JEN RYNDA staff photographer
Rochester's Matt Tolbert sends a fly ball to left field during the third inning against Columbus on Monday at Frontier Field. The International League's batting leader has three home runs and 26 RBI in 48 games.
Columbus 6 at Rochester 0
Record 33-33
W: J. Magrane (1-1, 3.94); L: J. Cummings (3-5, 4.21)
HR: COL: D. Jimenez (7).
From redwingsbaseball.com: Three Red Wings pitchers combined to end Brandon Watson's league-record hitting streak, but three Columbus pitchers held the Wings to just two hits as the Clippers beat Rochester 6-0 Monday night at Frontier Field.
Rochester starter Jeremy Cummings drew the assignment of stopping Clippers outfielder Watson's 43-game hitting streak. To open the game, Cummings caught Watson looking on a 3-2 pitch that Watson thought was ball four. In the third inning, Watson drilled a 3-1 pitch to center but Denard Span tracked it down at the warning track
In the fourth, cruising along with four strikeouts, Cummings ran into trouble. After a single and walk to open the frame, D'Angelo Jimenez hit his seventh homer of the year, a drive to right field that bounced off the billboard wall above the Wings' bullpen. Cummings settled down after the homer, striking out Watson for the second time to get the third out of the inning.
Columbus pushed the lead to 4-0 in the fifth, with Kory Casto picking up an RBI single. That prompted Cummings' exit, and Carmen Cali's entry into the game. Cali got an inning-ending double play grounder from Jimenez to end the threat.
In the meantime, the Wings managed just a single and two walks in four innings against Clippers starter Jim Magrane. With two outs in the fourth, Span pounded a shot at first baseman Larry Broadway, who appeared to take the ball off his face after one hop. The hustling Span made it all the way to second base on what was scored a double, and Broadway was helped off the field with Brent Abernathy replacing Broadway in the field. Casilla flied out to center to thwart the Wings' scoring chance.
Watson came to the plate with one out in the eighth with one last chance to extend his record hitting streak. However, Wings reliever Ricky Barrett struck him out and Watson's record-breaking streak came to an end. Barrett also struck out Bernie Castro swinging to set the Clippers down 1-2-3 to end the eighth.
NOTES: Red Wings coach Rich Miller and Patti Ford were married Monday morning at the Crescent Beach Hotel...The Red Wings observed a moment of silence before the game in memory of Messenger Post Newspapers Sports Editor Tom Murphy, who passed away Sunday . Murphy was a 1971 graduate of Greece Olympia High School, and a 1975 graduate of SUNY Geneseo with a bachelor of arts degree in speech communications. He began working at Messenger Post (then Wolfe Publications) in September, 1975, and was a two-time winner of the Rochester Press Radio Club’s Sportswriter of the Year award.... Tommy Watkins celebrated his birthday Monday, wth his mom and stepdad in town from Florida...Matt Tolbert had an 0-for-4 night, dropping his league-leading average to .367.
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New Hampshire 8 at New Britain 7
Record: 32-31
W: J. Litsch (7-2, 2.35); L: B. Baker (2-5, 5.10); SV: M. Roney (1)
HR: NHM: R. Cosby (6). NBR: G. Guzman (7)
From rockcats.com: New Britain showed a lot of heart late in the game, but the Rock Cats fell short of a dramatic comeback with an 8-7 loss to New Hampshire. The Rock Cats have now dropped seven straight.
The Rock Cats used a solo home run by Garrett Guzman in the sixth inning and an RBI by Trevor Plouffe in the seventh to close the gap, 8-3. Guzman then scored on a throwing error by New Hampshire shortstop Sergio Santos in the eighth inning. In the bottom of the ninth, down 8-4, the Rock Cats loaded the bases with no outs on a walk to Rashad Eldridge, a bunt single by Trevor Plouffe, and another walk to Brian Buscher. Brock Peterson and Guzman delivered back-to-back RBI singles to cut New Hampshire’s lead to 8-6. Luke Hughes added a sac fly RBI to score Buscher from third before Matt Roney came on in relief to notch his first save of the season. Roney intentionally walked Felix Molina to load the bases before retiring the next two batters on strikeouts.
Santos led the Fisher Cats with three hits, including two RBI doubles, and scored two runs. Robinzon Diaz also had three hits and scored three runs for the Fisher cats. Meanwhile, Jesse Litsch (7-2) limited the Rock Cats to three runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings. Litsch, who is rated as Toronto’s eighth-best prospect and pitched for the Blue Jays earlier this season, struck out four.
