Royals on the Farm 5/24

AAA - Omaha: Sacramento 12, O-Royals 4

C B. Pena 2-4, HR (4), 2 RBI (16), RS -- .333
SS Falu 2-4, RS -- .275
3B Metcalf 1-4, HR (5), RBI (23), 2 K, RS -- .265
2B Murphy 1-4, HR (2), RBI (8), K, RS -- .215
DH House 1-4 -- .302
1B Ka'aihue 0-3, BB, K -- .268
CF Duarte 1-3, S, 2 K -- .146

M. Wright 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 K, HRA, WP -- 8.36 ERA
Rosa 1 2/3 IP, 6 R (4 ER), 4 H, 3 BB, 3 K, HRA -- BS, 3, L, 0-5, 7.66 ERA, something's not right, or it's time to end the Rosa bullpen experiment
Newman 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB -- 8.47 ERA, might as well still be pitching in Colorado
Buchanan IP, nothing -- 13.50 ERA, pretty good when position player is best bullpen guy in game

*** Omaha's bullpen pulled another special in giving up 9 runs in the last 2 innings to blow a 4-3 lead and drop Omaha to a 6th straight loss. Travis Metcalf led off the Omaha 2nd with his 5th homer of the season but Matt Wright, who had been perfect in the first 2 innings, got dinged for 2 runs in the 2nd with one coming on a solo homer by 3B Jeff Baisley for his 1st of the season. Sacramento added a run in the 5th on 2 doubles but Omaha came back in the 6th. Tommy Murphy led off the bottom of the inning with his 2nd homer of the season and, 2 batters later, Brayan Pena went long for a 2-run shot for his 4th of the season to give the Royals a 4-3 lead. Carlos Rosa pitched a relatively easy 7th but loaded the bases with 1 out in the 8th and served up a grand slam to C Eric Munson (his 5th) before getting pulled with 2 out and the bases reloaded. Josh Newman walked in 2 runs before getting out of the jam. Newman then gave up 3 runs on 4 hits in the 9th before getting pulled for Brian Buchanan, who actually stranded an inherited baserunner. Omaha got 2 on in the 9th but made nothing of it. RP Brad Kilby got the win with 1 2/3 hitless IP to improve to 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA. Starter Gio Gonzalez allowed 4 ER on 8 hits and a walk with 5 Ks over 6 1/3 IP to move his ERA to 4.70. Four River Cats had 2 hits led by Munson, who was 2-5 with the HR, 5 RBI (25), a K and 2 RS to move to .276. DH Anthony Recker and CF Matt Carson also had 2 RBI for Sacramento.

Omaha is 19-24 and 5 1/2 games out. A 4-game home set with the Fresno Grizzlies (23-20, AAA Giants) starts tonight with Heath Phillips (1-4, 8.05) taking on Grizz righty Ryan Sadowski (3-1, 4.15). Fresno's roster features San Francisco prospect righty Sergio Romo (on rehab assignment, only 3 IP thus far). No other pitchers are really standing out for the Grizzlies. 1B Jesus Guzman leads the team with a .363 BA/.983 OPS, 27 RS, 12 2B, 3 3B, 6 HR, 32 RBI, 8 BB/31 K in 39 G/157 ABs. As part of the recent O-Royal roster shuffle, C Cody Clark was activated from the DL and sent to NWA.

AA - NW Arkansas: rainout

The Naturals are 21-20 and 2 1/2 games back. The game with Arkansas will be made up today as part of a Memorial Day doubleheader. I assume yesterday's scheduled starters will start one of the games while Anthony Lerew (2-3, 5.77) will face Travs lefty Michael Anton (0-3, 4.60) in the other game. In today's undeserved callup news, IF Mario Lisson has been promoted to Omaha after hitting .206 with double-digit errors in 36 games for the Naturals. He had the second-lowest BA and OPS for the Naturals. It's a headscratcher, other than the fact he's on the 40-man roster. Still, so was Danny Christensen and we didn't see him getting called up to pitch in Omaha when he was throwing BP to the other team every start a couple years ago.

