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From rotoworld.com Salome was suspended 50 games after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance. They caught a very good prospect this time. Salome, who is listed at 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds, is a catcher with a fair amount of offensive potential. The Brewers were looking at him as their catcher of the future, though he wasn't likely to be ready until 2010. He was hitting .318/.341/.465 in 258 AB for Single-A Brevard County.

NO FOOLIN' GULIN In this corner, Tennessee starter Donnie Veal, the Cubs top-ranked pitching prospect and #2 prospect in the organization......... And in this corner, for the Huntsville Stars, 8-game winner and ace pitcher Lindsay Gulin, 17-9 as a Southern League hurler since his days with Jacksonville in 2000, and the oldest player on the Stars' roster........ Think you're going to see a pitching duel?........ Sure. But it didn't involve Veal. And it shouldn't have been any surprise....... On April 12, at Smokies Park, he walked 7 in 4 innings and lost, 5-1...... On June 22, the Stars ended a 10-game string of scoring 3 or fewer runs, by getting 6 runs off Veal on 9 hits and 3 walks, en route to an 8-1 victory....... Then on July 7, just before the All-Star break, Veal lasted only 3 innings, losing 7-1....... Tonight, Veal became the 7th pitcher in history to lose 4 games in a single season to the Stars. That's how it will likely end since we'll no longer see the Smokies this year after Saturday....... For the record, Veal, 0-4 vs. the Stars, gave up 16 runs (15 earned) on 19 hits and 14 walks in 13 innings for a 10.38 ERA....... Of the 6 pitchers Veal has joined dubious company with, none have a worse ERA. (Steve Foster of the 1990 Chattanooga Lookouts just misses with a 10.29 ERA in 7 innings, the fewest of the six.) Veal's one and only inning lasted 45 pitches........ Leadoff hitter Steve Moss worked a full count, fouled off a pitch, then walked. Veal was ahead of Ryan Crew 1-and-2, when he lined a two-hopper to right, sending Moss to second....... Steve Sollmann worked a 3-2 count, then dropped a hit into shallow center. Moss, who was on the move, scored to give the Stars a 1-0 lead........ Brendan Katin then kept the party going with a sharply-stroked grounder up the middle for a single to score Crew from third, then Adam Heether walked to load the bases........ The Stars, however, squandered the opportunity for a big inning when Carlos Corporan, 0-for-1 with the bases full this year, extended a month-long slump to 0-for-26 when he struck out on a 94 mph fastball....... The next hitter, Hernan Iribarren was ahead on the count, 3-and-1, when he tossed the bat away, thinking he had just walked to force in another run, but home plate ump Doug Levy motioned him back and instead, he flied out to left for the 2nd out....... Veal then got out of the inning after going full on Alcides Escobar, when after fouling off a couple of pitches, he hit a broken-bat grounder to 3rd....... The Stars left the bases loaded in the 2nd, too, against reliever Adelberto Mendez, when Heether grounded a 1-1 pitch to short. But Gulin got all the support he needed....... Casey McGehee led off with a double into the gap in right-center in the 2nd inning, then was stranded on 3rd after a couple of ground outs and a strikeout on Nate Spears. Chris Walker led off with a single to center in the 4th, and was stranded in scoring position after a wild pitch to Matt Craig, and Walker hit a hard grounder past Heether for a single in the 6th, but was thrown out stealing to end the inning....... Walker and McGehee, would later reach base on walks, but that was the extent of Tennessee's offense against Gulin, Corey Thurman, Mitch Stetter (his first appearance for the Stars since July 6, 2005), and Luis Pena, who finished the game with a 97 mph strikeout (swinging) on Craig. The Stars won their 10th straight ballgame behind Gulin, who won his 5th straight and the bullpen extended their scoreless streak to 20 innings. Carlos Corporan also ended an 0-for-27 slump at the plate when he crushed a ball to center for a double in the 5th. And Alcides Escobar, who had made an error in three straight games, put an end to that streak...... Not all the streaks were good. Adam Heether's 9-game hitting streak came to an end in the 7th when he tried to send a fly ball into the gap in left-center, but Tyler Colvin caught up to it........ Heether, nevertheless, is hitting .451 for July and .331 since leaving April with a .132 average........ The Stars will go for their longest winning streak since 1988, Friday, when Steve Hammond and Mark Holliman face each other. Talk about your pitching duels, Hammond and Holliman are two of only four pitchers in the league with a complete game shutout this year and Hammond is the only pitcher, other than Mobile's Greg Smith, with two complete games....... Despite a rough start to the season, Hammond is 2-1 with a 1.96 ERA in 9 appearances, including 6 starts, since the start of June. The Stars are now 17-11, as their winning percentage this half climbs over .600, and they have a 3-game edge over Chattanooga, who took Tennessee's spot in 2nd place....... The Stars are now 5-9 in shutouts this year. The last time they finished the year with a winning record was in 2003 when they were 12-9....... Michael Brantley stole his 10th base this month, the most since Callix Crabbe stole 16 in August of last year. David Weiser's Huntsville box score link

