Results tagged ‘ Colorado Springs Sky Sox ’
PREVIEW: Hernandez Faces Rookie Deduno
Tacoma Rainiers righty Gaby Hernandez will take the hill for tomorrow afternoon’s season finale having won four straight starts, over which he has posted a 2.20 ERA in 28.2 innings.
Hernandez–who ranks second among Tacoma hurlers with 140.1 innings pitched this season–will face off against 26-year-old Samuel Deduno, who is making his first career start at the Triple-A level. In 24 starts for Double-A Tulsa this season, Deduno was 12-4 with a 2.57 ERA.
The Rainiers and the Sky Sox are playing for all the marbles tomorrow, as the winner will capture the Pacific Coast League Pacific North division title.
Should Tacoma emerge victorious, Game 1 of the PCL Pacific Conference Championship Series will be played on September 9 right here at Cheney Stadium.
Division Title Still Up For Grabs
The race for the Pacific Coast League Pacific North title got just a bit more interesting this afternoon. Just one loss away from elimination at the hands of the Tacoma Rainiers, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox fought back to come away with a 5-2 win, ensuring that tomorrow’s tilt will decide which of the two combatants goes on to face the Sacramento River Cats in the PCL Pacific Conference championship.
While the Rainiers (73-70) capitalized on a Mark Bellhorn throwing error to capture the victory on Saturday, it was the Sky Sox who took advantage of an early miscue today on the part of Tacoma starter Brandon Morrow.
After scoring a run in the top of the first thanks to an RBI double by Matt Murton, Colorado Springs (73-68) came right back to threaten again in the top of the second. With Christian Colonel on second after a leadoff double, center fielder Chris Frey bunted a high-and-inside fastball from Morrow right back to the mound. Morrow alertly wheeled and threw to third, trying to cut down Colonel, but his throw sailed wide of third baseman Chris Shelton’s glove and up the left field line, allowing Colonel to come home to stake the Sky Sox to a 2-0 lead. Morrow then retired the next hitters in order, striking out two.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Rainiers began to climb back, with Matt Tuiasosopo slugging a solo home run to right field on a 1-1 offering from Sky Sox starter Esmil Rogers.
Rehabbing Mariners righty Carlos Silva came on in relief of Morrow in the top of the fifth, retiring the side on 12 pitches. However, in the top of the sixth, Colorado Springs struck again. With one out, Murton slugged his second double of the game to right on the second pitch he saw from Silva. Just two pitches later, first baseman Dan Ortmeier rapped a line drive single past a sprawling Tuiasosopo and into right field, giving the Sky Sox the lead for good.
Tacoma fought back in the bottom of the frame when a two-out RBI single by Shelton plated center fielder Jerry Owens. After Colorado Springs tallied two runs in the top of the seventh off of reliever Jared Wells, the Rainiers threatened again in the bottom of the inning. Big Brad Nelson showed off a little speed–and some keen base-running awareness–when his infield pop fly began twisting in the wind. Seeing a trio of Sky Sox infielders struggling to track the ball against the steel-gray sky, Nelly hustled around first and slid into second just as third baseman Colonel came up empty on a diving attempt behind the mound, giving Nelson the ever-rare 60-foot infield double.
After the powerful Mike Wilson went down swinging, veteran catcher Jamie Burke worked a six-pitch walk from Rogers. Another walk to shortstop Oswaldo Navarro prompted a pitching change by Sky Sox manager Stu Cole. Reliever Ryan Speier fell behind 2-0 to Owens before retiring Tacoma’s leading hitter on strikes.
Speier’s next challenger was Tuiasosopo, who entered the game with a scorching .429 average in the first two games of the series with four runs scored. On his fourth pitch, Speier was able to get Tuiasosopo to ground into a force out at second to snuff out the rally.
