Greetings from the Dell Diamond. I awakened to no internet and still had none when I left for tonight’s game, so today’s belated report comes to you courtesy of whoever provides internet service to the Round Rock Express. Today’s report is also in haste, so if I missed anything critical, hopefully I’ll recap it tomorrow.
Box Scores
AAA: Round Rock 7, Sacramento (SFO) 5
Round Rock: 5 hits, 8 walks, 13 strikeouts
Opponent: 4 hits, 10 walks, 12 strikeouts
Record: 31-35, 7 GB, 68-72 overall, elimination number 1
SP Peter Solomon: 5 IP, 2 H (1 HR), 2 R, 4 BB, 5 SO, 90 P / 53 S, 6.27 ERA
RP Josh Sborz: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 0 SO, 7.71 ERA
RP Daniel Robert: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO, 2.97 ERA
DH Trevor Hauver: 1-2, HR (9), 2 BB
Round Rock made the most of a handful of hits. Trevor Hauver has hit well of late (he also homered about 15 minutes prior to this sentence).
Any Reno win or Round Rock loss the rest of the way will eliminate the Express. I had the elimination number at three yesterday, but it should have been two. I wasn’t considering the tiebreaker which favors Reno on account of a 3-2 advantage in head-to-head games in the second half.
AA: Frisco 15, @ Amarillo (ARI) 5
Frisco: 20 hits, 6 walks, 6 strikeouts
Opponent: 8 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts
Record: 38-29, first-half champ, 82-54 overall
SP Kohl Drake: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 34 P / 20 S, 3.10 ERA
RP Jackson Kelley: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 3.57 ERA
2B Max Acosta: 5-6, 2 2B
1B Abimelec Ortiz: 2-4, 2 HR (16), 2 BB, SB (2)
DH Sebastian Walcott: 2-5, BB, SB (1)
C Cooper Johnson: 2-4, HR (14), 2 BB
SS Keyber Rodriguez: 2-5, 3B, HR (2)
RF Luis Mieses: 3-5, 2B, 2 HR (5)
As expected, Kohl Drake had a short outing. Still, it’s noteworthy that he came back to pitch on four days rest. I don’t think it’s the equivalent of a reliever dealing in consecutive games, but a general indication of confidence? Very much so.
Frisco opened multiple cans of whoop on Amarillo’s pitchers.
Today’s Starters
AAA: Jennings
AA: Chi
Five Years Ago Yesterday
Down two games to one in the South Atlantic League finals, Hickory lost 3-1 on a walk-off homer in the 13th by Reed Rohlman off Tyree Thompson. Thompson had pitched 3.2 scoreless with only one hit allowed until the end.
RF Pedro Gonzalez was one of the team’s heroes, breaking up Lexington’s no-hitter with a game-tying solo homer in the 7th, then slamming into the wall to catch what would have been a walk-off extra-base hit in the 12th. Another was reliever Jesus Linarez, called upon with no notice when putative starter Abdiel Mendoza suffered an injury during warmups. Linarez threw 4.2 scoreless innings with two runners allowed. Ace reliever Kelvin Gonzalez threw innings seven through nine without a run allowed. The Crawdads mustered only eight runners in the game and batted .155/.247/.246 in the four-game series.
The next official game wouldn’t be for another 599 days.