Saturday, May 31, 2008

Game Report: Reno at St. George (May 31, 2008)

For four innings tonight, it looked like we having a pretty decent pitcher’s duel between Devin Collins of St. George and our own Steve Russell. Collins retired nine batters without a ball leaving the infield. He got in a little trouble but pitched out of it. Russell got in some minor trouble but didn’t give up more than a single run in each inning. Through four, St. George led 3-1. Collins pitched a scoreless top of the fifth with a couple of Ks. But Russell couldn’t match it. He walked the second batter he faced, allowed a single, and then two more walks resulted in a run. Then former major leaguer Wiki Gonzales delivered a 2-run single and suddenly the Sox were down 6-1. Jeff Leonard, again with a quick hook, brought in Jesse Hall. Hall got us out of the inning but not before another run scored that left us with a six run deficit.

Devin Collins had a great outing going 6 inning giving up 2 runs on five hits and ringing up 6 batters . I think it was unexpected from most who have followed him during his career. In 44 professional games, this was only his second start. And he entered the game with three relief appearances this year that gave him a 7.11 ERA. So congratulations on a fine outing.

I couldn’t get the live audio feed via network1sports to work and after 6 complete the live stats feature died. As you know, Reno does not broadcast away games so I was pretty much stuck as far as this game went. I did try to flip over to IBN to watch the Chico game that the league advertised via an e-mail but could never get on. I retried multiple way for multiple times but nothing. So as of about 8:30PM, I guess my GBL night is over. I’ll update with a final score tomorrow when the final write up for the game comes out.
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UPDATE:

The Sox ended up losing the game 9-3 which drops their record to 1-7 as they head into a three day break before hosting Long Beach (3-2) for two, Orange County (4-3) for three and then, following a two day break, Long Beach for three more before hitting the road for a short two game series in Orange County.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Sox pitchers that came in after I lost contact with the game also couldn't shut the door as Paul Wilson gave up a run in his inning pitched while Kevin Fredrick did the same in his inning of relief. This was Frederick's first appearance of the series and only his second on the season. Not to tell Jeff Leonard how to do his job, but I think Frederick needs more work even if he is the closer for the squad. He has not been effective in his two appearances (0-1, 12.00 ERA) and the former major leaguer may need some more time throwing. Plus with the depletion of the bullpen, having a guy of his caliber not pitching is not a good idea. Again, there may be more to it such as an injury so I won't be too vociferous on this issue, I'll leave it to the manager to make that call.

That's all for the next three days. Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

SSFan,
What ever happened to Kane Simmons? I know the Rockies picked him up but I cannot find anything on him at the MILB site..

S.Sox

Keith K. said...

As of April 13th, he was still at "extended spring training" but is suppossed to be headed to Ashville at some point. Extended spring training is a wierd limbo land where it is hard to keep track of players...I don't even know when it ended (or if it ended).

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/apr/13/several-local-players-making-name-professional-bas/