David Weiser's www.starsboxscore.com/ THREE PITCHES DECIDE 2½ HR. GAMEHEETHER, KATIN BREAK SCORELESS TIE IN THE 7th The Huntsville Stars survived rain, thunder, and a 9th inning uprising to win their 7th straight game and their 9th in 10 games to shut out the Chattanooga Lookouts Sunday afternoon, 1-0....... They are now 14-11...... The Tennessee Smokies, Huntsville's Tuesday opponent, took over 2nd place in the Northern Division by edging Mobile 7-6 with a 9th inning rally, and trail the Stars by a game. Sam Narron did a fine job of mixing his pitches, keeping the Lookouts off-balance at the plate for six innings....... Leadoff hitter Adam Rosales was stranded in scoring position in the 1st after beating out a grounder to Adam Heether, followed by a successful sacrifice by Drew Anderson, but Narron had no trouble, setting down nine straight at one point until the next threat in the 6th.......A high hop that came off Alcides Escobar's glove put pinch-hitter Mike Griffin on base. Rosales then bunted him into scoring position, but after striking out Drew Anderson swinging on a 3-2 pitch, another error -- this one by Heether on a throw to first -- put Enrique Cruz on base. For the first time, Chattanooga had two men on base. But Jay Garthwaite went after Narron's first pitch and bounced it to Heether, who this time, made the throw across cleanly for the 3rd out. Steve Kelly, who has had the Stars' number since 2003 (4-2, 1.15 in six starts), also had no problem getting the Stars out, but owed his defense a lot of the credit....... Hernan Iribarren led off the game with a one-hop single to left-center. He was erased on a double play. Adam Heether, in the 2nd, singled to left. Brendan Katin then hit into a double play to end the inning. In the 5th, Heether singled again, but was forced out by Katin's grounder....... After 44 innings, Steve Kelly has still not allowed the Stars more than a run in any of his seven starts. Left now to the bullpen, this pitchers' duel was over, and it took all of three pitches........ In the top of the 7th, Heether, leading off the inning, hit a long fly ball over the head of left fielder Luis Bolivar, who raced to take the bounce off the wall...... He wound up with a double, his 3rd hit in three trips, raising his average to .303 (.349 against this team), and giving him 25 hits in his last 50 at-bats....... Then on a one-strike pitch, Katin picked up his one, timely hit, stroking the ball to Bolivar again, driving in Heether with the only run of the game. The Stars had chances for more. They left runners on the corners in the 7th, and wasted a leadoff triple by Michael Brantley, who just missed his first home run as a Star in the 8th as the ball struck the top of the billboard in left. Then, with Brantley on 3rd, the Lookouts walked Lou Palmisano in the middle of a 2-0 count to pitch to the torrid, .476-in-July-hitting Heether, but he hit into a 1-4-3 double play. The Stars, as it turned out, didn't need the runs, even as it staved off a 9th inning threat, not just against the heavy rain and nearby lightning as Marino Salas took the mound....... All but two people in the stands (the rest headed for cover) watched Salas get a quick ground out on Drew Anderson (0, 5, .240 vs. Huntsville), but then he gave up a single to right because Brendan Katin had been playing Enrique Cruz deep, and then, after getting a late break, saw the ball drop in front of him. Katin caught up to Jay Garthwaite's fly ball, though, inside the line for the 2nd out, but it wasn't over, yet.......... Luis Bolivar dropped a hit into left in between Brantley, Escobar, and Heether, moving Cruz into scoring position with two out........ Nothing like a little 9th inning suspense in this sport. Salas finally delivered what we all had been waiting for, getting two quick strikes on recent pick-up Craig Tatum, then getting him to strike out swinging at a 2-2 pitch......... It was Salas' 17th save, the most for any closer since John Novinsky finished with that many three years ago....... The Stars are now 31-9 when a starter goes six innings, as Narron did today. They are also 29-10 when they score first, proving how important that fact of life is in baseball. The Stars, now 11-1 on Sundays, take a rest Monday, as does the rest of the league, before returning home to face the Smokies, whom they had left Joe Davis for prior to this series........ Will Inman (0-2, 4.63 vs. the Smokies) will face Justin Berg (0-2, 7.47 vs. the Stars). Berg is coming off a good performance against Mobile (6 IP, 2 R, 4 H), but has not won a game since June 24. In three starts since, he's 0-2 with a 7.31 ERA. He's also 3rd in the league in walks. With his average at .302, Adam Heether has crept into the league's Top Ten at 10th place. Whodathunkit in April?........ Brendan Katin picked up another strikeout, increasing his total to a league-leading 115. At the present rate, he'll finish with 180 strikeouts for the year, busting the club record of 146 by Brad Nelson (2004). The league record for 140 games is held by Rondal Rollin of Birmingham back in 1987 with 218......... Katin has also hit safely in 11 of his last 13 games, but has had only three multi-hit games. Heether has had nine in his last 14....... Steve Moss is 3-for-18 in his last six games and Steve Sollmann's slump has ballooned to 1-for-26, dropping his average to .291. It was .330 a month ago......... Alcides Escobar is hitting .306 in July........ Narron's shutout performance lowered the rotation's ERA this month to 3.94 -- the first time in any month that it had been that low -- and their W-L record to 6-1....... The bullpen ERA this month is 4.19, an improvement over June's 4.53.

