Durham Bulls 7, Gwinnett Braves 4Backed by a strong effort on the mound by Chris Archer and fueled by a big five run second inning, the Bulls defeated the Braves 7-4 in the series finale. The Bulls jumped out to an early lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Matt Mangini to give them a 1-0 lead. The Braves tied the game an inning later on a solo homer. Then the Bull offense broke out for the big five run second. The Bulls loaded the bases with no outs then Shawn O'Malley, Will Rhymes, Jesus Feliciano and Brandon Guyer plated some runs to put the Bulls in from 6-1. O'Malley went deep to left in the sixth to push across the Bulls final run of the afternoon. The Braves would post two runs in the seventh and another in the ninth but the Bulls held to grab the victory. Archer picked up the win, striking out 8 in 6 innings pitched. Dane De La Rosa notched his first save of the season.
Pensacola Blue Wahoos 7, Montgomery Biscuits 5The Biscuits rallied late but fell short in Sunday's loss to Pensacola. The Blue Wahoos took a two run lead in the third inning. Then the Biscuits scored in the top of the fourth to cut the lead in half. It was Brad Coon scoring on a sac fly by Kyeong Kang to put the Biscuits on the board. Pensacola scored another run in the fourth and four more in the seventh to take a large lead. But the Biscuits started their comeback in the eighth inning as they pushed across three runs. The Biscuits got things stated by loading the bases. Coon picked up an RBI the hard way by being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Then Omar Luna followed with a two run double to bring the score to 7-4. The Biscuits offense carried the momentum into the ninth as Tyler Bortnick doubled home a run. But the Biscuits rally fell short as they stranded the tying run on base and suffered the 7-5 defeat. Joe Cruz suffered the loss for the Biscuits.
JD Sussman of Bullpen Banter watched Archer's start on MILB.TV and he had this to say:
ReplyDelete"Chris Archer - RHP, Rays: Archer was his enigmatic self. His fastball was showed some good arm side run but he had very little command of the pitch. It didn't look as explosive as I've seen it in the past and hitters didn't swing and miss at the pitch often when it was in the zone. Though, often he got hitters to flail up and out of the zone with it. His slider, touted as one of the best in the minors, had great downward action and regularly drew poor swings. When it was on, it was a filthy pitch. Still, he'll be a reliever unless he can develop a third major league offering and find the strike zone more frequently. Given the Rays' depth, he'll have a long leash as a starter."
And also MILB is showing that Ryan Carpenter is starting for BG tonight, which is good because I almost thought the Rays might have been trying him at reliever after his last appearence.
Good stuff on Archer. Think his only hope to be a long-term starter is somewhere other than the Rays, not just for stuff reasons, but simply the number of other starters ahead of him (and coming up behind him too).
ReplyDeleteOn Carpenter, he's always been listed as tonight's starter. He just threw an inning in the game the other night to get some work in. Gomez, BG's #5 starter, did the same thing the next night, threw an inning of relief. Once the starters get stretched out to 5 or so innings a start they won't be getting their work in during games, they'll throw between starts on the side. Also, I'm really looking forward to seeing how Carpenter does tonight, high on him.
Phenomenal jumping defense catch by Ryan Brett, in the HotRods game on Sunday the 8th!!
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