Game 115: Reading @ Trenton

Game 115 – Reading Phillies @ Trenton Thunder
August 11, 2009
Waterfront Park – Trenton, NJ

Pitching Matchup: REA Mike Stutes vs. TRE Lance Pendleton

Starting Lineups:

READING

Quintin Berry, CF
Michael Spidale, LF
Dominic Brown, RF
Brian Stavisky, 1B
Neil Sellers, 3B
Steve Susdorf, DH
Tim Kennelly, C
Ozzie Chavez, SS
Brad Harman, 2B

Mike Stutes, P

TRENTON

Austin Krum, CF
Matt Cusick, 2B
Eduardo Nunez, SS
Chris Malec, 1B
P.J. Pilittere, C
Richie Robnett, DH
Edwar Gonzalez, RF
James Cooper, LF
Marcos Vechionacci, 3B

Lance Pendleton, P

Radio Links: Click here for the links to each team’s broadcast.

Live Box Score: The MILB.com direct link is here.

Around the Eastern League: For scores from around the EL, go here.

In-Game Updates (LIVE from the ballpark): Eduardo Nunez drives in a run early, with a rocket over the second baseman’s head…1-0, Thunder, B1.

It’s amazing…for all the PFP the Thunder do, the pitchers still make some questionable decisions.  Pendleton fielded a grounder pretty cleanly with runners on first and second, and had the runner out at third by a mile…but he rushed a throw to second, pulling Nunez off the bag.

Great job by Pendleton though, getting out of a no outs, bases loaded jam.  1-0, heading into B3.

Looks like Toronto called up Randy Ruiz.  I’ll be up at Yankee Stadium tomorrow, so hopefully I get a chance to speak with him.  He got a bad rap, but he was a fun guy to cover.

Richie Robnett scores on an errant throw on a stolen base attempt…2-0, Thunder, B4.

Chris Malec with a sac fly in the bottom of the 5th…3-0.

The internet’s been sketchy here…Reading had a sac fly in the top of the 6th and it’s 3-1 in the bottom of the 6th…Six decent frames out of Lance Pendleton, wonder if he gets a seventh.

Grant “Six-Six” Duff now in the game for the Thunder to start the seventh…

Steve Susdorf drives in a run with a single to right…it’s now 3-2, T8…and precariously close to some free baseball taking place.

Tim Kennelly with a deep double to the right field gap, scoring two…4-3, Phillies, T8.  So much for free baseball.

Justin Snyder is pinch hitting for Richie Robnett, who has apparently left the game with an injury from a play at second base where he was on the basepaths and neglected to slide.  Will try to find out his status after the game.

It’s now 6-3, heading into B9…

Austin Krum with a hard ground ball through the second baseman and…uhhh, then the right fielder.  A run scored and it’s now 6-4.  Cooper scored the run.  Two outs.

Matt Cusick with a single through the right side…6-5, still two outs.

In-Game Photos:

Dominic Brown

James Cooper

Derby

Lance Pendleton

Pendleton

Pendleton

P.J. Pilittere

Richie Robnett

In-Game YouTube Videos: Check out my YouTube account for videos updated throughout the game…

Final Score: 6-5, Phillies

Thunder Thoughts:

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

Game 115: Pre-Game Notes

5:35 PM — Spoke to Tony Franklin, as well as Chris Malec for the Lentych feature.

According to Franklin, the Stephens move was more of a numbers game type decision than it was anything else.  Paul Bush will not re-join the rotation, instead coming out of the bullpen since the team has a full rotation.

4:40 PM — Noah Hall has been placed on the DL.  Jay Stephens…I guess giving up one run his last time out was one run too many.  Honestly, I hate the way this guy gets treated by the organization…he deserves to be in Double-A.

Paul Bush and Humberto Sanchez have both been activated.

Spoke to Tim Lentych for that feature I was mentioning about a week back…he’s probably one of the better quotes on the team, which is actually kind of funny to me…

3:30 PM — Hope everyone’s ready for another episode of “Guess That Roster Move.”  Looks like two moves today, most likely the activations of Paul Bush and Humberto Sanchez.  I’ll have official word on what’s going on at some point today.

3:10 PM — Lineups are in…

READING

Quintin Berry, CF
Michael Spidale, LF
Dominic Brown, RF
Brian Stavisky, 1B
Neil Sellers, 3B
Steve Susdorf, DH
Tim Kennelly, C
Ozzie Chavez, SS
Brad Harman, 2B

Mike Stutes, P

TRENTON

Austin Krum, CF
Matt Cusick, 2B
Eduardo Nunez, SS
Chris Malec, 1B
P.J. Pilittere, C
Richie Robnett, DH
Edwar Gonzalez, RF
James Cooper, LF
Marcos Vechionacci, 3B

Lance Pendleton, P

Tomorrow’s giveaway is the ever exciting Austin Jackson Action Photo Paperweight (1st 1,500 fans 6+) courtesy of Capital Health.  It is 80′s night tonight…so if you remember Sportsflics baseball cards, it’s kind of like those…except it weighs a slight bit more.

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

All The Gory Details Of Jesus Montero’s Injury

In my professional opinion, Jesus Montero’s broken finger actually sounds pretty gross.  But I know that one thing I can never do is give too many details, so here are a few quotes from manager Tony Franklin about what the scene was like when the uber-prospect snapped his left middle finger.

“It was serious enough for surgery, you just don’t have surgery for no reason.  It was out of place.  I didn’t get a chance to see it — I don’t think it was a compound (fracture), no — but it was out of place and broken.  I guess it was broken right there at the knuckle, and they were trying to put it back in place when I got there.  Tim (Lentych) got to him pretty quick, and he grabbed the hand and finger and actually covered it.  I guess it was disfigured to some proportion.  When I got there, Tim had the finger covered and they were walking away.  I guess the shock hadn’t set in yet, but he was pretty calm.” 

“When I got to the bench, his head was down and Tim was pulling on it, trying to get it back in place, and eventually they got it back into place.  But it was pretty painful.  Something like that’s never happened to me, and I don’t know if any of you have experienced something like that, but it was pretty painful.  But they got it back in, and he felt a little better.  But I never got a chance to see what it actually looked like, but the guys who were there on the bench at the time said it was pretty disfigured at the time.  It had just popped out of place and was broken and all that sort of stuff.  So they had to do surgery on that.”

“It’s the middle finger, so it’s in the glove. The thing of it is, is that when you get your glove up, the ball can hit the back of it or hit the front of the glove.  We’re talking about a 90 miles per hour fastball, that’s a pretty significant amount of speed.  And when it hits you, even though you’ve got a glove on, it does damage.  These catchers do it all the time, that’s why they wear those thumb guards, because they’ll catch balls awkwardly.  It’s not easy.”

Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com