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TL Amarillo Sod Poodles

Lin Spins Quality Starts, Vukovich Leaves Yard in Sod Poodles' 3-1 Win

September 9, 2023 - Texas League (TL)
Amarillo Sod Poodles News Release


Little Rock, Arkansas - The Amarillo Sod Poodles took a 3-1 series advantage over the Arkansas Travelers with a 3-1 win on Friday night at Dickey-Stephens Park. Yu-Min Lin tossed his third quality start in Double-A while A.J. Vukovich tacked on the late insurance runs with a two-run home run to put the game out of reach as Amarillo won another pitcher's duel.

Lin allowed a leadoff single in and then issued a walk to begin the bottom of the first inning. After a stolen base put Jonatan Clase on third, a strikeout, lineout, and then a snap throw down to third by Juan Centeno caught Clase too far off third base helped to keep the Travs off the scoreboard in the opening inning. Another leadoff single in the bottom of the second was left on base as Lin worked through each of the next three Travs batters.

Amarillo pushed in front in the top of the third thanks in part to an Arkansas error to keep Amarillo at the plate with two outs. After Jancarlos Cintron put himself into scoring position by swiping second, a 10-pitch battle by Duzenack at the plate ended with a RBI single to score the game's first run. Duzenack was picked off himself to bring an end to the top of the third inning for Amarillo. The Sod Poodles left a pair aboard including a runner in scoring position in the fourth after a two-out hit by pitch and then a single was followed by a strikeout to thwart the scoring opportunity.

The Sod Poodles used a two-hit top of the sixth to build on their lead. Following a leadoff walk and fielder's choice, Vukovich stepped to the plate. The D-backs' no. 10-rated prospect hit an opposite-field two-run homer making it a 3-0 lead for Amarillo.

After the second, Lin worked his next four innings with just two hits allowed, both singles coming in the bottom of the sixth. After another leadoff single, Lin worked through the next two batters before a two-out RBI single put Arkansas on the scoreboard. A walk followed with Lin ending his outing with his third strikeout to leave another two on base under his watch.

Will Mabrey took over on the mound after Lin's quality start and allowed a walk and picked up two strikeouts to cap his lone inning of work on Friday night. Amarillo was once again unable to capitalize with a runner in scoring position in the top of the eighth as three strikeouts in the inning helped to negate a walk and single that placed two runners on base.

Right-hander Raffi Vizcaino was called upon in the bottom of the eighth and was greeted with a leadoff double. With the potential tying run stepping to the plate, Vizcaino proceeded to retire the next three to get out of the inning with the two-run lead still intact. A 1-2-3 top of the ninth sent Vizcaino right back to work looking to collect the six-out save for the Soddies. He did just that, retiring the Travs in order in the game's final half-inning with a pair of groundouts and a fly-out to slam the door on Arkansas.

The Sod Poodles will now go for the series win if they can earn a victory in either of the remaining two games of the series. Amarillo's magic number to clinch a spot in the Texas League Playoffs is down to just four with the Midland RockHounds sitting four games back with eight to play in the regular season. First pitch from Dickey-Stephens Park on Saturday night is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

NOTES:

SUPER YU-MIN: D-backs' no. 4-rated prospect Yu-Min Lin tossed his third quality start for Amarillo and his first since beginning his Double-A tenure with consecutive quality starts on July 16th and 22nd against Frisco and Wichita respectively. The southpaw also earned the win on Friday night, improving to 4-2 over his first 10 starts in Amarillo threads. After surrendering just four hits to the Travelers - all singles - Lin has allowed just 46 hits over his 54.0 IP with just 14 of those hits going for extra bases.

23 JUMP STREET: With his sixth-inning two-run blast, A.J. Vukovich now sits at 23 home runs on the year, second most in the D-backs farm system in 2023. He is also fourth in the Texas League this year in the category. The D-backs' no. 10-rated prospect is now just one RBI shy of tying the Amarillo single-season RBI record currently held by Leandro Cedeño who had 93 for the Sod Poodles last season. Vukovich's 23 home runs are also just two shy of a tie for the second-most in a single season in team history. Stone Garrett had 25 for Amarillo during the 2021 season.

COUPLE BEERS: Seth Beer turned in a multi-hit effort along with A.J. Vukovich on Friday night, finishing the game 2-for-3 with a hit by pitch. Over his last 20 games, Beer is hitting .382 (29-for-76) with nine extra-base hits and 11 RBI. He has 11 multi-hit performances over his last 20 including three over his seven games in September.

WILL IT HOLD: Amarillo left-hander Will Mabrey collected his third hold of the season after working a hitless bottom of the seventh in the only inning he was asked to pitch on Friday night. In 15 appearances with Amarillo, Mabrey is 4-0 with a 3.42 ERA and now has three holds while also converting on both of his save opportunities. Eight of his 15 appearances have been scoreless while six have been hitless outings and five of those six all being at least 1.0 IP. Since arriving in Amarillo, the former sixth-round pick has yet to allow more than two earned runs in any appearance over his 23.2 IP with 13 outings with one or fewer runs allowed on his watch.

LET'S GET VIZZY: Raffi Vizcaino collected his third save with Amarillo after working the final two innings of game four on Friday night. The righty allowed just one hit, a leadoff double in the bottom of the eighth before retiring each of the next six he faced to preserve the two-run win for Amarillo. In 25 appearances with Amarillo in 2023, Vizcaino has worked 12 scoreless appearances and 18 with one or fewer runs coming against him. Over his last three games, he has pitched 5.0 IP and allowed just one run with five strikeouts, just two hits allowed, and issued one walk. Over 122 career relief appearances, Vizcaino has only had more than three saves in a season once before, when he had seven in 2019 with High-A San Jose and Double-A Richmond in the Giants organization. He has now converted on 15-of-19 save opportunities in his career.

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