Monthly Archives: June 2014

19 Jun

a few small things

Just for the record, Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson was the only Colorado batter to reach base (via an error) during Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. And Dickerson also made the final out, fanning at a breaking ball to become Kershaw’s 15th strikeout victim in the 8-0 gem. … Resurgent Cincinnati, which beat Pittsburgh 11-4 to reach .500 (35-35) for the first time since April 2, has gotten contributions of late not only from Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (now batting .278) but also from the other Mississippi connection on the team, Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart. Cozart had two hits on Wednesday and is batting .306 during the Reds’ current 7-3 run. … Former Southwest Mississippi CC star Jarrod Dyson went 1-for-3 as Kansas City won its 10th straight game, 2-1 over Detroit. Dyson is batting .300 with seven RBIs, 14 runs and 10 steals in 46 games for the first-place Royals. … UM product Aaron Barrett got one out and the win — he’s 3-0 — in first-place Washington’s 6-5 victory over Houston. The Nationals and slumping Atlanta start a big National League East series tonight. … Ex-Rebels standout Seth Smith went 1-for-4 as San Diego beat Seattle 2-1 on Tony Gwynn tribute night at Petco Park. … Lance Lynn, another UM product, took a loss for St. Louis against the New York Mets despite allowing just two runs in six innings of a 3-2 defeat. Lynn is 1-3 in his last four starts, 7-5 with a 3.15 ERA overall.

18 Jun

sure, it’s doable

So, Ole Miss has to win three straight games to reach the College World Series championship round. Sounds like a piece of cake. After all, this club has posted eight streaks of three or more wins this season en route to its 47 victories. The Rebels won two straight do-or-die games against Louisiana-Lafayette in their Super Regional to get to the CWS. But the three straight wins the Rebels need now will have to come against TCU and Virginia, who happen to be the only two national seeds who made it to Omaha. UVA already has beaten Ole Miss, holding the Rebels to one hit in a 2-1 game on Sunday. The Rebels didn’t hit much more against Texas Tech in their second game, managing five in the 2-1 win. (One of the runs was unearned.) But they say all it takes is one big hit to get an offense going, and maybe the Rebels got that Tuesday from John Gatlin, who delivered the walk-off pinch single in the bottom of the ninth. Of course, up next, on Thursday, is TCU, which entered the CWS with a 2.19 ERA, best in the nation. Then UM must beat UVA, also rich in pitching, twice. So, sure, three in a row is doable for the Rebels, but it ain’t gonna be easy.

18 Jun

just the highlights

On a good day — like Tuesday — Billy Hamilton is the baseball equivalent of former basketball star Dominique Wilkins: a Human Highlight Film. Hamilton, the pride of Taylorsville, had three hits for Cincinnati, including a double and a bunt single. He drew a walk. He stole three bases (28 for the year). He scored twice. And he even threw out a runner, Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen, at the plate. The Reds won the game 6-5 at PNC Park, sending Pirates fans home disappointed. But the true baseball fans among them had to be impressed with what they had seen from the visiting team’s wispy center fielder. P.S. Mycal Jones of the Mississippi Braves also did some box score-filling on Tuesday. He hit a homer, scored twice, drew a walk and stole a base for the South All-Stars in the Southern League All-Star Game at Chattanooga. Elmer Reyes also had a hit in the South’s 6-4 win. Matt Kennelly caught half the game and went 0-for-2. Williams Perez started for the South and put up a scoreless inning, while J.R. Graham and James Hoyt also pitched, both yielding home runs. Hoyt did record the final out.

18 Jun

tough times

A punch thrown in frustration resulted in a broken right hand for Drew Pomeranz and landed the left-hander out of Ole Miss on the disabled list for Oakland. Pomeranz (5-4, 2.91 ERA) slugged a chair Monday night after allowing eight hits, two walks and seven earned runs in 3 2/3 innings against Texas, his worst outing since he moved into the A’s rotation. He is on the 15-day DL. … Picayune High alum T.J. House was sent down to Triple-A Columbus by Cleveland today. Lefty House was 0-1 with a 4.88 ERA in six games, five starts. He’ll be back. … Former Pillow Academy star Louis Coleman, recalled from the minors by Kansas City today, gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, Detroit’s Ian Kinsler. On the bright side: Coleman got through the eighth inning for the Royals, who beat Detroit 11-4 to move into first place in the American League Central. Coleman’s ERA when he was sent out at the end of May was 6.27. It’s now 6.41.

