4/12: The Rundown

Durham Bulls 3, Norfolk Tides 2
Box | Recap
Notes: Durham evened their record at 1-2... Virgil Vasquez made his debut in the Rays' system, tossing 5.2 strong innings, allowing just a run... Joaquin Benoit struck out 3 of the four batters he faced(also got a groundout)... Winston Abreu pitched a scoreless 8th, and Dale Thayer earned his second save despite allowing a run in the 9th... Angel Chavez tripled and drove in 2 of the Bulls runs... Joe Dillon had two doubles and the other RBI...
The Leftovers: 6 of Joaquin Benoit's 16 pitches were swinging strikes. His stuff seems all right to me... Hank Blalock hasn't played since the Bulls opener, which you can file under "curious"...

Montgomery Biscuits 5, Mobile BayBears 4
Box | Recap
Notes: Montgomery improved to 2-2... David Newmann pitched 7 scoreless innings(5 hits, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts) and left with a 3-0 lead... Mobile scored one off of Matt Gorgen in the 8th and 3 in the 9th to take a 4-3 lead. With 2 outs and no one on base, the Biscuits stringed together a single, an RBI double, and a single/error to score the winning run... Shawn O'Malley was 3-4 with a walk and an RBI. He also stole two bases... Cody Cipriano was also 3-4 with an RBI... Cody Strait had two hits, including the final single... Emeel Salem hit the 9th-inning double...
The Leftovers: David Newmann was my sleeper bullpen candidate for later this season, and he turned in the best start of any Rays' minor leaguer so far. He only needed 65 pitches over his 7 innings... Shawn O'Malley hasn't struck out in 13 at-bats so far... Matt Gorgen simply hasn't been able to figure things out since leaving Charlotte last season...

Charlotte Stone Crabs 2, Palm Beach Cardinals 0 (Suspended, 2nd inning)
Recap
Notes: The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on May 14 when the Stone Crabs travel back to Roger Dean Stadium(thanks Jim)
The Leftovers:

Dayton Dragons 8, Bowling Green Hot Rods 6
Box | Recap
Notes: Bowling Green fell to 1-3... Dayton jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the 2nd inning off of Wilking Rodriguez. The Hot Rods were able to tie it up but 2 Dayton runs in the 9th won it... Rodriguez allowed 6 runs(4 earned) on 7 hits over 5 innings. He struck out 6 and didn't issue a walk... Kirby Yates got the loss, allowing 2 runs(1 earned) in his 2.1 innings of work... Mark Thomas went 2-4 and his hitting .417... Ty Morrison remained hitless...
The Leftovers: Tyler Bortnick and Ty Morrison each had the day off... Brett Nommensen and Chris Murrill are hitting .583 and .500, respectively...