6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: We Could Be Heroes

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Sunday, July 03, 2005

We Could Be Heroes

Fueled by the cheerful pickin' and strummin' of Comer "Moon" Mullins, I proceed on to the minor league happenings, catching up for Friday's activity because, hey, oops.

Salt Lake Stingers: I always enjoy it when the Stingers can beat the River Cats, as they did tonight, 7-6. Jeff Mathis went 3-5 and Nick Gorneault homered and went 2-5. Johnathan Rouwenhorst got the win for the Stingers, and Steve Sparks took the loss for Sacramento in relief.
FutureAngels directs our attention to this Orem press release announcing the promotion of sidearming reliever RHP Kevin Lynch directly from Orem to AAA Salt Lake. Lynch was a 2005 draftee with a 3.00 ERA in four appearances.
Arkansas Travelers: Joe Saunders one-hit the Tulsa Drillers in a 4-0 complete game shutout Friday night. Kendry Morales was 2-4 with an RBI, OF Reggie Willits was 2-4, Erick Aybar was 2-3 with a walk and an RBI, and C Mike Napoli homered.
Saunders is yet another victim of the old "rehab rather than surgery" fallacy that seems to eat up so many pitchers, made worse because the signs of trouble were apparent for anyone willing to listen to the pain in his shoulder after each start, says FutureAngels. The 2002 first-round pick had a torn labrum, and though he has come perilously close to squandering the $1.825M bonus he got by missing the 2003 season, he came back in 2004 at Rancho and AA Arkansas, returning to Arkansas in 2005 with good, not great peripherals (2.4 K/BB, 6.33 K/9, .272 BAA). Whether this is another -- pardon the pun -- false start remains to be seen, but I'm always skeptical (as is Will Carroll) of any pitching prospect with labrum injuries.
Arkansas only managed a single run tonight, though, in a lopsided 8-1 Tulsa revenge; the only hits came off the bats of Aybar, Morales, Murphy, and Aspito. Tim Bittner (1-7, 6.70 ERA) took the loss.
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes: Howie Kendrick hit his tenth home run and Brandon Wood his ~~27th~~ 28th* in a high-scoring game with the Lancaster Jethawks that the Quakes won, 14-8. Aaron Peel and Brandon Balkcom also homered. Rafael Rodriguez got the win in 5.2 IP.
Jered Weaver had another unsuccessful start on Friday night after the Cal League All-Star break, getting hit hard yet again for five earned runs on eight hits in a 15-13 Quakes win. Howie Kendrick and Brandon Wood both managed to avoid homering again (how?). Instead, Kendrick only went a disappointing 4-5 (heh), and Aaron Peel 3-6 with a home run.
Las Vegas 51's: Chronic minor leaguer Jose Flores is hitting .315/.452/.402 after a 3-4 effort that yielded a 9-7 win. Dioner Navarro was 2-3 with a walk, and Ryan Rupe took all seven runs for the 51's.
Chin-Feng Chen had two hits and two RBIs in Friday's close game against Portland, which Las Vegas took 3-2. Eric Stults got the win for the 51's.
Jacksonville Suns: Chad Billingsley had a brilliant outing against the Carolina Mudcats, pitching a seven-inning one-run game that ended in a called game (due to rain); the Suns eventually won, 4-1. Billingsley gave up one earned run on one hit, one walk, with nine strikeouts. It was Billingsley's first start since June 19. Friday night's game was postponed due to rain, and was supposed to be played yesterday also; it, too, will have to be made up.
Vero Beach Dodgers: Brian Pilkington shut out the Port St. Lucie Mets over seven innings, striking out four and walking one in the Dodgers' 4-3 victory. SS Chin-Lung Hu came a single away from hitting for the cycle.
Columbus Catfish: The Catfish exterminated the Greensboro Grasshoppers 8-3 in Jarod Plummer's first game of the year for Columbus; he was previously with the GCL and Vero Beach Dodgers. Columbus scored all eight runs in the last two innings, including four runs off the bat of 3B Blake DeWitt, who hit a grand slam in the eighth.