Newcomer's homer helps X's to 7-2 victory
By Terry Hersom Journal sports editor | Posted: Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Sioux City's Nick McCoola slides into second as Lincoln's Corey Harrington reaches for the ball during Explorers baseball action at Lewis and Clark Park Tuesday, July 1, 2008.(Jim Lee/Sioux CIty Journal)
Ask and ye shall receive.
Well, sometimes, maybe.
On Monday, Sioux City Explorers Manager Les Lancaster picked up outfielder Jason Bryan, hoping the 26-year-old Brooklyn native might add a little pop to his lineup.
Tuesday night, Bryan delivered, lining a seventh-inning homer that snapped a 2-2 tie and paved the way to an 8-2 win over the Lincoln Saltdogs in the second-half opener for both teams at Lewis and Clark Park.
Lefthander Tim Layden worked around control problems, walking six batters in 5 1/3 innings, and the Sioux City bullpen combined to work 3 2/3 shutout frames to secure the club's ninth win in 14 games.
And, that task got considerably easier after Bryan's tie-breaking homer was followed by four more runs in the seventh and yet another in the eighth, blowing it open.
Still, it was the long ball off Lincoln ace Ryan Trytten, 2-0 with a 0.79 ERA in three previous starts against the Explorers, that spelled the difference.
"I definitely think he brings the threat,'' said Lancaster, who was intrigued by the 13 home runs Bryan clubbed a year ago in the Atlantic League, a circuit that is heavy on former major leaguers.
"Thirteen home runs against the guys in that league, he's no slouch,'' said Lancaster.
Nonetheless, Bryan was in the lineup, batting seventh and playing right field, only because he had found himself out of a job for the third time in less than a year.
"The Golden League was pretty much my last chance,'' he said, referring to his release from the Atlantic League's Road Warriors and his signing earlier this year with the Golden League's Edmonton Cracker Cats.
After just two games with Edmonton, where he went 2-for-6 with a home run, Bryan was released because the Cats, formerly of the Northern League, ran into salary cap issues.
"Brent Bowers was the manager in Edmonton and he's a great guy,'' said Bryan, referring to a former major league outfielder whose career included a stint with the Explorers. "He was still working on find me a job.''
Indeed, Bryan landed with the Golden League's St. George (Utah) Roadrunners, where he homered in three of his first six games and was still batting .314 when another personnel logjam left him out of work again last week.
Tuesday, he wasn't thinking home run so much as just something positive for his first game in Sioux City. And, after striking out on three pitches in his first at-bat and then walking on four pitches in his second, he faced a 3-2 count as he led off the seventh inning.
"I just wanted to get a hit at some point tonight,'' he allowed.
Lincoln's third of four errors in the game kick-started a one-out rally that backed up Bryan's homer with four more seventh-inning tallies. Jason Tuttle's base hit sent Trytten to the showers, then Nick McCoola beat out a bunt single that loaded the bases.
Reliever Vince Davis yielded a bases-loaded walk, a two-run double by Chris Grossman and a sacrifice fly by Juan Camacho to watch the Sioux City lead swell to 7-2. McCoola, who had three of his team's eight hits, also drove home a run in the eighth.
Paige Dumont, the towering righthander who has made two strong starting appearances of late, took over with one out in the seventh and two runners on base, inheriting a 2-0 count to Shawn McGill. Dumont plunked McGill with a 3-2 pitch that loaded the bases, but he got Corey Harrington to bounce to McCoola, who turned in a nimble double play to preserve the 2-2 tie.
Dumont, who also fanned to batters to negate Jonny Kaplan's leadoff walk in the seventh, got credit for the win and is still on schedule to start Friday's July 4th contest with Sioux Falls.
X's AND OH's
Dustin Jones, who performed well in the leadoff spot during Tuttle's absence, dropped down to No. 8 in the order Tuesday. Jones, though, has finally accumulated enough plate appearances for his superb .433 on-base percentage to count among the league leaders and he ranks third behind only Ron Fenwick of Shreveport (.474) and Grant Richardson of Sioux Falls (.452), who are also the league's first and third leading hitters at .381 and .364....
Sioux City and Lincoln met nine times in the first half, with the X's winning five times, and the teams also have nine encounters in the second half -- two more in this series, then six games at Haymarket Park. That's quite a contrast to the season series between Sioux City and St. Paul, who met 13 times in the first half and will square off just six times in the second half....
Pensacola's Brandon Sing finished first-half action as the league leader in home runs (12) and runs batted in 44. Lincoln's Yount, who drove home Lincoln's first two runs Tuesday, entered the game ranking fifth in RBIs with 38, but could have climbed into a tie for second. The X's leader in RBIs is Alex Llanos with 28, nowhere near the leaders...
Quite uncharacteristically, the loss was the sixth in a row for the Saltdogs, who finished the first half by losing four straight at home to Grand Prairie, the South Division's first-half runner-up. Lincoln has now dropped eight of its last 10 games and is 21-27 overall, a half-game behind Sioux City's overall 22-27 record....
Veteran lefthander Dusty Bergman gets the starting nod tonight for Sioux City after Lancaster decided to give Nick Singleton, fifth in the league with a 2.73 ERA, an extra day off before starting on Thursday. Bergman, rather amazingly, was tagged with losses in each of his first nine starts, pitching well enough to win four or five of those, but he finally got something better last time out -- a no-decision in a 6-2 win at Sioux Falls last Tuesday.
