Portland lost 7-5 in 14 innings
Kerry Robinson exercised an opt out clause in his contract and was released by the team on Wednesday. Robinson led the Pacific Coast League in stolen bases with 26 and was batting .289.
The Beavers used seven pitchers on the evening with Justin Germano getting the ball first. Germano went five innings and allowed one run on four hits and three walks while striking out five. It marked the ninth time in his last 11 starts that he has surrendered two or fewer earned runs. Germano has averaged just under a strikeout per inning and has held the opposition to a .264 average against on the year. In 13 starts he has only allowed one first inning run.
Brad Baker blew his sixth save of the season on Wednesday. The closer has blown two of his last three save opportunities and the opposition holds a .368 on base percentage against him. In 30 games, he has allowed six homers - including one on Wednesday.
Mobile lost 3-2
Despite not allowing an
earned run over 6.2 innings of work, Brian Whitaker took the loss. Two
errors, one by Ronnie Merrill and the other by Casey Baker, allowed three
runs to score and proved the difference between a win and a loss. Whitaker
allowed seven hits and walked one while striking out three as he moved to
2-8 on the season. The righty had allowed 22 runs over his previous 11.1
innings of work, spanning three starts. He has given up six runs or more in
five of his last seven.
A 2-for-4 night extended
Paul McAnulty’s hitting streak to 12 games on Wednesday. The slugger has
had three hitting streaks of eight games or more on the year. He is
16-for-50, a .320 average, with nine extra base hits and 11 RBI’s over the
streak. McAnulty has now failed to draw a walk in 13 straight games.
Corey Smith has seen his
average dip from .292 to .261 over the last 12 games, due largely to an
0-for-18 slump he is caught in. Smith has struck out in 13 of the last 14
games for a total of 22 whiffs. His 71 strikeouts lead the team and place
him in the top five in the Southern League. Even though he boasts a .261
average overall, Smith is hitting .200 with runners in scoring position
(RISP) and is an abysmal 1-for-7 with the bases juiced.
Lake Elsinore won 6-5
It was Brian Burgamy’s
walk-off homer in the ninth inning that sealed the comeback for the Storm.
It was his second walk-off homer of the year on a night when he was picked
off second base. Burgamy has now homered in two of his last three games and
in three of his last seven. He is two homers shy of matching his career
high – nine – set in 2002 with Eugene. Amazingly, Burgamy has a 19-game
hitting streak when he starts in left field while hitting .118 on the year
when he is the designated hitter.
Javier Martinez had his
first sub par outing in nearly a month, allowing five runs on six hits and
three walks over five-plus innings of work. Martinez had been cruising
until the only three batters he faced in the sixth scored, capped off by a
two-run blast – the first homer he has allowed in five starts. The righty
had allowed just three earned runs in his previous four times to the hill.
Jordan Pickens continues to
pile on the RBI’s, despite a .185 average. While he has just 23 hits on the
season, his two RBI’s on Wednesday push his total to 28 RBI’s on the year.
The amazing part is he has played in just 35 games for the Storm. Eleven of
his 23 hits have gone for extra bases.
Fort Wayne won 5-4,
scoring three in the bottom of the ninth
Joel Santo had one bad
pitch and it cost him the only two runs he allowed over seven innings of
work. A two-run jack was among seven hits and he did not walk a batter.
The Wizards saved him from a loss when they scored two in the bottom of the
seventh, giving Santo his third straight no-decision. It is his fourth
quality outing over his last six after recording two quality starts in his
first seven.
Brian Fryer went 2-for-5
with two RBI’s to give him more RBI’s over the last two games, four, than he
had all year – including the time he spent with Lake Elsinore, spanning 21
games. Fryer also stole his second base in as many nights to give him three
on the year. Six of his 13 hits with the Wizards have come with men in
scoring position as he is batting .500 with RISP.
Chris Kolkhorst reached
base all five times he got to the dish, going 3-for-3 with two walks. He
has reached base ten times in his last 13 plate appearances. Kolkhorst also
scored two runs and added an RBI. He has as many RBI’s, three, in his last
four games as he had in the previous 29 contests. Since June 4, Kolkhorst
has scored 14 runs.