The Rock Cats came out of the gates swinging in the first inning with a leadoff double by Eldridge. Plouffe’s infield groundout moved Eldridge to third and Buscher’s groundout to second base scored Eldridge for a 1-0 lead. The Fisher Cats tied it up in the fourth on an RBI double by Santos.
Rock Cats’ starter Brad Baker cruised through the early part of the game. He retired the first nine of ten batters he faced, including the first seven-straight to step to the plate. In the fourth inning, though, Baker stumbled. The Fisher Cats struck for four runs in the inning, including a two-run home run by Rob Cosby that put New Hampshire ahead, 5-1. The Fisher Cats tagged reliever Tim Lahey for three more runs in the seventh inning, including RBI doubles by Santos and Chip Cannon.
Baker (2-5) finished with five runs on seven hits and one walk in five innings. He struck out five. Guzman and Plouffe both finished the night with three hits apiece.
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Anthony Swarzak
Tampa 6 at Fort Myers Miracle 4
Record 29 - 38
W: M. Martinez (2-2, 2.73); L: K. Aselton (0-1, 3.27); SV: E. Wordekemper (16)
HR: None.
E: Ovalle (3, fielding).
This was not really a game write up I wanted to do. Twice the Miracle blew 2 run leads to fall in 14 innings to the Tampa Yankees, 6-4, Monday night at Hammond Stadium.
The Miracle had their best chance to win this in the bottom of the 8th inning, when Javi Sanchez singled to load the bases with no outs. Whit Robbins, who has been struggling and fell to 8th in the batting order, struck out bringing up designed hitter Matt Betsill. A sac-fly would have done it, but Betsill ground the ball, which was scouped up by second baseman Kevin Russo and thrown home to catcher Francisco Cervelli to take Edward Ovalle out at home. Sanchez was running for second and should have made it, but for some reason decided he didn't want to be at second, turned around, and started running back toward first.
Short stop Reegie Corona tagged him out halfway between the two bases.
Luis Ugueto scored in the bottom of the first on a Ovalle line drive, while Betsill, who had walked to get on base, came home in the bottom of the second on a Steve Tolleson single to left field.
However, Anthony Swarzak ran into some trouble in the third inning, allowing Corona and Colin Curtis both past the plate with 2 outs.
The Miracle regained the lead in the bottom of the 5th, with Ugueto and Juan Portes coming home on an Erik Lis tripple.
Armando Gabino replaced Swarzak to start the 7th, and let the Yankees back into the game with Tim Battle and Cervelli coming home to tie the score.
A passed ball by sanchez, and Ovalle's fielding error in the bottom of the 14th pretty much gave the game to the Yankees with Kyle Aselton on the mound, and the Miracle, who have shown Aselton little love during his stint in the bullpen, could not find any offense to counter with.
Betsill was robbed by Curtis in the fourth inning, as the Yankees left fielder got his glove on a ball that was just clearing the outfield wall.
Portes and Ovalle were both 3-for7 on the night, and Sanchez was 2-for-6 including laying down a beautiful bunt in the 8th that was negated by his chicken brained base running.
Swarzak finished out the game with 2 furn on 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 5 in 6 innings. Only one of the runs was earned.
The Rock Cats released Brian Forystek and called up Josh Hill from Fort Myers. Hill is replaced by Swarzak in the Miracle rotation.
While the move seemed ot make Swarzak's spot on the Miracle roster look like a demotion, GCL coach Milt Cuyler did not think that the Twins were trying to make a statement with Swarzak, and only wanted to keep an eye on him.
Despite the season has been frustrating for the Miracle, don't expect much help from Beloit after the Midwest League All-star break. The Twins are trying to help the Snappers get a new stadium built in Beloit, and a championship in that city would certainly go a long way toward getting them the money they need to get it done.
Beloit is good location for the Twins, being just a hop and skip from Minneapolis, and a good facility would certainly prove to be a well situated rehab location for major leaguers.
It's not a fact of life the Miracle faithful are keen on hearing, but it does show forward thinking by the Twins organization, who is looking to build a strong long-term relationship with Beloit.
(Let's just hope Beloit doesn't pull a Quad City after the new stadium is built!)
I will have additional comments on the Miracle (and Drew Thompson's status), Beloit and Swarzak in a blog entry later today.
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*All-Star Break*
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