Ha-ha, take that, Redhawk! Your boy Eric Young Jr. scored four runs last night without getting a hit..., Kidding mostly, I don't want to make it seem like I'm against hitters, you know, hitting. It's what we pay them for.
EY2 did steal two bases, breaking the Sky Sox franchise record with 53 on the season as linked in today's Rockpile, and walked three times. Mike McCoy and Paul Phillips homered for the Sky Sox. Adam Eaton pitched decently again as the starter but Randy Flores and Ryan Speier struggled to the tune of three runs given up apiece in relief as the Reno Aces came back to defeat the Sky Sox. Makes you grateful we made the changes to the bullpen that we did. I didn't realize that Scott Dohmann's now with the Diamondbacks organization, he picked up the save in last night's game.
A tough loss for the Drillers, as the game went sixteen innings. Infielder Rex Rungren, who had a fine day at the plate with three hits pitched the last two of those sixteen and came away with the loss. Darin Holcomb also had three hits, including two doubles, and Cole Garner hit his 11th home run for the Drillers. Samuel Deduno started and pitched a strong seven innings, giving up three runs but striking out seven, and getting an 11-2 GB-FB rate on his outs.
Scott Beerer had a three for three day with a walk and an HBP, raising his Modesto OBP over .400. Jason Van Kooten and Charlie Blackmon both doubled, most of the other Nuts struggled. Kenneth Durst took the loss, his 12th of the season.
For the recap, I'll defer to Franchise26's excellent scouting write-up. Chris Balcom-Miller continues to rise.
So from a box score observation standpoint, the one position player that I've really been tracking over the season has been 18 y.o. Rafael Ortega. What we know about him is that he hits a lot. He also walks more than he strikes out, and he doesn't strike out very often. His SB percentage and five triples and the fact that he plays center field mean that he's got wheels. He apparently wasn't a noteworthy bonus signing, as there have been no media mentions, but that he comes from Venezuela indicates that he's probably a product of scout Francisco Cartaya's work, and Cartaya has fed the team some serious talent over the last few years including Franklin Morales and Jhoulys Chacin. Anyway, keep an eye on this player for next season.