My farm report this week went into a little more detail on my observations of Connor Graham, Bruce Billings, Cory Riordan and Darin Holcomb from my trip to Asheville.
Colorado Springs: W 9-5
Except for his seventh error of the year, this was all about Ian Stewart, who went four for five and finished a double short of the cycle. Stewie drove in five of the Sky Sox runs and is now batting .409/.480/.773 against left handers. And unlike most of the venues the Sky Sox have played in this year, Tacoma isn't typically quite as hitter friendly. Although, yesterday that might not have been the case, Joe Koshansky also had three hits, while Seth Smith, Humberto Cota and Edwin Bellorin each chipped in two apiece.
Tulsa: L 5-3
Our golden boy Eric Young Jr. had two hits, while that scurvy dog Daniel Carte struck out two more times. :)
I'm just kidding ballman17, I've got to say I've been very pleased with both their performances thus far, although speaking of odd reverse splits, Carte's hitting exceptionally well against right handed pitching (.319/.418/.681) but miserably against southpaws (.125/.200/.125). I'm not sure what to make of that. Still, Carte's offense has helped to fill the hole that the missing bat of Chris Nelson is making in the Driller lineup.
Ching Lung Lo had a better start than he's started the season with, but he's got a long way to go still.
Modesto: W 4-1
Will Harris extended his scoreless inning streak to thirteen with two more in relief of Keith Weiser. He struck out three and allowed two hits, one of them a double. Weiser himself had a highly effective start, giving up just one run in seven innings, striking out five and allowing just seven baserunners. In fact, except for the first batter (the one run was a leadoff homerun) no opposing hitter had more than a single.
Cole Garner had a pair of hits, including a triple, and Victor Ferrante had two as well. In a sign of how the Nuts had to fight to manufacture their runs last night, Matt Repec's two RBI both came on outs, one a sac fly, one a fielder's choice.
Brian VanderBeek notes Brandon Durden's move to the bullpen with the Nuts. I haven't commented on this yet, but Durden figures to be a pretty decent left handed relief option, which might be something we'll need sooner rather than later given how vulnerable both Brian Fuentes and Micah Bowie have looked of late. He also talks about the reason for the odd start time of today's game (11:00 am, PDT). I'll be sort of sad to see the DARE game go, it's always been one of the rare occasions I'm not in bed when the Nuts play, and it gives me a good reason to be less efficient with my work this afternoon.
Asheville: off
The Tourists play against Greensville in about half an hour from when I'm posting this. Here's another opportunity for me to waste time today. Excellent, I'm just going to phone it in right now. They're currently three games behind Charleston for the division lead.