Chatter from the Press Box: Game 103: Midland Rockhounds (Shawn Haviland) @ Frisco RoughRiders (Carlos Pimentel)

Time: 7:05 PM CT
Location: Dr. Pepper Ballpark (Frisco, TX)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (18-14 2 games back in the Texas League South; 58-44 overall)... Midland Rockhounds (14-18 6 games back in the Texas League South; 41-61 overall)
Streak: Lost 1 in a row
Last 10: 5-5
Homestand: 4-2
Series Record: 15-10-3
2011 Record against Midland: 13-5
All-Time Record against Midland: 116-102
Record on July 28th since 2004: 4-3
Starting Pitchers: Carlos Pimentel (4-6 5.04 ERA) vs. Shawn Haviland (3-9 7.69 ERA)

Frisco Gives Up 19 Hits, Loses: In the middle game of a rare 3 game set with the Midland Rockhounds, Frisco gave up a season high 19 hits en route to an 8-3 loss to the Rockhounds. The loss was only Frisco's 5th loss this year against Midland and moved Frisco back to 2 games behind the San Antonio Missions, who scored 6 runs late to defeat the Corpus Christi Hooks 12-6.

Rare Bad Start Against Midland for Snyder: In what has become one of Ben Snyder's favorite teams to play over the past couple years, Snyder gave up 12 hits and 7 runs over 4 1/3 innings. His 12 hits allowed were a career high. On the homestand, Ben Snyder struggled with the longball as he gave up 6 homeruns over the 2 starts which spans just 9 1/3 innings. For the season, Snyder has given up 11 homeruns in 73 innings this season. Snyder is now 4-1 against Midland this season in 8 appearances.

Sarmiento Returning With a Bang: In his return since his wife had their baby, Elio Sarmiento has now gone 4 for 6 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI, and a walk. That is after his 2 for 2 game with a double, RBI, and walk in Wednesday's blowout loss.

Mitch Hilligoss Enjoying Time Back in Frisco: Also making the most of his playing time is Mitch Hilligoss, who played first base on Wednesday as Jose Ruiz, the normal starting first baseman, was the DH. Hilligoss went 1 for 2 with a double, RBI, and a walk as well. In 15 games for Frisco this season, Hilligoss is batting .353 (18 for 51) with 5 doubles, a triple, 2 homeruns, and 7 RBI. He has walked 6 times to 4 strikeouts. Over 39 games with Frisco in the last 2 years, Hilligoss is batting .323/.400/.469/.869 in 151 plate appearances. He has hit 9 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 homeurns with 17 RBI as well and has 18 walks to 18 strikeouts.

Fluke Or Sign Of Improvement?: Engel Beltre didn't have a hit in the loss, but he did walk once in 4 plate appearances. The walk was his 6th in the month of July and 6th since the All-star Break (which coincided with the month of July). In that time he has played in 26 games. In 55 games in the first half, Beltre walked 8 times, so already Beltre is nearly at his walk total in half of the time.

Hit By Pitch #15: Jonathan Greene got hit by a pitch from Jason Bergmann to leadoff the bottom of the 5th. For Greene, the hit by pitch was his 15th of the season putting him one short of Craig Gentry's Frisco RoughRider season high of 16 in a season.

Attendance Woes: Recently Frisco has had trouble drawing and the numbers showed in attendance. The heat has been miserable everywhere this year and Dallas is no exception. Over the last 3 games, Frisco has had a total attendance of 11,454 combined. The 3 game total is the worst in Frisco's history and the first time that Frisco has had 3 consecutive games under 5,000.

Tied At 791: With a solo homerun in the 7th inning off of Corpus Christi reliever Chris Hicks, Blake Tekotte's homer gave the Texas League 791 homeruns this season. The total is fairly insignificant, right now, but the homerun did mean the Texas League has the same amount of homeruns on July 27th that the league had for the entire year last season. With one homerun they will surpass that total and I would expect that to happen today. The number is really a minor, meaningless number in a season where the league is on pace to break the record for homeruns in a season by a healthy margin. The league is on pace for 1,087 homeruns and the current record is 1,066 set back in 1998. There have only been 3 seasons with more than 1,000 homeruns by the league.

Blog on the Pressbox: Reid Copeland, the Frisco RoughRider's Media Relations assistant, was nice enough to do a blog on the Frisco RoughRider's Pressbox Staff on the Rider's Insider Blog. Check it out as it was well done. All of the "A" team for the pressbox has been with Frisco at least 5 years, so we've all been around to see a lot of cool, wacky, and interesting moments in Frisco RoughRider's play.

Tracking Texas League Homeruns: 791 in 810 games (0.977 HR/G)

Term of the Day: Choke- To play badly in a crucial situation or lose one's resolve; to fail at the moment of maximium expectation. Players, managers, coaches, and umpires have all been accused of choking.

