Welcome to "Chatter from the Pressbox", the website dedicated to the Pressbox of the Frisco RoughRiders, the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

Today's Matchups Around the Ranger's System

Today's (5/20) Match-Ups Around the Ranger's System

Round Rock: Martin Perez (3-3 5.27) vs. Fresno Grizzlies: Andrew Kown (3-1 2.61) @ 1:00 PM CT

Myrtle Beach: Kyle Hendricks (1-4 2.91) @ Wilmington Blue Rocks: Sugar Ray Marimon (3-0 2.65) @ 12:30 PM CT

Hickory : Santo Perez (2-2 6.19) @ Asheville Tourists: Daniel Winkler (4-2 6.06) @ 1:05 PM CT



Saturday, August 27, 2011

Game 131: Frisco RoughRiders (Neil Ramirez) @ Midland Rockhounds (Shawn Haviland)

Time: 7:00 PM CT
Location: Citibank Ballpark (Midland, TX)
Team Records: Frisco RoughRiders (32-28 6 games back in the Texas League South; 72-58 overall)... Midland Rockhounds (32-28 6 games back in the Texas League South; 59-71 overall)
Unofficial Magic number: 0... Official Magic Number: 5
Streak: Won 1 in a row
Last 10: 5-5
Homestand: 3-1
Series Record: 19-14-4
2011 Record against Midland: 14-8
All-Time Record against Midland: 117-105
Record on August 27th since 2004: 4-3
Starting Pitchers: Neil Ramirez (0-0 1.93 ERA) vs. Shawn Haviland (6-11 7.45 ERA)

Frisco Comes Back, Takes Series from San Antonio:
For only the second time this season, Frisco won a series with the first place San Antonio Missions. The last time they did that was May 3rd-6th when they took 3 out of 4 from San Antonio at home. And the Riders followed that series by taking 10 of the next 12 games against the Midland Rockhounds and Corpus Christi Hooks, a similar look to what the Riders face the rest of the season as they finish with 10 games against those two teams. Frisco came back from down 3-1 to San Antonio at one point to tie the game in the 7th inning and won 4-3 on a walkoff walk to designated hitter Mike Bianucci with 2 outs in the 9th inning.

Ross's Solid Start: Robbie Ross wasn't particularly dominant, but he got the job done on Friday and kept Frisco in the game. Ross gave up 8 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs over 7 innings and struck out 7 batters. In 5 starts for Frisco, Ross has 4 "quality starts" and has gone 7 or more innings in 3 of the starts. He has walked just 3 batters over 32 1/3 innings, has given up 28 hits, and has struck out 30 batters. Essentially he has picked up right where the other Robbie (Erlin) left off. Limiting walks and hits, striking out a bunch, and going deep into games. Like Erlin, though, Ross has given up his share of homeruns. In fact while pitching for Frisco, the two Robbies have given up 14 homeruns to 10 walks.

Inning By Inning Count

1: 17 Pitches- 9 Strikes- 3 Called- 1 Swinging- 2 Fouls- 8 Balls- 3 BPIP- 1 BB
2: 17 Pitches- 11 Strikes- 2 Called- 6 Swinging- 2 Fouls- 6 Balls- 1 BPIP- 1 Called K- 2 Swinging K- 1 Hit
3: 11 Pitches- 8 Strikes- 2 Called- 1 Swinging- 2 Fouls- 3 Balls- 3 BPIP- 1 Swinging K- 2 Hits
4: 7 Pitches- 5 Strikes- 1 Called- 0 Swinging- 0 Fouls- 2 Balls- 4 BPIP- 1 Hit
5: 11 Pitches- 8 Strikes- 1 Called- 0 Swinging- 3 Fouls- 3 Balls- 4 BPIP- 1 Hit
6: 9 Pitches- 6 Strikes- 2 Called- 1 Swinging- 1 Foul- 3 Balls- 2 BPIP- 1 Called K
7: 15 Pitches- 10 Strikes- 2 Called- 2 Swinging- 2 Fouls- 5 Balls- 4 BPIP- 1 Called K- 1 Swinging K- 3 Hits

Total: 87 Pitches- 57 Strikes- 13 Called- 11 Swinging- 12 Fouls- 30 Balls- 20 BPIP- 3 Called K- 4 Swinging K- 1 BB- 8 Hits

Mitch Hilligoss's Clutch Hitting: Mitch Hilligoss went 2 for 4 at the plate and his double couldn't have come at a bigger time as Hilligoss drove a 3-1 pitch from Craig Italiano to the left field wall for a 2 RBI opposite field, game tying double with 2 outs in the 7th inning. Hilligoss's single in the 9th inning to left field also set up the bases loaded with 1 out. Over the 4 game set with San Antonio, Hilligoss was 5 for 16 with a double, triple, homerun, 3 RBI, and 2 runs. He is batting .286 with an .899 OPS at Dr. Pepper Ballpark this season.

