Game 56: Frisco RoughRiders (Martin Perez) @ Tulsa Drillers (Cory Riordan)

Time: 12:00 PM CT
Location: ONEOK Field (Tulsa, OK)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (31-24 6 games back in the Texas League South)... Tulsa Drillers (28-26 1st place in the Texas League North)
Streak: Won 5 in a row
Last 10: 8-2
Series Record: 7-7-1
2011 Record against Tulsa: 4-1
All-Time Record against Tulsa: 62-70
Record since 2004 on June 6th: 2-4
Starting Pitchers: Martin Perez (3-0 2.41 ERA) is 0-2 with a 9.64 ERA and 2.36 WHIP in 4 career starts against the Tulsa Drillers...Cory Riordan (1-5 5.37 ERA) is 0-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in 2 career starts against the Frisco RoughRiders

What to Watch for on the Mound: Frisco sends 20 year old southpaw Martin Perez out to the mound for the 12th time this season, while Tulsa sends 25 year old right hander Cory Riordan out to the mound for the 11th time this year... Martin Perez looks to keep up his good pitching of late as the southpaw has been one of the Texas League's best pitchers all season long and the league's best since mid April. In his last outing, Martin Perez gave up 8 hits and 4 runs over 6 innings with 4 strikeouts. It was a season high amount of hits given up by Perez, but he still picked up his 3rd victory of the year. Martin Perez hasn't lost a decision since September 1st against the Corpus Christi Hooks. On the season, Perez has given up 50 hits and 25 walks over 59 2/3 innings with 57 strikeouts. He has surrendered just 2 homeruns all season. On the road, Martin is 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA in 7 starts. Left handed hitters are batting .159 against the southpaw this season... Cory Riordan on the other hand has struggled this year to get wins and pitch well in general. The right hander gave up 9 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs over 6 innings with 5 strikeouts in his last start. He is 0-3 with a 5.16 ERA over his last 4 starts. On the season, Riordan has given up 68 hits and 9 walks over 57 innings with 36 strikeouts. He is 0-3 with a 4.60 ERA in 5 home starts this season. In 37 appearances/34 starts in the Texas League, Riordan is 9-10 with a 4.36 ERA.

Frisco Shuts Out Tulsa, Guaranteed Series Win: Frisco got a great pitching performance from Richard Bleier and guaranteed themselves another series win over Tulsa with a 3-0 victory on Sunday afternoon. It is the second straight series against Tulsa that Frisco has taken the first two of the 3 game set. It also marks the 3rd consecutive series win for the Riders, who have won 5 in a row for the second time this season and 4 in a row or more for the 3rd time this season. Frisco is now 13-10 against the Texas League North this year.

Richard Bleier's Performance: If there is one thing that has been made known, Richard Bleier has Tulsa's number this season. The 24 year old pitcher has now given up just 1 earned run over 12 innings (0.75 ERA) over 2 appearances against the Drillers. On Sunday, Bleier gave up just 4 hits and 1 walk over 7 shutout innings with 2 strikeouts. In doing so, Bleier got his first win for Frisco since August 15, 2010, which also came against Tulsa. His last non-Tulsa win came against the Corpus Christi Hooks on July 26, 2010, which spans 16 appearances and 14 starts. Bleier also got 12 groundball outs against the Drillers, which is tied for the most by a RoughRiders starter this season. It's been done 4 times now by Frisco this season and 3 of the times have been a start by Bleier, who has only made 5 starts. Bleier has induced 49 groundball outs to just 8 flyouts over his 5 starts.

Top of the Order Gets It Done: If there is one area that Frisco has excelled at over the last month or so, it's been the top of the order production. Leonys Martin has done a great job of getting on base since joining the RoughRiders and Renny Osuna has been a hitting machine with runners on base this season. Both players went 2 for 4 in the win against Tulsa and Martin had a sac bunt, while Osuna walked in his 5th plate appearance. Martin also scored a run and drove in a run. On the season, Leonys Martin is batting .338 with a .419 OBP, while Renny Osuna is hitting .377/.416/.507/.923 with runners on base, including .378 with RISP.

Mendonca Hit Twice: Christian Friedrich wasn't exactly wild all day as he finished with 0 walks, but he did manage to hit the same RoughRider (Tommy Mendonca) twice in the game. Perhaps they believed that was the best way to pitch to Mendonca, who has hit at least 1 extra base hit in 4 of his last 5 games and has driven in a run or scored a run in 6 straight games now. Frisco RoughRider's hitters have now been hit by 33 pitches this season with Jonathan Greene leading the team with 7 hit by pitches.

Miller Gets 4th Save: Justin Miller pitched a scoreless 9th inning to get his 4th save of the season. It was his first save since May 29th, which was the last time a reliever not named Castillo got the save for either team. Miller leads the RoughRiders team in wins with 5 and his 4th save is tied with Hamburger for 2nd most on the team.