Tui, LaHair Team Up to Beat Sox
While it may be a tad early to put the champagne on ice, you can at least start to take it out of the refrigerator. Last night in front of a raucous Cheney Stadium crowd, the Tacoma Rainiers downed the Colorado Springs Sky Sox 6-4, elbowing aside the Colorado Rockies’ top affiliate to move into a tie for first place in the Pacific Coast League Pacific North division.
The Sky Sox (72-68) came out with a sense of urgency, no doubt sensing their hold on the division title rapidly slipping away to a Tacoma squad that is playing like a team possessed. After Colorado Springs scored two runs on two hits and two walks in the top of the first against starter Garrett Olson, the Rainiers (73-69) responded with two of their own in the bottom of the frame thanks to first baseman Bryan LaHair.
The Rainiers longball leader hadn’t gone yard in 18 games, but he sure picked the right night to get off the schnide. With one out, second baseman Matt Tuiasosopo dropped a bunt single up the third base line, setting the stage for LaHair, who crushed the second pitch he saw from starter Adam Eaton over the right field wall for his 26th circuit shot of the year to knot the score at 2-2.
Mike Wilson–who made two outstanding catches in right–led off the next inning with a line-drive single to left, and moved to third on a ground-ball single to right by catcher Adam Moore. With one out and leadoff man Jerry Owens at the dish, Eaton uncorked a wild pitch, allowing speedy Wilson to score the go-ahead run.
The lead wouldn’t last long, as the Sky Sox again pounced on Olson in the top of the third. First baseman Dan Ortmeier led off with a single on a soft grounder up the middle, and took third on a double by designated hitter Paul McAnulty. A sacrifice fly by third baseman Christian Colonel brought Colorado Springs even at 3-3, with a one-out RBI single by Mark Bellhorn putting the Sox back on top.
As fate would have it, the fifth inning would see LaHair and Tui team up yet again, with the Bellevue native working a one-out walk with the slugging first baseman on deck. This time, LaHair sent a booming double off the left center field wall to plate Tui to tie things up at 4-4.
As the saying goes, the third time’s a charm, and in the bottom of the seventh, LaHair and Tui netted themselves a hat trick. With one down, Tui once again reached base via a walk, but instead of LaHair’s bat proving to be the difference-maker, it was instead the arm of second baseman Bellhorn. LaHair grounded reliever Scott Munter’s second offering to the right side, and thanks to on-and-off showers, Bellhorn lost the handle on his throw to first, putting men at second and third for third baseman Chris Shelton, who responded with a sacrifice fly to center to give the Rainiers the lead for good. An RBI double by left fielder Prentice Redman–his 34th two-bagger of the season–provided some much-needed insurance.
After lefty reliever Justin Thomas turned in his second inning of scoreless relief, the side-arming major-league veteran Mike Koplove came in to work a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save, putting Tacoma just one win away from reaching the postseason.
PRESS RELEASE: PCL Ruling Boosts Rainiers Playoff Possibilities
The Pacific Coast League ruled today that the Rainiers need to win three of their final four games against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox to win the PCL Pacific Northern Division crown, instead of having to sweep.
PREVIEW: Seddon Slings in Must-Win Clash
The last time that Chris Seddon took the hill, he pitched the Rainiers to a 6-3 win over the rival Portland Beavers in front of a hearty group of road-tripping Rainiers fans cheering him on from the stands at PGE Park.
That win put Tacoma into a first-place tie with tonight’s opponent, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Perhaps there is still a little magic yet in that left arm of his, because tonight, the Rainiers will need every trick Seddon can muster in front of a playoff-hungry home crowd as they try take the first step towards sweeping the Sox, which would clinch Tacoma’s first division title since 2005.
Remember to stay after tomorrow night’s game for our final Friday Night Fireworks show of the season, brought to you by Courtyard by Marriot. All throughout this weekend, Windex will be sponsoring special seat upgrades–where four lucky fans will receive Venture Bank Gold club tickets–as well as lucky row giveaways of Windex products.
