7.17.2007

GAME DAY 66-70

YUMA 2, FROSTBITE FALLS 1
WP: Jake Peavy (7-4, 3.00)
LP: Rich Hill (3-2, 5.15)

Shane Victorino’s first homer of the year, a solo shot, gave the Firebirds an early 1-0 lead and Jake Peavy would fan 12 Squirrel batters (Jason Bay, three times) to defend that lead, taking a shutout into the eighth before a one-out triple by Albert Pujols. Peavy settled down after Pujols scored, however, completing the contest, as the Firebirds improved to a BARB-best 44-22. The Squirrels, meanwhile, fell to .500 (35-35) and last place in the East, simply incredible given their four straight post-season appearances. As for Yuma? They lead the league in team ERA (3.43) and are second in slugging (.420).

WORCESTER 6, BLACK MESA 4
WP: Gil Meche (2-2, 5.87)
LP: Ted Lilly (4-4, 5.29)
SV: Castro (6)

Derek Jeter had three hits, Alex Rios hit his 9th homer of the year and the Elims pitching staff held the Anomalies to just four hits, two by DH Jeff Kent, with the bullpen bailing out Gil Meche’s wildness. With the win, Worcester (41-26) remained a game ahead of Darwin in the East while the reeling (30-37) Black Mesans have to be wondering whether or not they can get back into the race now that they are five games out of second place in their own division and are still having problems scoring enough runs to play with either Yuma or Arizona.

BROOKLYN 6, SAN JOSE 3
WP: Roy Oswalt (9-2, 2.72)
LP: Jarrod Washburn (3-6, 5.30)
SV: Rodriguez (15)

Roy Oswalt became just the third BARB hurler to reach nine wins, but he had to overcome some poor play by his teammates, as Casey Blake and Derek Lee both mishandled sharp grounders to allow three runs to come across in the fifth. Not to worry, though: this is the Rockets we’re talking about, after all, and the Moabs got homers later in the game from both Miguel Cabrera and Blake. In the process, the Moabs finally escaped the cellar and above the .500 mark (36-34), but they remain six-plus games out of first in the competitive East. San Jose, meanwhile, lost for the eighth time in ten games, including seven straight.

DARWIN 5, ARIZONA 0
WP: John Smoltz (3-4, 3.08)
LP: Cole Hamels (2-4, 6.44)
SV: Putz (5)

A day after Tom Glavine and two relievers whitewashed the D-Backs, veteran John Smoltz showed he could post the zero’s as well, as the Finches handed Arizona (second in the league in runs scored) their second straight shutout! Carlos Guillen homered as part of the effort, but team officials were concerned about Guillen’s BARB-leading 29th error at shortstop, and he was replaced in the late innings by Khalil Greene. Also rumored: that David Ortiz, despite a BARB-leading 25 homers, may be benched against lefties.

LAS VEGAS 8, POTTSYLVANIA 3
WP: A.J. Burnett (4-5, 3.35)
LP: Noah Lowry (4-7, 4.41)

Michael Barrett went 4-for-4 and Manny Ramirez added three hits, and the Centra-leading Luchadores (38-30) attempted to stick a fork in bottom-feeding Pottsylvania, which (at 16 games back) simply can not afford to lose to their own division leader. Nevertheless, that’s what happened, as Lowry and two relievers not only allowed 16 baserunners on their own, but were hampered by three team errors.

2 comments:

ejcMOABS said...

paging Purves, you still here?...

Andrew Haynes said...

I hear ya, Eric.

Hatfield, you gonna put something on your team's blog?