Royals Friday the 13th Minors Recap

Omaha battled back to beat host Fresno, 7-6 in 11 innings.

The Storm Chasers were down 6-2 after two innings thanks to rehabbing starter Bruce Chen. He allowed eight hits and walked two over three innings. Then the bullpen went into shutdown mode.

Credit to: Minda Haas

It started with Ramon Troncoso, who threw two scoreless innings. Blake Wood got into and out of trouble in the sixth. Buddy Baumann followed with two perfect innings.

That takes us to the ninth, when Omaha fought back to tie the game. Down by one run, Christian Colon doubled to lead off the inning. He moved to third base on an error and scored on a sac fly.

Spencer Patton entered in relief and pitched a perfect ninth to send the game into extra innings. Patton got into and out of trouble in the tenth, with the winning run on second base and just one out.

To the top of the 11th the game went and CC gave the Storm Chasers the lead with a one out solo home run. Louis Coleman worked a quick bottom of the 11th to earn his first save.

On offense, Omaha collected 19 hits. Justin Maxwell collected four of them, including a solo homer in the fifth. CC, Jimmy Paredes, Brian Bocock, and Whit Merrifield each had three hits in the win.

NW Arkansas lost to Springfield, 2-1.

Andy Ferguson was solid yet again, but could not out-pitch Cardinals prospect Marco Gonzales. Ferguson allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks over seven innings. Problem is, four of the seven hits he allowed were doubles.

Meanwhile, the Naturals collected just three total hits (two off Gonzales). All three were singles and they struck out 13 times (ten times against Gonzales). The Naturals lone run came in the top of the fourth (the Cardinals retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth) on a wild pitch (during a strikeout).

Ethan Chapman threw out a runner at the plate for his eighth outfield assist of the season. Not bad for a guy that was not playing everyday when the season started.

Wilmington split their doubleheader against Carolina, though it was so close to being a sweep.

Despite not having his best stuff, Christian Binford earned his fourth win of the season in the Blue Rocks 6-0 win in the first game. His command was kind of all over the place, but he still did not walk a batter. Plus, he only allowed three hits over six scoreless innings. Binford improved to 3-0 against the Mudcats this season.

After the game, Binford said it was a little easier to pitch considering the 3-0 cushion after the first. All three runs came via one swing, a three-run home run by Hunter Dozier.

“Nothing. That was one of those games you just have to battle,” Binford on what pitches worked (or didn’t).

The Blue Rocks lost the second game,

in eight innings.

They were down 3-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh and the inning all started with a leadoff walk. A wild pitch on a strikeout put runners on the corners with nobody out (Zane Evans, who worked the walk, went to second on a wild pitch and then third on another wild pitch). Daniel Rockett ripped a single to put the Blue Rocks on the board. Kenny Diekroeger grounded out, but not before a wild pitch brought in another run.

Blue Rocks outfielder Terrance Gore at the plate on June 5, 2014 (Jen Nevius).

Pinch-hitter Michael Antonio popped up in foul territory with the tying run on third base for the second out. Up came Terrance Gore, who laced a single to tie the game. Gore then stole second base and went to third on the errant throw. Jack Lopez was then intentionally walked to bring up Bubba Starling and a new Mudcats pitcher.

Unfortunately, Starling grounded out to end the inning and send it into extra innings.

The Mudcats went right to work against reliever Yender Caramo, who was in his second inning of work. Back-to-back doubles to start the 8th inning put Carolina back on top. The Blue Rocks went down quietly in the bottom of the eighth.

The loss negated the solid start by Luis Santos. Despite walking five (one intentionally), he really only had one bad inning and that was aided by an error in the outfield. Santos allowed five hits and struck out five. Three of those strikeouts came in the first two innings when his curveball was really nasty.

As good as Dozier was in the first game (two hits), he was that bad in the second. He struck in his first two at-bats and grounded into a double play on the first pitch he saw in the sixth.

Logan Davis made his Blue Rocks debut in the second game at second base and collected a single in his first at-bat. I had a chance to talk to Davis after the game and he expects to head back to Idaho Falls once the Chukars season starts (and the first half ends for the Blue Rocks).

Lexington lost to Charleston, 8-2. The RiverDogs led 7-0 after two innings.

After Luke Farrell struggled through the first two innings, he went on to pitch three more scoreless innings. He allowed just one hit after that 2nd inning. Alex Black allowed an unearned run on three hits over three innings of relief before Kevin Perez escaped trouble in the ninth.

Elier Hernandez collected three of the Legends’ six hits. He hit a solo home run in the ninth. Humberto Arteaga was hit by a pitch in the fifth and pinch run for.