Royals July 8th Minors Recap

It was a slow day on the KC Royals full season minor league front. NW Arkansas had the day off, while Wilmington was rained out in Potomac. The Blue Rocks will play a doubleheader on Wednesday with Sean Manaea starting the first game and 2014 first round pick Brandon Finnegan pitching the second game in his professional debut.

Omaha walked off against Iowa by a 7-6 score. With the bases loaded and one out, Brian Bocock singled for the game winner (one of his three hits). They have now won three games in a row.

The Storm Chasers came back with two runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to tie the game on a bases loaded Matt Fields ground out and ensuing error.

The Cubs scored five of their six runs via the long ball. Brett Jackson hit a two out, two-run home run in the 2nd inning off Omaha starter Aaron Brooks to give them the 3-1 lead. Ryan Kalish would give the Cubs the lead again on his three-run homer in the 6th inning off reliever Chris Dwyer, who walked two in the inning.

Michael Mariot pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts and lefty Tim Collins earned the win by throwing 1.1 scoreless innings of relief.

The Storm Chasers collected 15 hits, three each by Whit Merrifield and Bocock (the top two hitters in the order). They also combined to score four runs. Johnny Giavotella, Paulo Orlando, Jimmy Paredes, and Paul Janish each had two hits in the win. Orlando stole his 25th base, while Paredes stole his 16th base.

Lexington won the slugfest in Hickory by a 16-8 score. It was their third win in a row.

The Legends were down 5-0 after the first, but came back with an eight-run top of the 2nd inning. That inning all started with a leadoff home run by Mauricio Ramos. He also contributed an RBI single in the inning, as they sent 13 men to the plate in an inning that featured three walks and seven hits.

After Luis Rico struggled through the first three innings (six runs on eight hits, including two homers, and two walks), Matt Alvarez was awarded the win with two perfect innings of relief.

The Legends collected 19 hits, as every hitter had one except Fred Ford (though he had a sac fly, but five strikeouts). The middle of their order (3-6) went a combined 15-for-24 with ten RBIs and ten runs scored. Ramos went 5-for-6 with five runs scored while batting fifth.

On the negative side, the Legends struck out 14 times.