Matt Varner Hiccups; Cesar Ramos Debuts

Matt Varner had one of the few blips of the year and it resulted in a Wizards loss. Cesar Ramos made his debut in Eugene and Billy Richardson went deep in a big way. John Hussey had his profession debut the other night and it was memorable.

Portland, Mobile and Lake Elsinore had off days

Fort Wayne lost 6-5 in 11 innings

Three balls left the park against Clayton Hamilton on Wednesday and four runs total in seven innings of work.  The righty allowed six hits and walked one while striking out four.  Hamilton had given up five jacks in 15 starts coming into the game.  It is just the third time in 16 starts that four runs or more have crossed the plate.

Matt Varner blew his first save since April 9 – his first outing of the year – when he allowed two runs on three hits and one walk.  It was the first run he allowed since May 16, a span of 16 appearances covering 16 innings.  He also hadn’t allowed a hit and a walk in the same game since June 1.  Varner recorded 12 saves between runs allowed and has now given up runs in four of his 29 outings.

Matt Bush went 0-for-4 but did score two runs on Wednesday.  His 38 runs scored rank third best on the team.  The shortstop is 3-for-27 over his last eight games but has struck out just three times over that span.  Bush also committed his 24^th error of the year and has five errors in his last seven games.  He is seventh in all the minors in errors and first in the Midwest League in the category.

Eugene won 7-3

Billy Richardson hit the first home run of his professional career in the grandest of styles, literally.  Richardson belted a two-out, fifth inning grand slam.  The shortstop is now tied for the team lead in RBI’s with five after nine games.  Richardson did, however, commit his third error of the young season.

Cesar Ramos, the Padres’ sandwich pick chosen 35^th overall in the 2005 Draft, made his debut with the Ems and tossed one inning of scoreless ball, retiring the side in order and whiffing one.  The Padres would like to save Ramos’ arm this year considering his amount of work with Long Beach State this past season.  The left-hander worked 126 innings, going 10-7 with a 2.64 ERA for the Dirtbags.  He tossed four complete games and held the opposition to a .227 average against.

It took just 3.2 innings for William Ponce to match his win total from last year, although it wasn’t that hard considering his 1-9 record of a year ago.  Ponce, being used exclusively in relief this season after starting 12 out of 14 games a year ago.  Ponce walked 33 batters last year in 66.1 innings and sported a 5.97 ERA.  This year he has allowed one hit and two walks while holding two inherited runners from scoring – both Wednesday.  He has been called for two balks after not registering a single balk last season.

Better late than never

On June 24, Peoria played and we just received the boxscore for the game, a 5-4 Peoria win.  Most of the stats aren’t valid anymore because several games played but one outing clearly needs to be mentioned:

John Hussey went 5.1 innings in his pro debut, allowing just one run on one hit and a walk while striking out seven.  Signed out of Australia by Padres Australian scout Trevor Schumm and Director of Professional and International Scouting Rick Smith, Hussey chose the Padres over several suitors.

“I am sure like any other minor leaguer I expect a rise through the system depending on my performance and ability to improve my game,” said Hussey. “I believe I will rise through the system depending on whether I have worked hard to enough to improve my game to the next level, and then prove myself, over and over again.”