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It was another odd day on the farm, with two starters striking out almost two batters per inning yet allowing three and four runs, respectively, a game in which no pitcher worked more than two innings (and none of those to work 2 IP was the starter), and a game that was filled with rain for nine innings and not put off until tomorrow (despite forecasts of sunshine and a bump in temperature of 10 degrees). The offenses throughout the system were pretty stagnant, too, with a combined 14 runs across four games, which includes one team putting up eight runs on its own. All told, leave it to a day like Friday to have a Snakelet of the Day who surrendered four runs...
Snakelet of the Day:
Tyler Skaggs (Double-A): 6.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R (3 ER), 12:1 K:BB, HR, 5:1 GO:AO
(Through 6 IP: 3 H, 0 R, 12:1 K:BB, 4:1 GO:AO)
Triple-A: Reno 2, Fresno 5. (5-11) The Aces offense continues to mostly scuffle, although there were a couple of bright spots in Friday's lineup, with Adam Eaton collecting a pair of hits for Reno and Ryan Wheeler going 3-4 with a double. Right-hander Barry Enright took the mound for Reno, but threw just one inning and 22 pitches - allowing a hit and a walk with one strikeout - before departing. The Aces' game recap provided an explanation, saying that Enright was "struck in the ankle by a comebacker." Here's hoping Barry's okay. The Aces used five relievers to fill in the next seven innings of work, with Mike DeMark getting tagged with the loss after allowing three runs (two earned) in his two innings of work. Lefty Mike Zagurski gave up his first earned runs of the year, surrendering a two-run home run to Charlie Culberson.
Double-A: Mobile 1, Jacksonville (Suns) 5. (9-7) Southpaw Tyler Skaggs was on the hill for this game, and had a dominant outing spoiled by a rough seventh inning. Through six, Skaggs had racked up 12 strikeouts while surrendering nary a run. In the seventh, though, things went awry: groundout, single, dropped foul popout (by Yazy Arbelo), double, double, homer, pitching change. It was disappointing to see such a great outing go south so quickly, but Skaggs' outing was nonetheless a great sign - Skaggs himself admitted as much, as evidenced by his tweet below. Offensively, newcomer Brent Clevlen was dominant, with a 3-4 day that included a double and a home run, but rest of the lineup was no-hit, with Marc Krauss being the only other hitter to reach base (on a hit-by-pitch, of course)
Just a few pitches away from a great outing tonight by far the best I've felt on the mound my whole career so far but keep grinding it out!
— Tyler Skaggs (@TylerSkaggs23) April 21, 2012
Hi-A: Visalia 8, Rancho Cucamonga 4. (7-8) This was a bit of an odd game for Visalia, particularly on the offensive side. Every hitter in the Rawhide lineup notched a hit, but just two Rawhide bats had multi-hit games - Raywilly Gomez, who singled twice, and Garret Weber, who doubled twice. Also doubling were Eric Groff and Carter Bell, with the rest of Rawhide's offensive output coming in the form of singles. Starting for Visalia was right-hander Michael Bolsinger, who worked five innings while striking out ten, allowing just six hits and two walks. However, Bolsinger had a strange outing himself, striking out the side and allowing a run to score in the same inning... twice. Of the six hits Bolsinger allowed, three were for extra-bases, including a pair of triples from lead-off hitter Scott Wingo.
Low-A: South Bend 3, Beloit 13. (7-8) It was an absolutely terrible day to play baseball in South Bend, as it was raining/misting and cold for nine straight innings in South Bend. Silver Hawks right-hander J.R. Bradley was on the mound to start this one, and looked pretty good in the first, working mostly with his fastball at 87-90 (mostly 88-89) and a good changeup at 80-81. He mixed in some cutters and curveballs in the later innings that each were solid pitches, although his velocity took a couple of ticks down after the first. Bradley's line wasn't phenomenal: 4 IP, 5 H, 5 R (3 ER), 4:3 K:BB, 5:2 GO:AO. However, take out the walk and two doubles he surrendered to 18-year-old man-child Miguel Sano - who's going to be a star and likely will debut in the bigs before his 21th birthday, by the way - and the outing certainly would look better. I'll be very interested to see how Archie Bradley fares against Sano tomorrow. Offensively for South Bend, Chris Ellison had three hits while Ender Inciarte singled, doubled, and walked. Still, no home runs for the Silver Hawks, and not many near-homers, either.