The fans arrived early for their Albert Pujols bobbleheads, but they had to stick around late in order to witness the Sixers’ wild 8-7 victory over Bakersfield in 13 innings.
The Sixers actually trailed 7-6, entering the bottom of the 13th before
Both the 66ers and Quakes finished up their season-opening seven-game stretch with victories on Wednesday.
The Sixers won at Lake Elsinore 4-2 and will return to San Manuel Stadium for their home opener on Thursday against High Desert. Both the Sixers and High Desert are 5-2, tied with San Jose for the best record in the league.
A night after the Dodgers’ prospect outdueled the Angels’ big league pitcher, this time the Angels prospect outdueled the Dodgers prospect. The 66ers improved to 2-0 with a 3-0 win over the Quakes at the Epicenter on Friday.
Angels No. 23 prospect Donn Roach, a right-hander for the Sixers, pitched seven shutout innings, allowing only four hits, one walk while striking out three.
Dodgers No. 5 prospect Chris Reed, a left-hander for the Quakes, struggled a little early, allowing three runs in the first two innings. He finished with six strikeouts and the three runs allowed in five innings, retiring the final 10 batters he faced.
Angels reliever Bobby Cassevah, out with right shoulder inflammation and on a rehabilitation assignment, walked one and struck out one in the ninth to earn the save. Cassevah is an ex-Quake, pitching for them in 2008.
Travis Witherspoon, C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk had two hits apiece for the Sixers, who had eight hits. The Quakes managed only five hits. Austin Gallagher, 1 for 3 with a walk, was the only Quake to reach base twice.
The Sixers got a second straight outstanding starting performance in the playoffs. This time, they didn’t get the hitting.
Ariel Pena struck out 13 in 7 1/3 spectacular innings, but Edinson Rincon’s bases-loaded single with one out in the ninth scored Nate Freiman with the game-winner as Lake Elsinore was victorious 2-1 over the Sixers in Game 2 of the South Division first round.
The decisive Game 3 is Friday at Lake Elsinore at 7:05 p.m.
The pitching matchup for Friday is the Sixers’ right-hander Cody Evans (2-0, 3.18 ERA) against Storm left-hander Jose DePaula (10-5, 5.22). DePaula is the third straight left-handed starter the Sixers will face in the playoffs, following Andrew Werner and Nick Schmidt.
The season stats would indicate an advantage for the Sixers, but head-to-head numbers favor the Storm. DePaula is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in three appearances (one start) against the Sixers, while Evans is 0-0 with a 10.38 ERA in two appearances (one start) against the Storm.
The 66ers will be looking to defeat the Storm in the playoffs for the first time since the South Finals in 2006. They lost in 2007 and 2008. However, those were Mariners (06) and Dodgers (07 and 08) affiliates. In 2009 and 2010, the Angels’ old affiliate, the Quakes ousted Lake Elsinore in the playoffs.
As the playoffs begin Wednesday, I’ll predict the first round results in the two series.
Lake Elsinore and the 66ers are so close, but the Sixers have played well down the stretch. I’ll take the Sixers to win the series in three.
In the other series, Modesto has been playing a little better down the stretch and I’ll take them to win their series against Stockton in three games as well.
Behind 5 1/3 shutout innings from Johnny Hellweg, the 66ers downed Lake Elsinore 6-3 on Thursday night at the Diamond.
The win moved the Sixers to 67-69 overall, tied with Lake Elsinore for home field in the first round of the playoffs. The teams play each other in the playoffs beginning on Wednesday. Lake Elsinore does hold the tiebreaker, however.
Carlos Ramirez also had three hits and two RBIs, David Harris had two hits and two RBIs and Hellweg struck out nine batters.
The Sixers return home for a season-ending four-game series against Stockton beginning Friday.
Matt Long, who had a breakout season with the 66ers, got the call after Friday’s game that he was promoted to Double-A Arkansas.
Long hit .301 with 16 home runs and 73 RBIs and 26 stolen bases in 121 games. He has been so consistent that his average has been between .300 and .310 after every game since July 17.
He did not enter the season as one of the Angels’ top-30 prospects, but should be next year.
In his place, the Sixers are getting Travis Witherspoon, the Angels’ No. 21 prospect. Witherspoon hit just .245 in 102 games for low Single-A Cedar Rapids, but had 12 home runs, 44 stolen bases, just three errors and was hitting .284 in the second half.
Witherspoon will play center field and bat leadoff, for the Sixers, who are 8 1/2 games up on a playoff spot.
I got my 15 minutes of fame at Arrowhead Credit Union Park on Thursday night, as part of the “Fish or No Fish” game after the third inning.
If you haven’t seen it, a name of a possible fish is put up on the scoreboard and the contestant has to determine whether it is a fish or not a fish.
The name of the fish was “Bearded Marshall.” The lucky contestant guessed correctly that it was not a fish. And when they did, my picture came up on the scoreboard.
Hopefully my mug didn’t prompt anyone to run to the bathroom. By the way, this was all a surprise to me.
Congratulations to Claremont High product Justin Germano, who threw a perfect game while pitching for the Cleveland Indians’ Triple-A Colombus affiliate on Tuesday night. Germano and Columbus beat Syracuse (the Washington Nationals’ affiliate) 3-0 in a game at Syracuse.
Germano, who has 79 career appearances (including 36 starts) in the big leagues, had been demoted to Triple-A after compiling a 5.68 ERA in nine relief appearances for the Indians.
Tuesday was his 15th appearance and fifth start since joining Columbus. The 28-year-old threw 65 of his 95 pitches for strikes and he struck out seven, including the final batter.
It was just the fifth perfect game in the history of the International League and first for the Columbus franchise.
Here’s a link to the minorleaguebaseball.com article with quotes from Germano
Yes, Saturday’s Quakes 12-9 victory over the 66ers before 3,785 at the Epicenter was just one game, but the game seemed to be an indication of other trends for the team.
First, the recap.
The Quakes took a 10-2 lead in the fourth inning, thanks to two-run homers by Austin Gallagher (11th), Preston Mattingly (second) and Angelo Songco (19th). Gallagher and Mattingly are ex-Sixers and they hit the homers against starter Ryan Chaffee (2-10), an ex-Quake.
The Sixers rallied and Casey Haerther hit a pinch-hit three-run homer (his eighth) in the seventh inning to make it 10-8. After Michael Wing hit two early homers and Matt Long one, it was the fourth homer of the game. It was the first time this season the Quakes allowed four homers. They were the last team in the league who hadn’t allowed at least four homers in a game.
The Quakes added two runs in the seventh to make it 12-8, but the Sixers weren’t done.
Eric Oliver’s RBI double in the ninth made it 12-9 and after a single by Haerther, Quakes manager Juan Bustabad summoned closer Logan Bawcom.
Bawcom walked David Harris to put the tying run on base, but Jose Jimenez hit into a 1-2-3 double play to end the game as Bawcom earned his third save.
Some things we learned:
1–The Quakes (56-43 overall, 18-11 second half) aren’t playing like a team that already won the first half. They keep winning and winning.
2–The Sixers (45-54, 13-16) aren’t the same team that lost the first nine games of the second half. They’ve won or split their last six series this season (5-0-1).
3–While the pitching matchup involved probably the two worst starters for each team, both bullpens have been suspect of late. Both teams have plenty of untested arms that will make for an interesting closing stretch to the regular season.
