Tagged: Chris Woodward

June 9, 2009

VOTE RAINIERS! Triple-A All-Star Game Voting Open

The ballots are out, and now is your time to shine! �Go to the homepage of Minor League Baseball and click the “VOTE NOW” button at the top of the page, because you–the fans–get a say-so in who starts this year’s Triple-A All-Star Game, just down the road in Portland, Ore.

Sixteen Tacoma Rainiers players are listed on the ballot. Fans can choose two starting pitchers, two relievers, three outfielders and one of every other position, including designated hitter.

Rainiers starting pitching candidates include righties Andy Baldwin (4-3, 4.55 ERA, 40 Ks) and Gaby Hernandez (3-4, 4.88, 42 Ks), as well as lefty Chris Seddon (4-3, 4.93, 29 Ks).

Tacoma relievers on the ballot include Randy Messenger (11-for-13 in save opportunities), Justin Thomas (19 Ks in 24 innings) and Eric Hull (team-leading five wins, 32 Ks in 34.1 innings)

Behind the dish, the Rainiers have one candidate: Jeff Clement. Since Clement has not armored up in the catcher’s gear for a while, he’s also listed on the designated hitter ballot, so feel free to cast your write-in vote for current Tacoma starter�Adam Moore (.301, 5 doubles, 2 HR, 14 RBI in 20 games).

At first base, cast your vote–and your line–for Tacoma’s Big Fish, Mike Carp. The Rainiers first baseman is hitting .306 with a .554 slugging percentage, thanks to 10 home runs and 16 doubles. Carp has knocked in 31 runs and scored 36.

At second, Tacoma has Callix Crabbe, with his sure hands and quick feet, as well as precedent, behind him: last year’s Rainiers representative was middle infielder Oswaldo Navarro.

Manning the keystone slot for Tacoma on this All-Star ballot is Chris Woodward, who has provided a steadying hand and a major-league glove to the Rainiers this season. The veteran of 607 big league games has hit .305 in 45 games, with 12 doubles and 14 RBI. He also sports a .384 on-base percentage.

Campaigning for a spot at third base in Portland is Mr. May himself, Chris Shelton. Overall, Shelton is hitting .318 with seven home runs and 45 RBI. Over the month of May, however, Shelton was an absolute terror for opposing pitchers, batting .398 with five home runs and 26 RBI. In June, Shelton has “cooled off,” hitting .303 with one home run and nine RBI in eight games.

In the outfield, the Rainiers are running four candidates: Michael Saunders, Jerry Owens, Prentice Redman and Bryan LaHair. Problem is, you can only choose three.

If speed and small-ball is your game, then vote for Saunders, Owens and Redman. That trio forms perhaps the speediest outfield in the PCL, with the three of them combining for 16 stolen bases, 26 doubles and 100 runs scored. If home runs are more your flavor, then vote for Saunders, Redman and LaHair. Combined, that group has socked 28 homers over the wall. Those three have totaled 33 doubles on the year, and all sport slugging percentages over .500 (Saunders–.539, Redman–.567, LaHair–.506).

As for designated hitters, the Rainiers have three to choose from: Clement, Shelton and Matt Tuiasosopo. Shelton is already spoken for at third base, and Tuiasosopo has been on the shelf for most of the season due to minor elbow surgery. That leaves us with Jeff Clement, owner of the longest hitting streak this season in the PCL: a 20-game stretch that ended on June 1. Who better to fill the position of designated hitter than the Hitman himself?

Do your duty as a citizen of Minor League Nation, and vote ‘Rainiers’ for this year’s Triple-A All-Star Game!

June 3, 2009

Shelton Slams Slaten in Opener

Rainiers third baseman Chris Shelton had
a scorching month of May, hitting .398 with 26 RBI, and while that merry month
may have ended three days ago, it appears as if someone in the Tacoma clubhouse
must have forgotten to turn the calendar. Shelton continued his torrid hitting
last night, crushing a bases-loaded, two-out payoff pitch from Doug Slaten over
the visiting clubhouse beyond the left field wall more than 410 feet away to
provide the winning margin, as the Rainiers took down the Reno Aces 5-1.

Tacoma (28-24) and Reno (23-30) were
locked in a pitching duel throughout most of the evening, with Aces starter
Hector Ambriz throwing a sparkling 7.1 innings with four strikeouts and
Rainiers righty Josh Hall scattering six hits over his 5.1 innings of work.

