Setting a High Standard
April 5, 2019 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
San Antonio Missions News Release
OKLAHOMA CITY - If right-hander Bubba Derby can match tonight what opening-day starter Adrian Houser achieved Thursday night, the Missions should have a good chance to win again.
Houser, also a right-hander, pitched one-hit, shutout ball for five innings in a 5-3 victory over the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
He struck out six, walked one and exited the game with a 2-0 lead in his first head-to-head duel against Dodgers major-league star Clayton Kershaw.
"I felt really good," Houser told Missions radio broadcaster Stu Paul in an interview before Game 2. "Notty (catcher Jacob Nottingham) had a good game-plan. We stuck with that. We attacked it.
"Going up against Kershaw is a chance a lot of people don't have. It's a lot of opportunities that don't (always) come around, to face him and go against him."
Zack Brown is up next
The top pitching prospect in the Brewers' system is scheduled to start for the Missions Saturday in Game 3 of the season-opening series against the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
Right-hander Zack Brown was 9-1 with a 2.44 earned run average last year in Double-A.
The 6-1 right-hander also pitched well for the Brewers in major league spring training. He said in Phoenix near the end of the training session that it's a motivation to work out with veteran players that nearly reached the World Series last year.
"This was our first big-league spring training, and it was just an awesome environment," Brown said. "The guys that were in the heat of (last year's pennant race) at the end, you could tell that there's a certain kind of energy.
"They've created a good aura in the (spring training) environment. It was awesome. I just jumped right into what they were doing. It was kind of like an unfinished business type of thing, is what I kept hearing."dd
First base by committee
The Missions are expected to play "five or six players" at first base early this season as Jake Gatewood, one of the Brewers' Top-30 prospects, rehabilitates from a knee injury.
A by-committee approach stems from the absence of Jake Gatewood, who was having an all-star season last year in Double-A before he injured his knee.
Troy Saladino played first on Thursday. Lucas Erceg will play first tonight. Others who could get the call include Nottingham, Cory Spangenberg or Nate Orf.
Missions manager Rick Sweet said it could be a month and maybe longer before Gatewood would be available to play in Triple-A.
"We're not looking, until May-June," Sweet said who added that Gatewood may start his season in Double-A.
"To get him back on track before he coes here," Sweet said. "But that's not set in stone."
Gatewood was a mid-season all-star in the Southern League and had hit 19 home runs, before he suffered a season-ending knee injury in July in Jackson, Miss., while playing for the Biloxi Shuckers.
Scott Coolbaugh in OKC
Former San Antonio resident Scott Coolbaugh is the hitting coach for the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Coolbaugh played in high school at Roosevelt and in college at Texas. He played four seasons in the majors with the Rangers, Padres and Cardinals.
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Pacific Coast League Stories from April 5, 2019
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