The Denver Brewers:
Antonio Valadez, a 22-year old sinkerball specialist, who was a surprise addition to the club when the roster was expanded on September 1st, is control challenged but the latest development indications are that he might have some potential still to become a useful back end of the rotation arm. Yesterday he was given the first start of his career at the big league level and although he looked a bit out of his depth he was actually quite good for his first 4 innings. Things got a little hairy in the 5th inning but while his pitching line does show that he gave up 5 runs on 8 hits over 4 2/3rds innings, he certainly wasn't helped by having
Ben Flynn come in with 2 men on base and promptly give up a double which scored them both. All in all it wasn't really the worst first taste of the bigs and the kid will almost surely get more chances in the future. Plus the Brewers weren't able to get much going against Chris Martin, who was trying to avoid taking his 20th loss of the season. Martin, who was picked by the Brewers in the WPK inaugural draft but was traded away before making it to the big leagues, has had some fine seasons in his long but uneven career, but at this stage his basically 2-pitch repertoire might make him a bit poorly cast as a starter. (He has a great curveball, a good sinker, and a poor changeup.)
Joe Willemse went 2 for 5 and hit his 11th double and
Brett Taranto and
Antonio Acuna also doubled- for
Brett it was the 32nd two-bagger and for
Acuna it was number 13.
The Shoeless Joe League Pennant Race:
And the Boston Berserkers fall out of the race with a loss to Philadelphia.
But with Philly, El Paso, and Columbus all winning things stay tight and unchanged at the top.
We now enter the month of October and each team has one last 3-game series. Two of the teams play each other as El Paso hosts Columbus while Philadelphia is at Houston.
El Paso's magic number is 2 so they clearly are in the driver's seat but playing the Whalers is a much tougher task then taking on the last place Cavaliers. So this should be fun and exciting to the end.