A-Adv. - Wilmington: Blue Rocks 5, Myrtle Beach 4

SS Bianchi 3-4, 2B (12), HR (3), RBI (20), RS, SB (9) -- .309
RF Lough 2-3, SF, 2B (10), 2 RBI (20) -- .328
3B Moustakas 1-5, 2B (10), RBI (34), RS -- .292
2B Giavotella 1-2, 2 BB, SF, RBI (18), 2 RS, SB (8) -- .210
CF D. Robinson 0-5 -- .236
C Eigsti 1-4, 2B (7), K, RS -- .265

Caldera 6 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, BB, 6 K, HRA -- 5.44 ERA
Swaggerty 2 IP, H, BB, 4 K -- BS, 1, W, 3-1, 2.20 ERA
Hartsock IP, BB -- SV, 11, 1.45 ERA

*** The Rocks blew a 3-run lead in the 7th but got a go-ahead homer from Jeff Bianchi in the 8th to win and take 2 of 3 in the series with the Pelicans. The Rocks jumped ahead in the 1st as Mike Moustakas hit an RBI double and David Lough added a sac fly before they stranded 2 with a 2-0 lead. Alex Caldera gave up a solo homer to RF Jason Heyward (his 9th) in the bottom of the inning but Lough hit a 2-out RBI double in the 3rd to get the run back and make it 3-1 Wilmington. Caldera struck out the side in the 5th as he retired 7 in a row and Johnny Giavotella lifted a sac fly in the 7th to make it 4-1 Rocks. Caldera gave up 2 runs on 3 hits to start the 7th and was pulled for Ben Swaggerty, who allowed a 2-out RBI single to tie the game before escaping the jam. Bianchi led off the 8th with his 3rd homer, off RP Mike Broadway, and Aaron Hartsock left 2 in scoring position in the 9th for his 11th save thanks to a Bianchi leaping catch of a liner with 2 outs. Broadway took the loss with an ER allowed on 2 hits over an inning of work to drop to 0-4 with a 7.13 ERA. Starter Jeff Locke allowed 4 runs (3 ER) on 7 hits and 2 walks with 4 Ks over 7 IP to move his ERA to 4.20. 1B Freddie Freeman was 2-4 with his 4th error, a K and RS to move to .290, 3B Donell Linares had 2 RBI (25), his 6th error and 9th double in going 1-3 to move to .238, and Heyward was 1-4 with a K, the homer and his 19th RBI to move to .281.

The Rocks are 22-21 and 5 games back. They have today off to recover from their season-long 10-game road trip.

A - Burlington: Bees 1, Dayton 0

RF Francis 2-4, 2B (13), RBI (30), 2 K, SB (9) -- .329
LF D. Wood 1-3, BB, K -- .301
CF-LF Van Stratten 0-3, BB, K -- .319
1B Hosmer 0-2, 2 BB, SB (2) -- .236
C Bonilla 0-4, 3 K -- .250
3B Fontaine 0-3, K -- .000, season debut of, you'll never believe it, a former Braves farmhand

Casey 5 2/3 IP, 3 H, 5 BB, 3 K -- W, 3-4, 2.63 ERA
B. Hardy 2 1/3 IP, 3 H -- 2.54 ERA
Thompson IP, K -- SV, 2, 3.43 ERA

*** The Dragons doubled up the Bees in hits, 6-3, but it was Burlington that got the shutout victory this time around. The only run of the game came in the bottom of the 1st as 2 walks set up a Nick Francis RBI double before the Bees left the bases loaded against Dragons SP Josh Ravin. Both teams stranded 2 in the 4th and Bryan Casey stranded 2 more in the 5th. That was about the worst trouble the Bees faced, tho, as Blaine Hardy and James Thompson cleaned up the win. Ravin took the loss with an ER allowed on 2 hits and 5 walks with 5 Ks over 5 IP to drop to 1-6 with a 4.60 ERA. Six Dragons had a hit each. CF Dave Sappelt stole his 13th base.

The Bees are 17-25. The series with the Dragons wraps today as Tim Melville (1-0, 1.50) makes his 2nd pro start versus Dayton righty Curtis Partch (2-3, 5.93).