Saturday will be Kids Night Out here at Cheney Stadium, where, thanks to generous donations by local businesses, underprivileged youth will receive a hot dog, chips, a special t-shirt and a ticket to the ballgame to help them make a memory to last a lifetime.
Pesky Bees Make Division Race Interesting
Despite having been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention with Wednesday night’s loss, the Salt Lake Bees still found a way to interject themselves into the race for the Pacific Coast League Pacific North crown tonight at Cheney Stadium. The Bees were able to overcome a clutch outing from Tacoma Rainiers righty Andy Baldwin, and shut down a thunderous Tacoma lineup to come away with a 4-0 win.
Fortunately for the Rainiers however, they got some assistance in their playoff quest from an unlikely source. The last-place Portland Beavers–Tacoma’s longtime regional rival–were able to down the front-running Colorado Springs Sky Sox 6-5 at Security Service Field to keep the Rainiers (71-69) just two games back with four to play.
The evening started off well for Tacoma, as Baldwin followed a scoreless first inning from the rehabbing Carlos Silva with six innings of shutout ball, at one point retiring 12 straight batters.
The Bees (69-70) finally broke the spell in the top of the seventh as Terry Evans came through with Salt Lake’s first hit off of Baldwin, dropping down a bunt single up the third base line to lead off the frame. Evans came in to score when the very next batter, first baseman Matt Brown, cracked his 26th double of the season to center field.
Second baseman Nate Sutton then tapped the first pitch he saw back to the mound, and Baldwin alertly threw over to third to cut down Brown for the first out of the inning. After a double by veteran left fielder Adam Pavkovich put men on second and third, a five-pitch walk to Ryan Budde loaded the bases. Despite the pressure, Baldwin came up big yet again, catching shortstop Gary Patchet looking at strike three.
With the left-handed Brad Coon coming to the plate, Rainiers manager Daren Brown turned to southpaw Justin Thomas, who had not allowed a run in his last five relief appearances, over which he held opposing hitters to a .143 average.
Thomas got ahead 1-2 on Coon, but on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, the Bees center fielder lofted a soft line drive into shallow left to score Sutton and Pavkovich. Switch-hitting third baseman Freddy Sandoval followed Coon with an RBI single of his own on a groundball through the left side to finish off the scoring for Salt Lake.
Bees pitchers appeared to have learned their lesson from Wednesday night’s 11-2 shellacking, pitching around the heart of a Tacoma lineup that leads all of Minor League Baseball in home runs. Salt Lake hurlers issued a combined four walks to 2-3-4 hitters Matt Tuiasosopo, Chris Shelton and Bryan LaHair, who have hit a combined 49 dingers this season.
The bottom of the Tacoma lineup–catcher Adam Moore and shortstop Oswaldo Navarro–accounted for four of the team’s six hits, with both men notching 2-for-4 nights. Navarro extended his hitting streak to 13 games, over which he has hit .447 (21-for-47).
PREVIEW: Finale Has Playoff Implications
A win by the Rainiers tomorrow night would go a
long way towards ensuring that the season-ending series against first-place Colorado
Springs will be a meaningful one. A Tacoma win combined with a Sky Sox loss
would mean that the Rainiers would have to take three of four from Colorado
Springs this weekend.
If the Sky Sox finish off a sweep of the
Portland Beavers however, Tacoma would have to finish the season with a
four-game sweep of the front-running Sox.
Tomorrow is Tasty Thursday here at Cheney
Stadium, where you can get great deals on $1 hot dogs, soda, ice cream and
coffee.
Enjoy $2 Miller Lite and Miller Genuine
Draft with the Hooters girls in the terrace level beer garden, along with the
finals of the Miller Lite Tacoma Rainiers karaoke contest, featuring a guest
player judge.
The Tasty Thursday Beer Garden opens at
5:30 p.m. with music and beer specials sponsored by Miller Lite and Hooters.
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