5/8 MiLB Gameday: To 60 and beyond

Cuzittt

Bouncing with Anger
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Nov 20, 2001
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Sinister Funkhouse #17
Today's Games:

IL:Pawtucket (Rubby de la Rosa) vs. Toledo (Mike Belfiore) [6:35pm]
EL: Portland (Henry Owens) vs. New Hampshire (Aaron Sanchez)[6:05pm]
CL:Salem (Cody Kukuk) vs. Carolina (Shawn Morimando) [7:05pm]
SAL: Greenville (Ty Buttrey) vs. Greensboro (Ryan Newell) [7:05pm]
NYPL: Lowell - Opening Day - June 13th vs. Vermont
GCL: GCL Sox - Opening Day - June 20th vs GCL Twins
DSL: DSL Sox - Opening Day - May 31st

Notes:

Mookie Betts has reached safely in 59 consecutive regular season games. He has reached safely in 64 consecutive games (including playoffs).

Scoreboard:

Boston Red Sox Minor League Scores

Media:

MiLB TV
MiLB Radio

Local Media:

Pawsox:

Providence Journal
Pawtucket Times

Seadogs: Portland Press Herald

Salem: Roanoke Times

Greenville: Greenville Online

Lowell: Lowell Sun
 

WenZink

New Member
Apr 23, 2010
1,078
Salem starter for tonight will probably be Cody Kukok, who pitched Saturday, 5/3.  Luis Diaz, listed above, last pitched 5.2 innings on Sunday, 5/4, and would be throwing on 3 days rest if he were tonight's starting pitcher.
 
ETA -- Add Webster (Paw) and McCarthy (POR) who also pitched on Sunday.  Should it be RDLR and Owens as tonight's probables?
 
Just noticed two of the opposing teams are incorrect, I think Cuz posted tomorrow's schedule?
 

Cuzittt

Bouncing with Anger
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Matchups are now correct. Teach me to do stuff when I just wake up.

Pawsox have started... but there has been steady rain in Connecticut... so hopefully the game goes quickly.
 

WenZink

New Member
Apr 23, 2010
1,078
Cuzittt said:
Matchups are now correct. Teach me to do stuff when I just wake up.
 
Thanks Cuz... After I first wake up, I'm usually pretty alert, then I go steadily downhill during the day.
 
And thanks for your daily diligence in this forum.  It's much appreciated.
 

Stan Papi Was Framed

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Jun 5, 2012
2,923
WenZink said:
 
Thanks Cuz... After I first wake up, I'm usually pretty alert, then I go steadily downhill during the day.
 
And thanks for your daily diligence in this forum.  It's much appreciated.
seconded.  This forum is great, and certainly much appreciated - diligence is the right word, incredible that you get this going every day...
 

Cuzittt

Bouncing with Anger
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Pawsox score 5 in the 5th, win 5-3.

Boxscore

Rubby de la Rosa went 6 2/3 innings, allowing 3 runs (1 earned) on 4 hits and 4 walks; striking out 6. Rich Hill went 1 1/3 innings, striking out 2. Drake Britton pitched a perfect 9th for the save.

Brock Holt went 2/3 with a triple and a HBP. Daniel Nava and Ryan Lavarnway each went 1/3 with a walk. Corey Brown went 1/4 with a HR. Garin Cecchini went 0/2 with 2 walks and a SB. Christian Vazquez and Ryan Roberts each went 0/3 with a walk. Justin Henry went 0/3. Bryce Brentz went 0/4.
 

Cuzittt

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Seadogs win 8-2.

Boxscore

Henry Owens went 7 2/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on a hit and 5 walks; striking out 6. Miguel Celestino went 1 1/3 innings, giving up a hit and a walk; striking out one.

Henry Ramos went 2/4. Heiker Meneses went 1/2 with a walk and a SF. Derrik Gibson went 1/3 with a sacrifice. Shannon Wilkerson went 1/3 with a walk. Travis Shaw went 1/4 with a double, walk and SB. Blake Swihart went 1/4. Mookie Betts went 1/5. Stefan Welch went 0/3 with a walk. Deven Marrero went 0/4 with a walk.
 

Cuzittt

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Salem win 18-2.

