Tagged: Brad Nelson

Division Title Still Up For Grabs

The race for the Pacific Coast League Pacific North title got just a bit more interesting this afternoon. Just one loss away from elimination at the hands of the Tacoma Rainiers, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox fought back to come away with a 5-2 win, ensuring that tomorrow’s tilt will decide which of the two combatants goes on to face the Sacramento River Cats in the PCL Pacific Conference championship.

While the Rainiers (73-70) capitalized on a Mark Bellhorn throwing error to capture the victory on Saturday, it was the Sky Sox who took advantage of an early miscue today on the part of Tacoma starter Brandon Morrow.

After scoring a run in the top of the first thanks to an RBI double by Matt Murton, Colorado Springs (73-68) came right back to threaten again in the top of the second. With Christian Colonel on second after a leadoff double, center fielder Chris Frey bunted a high-and-inside fastball from Morrow right back to the mound. Morrow alertly wheeled and threw to third, trying to cut down Colonel, but his throw sailed wide of third baseman Chris Shelton’s glove and up the left field line, allowing Colonel to come home to stake the Sky Sox to a 2-0 lead. Morrow then retired the next hitters in order, striking out two.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Rainiers began to climb back, with Matt Tuiasosopo slugging a solo home run to right field on a 1-1 offering from Sky Sox starter Esmil Rogers.

Rehabbing Mariners righty Carlos Silva came on in relief of Morrow in the top of the fifth, retiring the side on 12 pitches. However, in the top of the sixth, Colorado Springs struck again. With one out, Murton slugged his second double of the game to right on the second pitch he saw from Silva. Just two pitches later, first baseman Dan Ortmeier rapped a line drive single past a sprawling Tuiasosopo and into right field, giving the Sky Sox the lead for good.

Tacoma fought back in the bottom of the frame when a two-out RBI single by Shelton plated center fielder Jerry Owens. After Colorado Springs tallied two runs in the top of the seventh off of reliever Jared Wells, the Rainiers threatened again in the bottom of the inning. Big Brad Nelson showed off a little speed–and some keen base-running awareness–when his infield pop fly began twisting in the wind. Seeing a trio of Sky Sox infielders struggling to track the ball against the steel-gray sky, Nelly hustled around first and slid into second just as third baseman Colonel came up empty on a diving attempt behind the mound, giving Nelson the ever-rare 60-foot infield double.

After the powerful Mike Wilson went down swinging, veteran catcher Jamie Burke worked a six-pitch walk from Rogers. Another walk to shortstop Oswaldo Navarro prompted a pitching change by Sky Sox manager Stu Cole. Reliever Ryan Speier fell behind 2-0 to Owens before retiring Tacoma’s leading hitter on strikes.

Speier’s next challenger was Tuiasosopo, who entered the game with a scorching .429 average in the first two games of the series with four runs scored. On his fourth pitch, Speier was able to get Tuiasosopo to ground into a force out at second to snuff out the rally.

Bees Halt Tacoma Streak at Nine

After winning nine straight games on the
road and pulling into a tie for first place with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox,
the Tacoma Rainiers fell victim last night to the third player in the Pacific
Coast League Pacific North sweepstakes, losing to the pesky Salt Lake Bees 5-3
to fall one game back in the chase for the division title.

Early on, it appeared that the Rainiers
(70-67) would be able to keep pace with the Sox–who beat up on Portland to the
tune of 11-4–as suddenly-scorching shortstop Oswaldo Navarro staked starter
Garrett Olson to a 2-0 lead through four innings.

The 24-year-old Venezuelan infielder was
a one-man wrecking crew for the Rainiers last night, going 3-for-3 with three
RBI–including run-scoring singles in the second and fourth innings. But in the
top of the fifth, even the Wizard of Os couldn’t hold back the Bees.

Olson allowed a leadoff single to Chris
Pettit and two straight one-out walks to load the bases for left fielder Reggie
Willits, owner of a .378 batting average with runners in scoring position.
Willits proceeded to crush a line-drive, bases-clearing double to center on
Olson’s fifth offering, putting Salt Lake (67-69) ahead for good.

