Today was an early afternoon game in Frisco with a 12:05 start and it was Splash Day. They had a few blow up slides throughout the Ballpark. It was an awesome day for the kids and there were plenty of them.
Jonathan Hernandez
Got the start for the RoughRiders. Part of the reason I came to this game was to see him in person.
Gavin Lux (Dodgers # 4 ranked prospect) took the very first pitch of the game deep, giving the Drillers a 1-0 lead. Hernandez settled down and didn’t allow another run until the top of the 5th. Gavin Lux struck again. He took the 1st pitch of his at bat for a 419 foot ride.
Hernandez (2-5) final line:
5 IP, 5 R, 7 H, 3 BB, 5 SO, 5.92 ERA
Dustin May – Drillers SP
The RoughRiders faced the Dodgers # 3 ranked prospect Dustin May, who reminds me of Carrot Top.
I am not a scout but it looked like he had good stuff. From what I saw in the box, he hit up to 95.4 MPH on his fastball with a spin rate of 2,572.
Walker Weickel
Pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief allowing only 1 hit and brought his ERA down to 1.98.
Josh Altmann
One of my favorite players because he does it all. He’s played the infield, outfield and pitches. Altmann is also a genuinely nice guy so it makes it easy to root for him. He had the only RBI for the RoughRiders today on a Sac-fly in the bottom of the 2nd that scored Eliezer Alvarez. He reached base twice by HBP (Hit by pitch) in the bottom of the 5th and the 7th.
Emmanuel Clase
This kid is exciting to watch and consistently hits the triple digits with his heater. On the field I saw him top out at 99 but I went back up to the box after the inning and confirmed he was hitting 99-100, which doesn’t surprise anyone who is keeping up. We could see him in Arlington later on this year.
He pitched a scoreless inning and threw 19 pitches-14 for strikes and allowed 1 hit and struck out 2. His ERA is now 5.59 on the year.
The RoughRiders have lost ground in the 1st half post-season race. They managed a run on 4 hits. They fall to 32-33 and are 1/2 a game behind the Midland RockHounds.
Even though they lost, it was a great day for baseball and it’s safe to say that all 7,274 in attendance had a blast.