16 Jun

good stuff, but …

Billy Hamilton led off with a home run at Milwaukee on Sunday, giving the former Taylorsville High star three bombs in his last eight games for Cincinnati. The 160-pound rookie leadoff batter has only two stolen bases over that span. Strange, but true. For the year, Hamilton is batting .264 with four homers, three triples, 18 RBIs, 31 runs and 25 steals (in 33 attempts). Those are good numbers, but this one isn’t: .301. That’s Hamilton’s on-base percentage. He has walked just 12 times in 63 games — and has fanned 43 times in his 220 official at-bats. He also has just six bunt hits. Considering his speed, he would seem capable of more. Bottom line: It’s been a good season for Hamilton so far, but there is room for improvement. P.S. Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier was back in Minnesota’s lineup at second base on Sunday against Detroit after missing a couple of starts with a sore back. He homered — his 15th — on Saturday as a pinch hitter, then went 0-for-4 on Sunday.

15 Jun

omaha arms race

If you believe that starting pitching is the primary key to winning in baseball — and many people do — then you’ve got to feel pretty good about Ole Miss’ chances in the College World Series. The Rebels have two excellent arms at the top of their rotation: Chris Ellis, who starts tonight against Virginia, and Christian Trent. Both were drafted — among the nine Rebels picked by MLB clubs — and their stats give indication as to why. Ellis is 10-2 with a 2.45 ERA, Trent 9-0, 2.21. Both won numerous big games in SEC play and beyond. The Rebels’ No. 3, should they need one in this double-elimination affair, is Sam Smith (5-4, 3.45), who was KO’d early in the Super Regional title game at Louisiana-Lafayette. (The bullpen came to the rescue.) A problem for Ole Miss is that two of the other three teams in its CWS bracket have better starting pitching, at least on paper. UVA, which spent part of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation, will throw All-American Nathan Kirby, a sophomore left-hander, at the Rebels in tonight’s game. He is 9-2 with a 1.73 — including an 18-strikeout no-hitter in April — though he did get roughed up a bit in his Super Regional start against Maryland. He fronts what might be the deepest rotation in Omaha. Then there’s TCU, which leads the country with a 2.19 staff ERA. The Horned Frogs’ top two starters are top-shelf arms: Brandon Finnegan and Preston Morrison. Morrison is slated to start today against Texas Tech, which means Ole Miss would face left-hander Finnegan (9-3, 2.12, 17th overall draft pick) should they meet in Round 2. Texas Tech isn’t known for its pitching, but the Red Raiders did post four shutouts in NCAA play en route to Omaha. They’ll start lefty Chris Sadberry against TCU, with Dylan Dusek, another solid lefty (8-0, 1.94), waiting in the wings.

14 Jun

just for starters

Though the field is small, the race for most wins among Mississippi-connected starters in the big leagues is always interesting to watch. Lance Lynn edged out Cliff Lee 15-14 last year, while Paul Maholm ran third with 10 W’s. As we near this season’s halfway point, Lynn — a horse in the figurative sense — has bolted to the lead. The former Ole Miss ace moved to 7-4 with an outstanding effort for St. Louis against Washington on Friday. He retired the first 16 batters and went eight innings, yielding two hits with eight strikeouts in a 1-0 win. Lynn had lost two straight starts after his brilliant shutout of the New York Yankees on May 27, but Drew Pomeranz, another ex-Rebels star, was unable to gain any ground in the wins race during that time. Despite allowing just one earned run over 14 innings, the Oakland left-hander is 0-1 in his last two starts. For the year, Pomeranz is 5-3 – 4-2 since moving into the A’s rotation. He is expected to go again against Texas on Monday. Meridian Community College product Lee is 4-4 for Philadelphia but is out of the race at the moment, stuck on the disabled list since mid-May. He is throwing again, however, and surely champing at the bit to return. Picayune High product T.J. House, who makes his fifth MLB start today for Cleveland against Boston at Fenway Park, is running way in the back, still seeking his first win. The lefty is 0-1 with a 5.24 ERA and yielded five earned runs in 3 1/3 innings against Texas his last time out. His hold on a rotation spot may be tenuous for the improving Indians. Maholm, the former Mississippi State standout, is 1-4 with a 4.84 ERA for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is now working out of their bullpen — his last start was May 9 — though a spot start here or there is certainly possible. P.S. It’s wait ’til next, uh, half for the Mississippi Braves, who were eliminated from the Southern League South first-half race with a loss at Tennessee on Friday night. The M-Braves will begin the second half, with a clean slate, on June 19 at Trustmark Park against the Jackson (Tenn.) Generals.

