Time: 7:00 PM CT
Location: Dr. Pepper Ballpark (Frisco, TX)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (3-5 3 games back in the Texas League South; 43-35 overall).. Springfield Cardinals (2-6 4 games back in the Texas League North; 34-44 overall)
Streak: Lost 1 in a row
Last 10: 5-5
Homestand: 1-1
Series Record: 10-9-2
2011 Record against Springfield: 4-4
All-Time Record against Springfield: 43-40
Record on July 2nd since 2004: 3-1
Starting Pitchers: Joe Wieland (0-0 1.80 ERA) is making his first career start against the Springfield Cardinals... Scott Schneider (3-6 5.64 ERA) is 0-1 with an 11.25 ERA and 1.75 WHIP in 1 career start against the Frisco RoughRiders.
What to Watch for on the Mound: Frisco sends Joe Wieland to the mound for the 2nd time this season, while Springfield sends Scott Schneider to the mound for the 17th time, including 14th start in the rubber game of a three game set.. Joe Wieland makes his first home start of his career for the Frisco RoughRiders as the 21 year old made his AA debut on the road against the Corpus Christi Hooks. Wieland received a no-decision in the start as Frisco came back to win 6-3 over the Hooks despite Xavier Cedeno's terrific start on the opposing end. Wieland, a known control artist, gave up 6 hits and 1 run over 5 innings with 5 strikeouts and 0 walks in the start. He has issued 1 walk in his last 305 batters faced, including a 227 batters faced streak without issuing a walk at one time, which ended on June 7th for Myrtle Beach. On the season overall, Wieland has given up 84 hits and 4 walks over 90 2/3 innings with 101 strikeouts. He is 6-3 overall with a 2.08 ERA in 15 appearances, including 14 starts. The 21 year old from Reno, Nevada was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 4th round of the 2008 draft. He was rated by Baseball America as the 20th best prospect in the Texas Ranger's organization entering 2011... Scott Schneider looks to recover from a rough start this season as a starting pitcher for the Springfield Cardinals. In his last start, Schneider gave up 8 hits, 1 walk, and 6 runs over 4 2/3 innings with 8 strikeouts against the Arkansas Travelers. This season as a starting pitcher, Schneider is 3-6 with a 5.85 ERA over 13 starts. On the road this season, he is 2-3 with a 5.17 ERA in 10 appearances, including 8 starts. On the season overall, Schneider has given up 73 hits and walked 21 batters to 54 strikeouts over 68 2/3 innings. He started against Frisco on the first game of the season and gave up 4 hits, 3 walks, and 5 runs over 4 innings with 4 strikeouts.
Frisco Finds Themselves Down Early, Lose to Springfield: Down 5-2 after 4 innings, and 9-2 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning, Frisco couldn't mount a big enough comeback to overcome the pitching of the St. Louis Cardinal's top pitching prospect, Shelby Miller, and lost 9-6. Frisco moved to 3-5 on the second half this season.
Carlos Pimentel Struggles: Carlos Pimentel labored through a 3 run 2nd inning and it didn't get a whole lot better from that point. The 21 year old right hander did manage to get through 5 innings, but by that point he had given up 7 hits, 3 walks, and allowed 5 runs to cross the plate. Over his last 2 starts since coming back from the bullpen to the rotation, Pimentel has now given up 16 hits, 4 walks, and 9 runs over 10 1/3 innings.
Going Opposite Field: Engel Beltre went 2 for 4 at the plate on Friday including an opposite field double off of Shelby Miller to open the 3rd inning, which would turn out to be Miller's only inning of trouble. It marked the 4th time that Beltre has had an extra base hit to the opposite field in his last 7 extra base hits. For a hitter who generally looks to pull this may be a sign of trying to hit his way out of his slump. Include centerfield in there and 5 of his last 7 extra base hits have gone to centerfield or left field.