Last Year On This Date: Frisco got crushed 14-3 on the road against the Midland Rockhounds. Michael Schlact started for Frisco and gave up 8 hits, 4 walks, and 8 runs over 2 innings without a strikeout. Kasey Kiker gave up 6 runs over 1/3 of an inning of relief. Adalberto Flores and Tim Murphy combined for 5 2/3 innings of shutout relief. Emerson Frostad led Frisco's offense with a 3 for 4 game including a triple and a RBI. Engel Beltre went 2 for 4 at the plate. James Tomlin added 2 hits in 5 at bats as well for the Riders. Andy Jenkins added a 1 for 4 game with a RBI, while Joey Butler and Renny Osuna each went 1 for 4 with a stolen base. Jose Felix and Marcus Lemon each added a hit as well.

Around the Ranger's System

Yesterday's Record: 3-2

Round Rock (AAA) crushed the Memphis Redbirds 13-4 at home. Zach Jackson started for Round Rock and gave up 5 hits, 3 walks, and 4 runs (3 earned) over 5 innings with 5 strikeouts. Mark Hamburger pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief, while Pedro Strop and Cody Eppley combined for 2 scoreless innings as well. Brad Nelson led Round Rock's offense with a 3 for 4 game with a double, 3 RBI, 2 runs, and a sacrifice fly. Val Majewski went 4 for 5 with a double, homerun, 4 RBI, and run scored for the Express. Matt Kata added a 2 for 5 game with a homerun, 3 RBI, and a run scored. Joey Butler reached base 3 times as he went 1 for 3 with 2 walks and 2 runs scored. Esteban German led off with a 2 for 5 game with a double, stolen base, and 3 runs scored. Chad Tracy doubled in 5 at bats with a RBI and a run scored, while Nick Green and Kevin Cash each added a hit.

Myrtle Beach (High-A) swept a double header with the Lynchburg Hillcats. They won by scores of 4-0 and 5-0 as Lynchburg managed just 4 hits over the 14 innings.

Justin Grimm started the first game of the double header and gave up 3 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 4 batters over 6 shutout innings. Ryan Rodebaugh pitched the 7th inning in the game. Travis Adair led Myrtle Beach's offense with a 3 for 3 game including a double and a run scored. Santiago Chirino added 2 hits in 3 at bats, including a homerun, 3 RBI, and scored 2 runs for the Pelicans. David Paisano went 1 for 2 with a double, RBI, and a hit by pitch. Leury Garcia led off with a 1 for 3 game including a walk.

Chad Bell started the second game and gave up just 1 hit, 0 walks, and struck out 4 over 5 innings. Joe Ortiz pitched the last 2 perfect innings. Travis Adair also went 3 for 3 in the second game with a RBI and 2 runs scored meaning he went 6 for 6 for the day. Vincent DiFazio went 2 for 3 with a RBI. Jared Prince added a 1 for 3 game with a double and 2 RBI. Santiago Chirino added 1 hit in 3 at bats, while Andres James went 2 for 3 with a double, walk, and run scored as the leadoff hitter.

Hickory (Low-A) had the day off.

Spokane (Short Season A-Ball) gave up 2 runs in the top of the 3rd inning and lost 3-2 to the Eugene Emeralds at home. Nicholas McBride started for Spokane and gave up 5 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs over 5 innings with 2 strikeouts. Carlos Melo pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, while Jerad Eickhoff pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings of relief. Yefry Castillo went 1 for 3 with a double and a RBI. Guillermo Pimentel went 1 for 3 with a solo homerun for the Indians as well. Edwin Garcia and Zach Cone each added a hit as well.

Minor League Performance of the Day

Matt Moore, who is pretty much listed by anyone as one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, had a pretty good AAA debut on July 22nd. But that was nothing on his encore performance. In the Durham Bull's 4-0 victory over the Gwinnett Braves, the 22 year old southpaw went up against another highly regarded southpaw in Mike Minor and out pitched him pitch for pitch. Moore gave up just 3 hits and walked 2 while striking out a season high 13 batters in the victory. Moore made 103 pitches and 68 of them went for strikes. On the season, Moore is 9-3 with a 2.03 ERA in 20 starts. He has given up just 74 hits and 32 walks in 115 1/3 innings with 151 strikeouts. Matt Moore was an 8th round selection by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2007 draft. Moore was rated by Baseball America as the #2 prospect in the Tampa Bay Ray's organization entering 2011 and was rated by Baseball America as the 15th best prospect in baseball entering 2011. He was recently listed by Baseball America as the #3 prospect in baseball in their mid season top 50 list.

As always...

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