Game 61: Frisco RoughRiders (Martin Perez) @ Midland Rockhounds (Polin Trinidad)

Time: 6:05 PM CT
Location: Citibank Ballpark (Midland, TX)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (33-27 8 games back in the Texas League South)... Midland Rockhounds (24-36 17 games back in the Texas League South)
Streak: Lost 1 in a row
Last 10: 7-3
Series Record: 8-8-1
2011 Record against Midland: 7-1
All-Time Record against Midland: 110-98
Record since 2004 on June 12th: 3-4
Starting Pitchers: Martin Perez (4-0 2.60 ERA) is 2-3 with a 4.15 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in 10 career starts against the Midland Rockhounds... Polin Trinidad (1-2 9.42 ERA) is 3-4 with 1 save and a 2.88 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 9 career appearances and 7 career starts against the Frisco RoughRiders

What to Watch for on the Mound: Frisco sends Martin Perez out to the mound for the 13th time this season, while Midland sends Polin Trinidad to the mound for the 5th time this season... Martin Perez looks to remain unbeaten this season as he is 5-0 in his last 13 starts, including 4-0 in his 12 starts this year. Perez also has picked up 3 wins in his last 3 starts. In his last outing, Perez gave up 6 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs over 6 innings with 8 strikeouts. Martin gave up 4 hits, 1 walk, and 2 runs over 7 2/3 innings with 10 strikeouts in his last start against Midland. It was one of his most dominant starts of the year. He has walked 2 or less batters in 6 of his last 10 starts, including 4 of his last 5. The 20 year old southpaw has also lasted at least 6 innings in 6 consecutive starts and 7 of his last 8 starts. He is 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA in his 8 road starts this year... Polin Trinidad is making his 10th career appearance against Frisco as the 26 year old southpaw is also spending his 4th season in the Texas League. In his last start for Midland, Trinidad gave up 4 hits, 2 walks, and 4 runs (2 earned) over 4 innings without a strikeout. In his last appearance against Frisco, Trinidad gave up 5 hits, 2 walks, and 5 runs over 2 2/3 innings with 2 strikeouts. Opponents are batting .344 against Trinidad in 4 starts this year. On the season, Trinidad has given up 21 hits and 6 walks over 14 1/3 innings with 8 strikeouts. Trinidad has a career record of 15-15 in 40 appearances and 38 starts in the Texas League over parts of 4 seasons.

Frisco Blows 9th Inning Lead, Loses Series to San Antonio: Saturday was a day of firsts in the 4th game between Frisco and San Antonio in Frisco. Tommy Mendonca hit his first career homerun off of San Antonio, Fabio Castillo blew his first save of the season, and Dean Anna got a whole bunch of firsts along the way. Frisco lost 9-8 to the San Antonio Missions in a full 9 inning game. It was the 3rd straight game that the game winning run was scored in the 9th inning or later. Frisco is still 7-3 in the month of June, but the series loss to San Antonio is pretty much the nail in the coffin for the first half of the season.

Scott Feldman's Rehab Outing: Scott Feldman made quick work of San Antonio hitters over his 4 innings of his rehab outing. Feldman gave up 3 hits and 2 runs over 4 innings and struck out 4 batters. He threw 56 pitches, 37 of which were strikes. He made a few pitches where the hitters looked bad. This was his 4th rehab outing as Scott Feldman is rehabbing from a knee injury.

Mendonca Drives in Four: Tommy Mendonca went 1 for 10 in the first 2 games of the homestand, but he finished 5 for his last 9 with 2 doubles, a homerun, and 5 RBI over the last 2 games. On Saturday, Mendonca went 2 for 5 with a double, homerun, and 4 RBI. Three of the four RBI came on a 3-run shot in the 7th inning to put Frisco on top 8-7 and at the time looked like it could be the possible game winning hit.

