Game Report: Yuma @ Reno (6/29/2007)

This pic is of my son and Yuma manager Mike Marshall. Having grown up in the Los Angeles Area, I saw Mike a lot as an outfield for the Dodgers. He was really nice and also signed autographs for the crowd. Not sure my son Luke thought this was very cool since he was having fun high fiving the mascot (see below) but he'll appreciate it later :)

Onto the game. Well, Reno just came off a 3-game series at St. George where they scored an insane 44 runs. Yuma, having started at a blistering 12-2 had dropped the last seven. So it would be interesting to see what would happen to two teams that were better than their current records.

The game ended up being a heartbreaker for the Reno faithful. You guys know what I harp on every game...pitching and defense. This time, the pitching was really good. Dusty Bergman went 7-2/3 with 9 strike outs. I was thinking to myself that the Sox, who average over 2 errors a game, were doing well defensively. Then 3 errors later and a string of hits off Dusty Bergman in the eighth, who was left in just a little too long, sent the Sox to a 6-3 defeat.

Madrid and Hall blasted homeruns early and it looked like the Sox were on their way to another home win. But again, defense killed the team. Nothing too egregious this time--not like Mike Done dropping a pop fly or Jose Rodriguez throwing the ball into the outfield on a pick off attempt as we have seen in the past. But as we have seen too many times, if you give guys chances to beat you eventually they will. That was the case tonight and it definitely sent the home crowd out saddened after a pretty good game of baseball that was 3-2 Sox entering the eighth.

On another note, the Sox added two players before the game. Though they are not on the website roster or on the league transaction page, the roster handed out at the game now included C Joe Milton and OF Juan Senreiso. Senrieso, from the Dominican Republic, was the Sox starting left fielder tonight. He played in the Texas and Kansas City Organizations after being signed as an undrafted free agent. He spent last year with High Desert (A) and Wichita (AA). He only got 15 at bats with the latter but with the former he hit .287 with 15 HR, 60 RBIs, and 19 SBs in about 400 at bats. Unfortunately he also had 117 strike outs so that will be something to watch. I couldn't find any info on Milton so he may be a professional rookie.

Due to other committments, I won't be at the park until Tuesday but I will be listening to the games which now are broadcast on the internet. Check out the Sox official site for the link.

Attendance was 1456.