It was a really wild one in Mobile last night. After Michael Bolsinger and two relievers pitched 8 innings of 2-hit shutout baseball for Mobile and a 5-0 lead heading into the 9th, Evan Marshall proceeded to allow a 5-spot in the bottom of the 9th (with some help from his defense) to send the game into extra innings. It went all the way to the 14th until the middle of the Mobile offense produced three runs in the top half, only to see Montgomery cut the lead to one on a 2-run homer in the bottom half before mercifully failing to score again. Marshall has been one of the organization's most reliable relief pitchers this year and has been thought by some to be headed to the big league bullpen perhaps as early as next year. But it was not his night and the rough outing sent his ERA above 2.00 for the first time in a while. Those were the first earned runs he had surrendered in over a month. Marshall doesn't strike out a lot of guys (and that's a concern for a supposedly back end of the bullpen guy) but he gets guys out and keeps the ball in the yard. He'll probably do Reno next year and that will be the true test for his future as a Diamondback.
Snake Stars
3 Stars: Michael Bolsinger, Mobile 5 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K, 0 ER
2 Stars: Eric Groff, South Bend 3 for 3, 1 BB, 2 R, 1 HR (2), 3 RBI
1 Star: David Nick, Mobile 3 for 6, 2 R, 1 HR (3), 3 RBI
0 Stars: Evan Marshall, Mobile 2 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 5 R, 3 ER
Game summaries after the jump.
Triple A: Reno @ Tucson. Suspended due to weather.
Double A: Mobile 8 @ Montgomery 7. We described the main action of this wild one in the intro. In the critical 14th, Evan Frey walked and stole second, Chris Owings singled him to third, Mark Krauss reached on an error, Matt Davidson hit a sacrifice fly, and Alfredo Marte singled in the final run. Eury De La Rosa took over for Marshall and pitched 4 innings in relief. He was really dealing with 7 Ks but it got interesting when he allowed a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 14th. David Nick hit a solo home run in the 4th and added two more RBI in his 3-hit night.
High A: Visalia 1 @ San Jose 5. Anthony Meo started and pitched okay but a couple of errors (include an errant pick-off throw) led to 3 unearned runs. Meo pitched into the 6th and allowed 5 runs in total on 6 hits and 4 walks while striking out 6. Six singles were all the offense could muster with two from Ryan LaPensee.
Low A: South Bend 10 @ Clifton 4. South Bend ended a 3-game losing streak with a convincing 10-4 victory featuring the second Midwest League start for Andrew Barbosa. Barbosa had 7 strikeouts through the first four innings and seemed to be on cruise control. He started the 5th with his 8th K but the batter reached on the wild pitch. Then two singles and a double ended his night. The offense came up big with four in the 2nd and four in the 3rd headlined by Eric Groff's perfect night of 3 for 3 with 3 RBI and a 2-run homer. The bottom four hitters in the order went 9 for 13 with 6 RBI.
High Rookie: Yakima 5 @ Boise 6. The Bears had a 5-3 lead heading into the 8th but reliever Blake Forslund surrendered 2 in the 8th to tie it and another in the 9th for the walk-off loss. Blake Perry had another solid outing yielding 2 runs on 7 hits over 5 innings.Wagner Mateo paced the offense with two hits including a double and 3 RBI.
Low Rookie: Missoula 0 Orem 6. The offense couldn't get anything going and combined with a sub-par start from Karl Triana, it was pretty much a snoozer game for Osprey fans. SS Pedro Ruiz was a lone bright spot with 3 hits including a triple.