Jose Ruiz Continues Home Success: Jose Ruiz went 1 for 4 on Friday, but his one hit was a homerun to right field in 7th inning off of Springfield reliever David Kopp. The homerun was Ruiz's first since June 23rd and his 7th this season in Dr. Pepper Ballpark. At home this year, Ruiz is batting .325/.386/.581/.967 with 16 extra base hits in 33 games, compared to .260/.338/.354/.692 on the road with 8 extra base hits in 33 games.
Leonys Martin Extends On Base Streak: It's ok if you forgot about the streak that Martin had going when he got hurt, because quite honestly, I had. But Leonys Martin extended his on base streak again on Friday to 22 games with a 1 for 4 game. That spans from his 3rd game until the present.
A Streak Worthy of A Reach: It is probably not considered a streak by many, but Mike Bianucci has an interesting streak going of his own. With a 2 for 4 game on Friday, Mike Bianucci has a streak of 7 consecutive multi hit games when he gets a hit. Meaning, he has had a lot of five 0 for games in between the streak, but when Bianucci has gotten a hit, he has had 7 consecutive games with multiple hits.
Greene Extends Streak Nobody Wants: Jonathan Greene went 1 for 4 against Springfield, but struck out 3 times. The 3 strikeouts extends the struggling hitter's streak of 6 consecutive games with 2 or more strikeouts.
Miller Extends Streak: Justin Miller extended his streak of consecutive scoreless appearances to 10 straight scoreless appearances. And that's not just 10 easy appearances either. Of the ten appearances, seven of them have been for more than 1 inning. On Friday, he pitched 2 scoreless innings and struck out 3 batters without allowing a baserunner.
Speaking of Miller: Shelby Miller received the win on Friday for the Springfield Cardinals. The St. Louis Cardinal's top prospect pitched 6 innings, gave up 6 hits, allowed 2 runs, struck out 5 batters, and did not allow a walk. Of 90 pitches, 62 went for strikes. He reached a 3 ball count only twice all night. Miller's fastball hit mid 90s on the stadium gun (take it for a grain of salt), and his changeup was around the 87 mph range. Miller's curveball was usually around 76-80. His fastball looked explosive all night. The 20 year old right hander from Brownwood, Texas was rated by Baseball America as the #13 prospect in the game and as recently as early June was rated by Keith Law of ESPN as the 4th best prospect in the game in his updated list.
Congrats to Erlin: I didn't mention it yesterday, but Frisco's southpaw Robbie Erlin was listed as #2 on Baseball America's prospect hot sheet yesterday after his 14 strikeout performance last Sunday. Erlin is scheduled to start against Arkansas on Monday, July 4th. Another Ranger farmhand, Barrett Loux, was listed at #9 on the list as well. You can see the list here.
TV Game: Today's game between Frisco and Springfield will be shown on TXA 21 beginning at 7:00 PM. The broadcast will be with Aaron Goldsmith, Frisco's radio broadcaster, and Jason Cole, who runs the Lonestar Dugout, a website dedicated to the Texas Ranger's minor league system. It is the second TV game of the season. There will be 5 more this season after tonight. You can learn more about the schedule on the Radio & TV section of the Frisco RoughRiders website.
Tracking Texas League Homeruns: 583 in 618 games (0.943 HR/G)
Term of the Day: Rubber Game- The last and deciding game of a series when teh previous games have been split.
Last Year on This Date: Frisco's game with Springfield at home was postponed due to rain.
Around the Ranger's System
Yesterday's Record: 1-4
Round Rock (AAA) scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to defeat the Nashville Sounds 5-3 at home. After Brandon Webb was scratched from the start, Derek Hankins started for Round Rock and gave up 2 hits and 1 walk with 2 strikeouts over 3 1/3 shutout innings. Manny Delcarmen gave up 2 runs over 1 2/3 innings of relief. Zach Phillips gave up 1 run over 2 innings of relief. Mark Hamburger received the win and Pedro Strop got the save after the two relievers combined for 2 innings of shutout relief. Chris Davis went 2 for 4 with a double at the plate. Joey Butler went 1 for 3 with a run scored for the Express as well. Omar Quintanilla went 1 for 4 with a triple and 2 RBI. Mike Napoli went 1 for 3 with a double, RBI, and a walk. Julio Borbon went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run. Matt Kata added a 1 for 3 game including a double and a RBI, while Chad Tracy added a hit in 4 at bats.