The only run of the evening through eight
innings came in the top of the third, when shortstop Abraham Nunez walked to
lead off the inning and came around to score on a Brandon Watson single and a
Trent Oeltjen groundout.

After Hall efficiently worked his way
into the sixth, he turned the game over to the Tacoma bullpen, which held the
Aces to one hit and two walks over the next 3.2 innings.

Right fielder Bryan LaHair led off the
bottom of the eighth with a line-drive single to right fielder Chris Roberson,
who saw the ball glance off his mitt, allowing LaHair to take second.

After a walk to catcher Adam Moore,
Ambriz gave up a picture-perfect sacrifice bunt to Rainiers shortstop Chris
Woodward, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Aces manager
Brett Butler then turned to his southpaw specialist Slaten to face lefties
Jerry Owens, Michael Saunders and Jeff Clement.

Tacoma countered, sending the
right-handed hitting Prentice Redman to the plate for Owens. Slaten chose to
avoid Redman’s big bat, issuing an intentional walk to load the bases–his
second free pass allowed in 11 innings of work.

After Clement flied softly to shallow right–ending his
hitting streak at 20 games–Shelton stepped up to the dish, and proceeded to annihilate
Slaten’s seventh pitch of the at-bat, sending a towering grand slam to left,
vaulting himself into the PCL league leaders as he crossed the plate for his
43rd RBI on the first Rainiers grand slam of the season.

May 22, 2009

Saunders Saves it For Rainiers

It’s the scenario every kid dreams of growing up: two outs,
bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, game on the line with the ball in your
hands. When the time came for Rainiers left fielder Michael Saunders to live that scenario, the speedy Canadian came up huge.�

After flubbing
a fly ball attempting to make a shoestring catch just moments earlier, Saunders
fielded a line-drive single off the bat of Memphis designated hitter Mike Brito
and gunned pinch runner Casey Rowlet out at home plate to preserve a
dramatic 7-6 Tacoma victory.

Despite scoring six runs for the second time in 11 games,
the Redbirds could not top the 12-hit Rainiers attack last night, an attack
that saw all starters–save for third baseman Mike Morse–tally at least one hit.

After falling behind 2-0 after three innings, Tacoma clawed
back thanks to the timely hitting of center fielder Jerry Owens and designated
hitter Jeff Clement in the bottom of the third.

With shortstop Chris Woodward on second following a one-out
double, Owens singled on a seeing-eye grounder to right to drive in the first
Rainiers run of the contest. With two men on, Clement lofted a broken-bat dying
quail to shallow center to drive in the speedy Callix Crabbe to tie the game at
two.

Clement–who went 4-for-5 on the night–came up big again in
the bottom of the fifth, driving in Owens on an RBI double to touch off what
turned out to be a four-run inning for the Tacoma Nine. Newly-acquired slugger
Brad Nelson then came up with his first hit of the season, a two-run line-drive
single to center. A jovial Crabbe–Nelson’s teammate last year in Nashville–made
sure to preserve the moment, asking for the ball to be tossed to the dugout to
be preserved for posterity.

The Redbirds (21-17) responded with two runs in the top of
the sixth on a two-run double by shortstop Donovan Solano, and then things got
interesting.

With the Rainiers (21-19) up 7-4 thanks to–what else?–an RBI
double by Clement, Memphis staged a comeback against normally-untouchable
closer Randy Messenger in the final frame.

Solano led off with a line drive double to center, and took
third on a rare error by Woodward on a Shane Robinson grounder. With one out,
Messenger hit newly-promoted masher Brett Wallace to load the bases, setting
the stage for Saunders’ heroics. Playing Allen Craig deep, Saunders was unable
to snare a line drive RBI single by the Redbirds first baseman, but redeemed
himself by gunning out pinch-runner Rowlett, who tried to follow Robinson home
on Brito’s single.

And now for some photos from the evening:

Starting pitcher Andy Baldwin earned his third win of the season with a hard-fought 5.1 innings of work.

Michael Saunders, who came up with a big play at the plate in the top of the ninth, was also busy at the dish. �The Rainiers left fielder went 2-for-4 on the night with two runs, a double and a walk.