Sands Continues to Bury the Competition in the Midwest League

All four Dodger minor league teams lost on Saturday, but there were a couple of impressive performances by Dodger prospects.  Jerry Sands continued to rake, and there were a couple of home runs hit in AA.  There were also a some solid stats out of the bullpen in both High and Low A.

AAA – Not a very exciting game for Isotope fans, as the Dodger AAA club lost 2 – 0 and were held to just 6 hits.  No prospects did anything of note, however veteran Josh Towers pitched his second consecutive solid game and is trying to prove that he has enough left in the tank to help out the big league club.  Even though we are just 10 games into the season, it should be noted that both Jamie Hoffmann and Ivan De Jesus are struggling pretty badly.  Hoffmann is hitting just .222 with 8 K’s and 0 walks, and De Jesus is hitting .225 and has already made 3 errors in the field.  One other note is that Lucas May was promoted to AAA, and with Ausmus’ injury and Ellis’ big league promotion, my guess is that May will remain in AAA for the rest of the season.

AA - Down 8 – 2 heading into the 9th, Chattanooga made a furious comeback by scoring four runs, but the Lookouts’ rally fell just short and the team fell to 3 and 6 on the season.  John Koronka started and allowed 6 runs to pick up the loss.  Tommy Giles went 3 for 4 with his first HR of the year, and Trayvon Robinson hit a 3 run bomb for his second homer in as many days.  Andrew Lambo continued to heat up by going 2 for 5, and actually has three straight multi hit games.  Dee Gordon picked up another hit, but he made two errors in the field and now already has 5 errors on the season.  Javy Guerra needed some work so he pitched the 8th inning, and allowed one unearned run while striking out two.

High A -   For the 2nd straight game the 66ers starting pitched allowed 9 runs, but unlike yesterday’s game, all 9 runs allowed today were earned.  Bobby Blevins was the victim this time, and he just got absolutely blasted.  The good news, however, is that the 66ers bullpen had another strong performance as Robert Boothe and Paul Koss followed with 4 scoreless innings of relief.  On the season, Koss, Boothe, Kenley Jansen, Cole St. Clair, and Kyle Smith have a combined 1.40 ERA through 32.3 innings.  Not a bad group.  Offensively, Austin Gallagher had the best game of the Dodger prospects by going 2 for 4 with a double.  One last note is that Justin Sellers was activated from the DL and placed on the Inland Empire roster.  Even though he played in AA last year, the shortstop position at both AA and AAA is pretty booked right now, so he’ll probably stay with the 66ers for most of the 2010 season.

A – The only interesting story from this game is that Jerry Sands had three more hits (two doubles and a triple), and now leads the Midwest League in batting average (.421) and OPS (1.228).  Those are some pretty remarkable numbers for the 22 year old.  Outside of Sands, the Loons only had three other hits and lost the game 4 – 2.  Elisaul Pimentel got the start for Great Lakes, but lasted just 4 innings as he allowed 6 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs.  J.B. Paxson and Andy Suiter provided 4 innings of solid relief, allowing just one unearned run and striking out 5 batters.

Albuquerque Isotopes Box Score

Chattanooga Lookouts Box Score

Inland Empire 66ers Box Score

Great Lakes Loon Box Score

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http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/dodgers-recap.html

http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/milb-recap.html