Casper: Chaz Roe started well but ran into trouble by the third and had the wheels come off in the fourth inning last night of his start, loading the bases before being pulled with two outs. Roe wound up walking four in three and two thirds, but he only gave up one hit and struck out six. Robinson Fabian came on in relief of Roe and disaster followed. First he allowed all three inherited runners to score in the fourth on a wild pitch and a double, but then he couldn't retire a batter in the fifth, either and by the time that inning was over, all the scoring was complete and Casper wound up losing twelve to two. Corey Wimberly had two more hits in four at bats.
Tri-City:Buzz Vargas also found it difficult to throw strikes, walking five and allowing five hits in five innings. Somehow he managed to only give up three runs through all of that, and the loss ended up going to recently called Sean Ruthven in his Tri-City debut. Michael Paulk had a nother solid game with three hits including a double and Daniel Carte had two hits with a double in the Dust-Devils loss.
Samuel Deduno took some lumps last night.
Asheville:Samuel Deduno got roughed up for six runs and the Tourists had to scratch all the way back from that deficit to tie it in the top of the ninth, before letting the game slip away in the bottom half. Deduno's final line was just three inings pitched, seven hits, four walks and just three K's. Dustin Hahn had three hits, including his tenth homerun, and Joe Koshansky had a pair of hits as well.
Modesto: You might note the common thread of losing in these summaries. Well don't look for Modesto to change that. The Nuts lost five to four, as the offense still seems to be having a difficult time coming back into sync and the pitching just wasn't that great behind a shaky Juan Morillo and a decent Marc Kaiser to begin with. Anyway, Joe Gaetti hit his seventh triple of the year, which puts him in a five way tie for third in the California League. Let me talk about him a little more, sometimes it's hard to see a context for players because you hear, "Modesto's a hitter's park so you can't get too excited about so and so," or whatever. So here are some comps from Modesto seasons past:
Nick Swisher: 22 years old, .418 OBP, .550 SLG
Jason Giambi: 22 years old, .427 OBP, .470 SLG
Joe Gaetti: 23 years old, .410 OBP, .595 SLG
A.J. Hinch: 23 years old, .390 OBP, .583 SLG
Eric Byrnes: 23 years old, .430 OBP, .468 SLG
Mike Lockwood: 23 years old, .470 OBP, .503 SLG
Bobby Crosby: 22 years old, .393 OBP, .404 SLG
Jason Perry: 23 years old, .431 OBP, .686 SLG
What does it all mean? Gaetti is a year older than the elite players on this list were when they passed through, but he has the best slugging percentage of those his age with the exception of Perry, who was repeating at Modesto last year. Gaetti is also the only one of the more powerful players on this list to play centerfield, and although his abilities there have been written off, maybe they should be revisited as the premium position would add to his stock. Right now, I'm optimistic, but I really want to see how he fares at Tulsa.
Tulsa: Speaking of the Drillers, the team won three to two, riding a choppy six innings from starter Jon Asahina (nine hits, but only two runs allowed) and near perfection from relievers Judd Songster and Jim Miller to the victory. Jud Thigpen homered for the second straight night and finished with two hits.
Colorado Springs: The Sky Sox lost six to one, Ryan Shealy hit his twenty-second homerun of the season for the only run and one of only four hits for the anemic Sox.