Well, sometimes, maybe.
On Monday, Sioux City Explorers Manager Les Lancaster picked up outfielder Jason Bryan, hoping the 26-year-old Brooklyn native might add a little pop to his lineup.
Tuesday night, Bryan delivered, lining a seventh-inning homer that snapped a 2-2 tie and paved the way to an 8-2 win over the Lincoln Saltdogs in the second-half opener for both teams at Lewis and Clark Park.
Lefthander Tim Layden worked around control problems, walking six batters in 5 1/3 innings, and the Sioux City bullpen combined to work 3 2/3 shutout frames to secure the club's ninth win in 14 games.
And, that task got considerably easier after Bryan's tie-breaking homer was followed by four more runs in the seventh and yet another in the eighth, blowing it open.
Still, it was the long ball off Lincoln ace Ryan Trytten, 2-0 with a 0.79 ERA in three previous starts against the Explorers, that spelled the difference.
"I definitely think he brings the threat,'' said Lancaster, who was intrigued by the 13 home runs Bryan clubbed a year ago in the Atlantic League, a circuit that is heavy on former major leaguers.
"Thirteen home runs against the guys in that league, he's no slouch,'' said Lancaster.
Nonetheless, Bryan was in the lineup, batting seventh and playing right field, only because he had found himself out of a job for the third time in less than a year.
"The Golden League was pretty much my last chance,'' he said, referring to his release from the Atlantic League's Road Warriors and his signing earlier this year with the Golden League's Edmonton Cracker Cats.
After just two games with Edmonton, where he went 2-for-6 with a home run, Bryan was released because the Cats, formerly of the Northern League, ran into salary cap issues.
"Brent Bowers was the manager in Edmonton and he's a great guy,'' said Bryan, referring to a former major league outfielder whose career included a stint with the Explorers. "He was still working on find me a job.''
Indeed, Bryan landed with the Golden League's St. George (Utah) Roadrunners, where he homered in three of his first six games and was still batting .314 when another personnel logjam left him out of work again last week.
Tuesday, he wasn't thinking home run so much as just something positive for his first game in Sioux City. And, after striking out on three pitches in his first at-bat and then walking on four pitches in his second, he faced a 3-2 count as he led off the seventh inning.
"I just wanted to get a hit at some point tonight,'' he allowed.
Lincoln's third of four errors in the game kick-started a one-out rally that backed up Bryan's homer with four more seventh-inning tallies. Jason Tuttle's base hit sent Trytten to the showers, then Nick McCoola beat out a bunt single that loaded the bases.
Reliever Vince Davis yielded a bases-loaded walk, a two-run double by Chris Grossman and a sacrifice fly by Juan Camacho to watch the Sioux City lead swell to 7-2. McCoola, who had three of his team's eight hits, also drove home a run in the eighth.
Paige Dumont, the towering righthander who has made two strong starting appearances of late, took over with one out in the seventh and two runners on base, inheriting a 2-0 count to Shawn McGill. Dumont plunked McGill with a 3-2 pitch that loaded the bases, but he got Corey Harrington to bounce to McCoola, who turned in a nimble double play to preserve the 2-2 tie.
Dumont, who also fanned to batters to negate Jonny Kaplan's leadoff walk in the seventh, got credit for the win and is still on schedule to start Friday's July 4th contest with Sioux Falls.
X's AND OH's
Dustin Jones, who performed well in the leadoff spot during Tuttle's absence, dropped down to No. 8 in the order Tuesday. Jones, though, has finally accumulated enough plate appearances for his superb .433 on-base percentage to count among the league leaders and he ranks third behind only Ron Fenwick of Shreveport (.474) and Grant Richardson of Sioux Falls (.452), who are also the league's first and third leading hitters at .381 and .364....
Sioux City and Lincoln met nine times in the first half, with the X's winning five times, and the teams also have nine encounters in the second half -- two more in this series, then six games at Haymarket Park. That's quite a contrast to the season series between Sioux City and St. Paul, who met 13 times in the first half and will square off just six times in the second half....
Pensacola's Brandon Sing finished first-half action as the league leader in home runs (12) and runs batted in 44. Lincoln's Yount, who drove home Lincoln's first two runs Tuesday, entered the game ranking fifth in RBIs with 38, but could have climbed into a tie for second. The X's leader in RBIs is Alex Llanos with 28, nowhere near the leaders...
Quite uncharacteristically, the loss was the sixth in a row for the Saltdogs, who finished the first half by losing four straight at home to Grand Prairie, the South Division's first-half runner-up. Lincoln has now dropped eight of its last 10 games and is 21-27 overall, a half-game behind Sioux City's overall 22-27 record....
Veteran lefthander Dusty Bergman gets the starting nod tonight for Sioux City after Lancaster decided to give Nick Singleton, fifth in the league with a 2.73 ERA, an extra day off before starting on Thursday. Bergman, rather amazingly, was tagged with losses in each of his first nine starts, pitching well enough to win four or five of those, but he finally got something better last time out -- a no-decision in a 6-2 win at Sioux Falls last Tuesday.
Story Comments
Read More and Post Comments 1 comment(s)
Please note: The following are comments from readers. In no way do they represent the views of The Sioux City Journal or Lee Enterprises. We will not edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to not post or to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain potentially libelous statements; obscene, explicit or racist language; personal attacks, insults or threats. Terms of Service
JM wrote on Jul 2, 2008 12:57 PM: