Rain rain go away

Triple-A Scranton (9-5 win over Toledo)
Brett Gardner: 3 for 4, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 BB – remember when Melky struck out swinging on a pitch over his head with the bases loaded in the second inning against a pitcher making his ML debut in Yankee Stadium today? so do I …
Justin Christian: 3 for 5, 3 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K – 13 for his last 33 with 8 SB
Shelley Duncan: 2 for 3, 3 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K
Juan Miranda, Matt Carson & Eric Duncan: all 2 for 5, 2 RBI – Miranda doubled, scored a run & K’ed thrice … Carson & Duncan each K’ed twice … Duncan also committed a fielding error at the hot corner
Cody Ransom: 1 for 5, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 E (throwing)
JD Closser: 0 for 3, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 E (throwing)
Chris Basak: 0 for 4 – welcome back Chris … remember his at-bat with the Yanks in San Fran last year? he hit a rocket into the gap, stood on second thinking it was a double, but he was actually out because the outfielder caught it? … ah good times
Sidney Ponson: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 7-3 GB/FB – 46 of 78 pitches were strikes (59.0%) … Steven White was recently DFA’ed (he cleared waivers and still with the team, no surprise), which could be a precursor to Ponson starting one of the games during next Friday’s split-stadium doubleheader against the Mets … or, it could be to open a 40-man spot for Jason Lane, who hasn’t played since Friday, to join the team in Pittsburgh (which is when they said they’d stop carrying 3 catcher) … they could easily shift Hughes or Wang to the 60-day DL to free up a spot for Ponson … [/thinkingoutloud]
Scott Patterson: 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 WP – only 16 of 29 pitches were strikes, a very un-Patterson-like (55.1%)
Steven Jackson: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
David Robertson: 1.1 IP, zeroes, 2 K, 0-2 GB/FB – 18 baserunners & 31 K in his last 17.2 IP … hot damn
Scott Strickland: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

Double-Trenton (3-2 win over Binghamton)
Ramiro Pena & Edwar Gonzalez: both 0 for 3, 1 BB – Pena K’ed twice, Edwar once … Pena also committed a fieding error
Austin Jackson: 0 for 2, 1 R, 2 BB – fresh off being named the 6th hottest prospect in baseball
Colin Curtis: 0 for 4, 1 K – 9 for his last 42 (.214) … maybe it’s time to move Tabata back to the 3-hole
Cody Ehlers, Jose Tabata, PJ Pilittere & Reegie Corona: all 1 for 4 – Ehlers & PJ drove in a run … Tabata & PJ scored a run … Tabata also K’ed & swiped a bag
Chris Malec: 2 for 4, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 E (throwing) – 12 for his last 33 (.364) … making yet another run at my MiL Hitter of the Year award
George Kontos: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 4-11 GB/FB – 51 hits allowed & 68 K in his last 64 IP
Anthony Claggett: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 4-1 GB/FB – all he’s got to do is cut down on those walks

High-A Tampa had their game postponed due to wet grounds. Lakeland doesn’t come back to Tampa until the beginning of August, so I guess they’ll make it up then.

Low-A Charleston had their game suspended due to rain with one out in the bottom of the second inning; I’m guessing they’ll finish it up tomorrow. It was Noel Castillo’s turn in the rotation, but reliever Wilkins DeLaRosa started the game, which is odd. I wonder if this was a situation similar to what happened in KC earlier in the year, when Girardi started Brian Bruney so that IPK’s start wouldn’t be cut short if the rains came. I’ll update the stats when they make the game up.

Short Season Staten Island (9-1 win over Hudson Valley)
Matt Morris: 2 for 5, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K
Braedyn Pruitt: 1 for 3, 2 R, 2 BB – returns to the place where he hd just about all of his success as a pro
Jahdiel Santamaria: 0 for 5, 1 R, 2 K – love love love the name
Brian Baisley: 2 for 3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
Taylor Grote: 0 for 3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 SB – rhymes with “roadie”
David Adams: 2 for 4, 3 RBI, 1 K, 1 E (fielding)
Melky Mesa: 1 for 5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 3 K – he’s got some big-time power
Brian Chavez: 3 for 4, 1 R, 1 K
Cory Arbiso: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4-3 GB/FB
Jacinto Gonell: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1-2 GB/FB
Tim Dennehy: 1.2 IP, zeroes, 5-0 GB/FB –
Pat Venditte: 1 IP, zeroes – look at that picture, do you think he’s happy to be a professional baseball player, or what? … after taking down 3 RHB the other night, he took down 3 lefties tonight … I sure hope they don’t plan on using him as the closer or a 1-inning reliever, that’s a waste, you take advantage of his switch pitching by letting him go 2 or 3 innings between the starter and the end-game reliever

The Rookie GCL Yanks had their game suspended due to rain in the middle of the third inning. They’ll finish it up tomorrow, and I’ll update the stats then.

Draftees in the College World Series
Jeremy Bleich (Stanford): 3.1 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – Stanford is on their way home after losing 10-8 to Georgia … 2 of those runs scored when closer Drew Storen allowed a 2-run single after assuming a bases loaded situation … yes, they brought the closer into the game in the 4th inning

Bleich was technically free to sign with the Yanks at any time after he was drafted, but with his team in the CWS he wasn’t going to, obviously. He missed a nice chunk of the season with an elbow strain, so let’s hope the sandwich rounder signs quickly and makes up some of those innings with Staten Island.

As for the rest of the CWS, freshman RHP Matt Harvey (whose name you may remember from ’07 Draft coverage) started for UNC for the third consecutive day. He started Thursday’s game against LSU, but the game was rained out after the first. He then started the makeup game yesterday, but came out after a lengthy rain delay in the 3rd inning. Tar Heels’ coach Mike Fox decided to run him back out there tonight, and it appears to have been a good decision: Harvey gave up 3 runs in 5 innings. Unfortunately he left with his team trailing Fresno State 3-2.

Harvey was relieved by closer Rob Wooten, who made his 10th career CWS appearance, tying him with several others for second place on the all-time list. Who’s made the most career appearances in the CWS you ask? None other than JB Cox, who jogged in from Rosenblatt’s bullpen 13 times during his Texas career. You didn’t think I would type all that without having it come back to the Yankees, did you?

UNC ace, and ACC Pitcher of the Year Alex White marched out of the bullpen for the second straight day, and completely pwned Fresno State for 2.1 innings, allowing Chad Flack to hit a ginormous 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th, giving the Heels a 4-3 win. UNC and Fresno will play again tomorrow, loser goes home and the winner will take on Georgia in a best-of-three series for the CWS Title.