Time: 7:05 PM CT
Location: Wolff Stadium (San Antonio, TX)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (6-10 4 games back in the Texas League South)... San Antonio Missions (10-6 1st place in the Texas League South)
Streak: Lost 2 in a row
Last 10: 3-7
Series Record: 1-4-0
Record against San Antonio: 0-0
Starting Pitchers: Martin Perez (1-0 1.38 ERA)... Aaron Breit (0-0 9.00 ERA)
What to Watch for on the Mound: Frisco Sends Martin Perez out to the mound for the fourth time this season, while San Antonio will have Aaron Breit out on the mound for the sixth time this season, but for his first start... Martin Perez will look to continue his recent dominance against the best hitting lineup in the Texas League. Last time out, Martin Perez pitched the 2nd perfect game in Frisco RoughRider history and 5th in Texas League history. The game was shortened to 5 innings due to rain and tornatic weather in the Little Rock area, but it still counts in the record books. Perez faced 15 batters, and retired them all in a row. He struck out 3 batters in the game. Perez also takes a scoreless sreak of 10 innings into Monday. He has allowed just 6 baserunners over the scoreless streak while he has struck out 12 batters. This will be his third road start of the season for the 20 year old southpaw... Aaron Breit has made 5 appearances out of relief for the Missions, but he will be making the start on Monday for San Antonio. It will be his first minor league start since September 7th, 2009 in high-A. In 16 career relief appearances in the Texas League, Breit has allowed 30 hits and 23 walks in 21 1/3 innings pitched. He has recorded a 9.28 ERA in that time, but has yet to receive a decision. This season, Aaron has allowed 11 hits and 4 walks in 6 innings, with 7 strikeouts.
Boscan's Rough Outing: During a 10-2 loss to the Corpus Christi Hooks, Wilfredo Boscan gave up 7 hits, 3 walks, and 7 runs (4 earned) in 4 1/3 innings pitched. He struck out 3 and served up a 3 run homerun to T.J. Steele in the 3rd inning, one of 2 homeruns that Steele hit in the game.
Errors Galore: The Riders did not back Boscan well in the first inning, committing 2 errors. One of the errors was on a throw by Engel Beltre to try to throw out Wladimir Sutil from 3rd on a sacrifice fly. The throw hit Sutil and bounced away from catcher Jose Felix, which allowed J.D. Martinez to advance to 2nd base. The second came on at throwing error by shortstop Guilder Rodriguez on the very next play, which allowed Brandon Wikoff and J.D. Martinez to score and extended the inning. T.J. Steele, who reached on the Rodriguez error scored 1 batter later on a double by James Van Ostrand. After going 9 games without an unearned run to begin the year, the Riders now have given up 6 unearned runs in the last 7 games.
Greene Mashing: Jonathan Greene continued his surge with a 1 for 2 day where he reached base 3 times via a homerun, walk, and hit by pitch. Greene currently ranks 2nd in the Texas League in batting average behind San Antonio's James Darnell with a .429 batting average. The homerun, which hit off the video screen in left-centerfield, marked his 2nd homerun in 3 games and his 4th game with an extra base hit in the last 6 games.
Batting Order Struggles and Tears: With the struggles of the top of the order and the bottom order, the ability of the Riders to put strings together has been few and far between. After Sunday's game, The 1,2,7,8, and 9 hitters are all hitting .250 or worse, while the 3-6 hitters are all hitting .300 or better. It has made it difficult for the Riders to get the big inning going, outside of Friday's game.
Missions Hitting: The San Antonio Missions have been the best hitting team in the Texas League this year and it's really not close. We've already documented in some of the other posts about their 3 games with 21 or more runs. The Missions team OPS is 1.023, which is over 200 points higher than the next closest team in the league (Northwest Arkansas @ .806). The Mission's team batting average (.338) is higher than the Rider's team on base percentage (.336) and San Antonio's team on base percentage (.415) is almost as high as the Rider's team slugging% (.422). Needless to say, the Riders pitchers will have their work cut out for them the next 4 games, starting with the Ranger's top prospect Martin Perez tonight.
Profiling Jaff Decker: The San Diego Padre's 1st round pick (supplemental round) in the 2008 draft came into the 2011 season following a somewhat disappointing 2010 season. Decker started very slow in high-A in 2010 and finished with a .262 batting average, 31 extra base hits in 290 ABs, and an .874 OPS. Not great, but after he tore through the Midwest League and entered 2010 as the Padre's 4th best prospect, more was expected of him. Baseball America listed him as the 7th best prospect in the Padre's system entering this year and early on he's hit more like their best. Through 16 games for the Missions, Decker has hit .359 with 16 extra base hits (7 doubles, 2 triples, 7 homeruns), has 25 RBI, has walked 14 times, and brings a 1.340 OPS into the series with Frisco. And on top of that, Jaff is 21 years old.
Around the Ranger's System:
Round Rock (AAA) lost 4-2 to Oklahoma City in Neil Ramirez's 3rd start for Round Rock. Ramirez gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings. He also struck out 3 batters and gave up a homerun on 82 pitches (48 strikes) in his first AAA loss. Joey Butler went 1 for 3 with a single, Robbie Diaz went 2 for 3 with 2 singles, and Chad Tracy went 0 for 3 with a walk. Beau Jones made his AAA debut by pitching 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. He walked 2 batters, gave up 3 hits, and struck out 3.
Myrtle Beach (high-A) was defeated 3-2 by the Kinston Indians in a close game. Starting pitcher Ryan Kelly took the loss after he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits and 1 walk in 5 innings. He struck out 5 in the losing effort. Michael Olt went 1 for 4 with a double and a RBI. Leury Garcia went 2 for 4 with a triple and a RBI. Ryan Strausberger added 2 hits in 4 at bats and a walk as well. The Pelicans hitters went just 1 for 11 with RISP and left 8 on base. Kennil Gomez and Tyler Tufts pitched 3 scoreless innings of relief.
Hickory (Low-A) had the day off on Sunday.
Minor League Performance of the Night:
Wilkin Castillo has been around a while in the minor leagues, but the 8 year minor league veteran probably hasn't had too many games like Sunday. Castillo went 4 for 5 in Gwinnett's 12-1 victory over Charlotte in International League (AAA) play and he drove in half of Gwinnett's runs. Wilkin hit a 3-run homerun, double, and plated 6 in the game. He scored a run himself as well. He finished a triple short of the cycle for the game and Gwinnett moved to 12-5 on the season as they sit 2.5 games up on Durham in the South division.
As always...
Station to Listen to the Game on: 1630 AM (KKGM)
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And Check Out the Riders Insider Blog for more Frisco RoughRiders info: http://ridersinsider.mlblogs.com/
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