An evening to forget at Chase Field, shall we say, but better news from the minor-leagues where three of our four affiliates were victorious, and the fourth lost only in extra innings. So that's nice. A couple of good pitching lines on display too:
Snakelet of the Day:
Jeff Shields (High-A): 5 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Jeff Shields (High-A): 5 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Triple-A: Reno 7, Colorado Springs 4. The Aces won their fifth straight game, giving them the best start in (an admittedly-short) franchise history. Tom Layne picked up his first win in AAA ball, with three runs (two earned) over five innings, on five hits and two walks, with five K's,. He also doubled, driving in Reno's first run in the second. C Konrad Schmidt got three hits, while LF Dave Winfree got two hits and a walk, including a two-run homer. 2B Tony Abreu also drove in two, with his first homer of the season in the eighth inning. Jordan Norberto struck out three over a pair of hitless relief innings.
Double-A: Mobile 3, Mississippi 2. The BayBears edged the Braves 3-2 in their home opener, two runs scoring on a fifth inning double by RF Evan Frey, partly as the result of a Mississippi error, and Mobile hung on from there. Wes Roemer got the W, working seven innings and allowing one earned run - it seemed unlikely after he gave up three straight singles to start the game, but he buckled down and finished with a line of six hits, no walks and four strikeouts. The late inning Bryans, Woodall and Shaw, threw a perfect inning to keep the lead; Frey and 1B Paul Goldschmidt each got a double, a walk and an RBI.
High-A: Visalia 5. Stockton 8. The Rawhide dropped this one in ten, dodging the first sweep of the year for our farm teams. They had tied things up in the ninth, when DH Brent Greet led off the inning with his second homer of 2011, but Christopher Odegaard allowed a three-run home in the tenth to the Ports' Michael Choice. Tyler Skaggs had a solid outing for Visalia, with one run over five innings, on two hits and four walks, with an impressive seven strikeouts. Greer, CF Adam Eaton and 1B Matthew Davidson each got two hits, but the Rawhide committed three errors, leading to a trio of unearned Stockton Runs in the seventh.
A-ball: South Bend 9, Lansing 5. This one probably wasn't as close as the score suggests, since the Silver Hawks outhit the Lugnuts 15-3, and the visitors went 0-for-9 with RISP, with no homers. How they scored five kinda escapes me... CF Keon Broxton, 2B Mike Freeman and 1B Yazy Arbelo got three hits apiece, and SS Raul Navarro was credited with a steal of home, getting there while Broxton escaped a rundown between first and second. Jeff Shields allowed only two unearned runs, pitching one-hit ball over five innings, and Tyler Green worked a four-inning save.