Minor League Discussion & Boxes 8-1-2007

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All boxes posted!

 

IowaCubs.com[/url]"]Tucson Defeats Iowa, 6-1

Tucson starter recorded 12 strikeouts

By Jeff Lantz / Iowa Cubs

 

Tucson starter Enrique Gonzalez struck out 12 over seven innings to lead the Sidewinders to a 6-1 win over the Iowa Cubs Wednesday night at Principal Park.

 

The Cubs made four errors and recorded just five base hits as they fell for the sixth time in their last seven games.

 

Iowa scored their only run in the eighth inning when Felix Pie and Geovany Soto hit consecutive doubles.

 

Iowa third baseman John Nelson had his hitting streak snapped at eight games as he was held hitless in four at-bats.

 

Gonzalez picked up the win for Tucson and improved to 6-8 on the year. Iowa starter Juan Mateo allowed three runs in six innings of work but was tagged for the loss and fell to 1-3.

 

SmokiesBaseball.com[/url]"]Smokies comeback again with 3-2 win

 

JACKSON, Tenn.- The Tennessee Smokies (57-51, 21-19) broke a 2-2 tie with West Tenn in the fifth inning, and went on to beat the Diamond Jaxx (47-63, 16-24) 3-2 Wednesday Night. With the win, the Smokies took four of five games against the home team at Pringles Park.

 

West Tenn scored first with two runs in the third. Luis Valbuena hit a solo home run to right to follow teammate Chris Minaker's double and subsequent run.

 

Tennessee would counter in the fourth inning. Casey McGehee crushed a two-run home run deep over the left field wall to tie the game at 2-2.

 

The Smokies played great team baseball to grab the lead. Alan Rick doubled to start the fifth inning, then moving to third on Chris Robinson's sacrifice bunt. Nate Spears followed with a sacrifice fly to center to score Rick.

 

The Smokies' Mark Holliman (9-8) pitched six innings in the start, allowing only two runs. He walked one batter and struck out six for the win. Matt Avery pitched a scoreless seventh and Rocky Roquet pitched the eighth and ninth for the save, his fourth of the year.

 

DaytonaCubs.com[/url]"]Cubs Stifled in Doubleheader Sweep

Cardinals Down Daytona Twice

 

[JUPITER, FL] The Daytona offense faltered Wednesday as the Cubs were swept in a doubleheader by the Palm Beach Cardinals. The Redbirds took the first game by a 7-2 final. Lefty Tyler Norrick outdueled Jeff Samardzija in the nightcap as the Cardinals shut out the Cubs, 2-0.

 

Brad Furnish turned the tables on the Cubs in the opener of the twinbill. Daytona beat Furnish a week earlier, but the lefty got his revenge as he pitched five scoreless innings to pick up his first win in the Florida State League.

 

Luke Gorsett blasted a grand slam in the first inning to put the Cardinals up, 5-0. Gorsett roped an RBI double in the third inning to put Palm Beach up, 6-0. He finished 2-for-3 and drove in five runs.

 

The Cubs got on the board in the top of the sixth against reliever Donnie Smith. Matt Camp, Steve Clevenger and Brian Dopirak stroked singles in succession to load the bases with nobody out. Ryan Harvey and Matt Matulia followed with RBI groundouts to cut the deficit to 6-2.

 

Mitch Atkins took the loss, dropping to 8-7 on the season.

 

In the nightcap, Norrick and Samardzija locked up in a pitcher's duel. Samardzija was perfect through 3.1 innings until he gave up a single to Dan Nelson. The right-hander gave up a two-run homer to Brandon Buckman in the bottom of the fifth; those two runs ended up as the winning margin. Norrick three-hit the Cubs, didn't walk a batter and struck out seven in the seven-inning complete game shutout. He improved to 9-7 while Samardzija fell to 3-8.