13 Jun

makes no sense

If Corey Dickerson of the Colorado Rockies has a bruise on his right thigh today, he could consider it a badge of achievement. The former Meridian Community College standout from McComb wore out Atlanta in their four-game series, going 7-for-13 with a homer, five RBIs, four runs, four walks and an HBP. Dickerson was hit in the thigh by the Braves’ David Carpenter in the eighth inning of Thursday’s game, a 10-3 Rockies win. The plunking came immediately after Dickerson’s inadvertent whacking of Braves catcher Gerald Laird on a backswing. That makes no sense. Dickerson said he couldn’t be sure if he was hit intentionally; Carpenter, who was ejected, denied doing so. But it was pretty obvious. Rockies manager Walt Weiss, also ejected after charging onto the field, certainly thought so. Maybe Carpenter was just frustrated by his soaring ERA. Maybe the fact the Rockies — and Dickerson, in particular — were pounding the Braves for a second straight day had something to do with it. Whatever it was, Dickerson didn’t deserve to be hit. It was a classless act. P.S. Tyler Moore, another former MCC standout, is 8-for-20 at Triple-A Syracuse since Washington sent him down on June 5. The Mississippi State product has two homers and seven RBIs over that stretch.

12 Jun

on the honor roll

Kudos to Hinds Community College coach Sam Temple, who has been named NJCAA Region 23 coach of the year. Temple, a former Hinds and Delta State catcher in his ninth season in Raymond, led the Eagles to the MACJC Tournament title game, then to the Region 23 championship and ultimately to the NJCAA Division II World Series title game. Hinds finished 40-21. “It was so enjoyable, so much fun,” Temple said of the postseason run. “One of the biggest things for me was spending all that time with my guys. … I cherished that time.” The Eagles did not have any players named NJCAA All-America but did see freshman pitcher Casey Sutton make the Region 23 first team. Sutton, Matt Jones, Chase Lunceford and Luke Reynolds were MACJC first-team picks, and eight other Eagles made second team. Included was Marshall Boggs, who won the Best Hitter award at the juco World Series.

12 Jun

3 stars — plus a couple

Desmond Jennings, the ex-Itawamba Community College star, had a two-run single in a four-run fourth inning as Tampa Bay snapped a 31-inning scoreless blight and went on to beat St. Louis 6-3 on Wednesday night. All told, Jennings was 2-for-4 with a run for the reeling Rays, who have won just twice in their last 16 games. … Meridian CC product Corey Dickerson, enjoying more playing time in Colorado, went 2-for-4 with three RBIs as the Rockies beat Atlanta 8-2 and knocked the Braves out of first place in the National League East. … Former Taylorsville High standout Billy Hamilton went 1-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, a run and a stolen base (No. 24) as Cincinnati beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0. … Ole Miss alum Alex Presley, a veteran among Houston’s cast of kids, went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a steal to help the Astros beat Arizona 5-1. … And Jarrod Dyson, the former Southwest Mississippi CC star, was 1-for-3 with an RBI for Kansas City, which beat Cleveland 4-1. Ned Yost’s Royals have climbed into second place in the American League Central. P.S. The Biloxi Shrimpers? That’s one of the choices — perhaps the best — on the new Southern League club’s name-the-team ballot. The others: Beacon, Schooners, Mullets, Shuckers and Black Jacks. Voting ends this week. The team, moving from Huntsville, is scheduled to begin play in a new ballpark on the Coast next April.