, Trevor Allen, Chris Cook, and Rhadames Nazario each had two hits for Casper.
Tri-City won seven to five, Phillip Cuadrado and Michael Paulk had two hits and Pedro Strop three in the win. David Patton pitched well (7IP, 3H, 2R, 1BB, 5K) while Ryan fox and george Delgado struggled to close it out.
At Asheville, Justin Nelson hit two solo homeruns out of the leadoff slot, including one to start the game and Nelson Robledo followed a bit later with a grand slam in the six run first for the Tourists. That was all the support Ryan Mattheus needed as he went eight deep allowing only three runs on four hits, three walks and seven K's.
Modesto lost its second in a row, although don't blame the offense. Starter Larry Robles gave up six runs and Alberto Arias five more following in relief as the Nuts lost eleven to nine. Seth Smith had two doubles, Ian Stewart and Jonathan Herrera one each among their two hits apiece, and Christian Colonel and Michael Davies both homered and singled. Tulo doubled for his lone hit; he and catcher Rick Guarno (one walk) were the only Nuts in the starting lineup to not reach base at least twice.
Tulsa lost nine to five, Jayson Nix had three singles, Tony Miller three walks, and Jud Thigpen a double and a walk for the Drillers. Zach Parker took the loss after surrendering four runs through seven innings of work.
Colorado Springs won two to one in a game fellow Rockies blogger, Mark from The Good, The Bad and the Barmes attended in person. It's interesting to compare his eyewitness account to the boxscore as you would almost think they were different games. Mark says Jeff Salazar didn't do much, yet Salazar proved integral in both the runs the Sky Sox scored (he scored one and drove in the other) and even got an outfield assist at third base, which in a two one game sounds like a fairly important play. Meanwhile, Mark was completely underwhelmed by Rox Girl's strange obsession, Mike Esposito, even though Espy allowed only five base-runners and pitched a remarkable game for Security Service Field. Although I think Mark and the rest of the world will be proven wrong on Esposito (a minor league legend? Ha! You only wish you were so legendary!) I wouldn't really take my word over his if I were you, as clearly I'm biased and I assure you that Mark is a whole lot more neutral on this particular subject.