Myrtle Beach (High-A) gave up 3 runs in the 7th and 2 in the 8th to lose 5-2 to the Kinston Indians. Robbie Ross started for Myrtle Beach and went up against Drew Pomeranz, a 2010 1st round pick of the Cleveland Indians. Ross gave up 4 hits and 2 walks with 7 strikeouts over 6 shutout innings. Ryan Kelly took the loss after giving up 5 runs (2 earned) over 1 2/3 innings of relief. Chad Bell pitched 1 1/3 shutout innings of relief. Jared Prince went 1 for 4 with a solo homerun at the plate. David Paisano and Andres James each went 2 for 4 with a RBI at the plate for Myrtle Beach. Ryan Strausborger went 1 for 4 for the Pelicans. Travis Adair went 1 for 4 with a double, while Leury Garcia went 1 for 5.
Hickory (Low-A) scored a run in the top of the 9th, but couldn't quite come back as they fell 3-2 to the Greenville Drive. Cody Buckel turned in a dominant performance for Hickory as he gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk over 5 1/3 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. Nicholas McBride gave up 3 runs over 2/3 of an inning of relief. Joe Van Meter and Ben Henry each pitched a scoreless inning of relief. Christian Villanueva led Hickory with a 2 for 4 day including a triple, homerun, RBI, and runs scored. Jurickson Profar went 1 for 4 with a double. Odubel Herrera went 1 for 3 with a hit by pitch and a stolen base for the Crawdads. Tomas Telis went 1 for 4 while Andrew Clark went 1 for 3 with a double and a RBI on a sac fly.
Spokane (Short Season A-Ball) lost 10-3 on the road to the Tri City Dust Devils. John Kukuruda started for Spokane and gave up 7 hits, 1 walk, and 6 runs (4 earned) over 4 innings with 3 strikeouts. Andres Perez-Lobo gave up 1 unearned run over 2 innings of relief. Carlos Melo gave up 3 runs over 1 1/3 innings of relief, while Leonel De Los Santos pitched 2/3 of scoreless relief. Hirotoshi Onaka finished with half of Spokane's 8 hits as he went 4 for 4 with a double, triple, and 2 runs scored. Nick Vickerson went 1 for 4 at the plate for the Indians. Brett Nicholas and Edwin Garcia added the other 2 hits with 1 a piece.
Minor League Performance of the Day
Cody Buckel had pitched well of late, but he never has pitched better than he did on Friday when he reached double digit strikeouts for the first time in his short career. The right hander gave up just 1 hit and 1 walk over 5 1/3 shutout innings and struck out a career best 10 batters in Hickory's 3-2 loss to the Greenville Drive. On the season, Buckel has given up 43 hits, walked 13 batters, and struck out 61 in 47 1/3 innings. He is 3-3 with a 2.28 ERA over 13 appearances, including 9 starts. In the month of June, Cody Buckel went 3-1 with a 2.16 ERA over 5 starts including a 31-6 K-BB ratio over 25 innings pitched. Cody Buckel, 19 years old, was drafted 2nd round of the 2010 draft by the Texas Rangers. He was rated by Baseball America as the 28th best prospect in the Texas Ranger's organization entering the 2011 season.
As always...
A special thanks to any blog followers from Carefree, Arizona!
Station to Listen to the Game on: 1630 AM (KKGM)
Station to Watch the Game on: TXA 21
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And Check Out the Riders Insider Blog for more Frisco RoughRiders info: http://ridersinsider.mlblogs.com/
- By Michael Damman
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