Boxscore

Cody Kukuk went 5 innings, allowing a run on 3 hits, 5 walks and 2 WPs; striking out 3. Kyle Stroup went 2 innings, allowing an unearned run on 2 hits, 3 walks and a WP. Dayan Diaz pitched 2 innings, giving up a hit and a walk; striking out one.

Jayson Hernandez went 3/5 with a double. Carson Blair went 2/3 with a double, Grand Slam and 2 walks. Kevin Heller went 2/3 with a double and 2 walks. Reed Gragnani, Jonathan Roof, Tim Roberson and Matty Johnson each went 2/5 with a walk; Roberson with a HR, Johnson with 3 SBs. Ryan Dent went 0/5 with a walk. Aneury Tavarez went 0/5.
 

Cuzittt

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Drive lose 9-2.

Boxscore

Ty Buttrey went 2 2/3 innings, allowing 8 runs on 6 hits, 4 walks and a WP; striking out 2. Raynel Velette went 3 1/3 innings, giving up a hit and a WP; striking out 4. John Ely went 1 2/3 innings, allowing a run on 4 hits. Jonathan Aro went 1 1/3 innings, striking out one.

Wendell Rijo went 3/4 with a double. Jordan Weems and Jesus Loya each went 2/4. Bo Greenwell went 1/2 with a double before being replaced by Zach Kapstein who went 1/2. Jantzen Witte went 1/3 before being replaced by Jimmy Rider who went 1/1. Manuel Margot, Carlos Asuaje and Tzu-Wei Lin each went 1/4. Jake Romanski went 0/4 with a CS.
 

Tudor Fever

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I was at the Seadogs game tonight and can attest that Owens was absolutely dealing. He was changing speeds very effectively and, until the 8th, his control was excellent.

He retired the side on 5 pitches in the 7th, at which point his pitch count was only 79 and he still had his no-hitter. The Seadogs had a long bottom of the 7th and I think that, combined with the cold night, messed him up; he was really laboring as he walked the first two hitters in the 8th on 9 pitches. He took a sharp grounder off his butt and recovered to throw the hitter out. With two out, he have up a solid single to left and that was the end of his night. The sparse crowd gave him a nice ovation.
 

Cuzittt

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STORIES

PAWSOX

Game Story

Rubby De La Rosa’s day was a batter away from being over in the second inning.

After retiring the first five Mud Hens, De La Rosa had allowed five straight men to reach. His pitch count in the inning was climbing toward 40, the point at which a minor-league manager needs to have a replacement ready.

De La Rosa struck out Brandon Douglas on a check swing with a slider to finally stop the bleeding in the second — and he didn’t look back.

The right-hander put forth one of his best efforts in the Red Sox system from that point forward, pitching 6 2/3 innings total and allowing three runs (one earned) on four hits in Pawtucket’s 5-3 win over Toledo.

The organization would like to see more consistency from De La Rosa — defined as better pitch efficiency, better focus and better carryover from inning to inning and start to start. The stuff has never been in question.

For six of his seven innings on Thursday, De La Rosa showed all of that. Three of his innings required fewer than 10 pitches. He touched 97 on the gun with his fastball in his first and his final inning, and he generated a boatload of swings-and-misses with his heater — and 15 overall, unofficially.

“I feel healthy,” he said.

He entered the seventh for the first time this season, and with only 85 pitches. Thursday marked the first time De La Rosa recorded an out in the seventh as a starter since July 2011, when he was in the majors with the Dodgers. He crossed the 100-pitch mark for the first time since that season as well.

But then of course there was his second inning. De La Rosa retired the first two men fairly easily, before allowing a single, a walk, a single, a walk and a single. In between, he was slow to back up a throw to home, and he compounded the miscue by wildly flinging the ball past third base and into left field when he did retrieve it.

Of the eight baserunners he allowed, five of them came consecutively in that frame. Half of the eight three-ball counts he ran on the day came consecutively in that frame. Toledo scored three times, though only one of them was earned.

“Just a bad inning,” said De La Rosa. “You’ve got to put that away and focus.”

On the one hand, it’s a positive step that one bad inning is no longer enough to define outings for the right-hander, who has shown an in-game resilience that wasn’t always apparent in his shorter stints last year. On the other, the Red Sox still dream of what he can be if he eliminates those innings altogether.
Security Director

A few short hours after the PawSox completed their eight-game homestand at McCoy Stadium on Thursday, team director of security Rick Medeiros hopped in a Penske truck and started driving.

As this is being written, Medeiros is driving. As this goes to press overnight, Medeiros is driving. As you read this in the morning, Medeiros is driving.

While the PawSox take buses to every road game within their division, trips like this week’s — to Louisville and Indianapolis — require a flight. And rising baggage costs as well as shrinking planes mean that the simplest way for the team to get all of its equipment from McCoy Stadium on Thursday afternoon to Louisville Slugger Field on Friday night is to drive.

And so, shortly after Thursday’s game ended at 3:04 p.m., the PawSox clubhouse staff was packing all that equipment into the yellow Penske truck that Medeiros and buddy Lou LeDoux, from Axis Bats, will drive the 921 miles to Louisville — one that will take, according to a smiling Medeiros, “16 hours and seven minutes.”

“It’s a grind,” Medeiros said, the understatement obvious. “When you travel with your family or when you travel alone, when you get tired, you can stop. You can have something to eat. You can relax or stretch out. With this, you’re not really comfortable unless the stuff is in the other clubhouse.”

The PawSox have four road trips this season that will require flying. Along with his friend LeDoux, Medeiros will deliver the equipment on each of them — to each stop and back, mind you — in that 12-foot, yellow Penske truck.

“The aircrafts that go to these cities are smaller,” Pawtucket vice president and chief financial officer Matt White said. “It’s really more of a weight issue. A lot of times, they needed to pack more to get under the weight limit on the individual bags, and it just became putting a puzzle together. This takes the extra work out of that.”

The season’s first long drive Thursday will actually be an easier trip than most, given the noontime start Thursday ahead of Friday’s 6:35 p.m. first pitch. Medeiros and LeDoux will have more than 24 hours to get the equipment there. The back end of the trip will be tougher, when they’ll have about 18 hours to drive from Indianapolis back to Pawtucket.

So how do Medeiros and LeDoux do it? There’s a choreography to it all, a well-honed routine that eliminates all extraneous time that’s better spent on the road.

“Maybe you’re at 18 hours, and your trip from Indy is 15, which gives you three hours to spare to make it there exactly at that time. So we need to find ways to shave [time],” he said. “We try to do our homework. This is how far the gas station is off the exit, so you can factor it in to get back on. If you stop and run in to get something, you both can’t go in at the same time.”

There’s no time to stop for food, so Medeiros and LeDoux bring ham-and-cheese sandwiches, fruit and some peanut-butter crackers in a cooler. Oh, and water — “a whole bunch of water.”

As for the breaks drinking a whole bunch of water would require over 15 hours? “We’ve established a plan that saves time,” Medeiros said coyly.
SEADOGS

Game Story

Portland Sea Dogs left-hander Henry Owens thought the change-up might have fooled Andy Burns.

“Give him credit,” Owens said. “He was out in front but he kept his hands back.”

Burns waited on the pitch and doubled into the left-field corner at Hadlock Field, breaking up Owens’ no-hit bid with two outs in the eighth inning Thursday night as the Sea Dogs beat the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, 8-2.

Owens, 21, the Boston Red Sox’s top pitching prospect, allowed two runs on five walks and the one hit over 72/3 innings. He struck out six.

After Burns’ hit, Portland Manager Billy McMillon came out to get Owens (4-2), who left to a standing ovation.

“Good fastball command. Good change-up command,” McMillon said, “but he knows he can do better. His pitch count (96) went up because of the walks.”

Owens pitched an official no-hitter in the opener April 3 at Reading in a game shortened to six innings because of rain. No Sea Dogs pitcher has thrown a nine-inning no-hitter. Brad Penny (1999) and Josh Beckett (2001) pitched no-hitters with help from the bullpen.

On Thursday, Owens was mixing a 90 mph fastball with his change-up (and only two curveballs) to keep the Fisher Cats off balance. His five walks included the first two batters in the eighth inning.

“I think it was just adrenaline. Probably too excited,” Owens said. “Best I’ve felt. Good to get in a rhythm. The situation didn’t call for the curve. The change-up was working.”

After the walks, Jonathan Jones hit a line drive off Owens’ hip. Owens scrambled to the ball and threw Jones out.