Throwing Zeros: Ben Snyder has been one of the Rider's most consistent relievers. Outside of 2 blips, Snyder has 8 scoreless appearances in his last 10 outings. Left handed hitters are batting just .143 against the southpaw on the season as well. His career ERA for Frisco is now 3.51, which places him 8th on Frisco's ERA list and his 1.18 WHIP is 3rd among the franchise career list.

Struggling To Leadoff: While the offense continues to be among the best in the league, they have struggled to leadoff innings. As a team, Frisco is hitting just .250 with the 2nd worst on base percentage in the league (.316) when leading off an inning. The only team that has been worse than Frisco is the Corpus Christi Hooks, who have a .289 OBP when leading off an inning. Still, Frisco is scoring because of their ability to hit with runners on base (.301), with runners in scoring position (.278) and with runners in scoring position and 2 outs (.276).

MLB Draft: Also don't forget that tonight is the 1st round of the MLB draft. It will be covered on TV by the MLB Network beginning at 6 PM Central. On the computer, you can see the best coverage on both ESPN and MLB.com. The Texas Rangers hold the 33rd and 37th overall picks in the draft.

Last Year on this Date: Frisco lost to the Tulsa Drillers 4-1 on the road. Blake Beavan started for Frisco and gave up 8 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs over 7 innings with 3 strikeouts. He got his 3rd loss of the season in the start. Warner Madrigal gave up 1 run over 1 inning of relief. Matt Lawson went 2 for 4 in the game for Frisco as he had half of the Rider's hits in the game. One of Lawson's 2 hits went for a double. Taylor Teagarden and Elio Sarmiento each had a hit in the game as well. Teagarden drove in a run, while Sarmiento had a double.

Answer to Yesterday's Question of the Day: Bobby Trevino had a 37 game hitting streak in 1969 for El Paso

Around the Ranger's System

Yesterday's Record: 4-0

Round Rock (AAA) scored 5 runs in the first 2 innings and won 8-2 against the Albuquerque Isotopes at home. Neil Ramirez started for Round Rock and gave up 4 hits and 2 runs over 6 innings with 9 strikeouts to 0 walks. Ryan Tucker and Beau Jones pitched 3 scoreless innings of relief. Chad Tracy went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles, a homerun, 3 RBI, and a run scored for Round Rock. Chris Davis went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI as well for the Express. Joey Butler added 2 hits of his own in 4 trips to the plate, including a double. Julio Borbon, on rehab, went 1 for 4 with a double. Esteban German and Kevin Cash each added a hit as well.

Myrtle Beach (High-A) got another very good performance from Robbie Ross and defeated the Lynchburg Hillcats 5-3. Ross, who moved to 7-1 on the season, gave up 7 hits, 2 walks, and 3 runs over 8 innings with 6 strikeouts in the start. Robbie went 8 outstanding innings where he gave up 6 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run. He opened the 9th with a walk and a single, however, and was pulled. Both runs came around to score with Kennil Gomez pitching, which brought Ross's runs up to 3 in the game. Gomez finished the 9th for his 1st save of the season. Mike Olt went 1 for 3 with a homerun, sacrifice fly, and 2 RBI in the game. Ryan Strausborger went 2 for 3 with a triple, RBI, and walk for the Pelicans as well. Jared Prince and Mitch Hilligoss each went 2 for 4 with a couple of singles. Santiago Chirino added a 1 for 4 day with a homerun.

Hickory (Low-A) took a 6-0 lead after 3 innings and won 9-5 over the Lakewood BlueClaws at home. Luke Jackson started for Hickory and gave up 2 hits and 0 walks over 3 shutout innings with 2 strikeouts. Nicholas McBride, Colby Killian, and Joseph Van Meter combined for the 5 innings of relief. Tomas Telis went 3 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI at the plate for Hickory. Jurickson Profar went 1 for 3 with a walk at the plate. Teodoro Martinez went 1 for 3 with a double, 2 RBI, and 2 walks for the Crawdads at the leadoff spot. Christian Villanueva, Jake Skole, Kellin Deglan, and Jonathan Roof each added a hit as well.


Minor League Performance of the Day

Mike Minor has put together a very good baseball resume. He was a 7th overall pick by one of the best known organizations in the National League, which covets good pitching. He rose through the minor leagues quickly in his first full minor league year and even got a taste of the major leagues. Now, he's back this year in AAA dominating again. On Sunday, Minor turned in another great performance too. In Gwinnett's 7-5 victory over the Buffalo Bisons, Minor gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk over 8 shutout innings with 9 strikeouts. Yes, the bullpen gave up 5 runs in the 9th inning, but Minor got the win and the headline. The 23 year old southpaw is 3-2 with a 2.23 ERA for the Gwinnett Braves (AAA International League). He has given up 48 hits, 15 walks, and struck out 63 batters over 60 2/3 innings over 9 starts. He was drafted in the 1st round of the 2009 draft 7th overall by the Atlanta Braves from Vanderbilt University.

As always...

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