Royals August 9th Minors Recap

Omaha enjoyed their day off (I think they had a golf outing) and begin a seven-game road trip to Tuscon and Las Vegas.

Down 4-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th inning, the NW Arkansas Naturals made yet another comeback against Midland. On Thursday night however, they could not pull out the victory, as they lost 4-3. One day after making a pretty good Double-A debut, Whit Merrifield came to the plate with two outs and the winning run on second base. He could not come through, as he lined out to left field.

Mike Montgomery took the loss, as he again struggled. He lasted just 4.1 innings, as he allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out five. He threw 95 pitches.

Wilmington was once again battered by Winston-Salem, as they lost 9–2. For more on specifics of the game, check out my live blog. The pitching wasn’t great, the offense was pretty much non-existent, and the effort wasn’t there. That led to a closed door meeting following the game by manager Vance Wilson. He was not happy that when the team was down 5-2, the mood in the dugout was as if they were down 30-2.

Following that meeting, Wilson talked about his team’s play, the thought of making the playoffs, reliever Nick Rogers and his struggles, and Leondy Perez‘ third start since coming off the DL.

http://youtu.be/uJX0Bo3MF6U

After my battery ran out, I asked Vance if he had any updates on some of the injured players. Reliever Cole White has been throwing bullpen sessions and is on his way back. Brett Eibner (who isn’t on the DL but hasn’t played lately) felt good today and should be back out on the field on Saturday. Outfielder Roman Hernandez, who has been out awhile, has no timetable for his return. He has been dealing with blurry vision that hasn’t improved. As Vance said, “it could be five days or five months.” They just have to wait and see.

After a scoring a run in the top of the 8th inning to tie the game, Kane County fell to Clinton 2-1 in ten innings. The loss negated the solid start by Jason Mitchell, who pitched five scoreless innings. He allowed four hits while striking out five.

It wasn’t a great game for the Cougars. They committed three errors and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Bubba Watch: Bubba Starling had the day off as Burlington beat Danville, 10-2.