TL1 San Antonio Missions

San Antonio Missions Game Notes: July 5 vs. Springfield (7:05 PM CST)

Published on July 5, 2014 under Texas League (TL1)
San Antonio Missions News Release


TONIGHT'S GAME: Tonight is the opening game of a three-game series between the San Antonio Missions and the Springfield Cardinals at Wolff Stadium. This will be the final regular season series between the clubs in 2014, with the Missions winning six of the previous nine meetings. The last time the teams met in the Alamo City was on April 12, when the Missions avoided a sweep with a 3-2 win. After splitting the first six games of the season, San Antonio earned a series sweep at Hammons Field earlier in the week. The Missions finished the year with a 5-1 record in Springfield. San Antonio (46-39, 10-5) is currently first in the South Division second-half standings, 1.5 games ahead of first-half champ Frisco (48-35, 8-6). Since the beginning of May, the Missions own the Texas League's best record at 36-24. San Antonio enters play having won seven of their last nine. Springfield (39-46, 5-10), which arrives into town on a six-game losing skid, is currently 4th in the North Division, second-half standings, three games behind Arkansas (42-43, 8-7).

PITCHING MATCHUP: On the hill for San Antonio in tonight's series opener is right-hander Bryce Morrow, who picked up his first Double-A win on Monday at Springfield after tossing six innings of two-run, five-hit ball in game two of a doubleheader. His only mistake on the night was a home run off the bat of Curt Smith, which ended a club-high (for starters) scoreless innings streak at 15.1. In his four starts since arriving from High-A Lake Elsinore, Morrow is 1-1 with a 1.44 ERA and an impressive K:BB ratio of 21:4 over 25 innings. This will be Morrow's third start at the Wolff. Morrow's mound opponent tonight will be southpaw Kyle Hald, who is 6-2 with a 3.68 ERA in 13 games (12 starts) this season with Spring- field. Hald was on the hill for game one of Monday's doubleheader at Hammons Field, where he surrendered a season-high, tying six runs on a season-high 10 hits in a four-inning no-decision. The Springfield, VA native has allowed six runs and three homers in each of his last two outings.

LAST GAME: San Antonio celebrated Independence Day with a 7-4 win over Tulsa in front of a season-high Wolff crowd of 8,178. The Drillers opened scoring in the top of the second on Jose Gonzalez's two-out, RBI triple off Missions' starter James Needy. In the bottom of the frame, San Antonio responded with four of their own against Tulsa's Jon Gray, highlighted by a towering, three-run homer to left by Cody Overbeck. After Overbeck gave the Missions a 5-1 lead in the third with an RBI single to center, Casey McElroy pushed the lead to five in the sixth with a run-scoring single off reliever Ken Roberts. Tulsa cut their deficit to 6-2 in the seventh courtesy of Tyler Massey's RBI single to right. Massey's base knock ended the night for Needy, who scattered eight hits and no walks, while striking out four over six and two-thirds innings, stretching his club-high win streak to six in the process. Needy (6-3) has not lost a game since May 3 at Corpus Christi. During his win streak (11 games, 10 starts), Needy is 2nd in the TL in ERA at 1.47 (11 ER/67.1 IP). Matt Branham, who replaced Needy, gave the Missions a 7-2 lead in the seventh with a sacrifice fly. It was Branham's first career RBI. Tulsa capped scoring with a pair of unearned runs off Branham in the top of the eighth. Lefty Jeff Ibarra stranded two Drillers in the ninth to earn his first save of the season. Gray (7-4) took the loss for the Drillers after allowing five runs (four earned) on nine hits in just three and a third innings.

2014 SEASON SERIES: In their nine games with the Cards this season, the Missions are hitting a collective .248 (78-for- 314) with 12 doubles, a triple, 10 homers, 42 RBI and 45 runs scored. Adam Buschini was the big star of last weekend's series, going 7-for-11 with three homers, six RBI and four runs scored. Catcher Austin Hedges has also performed well against Springfield this season, hitting .345 (10-for-29) in seven games.

HOMER HAPPY: San Antonio has hit 62 home runs in their last 62 games after hitting just 12 in their first 23 contests. Since April 29 (start of 62-game run), the Missions are in a three-way tie for 1st in Double-A in homers, in addition to being T-13th in all of MiLB. San Antonio has hit 74 homers in 2014, which is tied with Harrisburg (WAS) for the 2nd most at the Double-A level. The Missions have out-homered their opponents by 30 (74-44) this season and have a 31-16 edge at the Wolff.

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT: After allowing a total of 50 runs in an eight-game span from June 4-11, San Antonio pitching has certainly returned to form. In their last 20 games, the Missions have pitched to a full-season MiLB best 2.12 ERA. During that stretch, San Antonio pitching has allowed just 151 hits (only eight homers) in 187 innings to go along with a K:BB ratio of 180:59. The 44 earned runs allowed since June 12 are the fewest among full-season MiLB squads.

STARTING WELL: The main reason that the Missions have turned it around on the hill as been the dominant stretch their starting staff has been on. During the last 20 games, the starters have pitched to a minuscule 1.52 ERA (21 ER) and have a K:BB ratio of 98:30 over 124 innings. Since June 12, the Missions have three starters in the TL's top 5 in ERA: Josh Geer 2nd at 1.04, Needy 4th at 1.42 and Morrow 5th at 1.44.

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