Toledo 5 Syracuse 2
David Espinosa had quite the game with 4 hits. Ryan Raburn continues to rake and knocked his 15th homer. Jordan Tata started and once again battled control issues with 4 walks in 5 2/3 innings but only 2 runs came in. Aquilino Lopez pitched a scoreless inning for the save.
Erie 8 New Hampshire 7
Kody Kirkland continues to swing a hot bat with a homer, a single, and a walk. Mike Hollimon added a homer and a walk as did Matt Joyce. Jon Connolly lasted 7 innings allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 3 k’s. Randor Bierd got into trouble in the 9th and was charged with 2 runs.
Lakeland – DNP
Dayton 10 West Michigan 0
I blame Kenny Rogers…In all seriousness Rogers went 5 innings and allowed 7 hits, 2 walks and he fanned 4. This is spring training for Rogers so I’m not too worried with results, just that he feels okay after 76 pitches. He very well could be in the rotation next week.
Quick questions about Kenny Rogers returning next week and having to pitch in a National League park –
Is it wise to have Rogers pitch in a National League park where he would have to swing a bat too?
Wouldn’t we (and especially Kenny Rogers) be pretty upset if he managed to somehow re-injure his shoulder and return to the DL because he had to bat?
Just wondering if anyone else has any thoughts on that.
I don’t think there’s a lot of opportunity to injure your shoulder swinging. A lot of position players have shoulder problems and still hit fine (Guillen, for example). I know the concern isn’t how well Rogers hits, but if you can hit nearly as well with a shoulder injury it would seem like the action of swinging doesn’t aggravate it.
That and there’s no guarantee he will even swing. Some AL teams instruct their pitchers not to even risk the injury and just concede the out.
Thanks, I was just reading Rogers pitching line and that thought crept up in my head so I thought I would throw it out to the ol’ internet and see what happened.
🙂
I can’t remember exactly what Rogers did whenever he batted last season, but yeah, I would anticipate bunting at most from him.
Belated report from the Whitecaps game: Rogers’ line looked a lot worse than his performance warranted. Several of the hits he gave up were ground balls that found holes through the infield. And an error in the first cost him a double play that would have ended the inning with only one base runner.
He looked completely comfortable warming up. He was throwing long toss in the outfield before the game–throwing the ball on a line from the middle of center field to the foul line, hitting the catcher in the chest. Pretty impressive for a soft tosser. Do most pitchers do this before starts?
Kyle – most pitchers do long toss right before taking the bullpen in pregame. That distance is pretty typical for Rogers, I’ve noticed it before at Comerica.
I noticed Jose Mesa playing long toss with Wil Ledezma back in May. Mesa was standing on the left field foul line, and Ledezma was in deep centerfield. A couple of Mesa’s throws went over Ledezma and hit the wall by the 420 sign.