Time: 6:30 PM CT
Location: Citibank Ballpark (Midland, TX)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (13-17 7 games back in the Texas League South)... Midland Rockhounds (15-15 5 games back in the Texas League South)
Streak: Lost 1 in a row
Last 10: 6-4
Series Record: 2-5-1
Record Against Midland: 1-1
Record Since 2005 on May 9th: 3-3
Starting Pitchers: Richard Bleier (0-0 0.00 ERA)... Justin Murray (0-4 6.00 ERA)
What to Watch for on the Mound: Frisco sends Richard Bleier to the mound for his first start of the 2011 season, while Midland sends Justin Murray out to the mound for the 6th time this year... Richard Bleier began the season in extended spring training, but made his first appearance for the Riders on May 4th against the San Antonio Missions. Bleier was the 3rd pitcher in the Wednesday game when Neftali Feliz and Tommy Hunter made their rehab outings. Bleier gave up 3 hits and 1 walk in 3 2/3 shutout innings with 3 strikeouts. He led the RoughRiders in innings pitched in 2010 with 164 1/3 innings. He surrendered just 28 walks in those 164 1/3 innings, but gave up 191 hits and had a 5.04 ERA with a 7-11 record... Justin Murray has gotten off to a slow start for Midland, but his last two outings have been improvements. Murray gave up 5 hits, 3 walks, and 3 runs (2 earned) over 6 innings in his last outing against Corpus Christi with 1 strikeout. He has taken the loss in 4 straight starts, however, and is still searching for his first AA win since 2008. The 23 year old right hander will turn 24 on Wednesday. He was taken in the 29th round of the 2008 draft by the Oakland Athletics.
Another No Decision: After taking losses in his first 4 starts for Frisco, Carlos Pimentel now has 3 no decisions in a row, with 2 of the 3 starts being very quality starts. On Sunday, Pimentel gave up 4 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run (earned) over 6 2/3 innings with 3 strikeouts in the Rider's 2-1 loss to Midland. Pimentel made 95 pitches, 57 of which were strikes, and induced 6 groundouts to 5 flyouts. Pimentel is now 2nd on the Riders rotation in innings pitched this season behind Jacob Brigham. His 4.97 ERA is 3rd best out of the rotation, as is his 1.52 WHIP.
Offense Goes Cold: A day after getting 9 runs and 12 hits, Frisco's bats went silent against Midland's Ethan Hollingsworth. Frisco managed just 3 hits and 1 walk against Hollingsworth. Out of the 3 hits, just 1 was for extra bases, which was a solo homerun by Davis Stoneburner to tie the game at 1-1. Renny Osuna and Tommy Mendonca added the 2 other hits during 1 for 4 days and the walk was by Michael Bianucci. Overall, just one baserunner (Tommy Mendonca) reached scoring position, and Greene couldn't get him home with 2 outs.
Greener Pastures: Speaking of Jonathan Greene and his struggles, over the last 10 games Greene is batting just .194 (7 for 36) with a double and 2 homeruns. He has struck out 16 times during the last 10 games with 3 walks. Out of the 10 games, Greene has struck out more than once in half of the games (5). There will be better times for Jonathan Greene, as the last 10 games just haven't been that.
Mr. All or Nothing: Davis Stoneburner hit a solo homerun in the 5th inning, which tied the game at 1-1, and finished the day 1 for 3. It was a game that was representative of Stoneburner this season. Through his 26 games, Stoneburner is batting .200 on the season, but 9 of his 18 hits for the season have gone for extra base hits. Over the last 10 games, he is batting .188 (6 for 32) with half of his hits going for extra bases as well. Last season between high-A and AA, Stoneburner had 131 hits, of which 51 went for extra bases. In his minor league career, Davis has 129 extra base hits out of 349 hits.
Bullpen Decisions: Through 30 games this season, Frisco RoughRiders relievers are 8-6, which means they have received more wins than the starting rotation (5). The rotation is 5-11 on the season. It still seems amazing to me though that so far on the season, the bullpen has nearly as many decisions as the rotation.
Last Year on This Date: Frisco extended their winning streak to 7 games by defeating the Midland Rockhounds 8-3. Frisco scored 7 runs in the 2nd inning to help Blake Beavan to his 4th win on the season. Beavan gave up 3 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run (earned) over 6 innings with 3 strikeouts. Adalberto Flores and Evan Reed finished out the game with 3 innings of relief. Matt Lawson hit a grand slam as part of the 7 run 2nd inning and also walked on the day. Andy Jenkins had a solo homerun as part of a 2 for 4 day. Joey Butler was 1 for 3 with a double, RBI, walk, and run.
Around the Ranger's System:
Round Rock (AAA) scored at least one run in each of the first 7 innings en route to an 18-9 blasting of the Nashville Sounds. Seth McClung was the beneficiary of the offense as he gave up 9 hits, 2 walks, and 5 runs (all earned) over 6 innings with 1 strikeout. Chris Mobley and Yoshinori Tateyama finished out the final 3 innings of relief. Taylor Teagarden had a career day, which will be touched on a little bit further down in the minor league performance of the day section. Six Express hitters had at least 2 hits, while only Brad Nelson was hitless, although he reached base twice via walks. The only player to not reach base at least twice was leadoff hitter Endy Chavez who went 1 for 6. The bottom five hitters in the lineup had 2 or more RBIs.
Myrtle Beach (high-A) defeated the Salem Red Sox 4-1. Robbie Ross started for Myrtle Beach and gave up 4 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run (earned) in 6 innings with 6 strikeouts. Zach Osborne and Johan Yan followed with 3 shutout innings of relief for the Pelicans. For Yan, it was his 3rd save of the season. Michael Olt went 2 for 4 at the plate with a RBI and a walk. Ryan Strausborger went 1 for 3 with a RBI and 2 walks. Chris McGuiness went 1 for 4 with a double and a RBI.
Hickory (low-A) gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning and lost 4-3 to the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Matt Thompson took the mound for Hickory and gave up 5 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs (earned) in 5 innings with 6 strikeouts. Nick Tepesch gave up 2 hits and 1 run (earned) in 2 innings of relief. Ryan Rodebaugh got the loss after giving up 2 hits and a run in 1 inning of relief. Tomas Telis went 2 for 4 at the plate for the Crawdads. Christian Villanueva also went 2 for 4 with a double and a RBI in the game to raise his season average to a team high .337. Jurickson Profar went 0 for 5 at the plate. Teodoro Martinez led the team with a 4 for 4 day.
Minor League Performance of the Day
For a player who came up through the Ranger's system with some potential, it's become increasingly unusual for Taylor Teagarden to hit 3 homeruns in a couple months, let alone one game. On Sunday, Taylor Teagarden had a career day for the Round Rock Express. In the Express's 18-9 victory over Nashville, Teagarden went 3 for 4 with 3 homeruns, 7 RBI, and a walk. He already matched his minor league total of homeruns from 2010 in over 200 at bats less. The 27 year old catcher was taken in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft by the Texas Rangers.
As always...
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