Something About Dr. Pepper: Jose Ruiz continued his very good and very under the radar season with another 2 for 4 day, including a line drive double. Ruiz finished the homestand 4 for 14 with 2 doubles, a homerun, RBI, and 2 walks. He is batting .330/.384/.570/.954 at home this season with 14 of his 20 extra base hits coming in Frisco. Ruiz is also batting .328/.387/.549/.936 against right handed pitchers with 17 extra base hits in 122 AB's. Ruiz has been the man of three different kinds this year. The April version was a high OBP, but low SLG kind; May was a low OBP, higher SLG kind; in June he has been a good OBP and good SLG kind of first baseman. His batting line for 10 games in June is: .303/.385/.576/.960.

Renny Osuna Collects No. 250: With a single in the bottom of the first inning, Renny Osuna reached the 250 hit mark for his career in Frisco. He is now 69 away from tying Steve Murphy for most in franchise history and 70 away from passing Murphy, the man dubbed "Mr. Frisco" by the pressbox, as he is among the leaders in pretty much everything offensively. Osuna finished the game 1 for 4 with a walk, RBI, and 2 runs scored. He currently leads the team (those qualified) with a .311 batting average.

Dean Anna's Day of Firsts: San Antonio's Dean Anna got promoted from Lake Elsinore (Padre's high-A team) and made his first start for the Missions count. Anna, batting 9th, got his first career AA hit in his first at bat in the 3rd inning of former major leaguer Scott Feldman. He came around to score his first AA run in the inning on a RBI groundout by Daniel Robertson. Then Anna collected his first career HR and RBI on the same swing off of Fabio Castillo, who had been perfect in save opportunities this season (6 for 6). The homerun tied the game at 8-8 and San Antonio eventually rallied for another run in the same inning.

Frisco Happy to see Vincent Belnome Leave: The man called the "Riders killer" by the pressbox, Vincent Belnome drove in 2 more runs on a single in the 6th inning, which at the time were the tying runs. He finished with 12 RBI over the 4 game set and has 17 RBI over 15 games against the RoughRiders. At Dr. Pepper Ballpark, he has 14 in 7 games and has hit 5 homeruns in those 7 games against the Riders as well. On the season, Belnome is batting .327/.431/.655/1.085 against Frisco.


On the Other hand, Sad to See Solis Go: While Belnome is probably sad to leave Dr. Pepper Ballpark and Frisco pitchers, Ali Solis is probably ecstatic as can be. Solis finished Saturday 0 for 4 with 2 more strikeouts. On the season against Frisco, San Antonio's catcher Solis is batting .156/.182/.188/.369 against the RoughRiders with 13 strikeouts in 32 at bats against them. He has 1 extra base hit and 2 runs scored, but no RBIs. In Frisco, he is 1 for 22 with 11 strikeouts. Solis is batting 31 for 92 (.337 AVG) with 8 doubles, 1 triple, and 3 homeruns in 25 games against teams not named Frisco RoughRiders. He is also batting 15 for 51 (.294 AVG) on the road this season at venues other than Dr. Pepper Ballpark.

Power Surge in the Texas League: If you thought that there have been more homeruns than usual in the Texas League this year, especially if you were comparing Frisco from 2010 to 2011, then you would be correct. The Texas League has witnessed 448 homeruns this season in 474 games, which is an average of roughly 0.945 homeruns per game. If that rate is kept up throughout the year, it would be the highest the Texas League has seen since 1998 when the league averaged 0.951 homeruns per game. That year there were 1,066 homeruns hit in 1,120 games. The leader in homeruns that year was Arkansas's Tyrone Horne, who hit 37 for the season. Already there are two teams, the Frisco RoughRiders and San Antonio Missions, who are within 10 homeruns of their entire season total in 2010. Frisco is 10 shy of tying last year's total, while San Antonio is 8 shy of tying last year's total. 

Term of the Day: The Frisco RoughRider's PA announcer John Clemens, a great man, was kind enough to lend me a book (a dictionary really), which I'm assuming has nearly every word ever used around a baseball diamond in it and the history of that word. The book is The Dickson Baseball Dictionary 3rd Edition by Paul Dickson, which I will use each day now on out.

