Not much of interest last night with two teams off other than Touki Toussaint making another start. This round he went 3 innings allowing a run on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2. Not great, not horrible. He's still finding his way in professional ball. It will probably take a couple of years before we really see what we've got with him. Cody Reed is probably a more advanced pitcher than Touki right now and he is likely to move a little faster. Two good young pitchers we got in any case but they are both a long ways off.
Snake Stars
3 Stars: Michael Perez, South Bend 2 for 3, 1 BB, 2 R, 2 HR (8), 2 RBI
2 Stars: Nate Samson, Mobile 3 for 5, 2 R, 1 DBL, 1 HR (1), 1 RBI
1 Star: Trevor Mitsui, Missoula 3 for 4, 1 R, 1 DBL
0 Stars: Blake Cooper, Reno 1 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 K, 6 ER
AAA: Reno 3 @ Salt Lake 12. Chalres Brewer got more of the same with 5 runs allowed over 5 innings on 9 hits. Blake Cooper poured gas on the fire with 6 runs surrendered in his one inning of work. Reno scored 3 meaningless runs in the 9th inning, 2 on a Dustin Martin home run. Andy Marte went 3 for 4 with a double.
AA: Mobile 2 @ Pensacola 3. Mobile lost a nail-biter when the Blue Wahoos scored the tie-breaking run in the 7th and held on from there. A.J. Schugel was fair allowing 2 runs over 5.2 innings on 8 hits and 2 walks while fanning 5. Alex Sogard gave up the go-ahead run on a solo home run. Jimmie Sherfy pitched a shutout 9th and has not allowed a run in his last 8 appearances. Nate Samson led the offense going 3 for 5 with a double and a homer. Jake Lamb went 2 for 3 with an RBI.
A+: Visalia - Off Day
A: South Bend 2 @ Kane County 5. Starter Brent Jones was pitching okay but 3 errors subjected him to 3 unearned runs over 4 innings. He allowed 7 hits and a walk with no strikeouts. The offense was miserable with just 4 hits, 2 coming by way of a pair of solo home runs by Michael Perez. Perez is coming back to life after a horrible April and an awful 2013. Since then he has posted monthly OPS numbers in May, June and July of .915, .869 and .987. Andrew Velazquez went 0 for 4 and committed his 22nd error. He seems to have really hit the wall. I don't know what else to say about Stryker Trahan who went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. In the month of July he has 35 Ks in 71 PAs. Yeesh. He probably needs to get away from the baseball diamond for a while. Hard to imagine he is not completely frustrated right now.
A-: Hillsboro - Rained Out
R: Missoula 3 @ Billings 8. Gabriel Moya got tagged with 4 runs in 4+ innings and Brody Greer surrendered 4 more in the 8th that broke open a close game. Trevor Mitsui continues to swing a hot bat going 3 for 4 giving him a 1.340 OPS in his last 10 games. B.J. Lopez went 2 for 4 with a double and Tyler Humphreys was 2 for 4.
AZL: Dbacks 3 Reds 1. Touki Toussaint took the mound and continues to stretch out slowly but surely. He allowed 1 run over 3 innings on 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2. Luis Castillo was very good behind him pitching 5 shutout innings on 4 hits to earn the win. Cody Clark threw a perfect 9th for his 4th save. Henry Castillo drove in a run on 2 hits and Gerard Hernandez went 2 for 3 with a double.