But the Rainiers refused to go quietly.
In the bottom of the seventh, Navarro worked a leadoff walk. Center fielder
Jerry Owens then showed some excellent bat control, pin-pointing a groundball
single through the right side as second baseman Sean Rodriguez vacated his post
to cover second with Navarro running on contact.

With two runners in scoring position
thanks to Owens’s 22nd stolen base of the year, reliever Jeremy Hill issued a
six-pitch, two-out walk to the dangerous Chris Shelton to load the bases for
slugger Brad Nelson. After taking a 92-mph fastball on the corner for a called
strike, Nelson brought the fans to their feet with a long fly ball to left, but
the drive proved harmless as it plopped right into Willits’s waiting mitt to
end the threat.

Nelson came up again with one out and two
men on in the bottom of the ninth, but was out-matched by Bees closer Robert
Mosebach, who was able to strike out the heavy-hitting lefty and fellow masher
Mike Wilson for his seventh save of the season.

Notes: Over his 10-game hitting streak,
shortstop Oswaldo Navarro has gone 17-for-37 (.459) with two doubles, seven
runs and seven RBI … The streak is Navarro’s longest since a nine-game streak
with the Rainiers from May 4-12 in 2008 … Over the course of that streak,
Navarro has raised his batting average an astonishing 93 points … With his
1-for-4 night, Matt Tuiasosopo has now reached base safely in 13 straight games
and has recorded a hit in his last five contests.

Rainiers Ride Longball to Win

Coming into last night’s game, the Tacoma
Rainiers had hit four home runs in a single game twice, and had played nine
games in which every single starter registered a hit. Much to the joy of the
home crowd, the Rainiers did both against the Omaha Royals, shellacking their
PCL American Conference foes to the tune of 10-5.


Third baseman Chris Shelton led the
bombardment, going 2-for-4 with two circuit shots, the biggest being his
three-run round tripper that was a part of a five-run second inning.


Tacoma scored all five of their
second-inning runs via the longball, including back-to-back shots from right
fielder Mike Wilson and catcher Adam Moore. Wilson’s dinger was his first
Triple-A homer–a first-pitch line-drive to left off of Omaha starter Michael O’Connor.

After Wilson’s leadoff blast, Moore
deposited a 3-1 84-mph change up from O’Connor over the left field wall for his
seventh jack of the season. Center fielder Jerry Owens then rapped a single
through the right side and took third when second baseman Matt Tuiasosopo
stroked a line drive to deep left center that glanced off the mitt of a
sprinting Tim Raines, Jr.

With two men on and two down, Shelton
crushed the first pitch he saw from O’Connor to put the finishing touches on
the explosive frame.

The Rainiers (61-64) blasted O’Connor for
eight runs on 10 hits and three walks in 4.2 innings, and kept up the scoring
against reliever Chris Hayes, banging out six more base-knocks and plating two
more runs.

Shelton struck again in the bottom of the
fifth with his 14th home run of the season, and Tacoma stretched its lead to
9-2 by tacking on another run on a Mike Carp RBI single in the bottom of the
sixth.

Omaha (51-72) made things interesting
in the top of the eighth thanks to a three-run blast by first baseman Kila Ka’aihue,
but the Rainiers got some much-needed insurance thanks to a two-out RBI single
by Tuesday night’s hero Brad Nelson in the bottom of the frame.

Six Tacoma hitters registered multi-hit
games, including leadoff man Owens–who went 3-for-5 with two runs–and Tuiasosopo, who went 2-for-5 with three runs scored.

On the mound, Rainiers starter Brandon
Morrow turned in another strong start, allowing just three hits and two runs
through five innings, walking two and striking out five on 85 pitches–50 of
which he threw for strikes–to earn his third win of the season.

Notes: The Rainiers kept pace with first-place Colorado Springs in the PCL Pacific North, staying in second place, 5.5 games back of the Sky Sox, who throttled Oklahoma City 13-3. Third-place Salt Lake fell to 7.5 games back, losing to New Orleans 1-0.