The first term is: Balls with eyes on it- A weakly hit batted ball, usually a grounder, that barely gets past the outstretched gloves of two fielders. It is so described because it would seem to need "vision" to chart such an evasive course.

Last Year on this Date: Frisco lost 3-4 at home to the San Antonio Missions in 12 innings. Blake Beavan started for Frisco and gave up 7 hits and 1 walk over 7 shutout innings with 4 strikeouts. Josh Lueke pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief. Cody Eppley gave up a run in 2 innings of relief, while Brennan Garr got the loss after giving up 3 runs in 1 inning of relief. Neither team scored a run for 10 innings, but both scored a run in the 11th inning and both teams scored at least 2 runs in the 12th inning. James Tomlin led Frisco with 3 hits in 4 at bats with a walk. Guilder Rodriguez and Mitch Hilligoss each added 2 hits as well for the Riders. Hilligoss and Jacob Kaase each drove in a run in the game.

Answer to Yesterday's Question of the Day: Frisco RoughRiders of course! It was their first title in just their second season in existence.

Around the Ranger's System

Yesterday's Record: 2-2

Round Rock (AAA) lost 3-2 to the Iowa Cubs on the road. Neil Ramirez started the game for Round Rock and gave up 5 hits, 4 walks, and 2 runs over 4 1/3 innings with 4 strikeouts. Tucker and Eppley gave up the run over the final 1 2/3 innings of the shortened game due to playing a suspended game from Thursday. Chad Tracy went 2 for 3 with a double, homerun, and 2 RBI. Joey Butler added the only other hit for the Express in 2 at bats.

Myrtle Beach (High-A) held on to win 6-5 over the Kinston Indians as Myrtle Beach faced off against top prospect Drew Pomeranz. Wilfredo Boscan started for Myrtle Beach and gave up 5 hits, 1 walk, and 4 runs (2 earned) over 5 innings with 5 strikeouts. Boscan picked up his 1st win for Myrtle Beach this season. Jose Oritz gave up 3 hits and a run over 3 innings of relief, while Johan Yan pitched the 9th to get his 5th save. Vincent DiFazio went 3 for 4 with a homerun and 2 RBI for Myrtle Beach. Jared Prince went 3 for 4 with a double and 3 RBI at the plate as well. Leury Garcia added 2 hits for the Pelicans also. Ryan Strausborger went 1 for 3 with a walk and 2 runs at the plate and Santiago Chirino added a hit too.

Hickory (Low-A) defeated the Lexington Legends 8-1 to take the 3 game series from Lexington on the road. Luke Jackson started for Hickory and gave up 2 hits, 3 walks, and 1 run over 5 innings with 6 strikeouts. Joseph Van Meter and Nicholas McBride pitched 4 perfect innings of relief to finish the game for Hickory. Alejandro Selen finished with a team high 3 hits in the game for Hickory as he drove in a run and scored a run as well. Kellin Deglan went 2 for 3 with a RBI and a walk as well. Jurickson Profar went 1 for 5 with a double, RBI, and run scored for the Crawdads. Jake Skole went 1 for 3 with a RBI, 2 walks, and 2 runs scored. Christian Villanueva went 0 for 3 with 2 walks in the game. Both Skole and Villanueva stole a base in the game for Hickory.

Minor League Performance of the Day

Pat Dean was making his 6th start for the Beloit Snappers of the Midwest League (Low-A), but he probably hasn't had many days like he had on Saturday. In Beloit's 6-1 victory over the Lake County Captains, Pat Dean gave up 0 hits and 2 walks over 6 2/3 shutout innings. He struck out 9 batters in the start, which tied a season high with his last start. The 22 year old is 1-0 with a 2.88 ERA through 6 starts this year in the Midwest League. He has given up 29 hits and 8 walks over 32 innings with 28 strikeouts. The southpaw was selected in the 3rd round by the Minnesota Twins in the 2010 draft out of Boston College. He was listed as the 23rd best prospect in the Twin's organization by Baseball America entering 2011.

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
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And Check Out the Riders Insider Blog for more Frisco RoughRiders info: http://ridersinsider.mlblogs.com/

- By Michael Damman