Some promotion news for the morning- Jacob Turner has been promoted to A+ Lakeland per Beck. Also, Scott Sizemore hit the DL with hip problems, and Austin Wood and Michael Morrison have both had season ending surgery. Justin Henry has been promoted to Toledo, Ben Guez goes to Erie and Samir Rijo goes to Lakeland. All that is per Mark Anderson on Twitter.
Also, go vote for Toledo Mud Hens for the AAA All-Star game!
Recap time!
Rick Porcello's start- 8 innings, 1 unearned run allowed on one hit and one walk with 3 strikeouts. I'll let Alli tell you the whole story (she watched the start in it's entirety)
Firstly, Porcello took a no-no into the fifth. The one unearned run scored on a Strieby fail double (ed note- you wondered how he was doing defensively) and then Dlugach airmail to first. To Strieby's credit, he walked FOUR times tonight, though the first walk was definitely due to the opposing pitcher sucking.
Gameday for minor league games obviously does not give velocity or pitch types, it just shows location, but he worked on his slider a lot tonight and it was very good. pitches outside the zone didn't miss by a lot and they were in the dirt more than up high. he hit one batter in the 8th with a breaking ball, I'm guessing the slider unless they're bringing back his curveball. but I didn't see the curve the rest of the night from what I remember.
He threw 53/85 for strikes and had a 15-6 groundout-flyout ratio, which we all know is excellent to see. He did get to full counts more often as the game went on. I thought this was a very promising start. The Louisville bats are by no means big league hitters, but this is good progress I think.
In non-Porcello news, Casey Fien had a hitless inning with one strikeout, Ryan Streiby was 1-1 with 4 walks and Wilkin Ramirez was 2-5 with a homer.
Erie desperately needs some starting pitching (like Adam Wilk and Charlie Furbush and Brayan Villareal- are you listening, David Dombrowski). Poor Anthony Shawler led the bullpen start for the Seawolves, going 4 scoreless innings and giving up 1 hit and 3 walks with 5 strikeouts. Blame Jay Voss for the high score- 2.1 innings, 9 earned runs allowed on 5 hits (2 homers) and 4 walks with one strikeout. Alden Carrithers was 1-3 with a walk and Michael Bertram was 1-3 with a walk and a double.
A+: Lakeland 3, Brevard County 1
Jon Kibler actually won a start! He went 6 innings, allowing 1 earned run on 3 hits with 6 strikeouts. Oddly enough, Luke Putkonen pitched out of the bullpen, giving up 2 hits and getting 2 strikeouts in 1.2 innings. Billy Nowlin was 2-4 with a homer and Brandon Douglas was 2-3 with a double and a walk.
A: West Michigan DNP (last day of their All-Star break)
That's the way you dominate. Luis Sanz took the start and 5 solid innings of baseball, giving up the earned run on 6 hits and 3 walks with 5 strikeouts. Patrick Lawson struck out 3 in 2 innings, giving up a hit in the process. Tyler Clark pitched 2 hitless innings, walking 1 and striking out 2. Julio Rodriguez was 2-5 with a double and Chao-Ting Tang was 2-4 with a double and a walk.