Friday Pebble Report: De La Rosa Solid in Tulsa Rehab

The affiliates were 1-2 yesterday.

Colorado Springs 9, New Orleans 7

The Sky Sox (21-19, 1st) lead their division despite being barely above average. I think that record will improve drastically over the next 40 games though, as Colorado Springs has only played 12 of their first 40 at home. In this game, the Sky Sox pounded out 16 hits and scored 4 runs in two separate innings. Leading the way with 3 hit nights were Brandon Roberts, DJ LeMahieu, and Hernan Iribarren.

NW Arkansas 2, Tulsa 1

The Drillers (24-16, 1st) retained their division lead despite losing their 4th straight game, all in a home sweep to the second place Naturals. Headlining this matchup was Jorge De La Rosa making a rehab start. Unlike the last start, in which he had to leave with arm tightness, De La Rosa was pleased with this start, according to the Tulsa World. His velocity was reportedly in the 88-89 range, touching 92.

De La Rosa went 4 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and 3 walks, striking out 4. De La Rosa threw 73 pitches, only 43 for strikes. He's now scheduled to make 2 rehab starts for the Sky Sox before returning to the Rockies around June 2nd.

Offensively, Tulsa's two main PuRP position players had good games in a losing effort. PuRP 9 Josh Rutledge went 2-4 and scored his team's only run, while PuRP 2 Nolan Arenado continued to emerge from his mini-slump with a 3-4 night.

This was not a good game for the Nuts (20-21, 6 GB), who lost their 3rd straight to dip back below .500 in this home beatdown. Modesto pitchers, "led" by Juan Gonzalez, allowing 13 runs on 16 hits. Gonzalez himself gave up 12 runs on 13 hits in 5 innings. The Nuts also committed 3 errors on the night. Offensively, Modesto did get multi-hit nights from the red-hot PuRP 15 Rafael Ortega (now hitting .350/.398/.479) and Dustin Garneau (who provided the only run with a solo homer, his 3rd).

Asheville (23-15, 3 GB) had their game against Hickory postponed.