Royals on the Farm 6/19

AAA: Omaha struggled to score runs off Round Rock P Taylor Buchholz and dropped a 3-1 game to the Express. The O-Royals were down, 2-0, entering the 4th when C Scott Walter cracked a solo homer for his 4th of the season to close the gap to 2-1. Round Rock tacked on another run while the Royals only managed 4 more hits in the loss. SP Danny Tamayo fell to 3-5 with 5 2/3 IP of 3 R (2 ER) on 8 hits and 2 BB with 6 Ks as his ERA moved to 5.21. RP Shane Nance, fresh off the FA wire, went 1 1/3 IP and walked 2 with 1 K to drop his ERA to 3.42. RP Matt Ford went an inning and allowed 1 BB to drop his ERA to 4.50. CF Adrian Brown was 3-4 in the loss to improve his BA to .273. Three other Omaha players had 1 hit each. Brown also stole his 23rd base.

Omaha is 32-39 and 6 games back of first. Tonight's game features RH Dennis Tankersley (2-7, 6.63) vs. Round Rock RH Fernando Nieve (0-0, 0.00) in his first AAA start. In other news, LHP Shane Nance, signed as a free agent Sunday, was 0-2 with a 3.63 ERA and 2 saves in 22 relief outings with Tucson this season. P Jimmy Gobble has been called up to KC. Tankersley will take his place in the rotation. A four-game set at New Orleans (33-37) starts Tuesday.

AA: In the last game of the first half, Wichita got a great start from Ryan Baerlocher and took a 3-0 win over Arkansas. The Wranglers were being no-hit going into the bottom of the 5th when DH Mathew Tupman singled to send C John Draper (who had walked) to third and CF Mel Stocker followed with a sac fly. Wichita added 2 in the 8th on a 2-run homer by LF Cory Aldridge (his 15th). The teams combined for only 10 hits. Baerlocher went 6 innings and allowed 3 hits and 2 BB with 3 Ks to drop his ERA to 2.20 and move to 1-0 on the season. RP Colt Griffin got his 4th hold (and looked to have his stuff together for the first time in a few appearances) as he went an inning and allowed a hit to drop his ERA to 4.25. RP Barry Armitage also got his 4th hold with 1 IP that included 1 K to drop his ERA to 3.83. RP Jonah Bayliss got his 6th save with an inning of 1 BB and 1 K to drop his ERA to 2.66. Aldridge was 2-4 with a double, HR and 2 RBI to better his average to .279; Tupman was 2-3 to move to .309.

Wichita is 35-35 and 8 games back of first. The TL is on its all-star break. A 4-game set at 29-41 Frisco starts Thursday. In other news, with Justin Huber getting the call to KC, 1B Josh Pressley will take Huber's place on the East Division All-Star squad. Pressley will be a starting first basemen in the Texas League All-Star Game on Tuesday at 7:00 pm in Frisco, Texas.

High-A: High Desert ran into Bakersfield SP Thomas Diamond (now 8-0 with a 1.99 ERA), who shut the Mavs down on 1 hit with 14 Ks and 0 BB in a complete game 9-0 win. High Desert's only hit came in the 3rd on a single by C Jared Price. He was 1-3 to move to .292. Diamond also faced the minimum as Price was picked off first after singling. SP Kahi Kaanoi got the loss to drop to 4-7. He went 6 1/3 IP and allowed 7 R (6 ER) on 8 hits and a BB with 2 Ks to move his ERA to 5.59. RP Chris Demaria pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and allowed 2 ER on 3 hits and a BB with 4 Ks to bump his ERA to 3.09. 2B Adam Keim, 1B Kila Kaaihue and 3B Brandon Powell were all 0-3 to drop to .299, .333 and .335, respectively. The game took 1 hour and 48 minutes.

High Desert finished 36-34 in the first half. The records reset to 0-0 as High Desert starts a 3-game set at Modesto tonight. Nuts SP Juan Morillo (2-3, 3.16) goes to the mound on Monday against Mavs SP John Gragg III (5-2, 3.91).

L0w-A: Burlington used a 6-run 1st to finally get a win over Kane County, 10-8. The Bees got 9 of their first 10 batters on base. LF Pete Maestrales led off the game with a double and, with 1 out and the bases loaded, Kane County 3B Myron Leslie made a throwing error on a ball hit by RF Brian McFall that allowed 2 to score. CF Kenard Springer followed with an RBI single, as did DH Derek Norman. 2B Irving Falu walked to load the bases again and C Robert Grana singled home another run. A wild pitch scored Norman for the 6th run. The Cougars closed the deficit to 6-5 entering the 6th when Burlington scored another run on an RBI double by Grana. Three runs in the 7th for the Bees on an RBI single by Springer, a sac fly by Falu and an RBI single by Grana made the score 10-6 and the Burlington defense held together to take the 10-8 win. SP Greg Atencio got the win to move to 4-2 with 5 IP of 5 ER on 9 hits with 4 Ks to bump his ERA to 3.99. RP Gabe DeHoyos got his 1st hold with 2 2/3 IP of 3 R (2 ER) on 6 hits and a BB with 1 K to move his ERA to 1.85. RP Adam Rowe went 1/3 IP and gave up a hit as his ERA dropped to 6.03 and RP Chad Blackwell got his 3rd save with an IP that included 1 K to drop his ERA to 2.43. Maestrales was 1-3 with a double and 2 BB to improve to .298; SS Edward Lucas was 1-3 with 2 BB to move to .316; Springer was 2-5 with an RBI and 2 RS to improve to .206; Norman was 3-4 with a BB, RBI and 3 RS to move to .271; and Grana was 3-4 with a double and 3 RBI to move to .165. Maestrales stole 2 bases to get to 8 for the season. Lucas made his 17th error.

Burlington is 34-36 and 5 games out of first. The Bees are on their all-star break until Thursday.