Minor League Player of the Day – Luis Meza (Ogden) - 3 IP, 1 Hit, 0 Runs, 2 K's. There were slim pickings for this award as the Raptors were pretty quiet in their loss, so the honors go to Luis Meza for his solid relief effort. While Mesa was pretty terrible during the regular season with a 7.39 ERA, he is still just 22 and has a strong 6'4" frame so maybe there's still hope for the Venezuela native.
Given that the Raptors are the only team left, I'm not going to waste space in the last few minor league reports by listing each level and telling you that their season is over.
Rookie Ogden – The Raptors allowed 4 early runs and were never able to quite recover as Ogden lost the opening game of the Pioneer League Championship series to Missoula (Dbacks) 4 to 3. Miguel Sulbaran, who threw just 5 innings for the Raptors during the regular season, got the surprise start for Ogden and gave up all 4 of the runs. Two of those runs scored on a 2-run homer, and overall Sulbaran allowed 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5. Once Miguel left the game his bullpen did very good work as Luis Meza permitted just 1 hit over the next 3 frames, then Jason West struck out the side in the 8th. The bad news, however, was that the Ogden offense only managed 4 hits, and weren't able to take full advantage of the 4 walks they received in the 6th inning. While the good guys did score 2 runs in the 6th thanks to an RBI groundout by Jesus Valdez and a wild pitch, Jose Capellan struck out with the bases loaded to end the threat. The Raptors did get the game to within one in the 7th on a Bladimir Franco triple and a Delvis Morales RBI fielder's choice plated a run, but that would be it for the offense as they couldn't rally in the final two frames.
Coming up – The Pioneer League Championship series actually takes a day off on Wednesday as the teams travel to Ogden, and on Thursday play will resume with Lindsey Caughel taking the mound. Since it's just a best of 3 series, the Raptors must win on Thursday in order to stay alive.