Minors Stuff

The Herd:

Sunday is a day of rest; at least it was for the Bisons bullpen Sunday afternoon at Coca-Cola Field.

Bisons' starting pitcher Brandon Knight, struck out seven Bulls hitters en route to a complete game in the Herd's, 8-1, win.

Knight threw 109 pitches (80 strikes) while allowing just six hits and one run on the afternoon. The 33 year-old retired the side in order in five of the nine innings.

The complete game is the second for a Bisons pitcher this year. Dillon Gee threw a seven-inning complete game in game one of a doubleheader on May 2 vs. Louisville.

The only real threat Durham mounted against Knight came in the fourth inning. Jon Weber hit a lead off double and Henry Mateo followed with a single, putting runners on first and third with no outs.

But the veteran escaped the jam only giving up one run. After getting Matt Joyce to pop out, Ray Sadler reached on an error that allowed Weber to cross home. Knight then retired Rashad Eldridge and Rhyne Hughes to end the inning.

http://buffalo.bisons.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090614&content_id=5325892&vkey=news_t422&fext=.jsp&sid=t422

B-Mets:

Carl Loadenthal smacked two hits for the second straight game and the bullpen held its own in 7-1 victory at Waterfront Park in Trenton Sunday afternoon. Loadenthal went 2-4 with a three-run triple and he scored Binghamton’s first run of the day in the second inning.

The B-Mets used four different pitchers to beat the Thunder as Edgar Ramirez, typically a reliever, was called upon to start and gave the team three innings of shutout work.

Meanwhile, Binghamton (26-36) plated a run in the second inning off starter Wilkin De La Rosa as Loadenthal and Josh Petersen opened up the frame with singles to put runners at the corners. Petersen proceeded to get picked off and Jose Coronado struck out looking, leading to Ruben Tejada. Tejada slapped a liner off the glove of De La Rosa allowing him to reach and Loadenthal to score. It was ruled an RBI single giving the B-Mets a 1-0 lead.

Edgar Alfonzo followed Ramirez on the hill and kept Trenton (32-30) in check with three scoreless innings and would eventually be named the winner. It was his longest outing of the year.

The big inning came in the fifth when six runs scored off De La Rosa and reliever Eric Wordekemper. Coronado started the inning with a single before the next two hitters recorded outs. The inning looked lost until Nick Evans doubled off the centerfield wall to score Coronado and hand the B-Mets a 2-0 cushion. De La Rosa proceeded to walk the next two hitters, Josh Thole and Lucas Duda, to load the bases. De La Rosa was shown the gate and Wordekemper came on. Shawn Bowman lined a single off him to right scoring Evans and then Loadenthal tripled to right clearing the bases. The final run in the inning came courtesy of Petersen, who followed Loadenthal with a triple of his own, making the score 7-0.

The lone run for the Thunder came across in the eighth off reliever Stephen Clyne who gave up three straight hits with one out in the frame, culminating with Chris Malec’s RBI single to right.

De La Rosa was hung with his fourth loss by giving up five runs in 4.2 innings on five hits with three walks.


Gnats:

Kyle Allen threw a career-high 6.2 scoreless innings of baseball while Sean Ratliff hit his sixth home run in the Savannah Sand Gnats, 2-0, win over the Augusta GreenJackets in front of 1,115 fans and dogs on Bark in the Park Day. With the win, the Sand Gnats secured back-to-back series wins for the first time this season.

Allen (4-2) won for the first time as a starter and went through a stretch of 20 straight batters without allowing a hit after Ben Woodbury led off the game with a double. Allen allowed two hits in the top of the seventh inning but Josh Stinson helped him get the last out to hold Savannah’s lead. All told, Allen permitted three hits in 6.2 innings with five strikeouts and three walks.

Ratliff’s home run in the fourth inning was his first at home since May 3 when the Longmont, Colo. native went deep against Asheville. The home run was special as it cleared the 12-foot high wall in straightaway center field at Grayson. Savannah scored its first run in the second inning on a Jefry Marte RBI-Groundout.

Eric Beaulac took part in the Sand Gnats shutout for the pitching staff, closing out the game with two scoreless innings for his first save. It is the fourth shutout of the year for the Gnats staff and the second of the ’09 campaign versus Augusta.


International:

Cuban defectors Noel Arguellez and Jose Iglesias have been declared free agents by Major League Baseball after clearing the unblocking process. Both players defected while in Canada last July for the World Junior Championships.

Arguellez is a 19-yr old lefthanded pitcher that Manuel says has drawn Francisco Liriano comparisons. Iglesias, also 19, is said to be a shortstop in the Orlando Cabrera mold. Jamie Torrez, the agent for both players, says he has been contacted by several teams already, but did not speculate on any bonus demands.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/06/arguellez-iglesias-declared-free-agents.html