Yep, finals week officially begins for me tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. - a half hour after this goes up with the time zone change, so wish me luck! As such, I've spent much of my evening taking down last-minute notes about historical Christian views on the Ethics of War and Peace rather than tracking the D-backs minor-league contests, which is my definition of a huge bummer. I'm just about done with this whole college thing, and that's not only literally the case!
Snakelet of the Day:
Trevor Bauer (Double-A): 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R (0 ER), 5:5 K:BB, 9:4 GO:FO
Jake Elmore (Triple-A): 3-3, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB
Matt Davidson (Double-A): 2-3, 2B, 3 R, RBI, 2 BB
Matt Helm (Low-A): 2-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB, K, SB
Triple-A: Reno 9, Tacoma 4. (14-17) The Aces jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead by the end of the second inning, and the game only became more of a rout from that point on. The offense received thunder from all sorts of sources, with Jake Elmore reaching base five times on two walks, two singles, and a double, Rusty Ryal doubling and tripling, Josh Bell doubling and singling, and Cole Gillespie tripling and walking.
That power output was more than enough for right-hander Barry Enright to work with, as the crafty righty had a shutout going through six innings before scuffling in the seventh. Enright notched just one out in the seventh while allowing one run to score and leaving another man on base for reliever Bryan Woodall who also would come around to touch home. Enright was a bit wild, surrendering five walks, but also notched four strikeouts and allowed just four hits in his outing, holding the Rainiers to two earned runs. Woodall would allow another two runs to score, but Mike DeMark shut things down over the final 1.1 innings of this game.
Double-A (eight innings): Mobile 11, Jacksonville 0. (18-13) This one was completed early as the rain started coming in, but the game was plenty out of hand by the time the contest was washed out. Right-hander Trevor Bauer had an outing that I can only describe as "oddly very encouraging", with a somewhat underwhelming 5:5 K:BB ratio across seven innings of work, but just one hit allowed, no runs surrendered, and an impressive 9:4 groundout:flyout ratio. After denouncing the value of the ground ball on Twitter after his last outing, it was good to see Bauer stick to the lower areas of the zone and continue to burn worms, with it clearly paying off in this appearance.
On the offensive side of things, the BayBears bats dominated this game as much as Trevor did. Marc Krauss went 2-3 with a home run and a walk, Matt Davidson went 2-3 with a double and a pair of walks, Brent Clevlen was 1-2 with a walk and a sac fly, Yazy Arbelo doubled, and both Archie Gilbert and David Nick had two-hit days. Davidson continues to absolutely obliterate the ball at Double-A, bringing his season line up to .315/.437/.541 with this contest, notching 10 doubles and five home runs among his 35 hits, and posting a stellar 25:22 K:BB ratio. In Davidson's 31 at-bats (not sure of PA count, sorry) against left-handed pitchers, he's hitting .387/.537/.548. 2013 is looking awfully good for Arizona.
Hi-A: The Rawhide were off on Sunday.
Low-A (ten innings): South Bend 4, Great Lakes 6. (17-13) Right-hander Jesse Darrah had a good outing for South Bend, with a 4:2 K:BB ratio in six one-run innings on the mound, but his solid work was, unfortunately, spoiled by some poor relief work from the Silver Hawks bullpen. Taylor Siemens allowed three runs (two earned) in two innings to allow the Loons to tie things up and send the game into extras. Matt Sample, who had worked the ninth for South Bend, wound up giving up a pair of runs (one earned) in the top of the tenth, which the Silver Hawks couldn't match in the bottom half of the inning.
At the plate, Gerson Montilla continues to produce, notching a triple and a walk in this contest. Additionally, Matt Helm hit his first home run of the season, also notching a single, a walk, and a stolen base. Helm's a bit old for the level at 21-and-a-half years old, but his production (.293/.357/.422) is starting to match the investment the team made in him, even if his power is still a bit underwhelming for the position.