X's remain on top
By Terry Hersom, Journal sports editor | Posted: Friday, August 22, 2008
Sioux City's Nick McCoola tags out St. Paul's Steve Butler during Sioux City Explorers vs St. Paul Saints baseball action at Lewis and Clark park Thursday. (Staff photo by Tim Hynds)
The out-of-town scoreboard, nothing but ugly for so many nights in a row, wasn't getting any prettier.
The Lincoln Saltdogs were sailing to a 10-2 victory at Wichita and the Sioux Falls Canaries were storming past Shreveport, 11-1.
For the Sioux City Explorers, clinging to first place in American Association baseball's second-half North Division race, the game plan was to just keep right on winning.
And, that's what the X's did Thursday night at Lewis and Clark Park, prevailing 6-3 over the St. Paul Saints and the pitcher with the best earned run average among the active arms the 10-team independent league had to offer.
Alex Llanos got his teammates off on the right track, following a one-out first-inning walk to Nick McCoola with his team-leading 10th home run to provide an early 2-0 advantage.
Two innings later, after a solo homer by the Saints' Adam Hale cut the lead in half, Sioux City took charge, scoring three runs after St. Paul's Luis Villarreal walked two of the first three batters in the inning.
"Whenever those opportunities come up against a pitcher like that, you've got to take advantage,'' said Sioux City Manager Les Lancaster, who watched his team string together three consecutive singles in the third-inning rally.
Villarreal, just 4-5 on the year, came into the contest with a 2.54 ERA, ranking fourth in the league. With league leader Nick Singleton of Sioux City (2.24) presumably finished for the season due to elbow problems and his two nearest challengers both signed by organizations, that made the St. Paul lefthander as tough a task as the X's might have seen.
Coming off a brilliant 5-1 road trip to Grand Prairie and Pensacola, though, this was a Sioux City team that was totally dialed in to win. And, it didn't hurt having righthander Alexander Francisco on the hill.
The big righthander from the Dominican Republic wasn't at his very sharpest, but his six innings of work gave him a glossy 12-1 record, breaking a single-season club record for wins set by Davis Harris in 1995 and equaled by Aaron Jersild in 1997, each with 11.
"There were a few breaking balls he left up in the zone, but he made some pitches when he had to,'' said Lancaster. "He got the outs when we needed them and that's the main thing.''
"It's just a matter of staying loose, not being too tight and having fun,'' said Llanos, who also singled and walked in three additional plate appearances, continuing a 10-game hitting streak in which he is 19-for-42.
No worse than the North Division's co-leader since Aug. 1, the X's have won nine of their last 11 games to push their second-half record to 29-17 with only two more games here against St. Paul remaining.
Even so, they're still just a single game in front of Lincoln, which has also won nine of 11 and now six in a row, improving to 28-18. And, Sioux Falls, the first-half champ, could still share the second-half flag with a 27-19 record, winning three straight and 11 of its last 14.
Since the Canaries are already in, the North's second playoff berth is strictly between the X's and the Saltdogs.
"We're where we want to be right now, it's fun,'' said Llanos. "We're scoreboard watching and we've just got to go out and do our business and win.''
A crowd of 2,313 had barely settled in when a breeze from the southeast helped Llanos loft his two-run opposite-field homer over the left-field wall.
The big inning, of course, was the third. Dustin Jones drew a leadoff walk, Nick McCoola bunted him to second and Llanos, like Jones, was issued a free pass. Walter Young, who went 3-for-3 and was hit by a pitch, hit an infield chop that shortstop Jimmy Mojica couldn't handle and the bases were loaded with only one out.
Chris Grossman yanked a 3-1 pitch to left-center for a two-run single, then Juan Camacho singled through the middle to make it a 5-1 lead.
The Saints got single runs off Francisco in the fifth and sixth as Hale and Pichi Balet each scored after stroking doubles.
Sioux City's only other run came on Camacho's fifth-inning sacrifice fly, a one-out, bases-loaded blast that centerfielder Ron Fenwick hauled in at the warning track.
Ty Marotz followed Francisco with two shutout innings, then Brett Reid added to his club record for saves, notching his 24th with a perfect ninth inning.
The Lincoln Saltdogs were sailing to a 10-2 victory at Wichita and the Sioux Falls Canaries were storming past Shreveport, 11-1.
For the Sioux City Explorers, clinging to first place in American Association baseball's second-half North Division race, the game plan was to just keep right on winning.
And, that's what the X's did Thursday night at Lewis and Clark Park, prevailing 6-3 over the St. Paul Saints and the pitcher with the best earned run average among the active arms the 10-team independent league had to offer.
Alex Llanos got his teammates off on the right track, following a one-out first-inning walk to Nick McCoola with his team-leading 10th home run to provide an early 2-0 advantage.
Two innings later, after a solo homer by the Saints' Adam Hale cut the lead in half, Sioux City took charge, scoring three runs after St. Paul's Luis Villarreal walked two of the first three batters in the inning.
"Whenever those opportunities come up against a pitcher like that, you've got to take advantage,'' said Sioux City Manager Les Lancaster, who watched his team string together three consecutive singles in the third-inning rally.
Villarreal, just 4-5 on the year, came into the contest with a 2.54 ERA, ranking fourth in the league. With league leader Nick Singleton of Sioux City (2.24) presumably finished for the season due to elbow problems and his two nearest challengers both signed by organizations, that made the St. Paul lefthander as tough a task as the X's might have seen.
Coming off a brilliant 5-1 road trip to Grand Prairie and Pensacola, though, this was a Sioux City team that was totally dialed in to win. And, it didn't hurt having righthander Alexander Francisco on the hill.
The big righthander from the Dominican Republic wasn't at his very sharpest, but his six innings of work gave him a glossy 12-1 record, breaking a single-season club record for wins set by Davis Harris in 1995 and equaled by Aaron Jersild in 1997, each with 11.
"There were a few breaking balls he left up in the zone, but he made some pitches when he had to,'' said Lancaster. "He got the outs when we needed them and that's the main thing.''
"It's just a matter of staying loose, not being too tight and having fun,'' said Llanos, who also singled and walked in three additional plate appearances, continuing a 10-game hitting streak in which he is 19-for-42.
No worse than the North Division's co-leader since Aug. 1, the X's have won nine of their last 11 games to push their second-half record to 29-17 with only two more games here against St. Paul remaining.
Even so, they're still just a single game in front of Lincoln, which has also won nine of 11 and now six in a row, improving to 28-18. And, Sioux Falls, the first-half champ, could still share the second-half flag with a 27-19 record, winning three straight and 11 of its last 14.
Since the Canaries are already in, the North's second playoff berth is strictly between the X's and the Saltdogs.
"We're where we want to be right now, it's fun,'' said Llanos. "We're scoreboard watching and we've just got to go out and do our business and win.''
A crowd of 2,313 had barely settled in when a breeze from the southeast helped Llanos loft his two-run opposite-field homer over the left-field wall.
The big inning, of course, was the third. Dustin Jones drew a leadoff walk, Nick McCoola bunted him to second and Llanos, like Jones, was issued a free pass. Walter Young, who went 3-for-3 and was hit by a pitch, hit an infield chop that shortstop Jimmy Mojica couldn't handle and the bases were loaded with only one out.
Chris Grossman yanked a 3-1 pitch to left-center for a two-run single, then Juan Camacho singled through the middle to make it a 5-1 lead.
The Saints got single runs off Francisco in the fifth and sixth as Hale and Pichi Balet each scored after stroking doubles.
Sioux City's only other run came on Camacho's fifth-inning sacrifice fly, a one-out, bases-loaded blast that centerfielder Ron Fenwick hauled in at the warning track.
Ty Marotz followed Francisco with two shutout innings, then Brett Reid added to his club record for saves, notching his 24th with a perfect ninth inning.
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XsFanFrom MS wrote on Aug 22, 2008 8:30 AM: