FL Joliet Slammers

August 23 Joliet Slammers Game Notes

August 23, 2012 - Frontier League (FL)
Joliet Slammers News Release


JOLIET SLAMMERS (35-51) @ FLORENCE FREEDOM (48-38)

Thursday, August 23 - 6:05 p.m. CT

Home of the Florence Freedom- Florence, KY

Game #87 - Road Game #42 (35-51), (17-24)

RHP #39 Tommy Mendoza (4-5, 4.40 ERA) vs. RHP #25 Brad Allen (1-1, 1.54 ERA)

Last time out...

The Slammers dropped a back and forth battle with the Florence Freedom last night by a score of 6-4. Patrick Norris hit a home run on the first pitch he saw to start the game. But the Freedom responded with an Eddie Rodriguez home run in the second to tie the game at one. A RBI grounder from Norris put the Slammers back on top in the in the third. But Florence responded with three runs in the bottom of the frame that included the ejection of Joliet starting pitcher Jacob Sanchez after a close play at first base. Joliet rallied to tie the game in the seventh inning on a two-RBI single by Andrew Brauer. Florence tallied a run in the bottom of the frame off Rey Cotilla on a Pierre LePage RBI single and they added an insurance run in the eighth on another Rodriguez home run. With the loss the Slammers fell to a season high 16 games under .500.

Tommy Mendoza is coming off a solid outing against the Lake Erie Crushers on August 17. He went six and a third innings, giving up two runs on six hits in a no-decision. The Slammers ended up losing the game 4-3. Mendoza has faced Florence once this season and picked up a no-decision on July 5. He went five and two thirds innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits in a 5-4 loss for Joliet. Mendoza made his first start for the Slammers on June 27, 2011 and went on to post a 6-2 record during the regular season. He won both his starts in the playoffs while posting a 1.50 ERA. Mendoza was a 5th round draft pick of the Angels in 2005. He has a career ERA of 3.97 over six seasons in affiliated baseball. The right-handed pitcher rose to the Triple-A level at the age of 21 in 2009. He was 7-7 with a 3.36 ERA for Double-A Arkansas and was named a Texas League All Star before earning the promotion to Salt Lake. With the Bees he went 2-1 with a 2.91 ERA. Mendoza suffered from multiple injuries in 2010 which only allowed him to pitch in 10 games.

Away from home...

Joliet has seven road games remaining on the season starting tonight. They must win all of them to finish .500 away from Silver Cross Field as they are currently 17-24 on the road.

Trying to avoid the sweep...

Joliet is trying to avoid being swept for the 4th time on the road and the 8th time overall this season.

Freedom Follies...

The Slammers have never beaten the Florence Freedom. Joliet is 0-11 all-time against Florence.

Losing streak...

The Slammers are currently on an eight-game losing streak, the longest losing streak in franchise history. They are currently a season worst 16 games under the .500 mark.

Workhorse...

Rookie left-hander Geoff Brown made his league-leading 43nd appearance of the season out of the bullpen Tuesday night. Brown currently sports a 3.86 ERA in 39.2 innings with 44 strike outs.

Netzel heating up...

Brad Netzel is currently working on a 16-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 29 of the team's past 31 games. He went 4-10 in the team's most recent series against Lake Erie. Netzel's 16-game hitting streak is the longest in franchise history.

Walk this way...

Abel Nieves has drawn a team-leading 52 walks this season, good for a tie for sixth in the Frontier League. Even more impressively, he's the only active Slammers player to record more walks than strike outs this season as he has only fanned 37 times in 297 at bats.

Error indicator...

Joliet is 11-38 in games when they make an error. They are 24-13 in games when they do not make an error.

Check out the Joliet Slammers Statistics



Frontier League Stories from August 23, 2012


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