After being checked by the trainer, Owens stayed in the game and got Jon Berti to ground out, scoring a run. Burns then came up and broke the suspense.

“He left that (change-up) up a little bit and I was able to find a hole,” Burns said.

“He pitched real well. Mixed speeds. Hit his spots. He’s tall (6-foot-6) and the ball comes out of his hand well. A tough night for us.”

The game featured two of the best pitchers in the minors, with Owens (ranked the 40th top prospect by the Baseball America publication) going against Aaron Sanchez (a Toronto Blue Jays prospect who is ranked No. 32).

Both pitchers are 21 and from southern California. Sanchez, who throws a 95 mph fastball, retired the first eight Sea Dogs that he faced.

But then Sanchez lost some of his control, allowing two walks, sandwiched around a Mookie Betts single, to load the bases for Travis Shaw, who is leading Portland with 25 RBI this season.

Shaw worked a full count, then stroked a three-run double to right-center.

“He’s got a very lively fastball,” Shaw said. “He just fell behind and he had to throw it over, and I put a good swing on it.
SALEM

Game Story

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: Three innings into Thursday’s game, the Salem Red Sox led by two touchdowns.

Clearly, fans hoping to follow the NFL Draft on their mobile devices didn’t need to worry about missing any drama.

Carson Blair keyed a five-run first inning with a grand slam, and the Sox breezed to an 18-2 victory over Carolina in front of 3,194 at Salem Memorial Ballpark.

The 18 runs tied a franchise record for this ballpark, and the 16-run margin of victory also matched a club mark.

MULTI-HIT MADNESS: Seven Salem players had at least two hits, led by a 3 for 5 performance from catcher Jayson Hernandez. Hernandez has raised his average more than 70 points during this homestand and is now hitting .265.

The usual suspects also contributed, with University of Virginia alum Reed Gragnani raising his Carolina League-leading average to .386 after a 2 for 5 night. Jonathan Roof went 2 for 5 and scored three runs to up his average to .301.

OUT OF CHARACTER: Virginia Beach native Shawn Morimando entered the game with a 3-1 record and 2.51 ERA and had held opponents to a .196 average in April. The Sox jumped him for eight runs (six earned) on three hits and three walks in just 1 1⁄3 innings. They tagged reliever Jacob Lee for six runs on eight hits over the next 2 2⁄3, putting the game well out of reach.

BREAKING OUT: The Sox had scored three runs or fewer in each of their previous six games, going 2-4 during that span. But Gragnani’s RBI single in the bottom of the first set the stage for Blair, who belted a grand slam to deep left to make it 5-0.

Gragnani had another RBI single during Salem’s seven-run second inning, which also featured two hits by Salem leadoff man Matty Johnson. Johnson added three stolen bases in the game.
DRIVE

Game Story

After scoring 37 runs in their last three games, the Drive fell behind Greensboro early and never recovered, falling 9-2 before 4,809 fans at Fluor Field.

Greenville (17-13) saw its three-game winning streak end. The teams will finish the three-game series with a 7:05 p.m. game here tonight.

Greenville took a 2-1 lead after an inning. Left fielder Bo Greenwell led off with a double to right and was sacrificed to third. With two out, third baseman Carlos Asuaje doubled to left, plating Greenwell, and second baseman Wendell Rijo followed with a double to right, scoring Asuaje.

Greensboro (18-14) took control by taking advantage of Greenville starter Ty Buttrey’s mistakes. Buttrey, making his second start of the season, sandwiched a single around walks to right fielder Carlos Lopez and designated hitter Cody Keefer.

A wild pitch scored Lopez, and shortstop Rehiner Cordova’s groundout gave the Grasshoppers the lead for good. Centerfielder Yefri Perez’s groundout to short scored Keefer for a 4-2 lead.

A one-out walk started the Grasshoppers’ fun in the second. With one out, second baseman Avery Romero doubled to left and Lopez slapped a run-scoring single up the middle. Catcher Chad Wallach followed with a two-run triple down the right field line, extending the lead to 7-2.

Keefer scored Wallach with a sacrifice fly to right. Buttrey lasted 2-and-two-thirds innings, allowing eight runs (all earned) on six hits with four walks and two strikeouts.