Angels Farm Daily 6/15: Rain Batters The East, Salt Lake Batters Not Good Enough

Monday, June 15, 2015

Triple-A: Salt Lake Bees

Recently promoted Kaleb Cowart (3B) hit his third home run of the season (first for the Bees) and went 2-for- with a double. I'm guessing he's enjoying the promotion. What he did to deserve it, I'm not entirely sure. As recently as a week ago, he was toiling away in High-A ball, where he posted a paltry .242/.326/.373 slash line as a 23-year-old. Most likely, he's a fill-in for the other recently promoted third-baseman, Kyle Kubitza.

The Bees went down early, 2-0, but they roared back with a three-run sixth...only to be demoralized by a three-run sixth courtesy of their opponent, the Las Vegas 51s (NYM). Kaleb Cowart had another RBI in the ninth, but it wasn't enough, and the Bees fell to the 51s, 6-4. Bees starter Drew Rucinski had an admirable start, going five innings and only giving up two runs (one earned).

Full Game Story here.

Double-A: Arkansas Travelers

Full Game Story here.

Class A Advanced: Inland Empire 66ers

Crooked numbers abound! The 66ers answered a first-inning run by the Bakersfield Blaze (SEA) with six of their own in the second, courtesy of a whole lot of doubles and singles, one of the latter belonging to Roberto Baldoquin (SS), who ended up scoring a batter later. Nice. Now, do more of that, Baldo. (Have we settled on a nickname for our $17M man?)

Not to be outdone, the Blaze fired back with six runs in the fifth. That would spell the end of 66ers starter Victor Alcantara, who wound up going 4.1 innings and giving up six runs (five earned) on five hits and five walks. He did strike out six, but yesterday's start was definitely a step backward for Alcantara, who had a nice outing his last time on the bump. Luckily, he was quickly removed from the hook by a surging 66er offense, who scored twice more in the sixth, thanks to a solo shot by Quinten Davis (RF) and another by Ruben Sosa (LF), the latter having himself a night, going 2-for-4 with two RBI, two runs scored and a double. His batting average for the season now sits at a healthy .297. Speaking of good nights, catcher Stephen McGee went 3-for-4 with a double of his own, raising his average to .317. That's great, because we really don't have enough catchers in our system.

Then, the bottom of the eighth happened. Blaze batter Tim Lopes (DH) hit an RBI single, scoring pinch-runner Aaron Sosa (CF) from second. After the 66ers went down quietly in the top of the ninth, the Blaze followed suit, and it was off to free baseball! After only one extra inning, the game was decided in the bottom of the tenth when the Blaze walked it off on a bases-loaded wild pitch by 66er reliever Trevor Foss.

Full Game Story here.

Class A: Burlington Bees

Full Game Story here.

Rookie: DSL Angels

Well, what can you do? It's hard to win when you commit four errors in one game.