Welcome to "Chatter from the Pressbox", the website dedicated to the Pressbox of the Frisco RoughRiders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

Today's Matchups Around the Ranger's System

Today's (5/20) Match-Ups Around the Ranger's System

Round Rock: Martin Perez (3-3 5.27) vs. Fresno Grizzlies: Andrew Kown (3-1 2.61) @ 1:00 PM CT

Myrtle Beach: Kyle Hendricks (1-4 2.91) @ Wilmington Blue Rocks: Sugar Ray Marimon (3-0 2.65) @ 12:30 PM CT

Hickory : Santo Perez (2-2 6.19) @ Asheville Tourists: Daniel Winkler (4-2 6.06) @ 1:05 PM CT



Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Notes on an Off Day

Next Game: Tomorrow (Thursday) @ 7:00 PM CT
Location: Dr. Pepper Ballpark (Frisco, TX)
Rider's Record: 5-7 (3 games back in the Texas League South)

Perfection!: When the Riders-Travelers went into a rain delay (originally due to lightning, later due to a tornado warning in Little Rock) people at the ballpark and the teams involved probably did not realize that they were part of history. Well they had an idea that history could be made, but likely not so early. Martin Perez had set down 15 straight to open the game, and that is all he would see as the game was finished after 5 in a 1-0 Riders win. As the Riders Insider Blog noted, Martin Perez's perfect game was the 2nd in Frisco Roughrider's history and 5th in Texas League history. Perez struck out 3 batters in the 5 innings and now has set down 16 in a row dating back to his previous start and has thrown 10 consecutive scoreless innings.

Southpaw Pitching Duel: After getting off to a bit of a rocky start in the 1st inning, Travelers starter Trevor Reckling also had a streak of his own going. In the game, the final 23 batters were retired spanning from the bottom of the 2nd through 2 outs in the top of the 6th when the game went under a delay. Reckling gave up 3 hits and a run in the 1st, then gave up 2 hits in the 2nd, and set down 11 straight after that. He also had gotten 8 ground balls to 0 flyouts in the game.

No-Hitters: The game brought back memories of another no-hitter in recent years that Frisco had, which happened in the first game of a double header against the San Antonio Missions. So the no-hitter was also not a 9 inning no-hitter, but was a 7 inning no-hitter. The pitcher for Frisco was Matt Harrison, who is starting pitcher for the Rangers in tonight's game against the Angels. The ironic part of that game was that Harrison threw the no-hitter in the first game and then Frisco managed 1 hit and 0 runs in the 2nd game. 

Complete Games: With both Martin Perez and Trevor Reckling finishing the game on Tuesday night, they both became the first 2 pitchers to throw a complete game in the Texas League this season and Perez became the first pitcher in the Texas League to throw a shutout. Martin Perez also ranks 3rd among starting pitchers in the Texas League in ERA with a 1.38 ERA on the season.

Heating Up: Tommy Mendonca went 1 for 2 in the game and drove in the sole run in the game, on a single in the 1st inning to score Davis Stoneburner from 2nd base. Mendonca is hitting 8 for his last 16 with 1 homerun, 4 RBI, and a walk. He has struck out 3 times in that span as well. After going 0 for 9 in 2 games against Arkansas in Frisco a week ago, Mendonca went 5 for 13 against them over the last 3 games.

Time of Game: It should be noted that the time of the game was 1 hour and 14 minutes. That would have put the game on a pace for 1 hour and 51 minutes, which undoubtedly would have been the shortest 9 inning game of the season for Frisco.


Battle of the Bottom two teams: This coming matchup between Frisco and Corpus Christi will be a matchup of teams that currently are 5-7 and 4-8. Frisco is tied with the Springfield Cardinals for the 2nd worst records in the Texas League right now, and Corpus Christi owns the worst record. The Hooks major issues have been hitting, and specifically hitting for power. as they rank last in homeruns and slugging% in the Texas League. They also rank 2nd to last behind Frisco in the least amount of walks in the Texas League.

Around the Ranger's System: 

Round Rock (AAA) defeated the former affiliate of the Ranger's, Oklahoma City, 6-2 in the first meeting between the two teams since the changes. Express starting pitcher Neil Ramirez continued to pitch well as he gave up 1 unearned run in 5 innings, allowed 2 hits, walked 3 batters, and struck out 9. He also did hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. He got the win to move to 2-0 on the season and hasn't given up an earned run yet in 3 starts this season. At the plate, Chad Tracy went 1 for 4 with a walk and a run. Taylor Teagarden went 2 for 3 with a double, triple, RBI, and a walk. Craig Gentry went 1 for 3 with a double, 2 RBI, got hit by a pitch, and scored a run. Round Rock as a team went 4 for 18 with RISP.

Myrtle Beach (high-A) beat Winston Salem 7-4 in their 2nd game of a 3 game set. Johan Yan got the win after pitching 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief as Myrtle Beach scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th to take the 7-4 lead and eventual win. Of the 9 hitters, 6 of them had 2 hits in the game, including third baseman Mike Olt who went 2 for 4 with a run. He continues to hit well for Myrtle Beach as he has a .415 batting average currently. Tyler Tufts recorded his 3rd save of the season for the Pelicans.

Hickory (low-A) had their game postponed due to rain. They are schedule to play a double header on Thursday against Hagerstown. Nick Tepesch, who was supposed to start on Tuesday will start for Hickory tonight.


Minor League Performance of the Night:

Normally, we would like to use games other than Frisco for this section since the Riders notes have already been explained, but you can't argue with perfection. Even if it's just 5 innings, Martin Perez saw 15 batters and retired them all. Of the 15 batters he faced, 10 of them were retired via either a strikeout or a ground out. In his third go around in AA, the 20 year old Perez seems to be turning the corner from potential into production. He has 12 strikeouts over 10 scoreless innings in his last 2 starts, has given up 4 hits, and walked 2 batters.

As always...

Station to Listen to the Game on: 1630 AM (KKGM)

Follow the Game Online at: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/scoreboard/league.jsp?sid=milb&lid=109
Follow Us on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/pressboxchatterFollow the Extra Bases Live Blog throughout the Game at: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/multimedia/page.jsp?ymd=20100305&content_id=8685092&vkey=multimedia_t540&fext=.jsp&sid=t540
And Check Out the Riders Insider Blog for more Frisco RoughRiders info: http://ridersinsider.mlblogs.com/

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