New Hampshire slips past Rock Cats

New Britain 2 at New Hampshire 3

W: Z. Dials (2-2, 3.27); L: R. Delaney (1-1, 1.76)
HR: None.

One day after being annihilated by the New Britain Rock Cats at Automerchants.com Stadium, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats bounced back to pick up a 3-2 win.

The Rock Cats were facing one of the Toronto's top prospects in Ricky Romero on the mound, but still managed to get on the board first. Danny Valencia doubled with two outs on the board, and David Winfree would reach on a fielding error by Eric Neilsen. Valencia would waste no time, coming home on the play. Erik Lis doubled to moved Winfree to 3rd, but Brock Peterson would fly out to end the inning.

It would be a different story in the bottom of the 3rd with former Miracle Kyle Phillips singled off the Rock Cats' Anthony Swarzak to get on base. Andrew Pinckney doubled which moved Phillips to 3rd. A Ryan Klosterman ground out put the Fisher's first baseman over the plate tying up the game.

Travis Snider doubled off Swarzak in the bottom of the 4th and following a ground out to J.P. Arencibia, scored on a Brian Jeroloman single to right.

Neither starter game up much however, with Swarzak going 7 inning and allowing the 2 runs, both earned on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 for a quality start. Romero also worked 7 and returned for the 8th.

Dustin Martin would double off of him before Seth Overbey was brought into the game. Martin moved to 3rd on a Valencia ground out, and Winfree reached on a fielder's choice that took Martin out at home. Daryl Harang would replace Overbey and allowed a single to Erik Lis. Not happy, New Hampshire then turned to Jared Gothreaux to preserve their slender lead. Peterson would single off of him, to score Winfree before Toby Gardenhire ground out to end retire the Rock Cats with the score tied.

Rob Delaney worked the 8th and returned for the ninth, allowing a walk to Snider before getting Arencibia to fly out. Jeroloman drew a walk, and David Smith's line drive brought in Snider to give the Fishers the go ahead run and the game.

Lis was 2-for-3 in the contest with a double and a walk. Valencia was 2-for-5 with a double and a run. Martin as 1-for-5 at the plate with a double, while Peterson, Gardenhire and Moses were all 1-for-4. Peterson had a RBI, while the other two share the one hit wonder title.

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Catching problems catch up with Rock Cats

Talented continues to flow to Double-A New Britain as the Rock Cats added catcher Kyle Phillips to their roster. Phillips replaced Bryan Kennedy who was placed on the disabled list with a bad back.

The 21-year-old Phillips was hitting .230-2-32 in 83 games. In 278 at bats he had 12 doubles and a .302 on base percentage. Phillips threw out 23% of would be base stealers. The 10th round pick by the Twins in 2002 was a career .246 hitter coming into this season.

The scouting report on Phillips: He is a natural baseball player. He does things regularly that other players need to work hard on.

He works well with his pitching staff, is good with his pitch selection and is good at getting the best performance out of them.

He is excellent defensively behind the plate, blocks the plate well and makes the big saves when needed.

However, Phillips has a slow release on his throws, which means opposing players run on him quite a bit.

His swing is fine and makes contact with the ball but...

He can't run. Director of Twins Scouting Mike Radcliffe said that Phillips is one of the three slowest runners in professional baseball today if not THE slowest.

"Matt LeCroy would beat him by 10 feet," he said of footrace.

Radcliff also considers him a poor athlete.

However, the shorter parks in the Eastern League should be to Phillips liking with his sweet swing at the plate makeing the fences reachable.

Phillips was part of the 2003 Elizabethton Twins rookie team that won an Appalachian League pennant.