Osuna Reaches Three Times: Frisco's all-time hit leader, Renny Osuna, went 1 for 2 with a sac fly RBI, 2 walks, and a run scored in the game. He is now up to 337 hits all time and 143 for the season, which tied Joey Butler for 5th on the single season hits list. With 9 games remaining in the season, Osuna is 14 hits away from the record of 157 set by Joaquin Arias in 2005. Osuna's .298 batting average leads the team and is his highest batting average since he hit .338 in 2008.


Riders Set Team Record for HBP: San Antonio Mission's pitchers hit 2 more Frsico RoughRider's hitters on Friday as Simon Castro hit Mitch Hilligoss and Nick Vincent hit Mike Bianucci. The two hit by pitches gives Frisco 78 for the season, which passed the previous team high of 77 set in 2004. They also were the 19th and 20th times a Frisco hitter has been hit by a San Antonio Mission's pitcher this season. It was Bianucci's 10th time being hit by a pitch this season joining Jonathan Greene (18), Davis Stoneburner (12), and Tommy Mendonca (11) as the Rider's players with 10 or more. They have the same amount of players with 10 or more HBP's this season as they had in the rest of the team's history combined. Only 2004's team had more than 1 player with 10 or more hit by pitches in the season.

Mendonca Named to League's Post Season All-Star Team: Tommy Mendonca has had a terrific season this year and the former 2nd round pick can add Texas League Post-Season All-star to the list as well. Mendonca earned the honor as the DH, which comes as irony due to his recent Baseball America honor as being named the best defensive third baseman in the league, but it is what it is. Mendonca is batting .283 with 25 homeruns and 87 RBI this season. You can see the team listed on here and read more from the Rider's Insider blog here. Among Mendonca's highlights this season were his 3 homerun game on July 22nd against the Corpus Christi Hooks and his multiple 4 RBI games as Mendonca has had 5 games with 4 or more RBI. Mendonca tied a season high 4 hits on June 13th against the Midland Rockhounds when he also drove in 4 runs.

Frisco Can Help Themselves: Perhaps among the issues of beating the San Antonio Missions, was the Rider's lack of cutting into the Missions's magic number. While it's still about a 99% surefire chance that Frisco will make the postseason, they have 6 games remaining with the Midland Rockhounds and they can help themselves now to a playoff berth. Frisco is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs as long as San Antonio wins the second half and by beating the Midland Rockhounds this coming series and next weekend in Frisco, they can ensure that the Missions will win the second half. Frisco is also 6 games back though and tied with Midland, so they sit in a pretty good position. Win and everything else will take care of itself.

Tracking Texas League Homeruns: 955 homeruns in 1034 games (0.924 HR/G)

Tracking Texas League Strikeouts: 7,438 strikeouts in 1034 games (7.19 K/G) 

Term of the Day: Home plate is jumping around- The condition that describes a pitcher's location when he constantly misses the strike zone with pitches on the corners; e.g. the outside corner pitch is too far outside and the inside corner pitch is too far inside.

Last Year on This Date:
Frisco defeated the San Antonio Missions 4-2 at home. Dustin Nippert started for Frisco in a rehab outing and pitched 1 shutout inning with 1 hit given up and 3 strikeouts. Martin Perez relieved Nippert and gave up 6 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs over 4 innings with 6 strikeouts. He earned the win in the relief appearance. Brennan Garr, Beau Jones, and Tyler Tufts combined for 4 scoreless innings of relief. Nelson Cruz led Frisco with a 2 for 3 game including a double and a RBI. Christian Guzman went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, while Osuna came in for Guzman and went 1 for 1 with a RBI. Joey Butler added a 2 for 4 game for the Riders. Marcus Lemon went 1 for 3 with a triple, walk, and 2 runs scored. Andy Jenkins, Engel Beltre, and Elio Sarmiento each added a hit as well.

As always...

A special thanks to any blog followers from Monkey's Eyebrow, KY!


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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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