Hillcats Game Notes
May 27, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Lynchburg Hillcats News Release
THE HILLCATS:
Lynchburg blanked Salem 3-0 in game one last night at City Stadium...They extended their lead to two games for first place in the Northern Division and the best record in the league...Tonight is game two of a three-game series against Salem and the second contest of a six-game homestand...
VS. SALEM:
The Hillcats opened up their season series with the Red Sox by taking two out of three in Salem and moved to 3-1 against the Red Sox with their win last night...Last season Lynchburg won the season series against Salem, then the Avalanche and an affiliate of the Houston Astros, by a count of 12-8, and were 8-2 here at City Stadium...Salem was the only team in the Carolina League that the Hillcats had a winning record against...In the all-time series Salem leads 146-130 but they are 61-75 in the Hill City and Lynchburg has won nine games in a row over Salem at Calvin Falwell Field...
CATCHING THE WORM:
Lynchburg is 13-1 in series openers this season...They have won 12 consecutive series openers...Not surprisingly, they are 9-2-2 in sets so far this season...They have been led y 3B Pedro Alvarez in those contests...In the 13 series openers he has played in this season he has gone 20-for-46 (.435) with three doubles, six home runs, 18 RBI 11 runs scored and 13 walks...Last night he went 1-for-4 with a pair of RBI in the 3-0 win...Alvarez is now tied for second in the league in home runs (9) and alone in second with 37 RBI...
FRIENDLY FALWELL:
Last night's win moved the Hillcats to 15-6 at home this season...This six-game homestand comes right after and right before a stretch of 13 out of 16 on the road...Lynchburg is in the middle of 26 out of 38 games away from Calvin Falwell Field...Last season the Cats were just 32-36 at City Stadium...
SWEET SERIES SUCCESS:
The series win against the P-Nats last weekend made it six series in a row without dropping a set for Lynchburg...They have not lost a series since the beginning of May when they lost two out of three at City Stadium to Kinston...Since then, they have gone 5-0-1 in sets and tonight they have a chance to secure a series win over Salem...
SET AGAINST THE SOUTH:
This series against Salem is a series against a Southern Division opponent sandwiched between seven series against the Northern Division...The Hillcats are in the midst of playing 23 of 26 against the North...They just completed three series in a row against their division foes, and went 6-4 over that stretch...
BLANKED:
The shutout of Salem last night was the third of the season by Lynchburg...It was the second time in those three games LHP Chi-Hung Cheng started the game...In both the shutout at Myrtle Beach (5/4) and last night Cheng tossed five scoreless innings en route to the win...
COMING HOME:
INF Jose De Los Santos has scored 30 runs in the 27 games he has played in this season for Lynchburg...He scored five times in the series at Potomac and seven times on the seven-game road trip...Last Friday night was the third time this season he has scored three times in a game...He also has stolen 19 bases in 27 games...He stole four in the previous series and seven on the road trip...De Los Santos is third in the league in runs scored and is second in stolen bases despite the fact that he has missed 17 games with a pair of injuries...
ALL GOOD THINGS MUST END:
INF Ray Chang had his 15-game hit-streak halted with an 0-for-3 performance last night...Over that stretch Chang went 25-for-56 (.446) with 17 RBI and 13 runs scored...His 15-game hit-streak covered 30 Hillcats games and he had gotten a hit in 18 of the 20 games he had played in...Chang is batting .542 (13-for-24) with men in scoring position this season, including his bases clearing double with two outs in the seventh inning Saturday night that turned a one-run deficit into a two-run Lynchburg lead...Over the recent seven-game road trip he went 9-for-18 with four doubles, seven RBI and four runs scored...
TONIGHT'S OPPOSING PITCHER:
RHP Dave McKae was signed by the Red Sox as a minor league free agent after spending the first five years of his career in the San Fransisco Giants organization...He began his professional career in 2005 at the Short-Season Low-A level with Salem-Keizer and he went 3-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 19 games (four starts) for the Volcanoes...In 2006 he threw at the full season Low-A level with Augusta and posted an 8-2 record with a 1.66 ERA in 19 games (15 starts) for the GreenJackets...The next year he advanced to High-A level to San Jose and went 5-1 with 1.93 ERA in 11 starts for the Giants before he was promoted to Double-A...In 17 starts with the Connecticut Defenders McKae went 6-4 with 4.24 ERA...Last season he returned to the Defenders and had an 8-9 record with a 4.57 ERA...This season he has put up a 1-1 mark with a 4.62 ERA in seven starts with Salem...He took a no-decision in his one start against Lynchburg, working six innings he allowed four runs on six hits in a game the Red Sox came back to win 7-4 in Salem...
Carolina League Stories from May 27, 2009
- Kinston Sweep Short Series with Wednesday Wins - Potomac Nationals
- Hillcats Vanquish Red Sox - Lynchburg Hillcats
- K-Tribe Take Both Games in a Doubleheader - Kinston Indians
- Uphill Climb in Lynchburg as Sox Fall 4-2 - Salem Red Sox
- Winston-Salem Dash to Open New Ballpark in 2010 - Winston-Salem Dash
- Bats Quiet as Rocks Lose - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Hillcats Game Notes - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Beato Solid Again in 4-2 Win - Frederick Keys
- Pelicans Clinch First Series Win - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Sullivan Stellar as Pelicans Blank Dash - Winston-Salem Dash
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