Casper: Xavier Cedeno is showing us better skills in every start this year, and as the only draft and follow we signed from 2004, he's seeming more worth it every time out as well. Yesterday Cedeno pitched six and two thirds innings walked only one with five hits allowed, and struck out six. Andrew Johnston, meanwhile, redeemed himself from allowing four runs to score in the ninth the night before (aided by a couple of errors) by pitching an inning and a third for his fourteenth save.
Tri-City: On Saturday, Daniel Carte had two homeruns to back up Zach Simons, (Simons had six K's in six innings, a rarity on his season so far to have so many) and on Sunday, the Dust-Devils relied on the pitching of Ethan Katz and the pen to shut out the Everett AquaSox, four to zero. Katz has apparently taken James Freeman's spot in the rotation at Tri-City, something I would have thought would have been the case at the beginning of the season, given the word of mouth I had heard from before the draft regarding the two pitchers. Anyway, now that Katz is starting, he's showing why I like him so much. Yesterday he pitched five innings and allowed just one single and two walks while striking out five.
Asheville: Samuel Deduno is not all right just yet. He gave up six walks and four hits in a little over three innings yesterday, and he remains very frustrating with his inconsistency having brilliant games, and then having what we just saw. The offense didn't help much either, if it weren't for Jeff Dragicevich's two singles, the Tourists wouldn't have had any hits at all.
The night before, however, they kind of made up for it by getting twenty in a fourteen to seven romp. Joe Koshansky wound up with three of those, including homerun number 36, and he's crossed the hundred RBI mark for the season.
Modesto: The Nuts finally took out the hammer we know they've been hiding for some time yesterday in a sixteen to three romp. Ian Stewart had three hits, both he and Jonathan Herrera came up a double shy of a cycle. Steven Register pitched eight solid innings, giving up just one run on five hits and a walk.
Tulsa: Tulsa's Sandy Nin is featured in this week's Jack Etkin article at the Rocky Mountain News. The Drillers lost a couple of tough ones over the weekend, including Nin's gem Saturday in extra innings. There just hasn't been much offense at all from the Drillers for the last four or five games.
Colorado Springs: Since going zero for six in a double header on August 13, and then being benched the next day, Jeff Salazar has gone on a seven game hitting streak (caveat: two of the games he just managed a one for five, actually dropping his AVG) and has shockingly particularly heated up once returning to Security Service Field, going four for nine with two doubles a homerun and a walk over the weekend. Now that I have pointed out all the flaws in the streak, let me say there are also indications Jeff may be turning a corner for real. He has at least a double in each of the last four games, two on the road, which shows he's going back to his natural gap power rather than trying to be the slugger he was in Visalia. His walks have been up a little over that time, and save for a regression on Friday, his K's have also been going down. It's still too early to say what this means, but at least it's a positive step. The Sky Sox won both weekend games, by the way.