PCL1 Omaha Storm Chasers

Royals Game Notes

Published on July 3, 2008 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Omaha Storm Chasers News Release


TONIGHT: The Royals visit Principal Park for the finale of a 4-game series vs. Iowa. 1st pitch is 7:05 p.m. The Cubs lead this series 3-0 and are 9-2 vs. Omaha this season. Iowa is in 1st place in the Pacific Coast League's American Conference North, with Memphis 5.0 games back and Omaha 9.0 lengths behind. The pre-game show is on the air at 6:45 p.m. on News Talk 1420 KOTK and at www.oroyals.com.

LAST NIGHT: Iowa defeated the Royals for a 7th straight time, edging Omaha 6-5 in 15 innings. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 15th, Luis Figueroa doubled to left and scored on Bobby Scales' game-winning single up the middle. It came off Brad Salmon (5-3), the Royals' 5th pitcher in the 4-hour-20-minute contest. Iowa's 5th hurler of the game, Jesse Estrada (2-0), got the win. Estrada came on to begin the 11th inning in a 3-3 tie and gave up 2 runs. Shane Costa made it 4-3 with an RBI double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Mike Stodolka. However, the Cubs came back in their half of the 11th to tie the game at 5-5, collecting 3 hits off Jeff Fulchino, capped by Casey McGehee's 2-run single. McGehee had 4 RBI on the night, as his 2-run double in the 6th had given Iowa a 3-1 lead. The Royals trailed by that score entering the 9th, when they rallied for 2 runs to tie the contest and send it into extra innings.

ROYALS REPORT: Iowa is going for a 2nd straight 4-game sweep of the Royals tonight, having swept the last series between the 2 teams June 6-8 at Rosenblatt. The Cubs have won 9 of 11 meetings vs. Omaha this season, out-scoring the Royals 72-40. *** With 4 more RBI last night, McGehee now has 14 RBI in 11 games vs. the Royals. He's hitting .372 (16-for-43) in the season series. *** Wednesday night's loss drops Omaha's 2008 record to 5-12 in games decided in the final at-bat. *** Last night's game was the longest in terms of innings for the Royals since last August 29, when they won a 15-inning contest, 3-2, at Nashville. At 4:20, Wednesday night's game was 7 minutes shy of the team's longest this season, which was a 13-inning affair June 20 at Round Rock, won by Omaha 3-2. *** Over his last 14 games, Costa is hitting .362 (21-for-58) with a home run and 9 RBI. *** Mitch Maier, who was 4-for-8 last night, has hit in 4 straight games, going 9-for-21 (.429) with 2 RBI and 3 runs scored. *** Brayan Pena caught all 15 innings last night and went 2-for-5 with a triple, 2 RBI and a stolen base. Over his last 4 tilts, he's 7-for-14 and has driven in 4 runs. Pena is batting .333 in 14 games with Omaha. *** Gookie Dawkins was 0-for-5 Wednesday night, snapping his hitting streak at 7 games. Over his past 8 contests, he's batting .286 (8-for-28) with 2 home runs and 8 RBI. *** Devon Lowery fired 3.0 innings of scoreless relief last night, allowing just 1 hit, walking 1 and striking out 4. Over his last 3 appearances, he owns a 0.96 ERA (1 ER in 9.1 IP) and he has a 1.67 ERA in 15 outings with Omaha. *** In last night's game, Omaha set new season highs for walks by Royals batters (10) and runners left on base (16), while the 14 strikeouts for Royals pitchers equaled the team's season standard. *** Omaha batters struck out 12 times last night and have whiffed 36 times in the 1st 3 games of this series. *** Iowa's Andres Torres was 0-for-7 last night and struck out 5 times. He became the 1st opposing batter to have 5 K's in a game since June 9, 2005 vs. Memphis, when John Nelson fanned 5 times in a 12-inning tilt in Omaha, won by the Royals 6-5. *** The Cubs' starter tonight, J.R. Mathes, is 1-0 with a 0.96 ERA in 2 games (1 start) vs. the Royals this season.

STARTERS: RH Carlos Rosa (3-1, 3.60) vs. LH J.R. Mathes (5-3, 3.33)

Rosa makes his 7th start with Omaha, his 3rd vs. Iowa. The 23-year old right-hander's last start was last Saturday in game 1 of a doubleheader vs. Oklahoma; he got the win in the Royals' 6-1 victory (5.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K). That was Rosa's 1st start for Omaha since June 7, as he was promoted to KC last month and made his 1st 2 Major League appearances, both in relief. He was 0-0 with a 2.70 ERA with KC. Since allowing 5 runs in the 1st inning of his 1st start for Omaha on May 17 at Albuquerque, Rosa has surrendered just 7 earned runs in his last 29.0 Triple-A innings for a 2.17 ERA. In his 2 starts vs. Iowa, Rosa is 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA. He began this season with Double-A Northwest Arkansas, going 4-2 in 8 starts and leading the Texas League with a 1.20 ERA. In 45.0 innings, he gave up just 30 hits and 7 walks, striking out 42 batters. The native of the Dominican Republic is in the 6th season of his professional career, after being signed by KC as a non-drafted free agent on November 29, 2001. Entering this season, Rosa was ranked by Baseball America as the #7 prospect in the Royals' organization. In 2007, he opened the season with Class-A Wilmington and was 2-1 with a 0.39 ERA in 4 starts before being promoted to Double-A Wichita. He went 6-6 with a 4.36 ERA and 1 save in 21 games (17 starts) with the Wranglers. He struggled for Wichita early, but was 3-1 with a 2.87 ERA in 10 starts after the All-Star break, posting a 0.83 ERA in 4 August starts. After missing the entire 2005 season following Tommy John surgery, Rosa bounced back in 2006 to be named the Royals Minor League Pitcher of the Year and the Burlington (IA) Pitcher of the Year. He went 8-6 in 24 starts for the Bees and his 2.53 ERA was 4th in the Midwest League, before he was promoted to High Desert for 3 starts at the end of the '06 season. Rosa was signed by KC as a non-drafted free agent on November 29, 2001.

PROBABLES FOR SERIES VS. MEMPHIS:

Fri., 6:35 p.m.: RH Mike Parisi (5-1, 3.51) vs. RH Brandon Duckworth (3-7, 4.48)

Sat., 7:05 p.m.: RH P.J. Walters (6-1, 4.66) vs. LH Dusty Hughes (1-0, 2.31)

Sun., 1:35 p.m.: LH Jaime Garcia (4-4, 4.06) vs. RH Matt Wright (3-5, 6.06

Check out the Omaha Storm Chasers Statistics

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Pacific Coast League Stories from July 3, 2008


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