 

The Cubs made three sensational defensive plays in the game; Jonathan Mota made a diving snag with his back to the infield in the third. He took away a base hit in the fifth by making a diving stop, spinning and throwing to first to retire a batter. In the bottom of the sixth, Allen Craig belted a fly ball to deep center field. Matt Camp raced back, leaped to make a catch, crashed into the wall and hung on to end the inning. It wasn't enough, though, as the Cubs' offense never got going.

 

Daytona fell to 16-23 with the loss. Palm Beach upped its record to 19-22.

 

PeoriaChiefs.com[/url]"] Chiefs Bats Silent in 3-1 Loss at WM

 

Comstock Park, MI – The Peoria Chiefs were held to just one hit in the first seven innings and fell 3-1 to the West Michigan Whitecaps on Wednesday night. The Chiefs second loss in a row drops them to 23-15 on the half and 54-53 overall but they stay in first place as Quad Cities lost at South Bend .

 

For the second night in a row, the Whitecaps took a first inning lead with two outs. Chiefs starter Jeremy Papelbon retired the first two West Michigan batters before giving up a single to James Skelton. Skelton stole second and was in position to score on a single to center by Ryan Strieby. Strieby was thrown out attempting to get into second base on the play, but Skelton scored for the 1-0 Whitecaps lead.

 

Peoria got their first hit of the night in the fourth when Brian Leclerc led off with a single against reliever Charlie Furbush. Leclerc was sacrificed to second by Leon Johnson and moved to third on a groundout by Jim Adduci. Furbush recovered to strike out Derek Schermerhorn to end the inning with Leclerc stranded at third.

 

West Michigan knocked Papelbon from the game in the sixth inning with a pair of runs. Scott Sizemore led off with a double and scored on a single by Skelton for a 2-0 lead. Casey Lambert relieved Papelbon and gave up a run scoring single to Brandon Timm before getting a double play to end the inning.

 

Peoria finally got on the board in the top of the eighth against Furbish. After an error in right field allowed Clark Hardman to reach, Russ Canzler bounced into a 5-4-3 double play. Wellington Castillo’s flyball into right field was again misplayed and the Chiefs catcher ended up at third with a triple. Furbush then unleashed a wild pitch that allowed Castillo to score cutting the Whtiecaps lead to 3-1.

 

In his second start of the season, Papelbon allowed three runs on six hits over five innings of work. The left-hander struck out two and walked one. Lambert went two innings of relief allowing two hits while striking out two. Righty Jose Ceda retired the Caps in order with one strikeout in his lone inning of work

 

Gorman’s Pub Player of the Game: Wellington Castillo © – The Chiefs catcher tripled and scored the team’s lone run in the 8th inning.

 

BoiseHawks.com[/url]"] Devils Dust Hawks, 4-2

 

PASCO, WA -- The Tri-City Dust Devils beat the Hawks Wednesday night 4-2. Robinson Fabian pitched six and one third innings for the win allowing two runs on seven hits. Riquy Pena pitched the final inning and a third for his seventh save of the season.

 

The Hawks wasted a fine pitching performance by the duo of Arik Hempy and Al Alburquerque. Tri City scored three unearned runs in the third inning off starter Arik Hempy. Hempy walked two batters, allowed what was ruled as one hit off the glove of third baseman Marquez Smith and the Hawks committed two errors. Another error in the fourth let the fourth run in for Tri City and Hempy was yanked. Alburqurque shut the Dust Devils down the rest of the way, but the Hawks could not overcome the deficit.

[ChiefsVoice]

Is Papelbon going to get a shot as a starter now, or is he just filling in until someone else comes along?

 

Brian-

 

Its a little of both. He proved he could deal here as a reliever after being a starter in college. When we lost Mateo to AAA, we didnt have a 5th starter having already plugged Carrillo into the rotation and due to other injuries (Muldowney, Dolis, Blackford, Shaver, Ceda among others) there wasnt a lot to send us for guys that were stretched out and they dont want to piggy back here. Papelbon can go 60-75 pitches so he gets the chance and seems to relish it. Pitched well last night just got no support offensively. He was great in his 1st start and I think Lansing on Monday will tell us a lot.