Box Scores
AAA: Round Rock 9, Tacoma (SEA) 2
Round Rock: 9 hits, 9 walks, 8 strikeouts
Opponent: 6 hits, 3 walks, 13 strikeouts
Record: 39-31, 70-75 overall, eliminated
SP Michel Otañez: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO, 29 P / 21 S, 4.42 ERA
RP Ryan Lobus: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO, 5.20 ERA
RP Luis Curvelo: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO, 6.75 ERA
RP Wilian Bormie: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO, 3.00 ERA
C Logan O’Hoppe: 2-4, 2B, BB, .303/.398/.566
DH Kyle Higashioka: 0-5
2B John Taylor: 2-4, 2B, BB, .247/.381/.381
CF Michael Helman: 2-4, HR (6), .207/.296/.370
RF Aaron Zavala: 1-2, 2B, 2 BB, .267/.353/.431
A very successful bullpen night. Round Rock hasn’t announced a Sunday starter but has Anthony Veneziano, Dalton Pence, David Davalillo and Winston Santos lined up for the next four days.
Michael Helman made his first appearance since mid-June, when an errant pitch broke his hand. Kyle Higashioka is hitting .167/.286/.233 in seven games solely as a DH. He did miss a stretch in the middle of last week, but I don’t recall his rehab assignment being stopped and restarted, so I believe it will reach its limit the Thursday before Texas’s final regular-season game. 
AA Semifinals: Frisco 8, at Amarillo (ARI) 7 (10)
Frisco: 11 hits, 8 walks, 9 strikeouts
Opponent: 7 hits, 9 walks, 12 strikeouts
Frisco leads best-of-three 1-0
SP Aidan Curry: 4 IP, 3 H (1 HR), 2 R, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 4 SO, 62 P / 43 S
RP Austin Roberts: 1.2 IP, 2 H (1 HR), 1 R, 1 BB, 3 SO
RP Leandro Lopez: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 SO
RP Jonathan Brand: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO
SS Sebastian Walcott: 0-2, 3 BB, SB
3B Rafe Perich: 2-4, 2 BB
DH Gleider Figuereo: 2-5, HR
C Malcolm Moore: 0-1, 3 BB, HBP
CF Paxton Kling: 3-4, 2B, HR, HBP
This was one of the craziest games I’ve ever watched. Baseball has no clock, but I don’t think either team won or lost so much as the clock just expired with Frisco ahead. The Riders used their best starter and all four of their best relievers but would have lost had the wind been blowing out two MPH harder in the bottom of the 10th. I rarely write traditional game summaries and don’t go looking for narratives, but Frisco has a dark history in Amarillo (just keeping reading the the Five Years Ago segments) that nagged me in the late innings.
Frisco jumped to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd on a solo shot by Gleider Figuereo and two-run blast by Paxton Kling. Frisco’s goal of outslugging the competition had started well. In the 4th, Malcolm Moore reached on an error and would score on a Max Wagner single that followed a Paxton Kling double. A chance for more was squandered when Kling hesitated from third on a grounder and was tagged at the plate. Still, Frisco chased starter Junior Sanchez that inning to reach the shaky bullpen. Amarillo turned to quasi-closer Alfred Morillo for his earliest appearance of the season, and he retired two batters.
A solo homer by 1B Ben McLaughlin and a couple of other hits chipped Frisco’s lead to two after four, and Aidan Curry was done. Curry had tossed an inning Saturday and was presumably on a pitch diet. Like Amarillo, Frisco turned to a late-inning arm in the form of Austin Roberts, but he surrendered a solo homer to Avery Osuwu-Aniedu, who had hit far, far better in AA than high-A and would seem due for a crash, but he doesn’t care. (Incidentally, MiLB pitcher usage in the regular season can be static and boring at times, so I greatly appreciate that both managers have leeway to employ MLB-level tactics in this series.)
Up 4-3 in the 7th, Frisco squandered a chance when Sebastian Walcott walked and stole second but was then nabbed easily attempting to steal third with none out. Walcott, still acclimating to the field, would be replaced by Luke Hanson in the 8th.
Frisco plated three in the 8th with help from the hosts. After a Figuereo single, both Moore and Kling were hit by pitches. LF Angel Ortiz’s hesitant read on Marcus Lee Sang’s sharp oppo liner resulted in a two-run double, and Rafe Perich singled home another. The Riders returned all favors in the bottom half. Leandro Lopez was removed after a leadoff walk, and Bryan Magdaleno would yield three runs on a single, wild pitch, walk, a Perich error on an easy grounder, another walk and sac fly. (Kling thought his catch of that fly was the third out, but the runner would have scored regardless.) Kai Wynward, long in the system but not especially effective at high-A Hub City, fanned Danny Serretti for the final out.
In the 9th, Frisco had runners at second and third, but Amarillo shortstop Cristofer Torin kept two runs off the board by snaring a scorched Wagner liner and doubling off the lead runner Moore. In the bottom half, Torin walked to lead off. With one out, Josh Trentadue replaced Wynyard but surrendered a walk and game-tying single. After another walk to load the bases, Trentadue’s 3-2 fastball caught three microns of the bottom edge of the zone for the second out. Jonathan Brand replaced him and sent the game to extras with another K.
Amarillo turned to closer Carlos Rey in the 10th. Rey is exceptionally hard to hit but hideously wild (59 walks or hit batters in 54.2 IP), and after a Luke Hanson bunt single, Rey’s pitch to the backstop brought gift-runner Max Wagner home from third.
Brand stayed on in the bottom of the 10th. After an Amarillo sac bunt, Frisco chose to walk Serretti to face Torin and Owusu-Aniedu. That brought a favorable platoon advantage for Brand at the great expense of putting the winning run on first for free. Torin flied out too shallow for the runner on third to try for home. Owusu-Aniedu then lofted a 3-2 pitch to right that looked easy off the bat but quickly terrifying as it cut through the thin air. Dylan Dreiling caught the ball comfortably but a mere step from the fence.
Dreiling was 0-6 with five strikeouts, only the second Texas minor league to don the platinum visor in 2026. Dreiling manned CF for the first 101 of 104 starts in the field in Frisco, but since Kling joined the squad a week ago, Dreiling hasn’t started there once.
A correction: Somehow I got the idea in my head that Frisco would play two of a potential three games of the series on the road. Last night was in Amarillo, and the teams will head to Frisco for one or two games.
Elsewhere
Charleston (TAM), victorious over a tremendous Hickory squad in the Carolina League semifinals, fell in two straight to Fayetteville (HOU) in the finals. Winston-Salem (CHW), division mate of Hub City, won the high-A South Atlantic League title with series victories over Bowling Green (TAM) and Greensboro (PIT).
Today’s Starters
AAA: Veneziano
Five Years Ago Yesterday
Frisco defeated Amarillo 14-6 to maintain a half-game lead for the final playoff spot in the Texas League with six to play. Daniel Robert fanned three in 1.1 scoreless innings. Justin Foscue, Josh Smith, Sam Huff and Bubba Thompson were major contributors on offense.
Luisangel Acuna hit a walk-off grand slam for low-A Down East.
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