David Weiser's www.starsboxscore.com/ STARS WIN 6th STRAIGHT - TAKE OVER 1stWithout catcher Ryan Hanigan, outfielder Jay Bruce, and shortstop Paul Janish, the Chattanooga Lookouts are weaker prey. Their call-ups to Louisville -- Hanigan (3, 27, .299, .481 vs. the Stars) and Janish (.279 vs. Huntsville) before the All-Star break and Bruce, the Reds' #2 minor league prospect (four HRs, half of them against Huntsville, 333 avg. in 16 games), contributed in the Stars' 4th straight win against this team on this humid 90° evening at AT&T Park. Bruce doubled in the first game of this series before he was called up. Hanigan and Janish were called up before the All-Star break. The Stars have now won six straight -- their longest winning streak of the year, and eight of their last nine, catapulting them into sole possession of 1st place in the Northern Division. The Stars found the right time to take advantage of the Lookouts' losses...... They have hit seven home runs in this series -- more than any single series this season, and nine in their last five games -- the most since June 24-28, 2005....... Adam Heether put the Stars on the board in the 2nd inning with a solo shot to right-center, his 5th of the year and 2nd of this series, snapping a streak of 20 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings by Johnny Cueto, a streak that had begun after Hernan Iribarren hit his 1st home run of the year on June 26 at Joe Davis Stadium........ In the 3rd inning, the Stars put some convincing distance between them and Chattanooga, capped by a thundering three-run shot by Steve Moss off the top of the scoreboard with two out, giving the Stars a 5-0 lead....... All-Star Brendan Katin then finished off the Lookouts in the 7th with a two-run blast to right-center, his 16th of the year, one more than Ryan Braun's team-leading total of last year...... Katin also struck out four times, as he advances toward the team record of 146 set by Brad Nelson in 2004. Katin now has 114 on the year. Making his first start since June 27, and getting his first win as a starter since May 8 with all this support, was Steve Hammond, who was brilliant. It was his longest start since his six-hit complete game shutout over Birmingham on April 29........ Hammond was reinstated into the rotation (now 5-1, 4.34 this month) after the promotion of Mark DiFelice to Nashville....... Hammond held the Lookouts to a leadoff single to right by Tyrell Godwin in the 3rd, then didn't give up another hit until Adam Rosales and Enrique Cruz singled with one out in the 7th....... That set up Chattanooga's only run when Adam Heether threw the final out away on a Luis Bolivar grounder. Rosales scored to make it 7-1 game, but with Cruz on 3rd, Hammond retired Tyrell Godwin on a grounder to Steve Sollmann. Vince Perkins, making his debut for the Stars, retired the side in order in the 8th, and left the bases loaded in the 9th after retiring the first two hitters, Drew Anderson on a grounder and Adam Rosales swinging at strike three....... Perkins, added to the roster from Brevard County when DiFelice was promoted, has a history of injuries since wrist and back injuries cost him playing time in 2004........ The Brewers claimed him off waivers from the Blue Jays in April 2006. Two days later, he went on the disabled list with a right elbow strain, which ended up costing him the entire season....... Trying to rebound with the Manatees this year, he was 1-2 with a 7.32 ERA in 23 games, two of which he started. The Stars will try to sweep the series for the first time this year, Sunday at 1:00 central time, with Sam Narron (4-6, 4.86) facing an old nemesis, who was brought down from Louisville on July 3, Cincinnati-born Steve Kelly........ Kelly, a 4th round pick by the Reds in 2001, has faced the Stars six times as a member of the Lookouts, holding them to no more than a run each time, and not allowing the Stars a home run in 39 innings. For his career against Huntsville, he's 4-2 with a 1.15 ERA........ Narron is coming off a fine start against the Smokies, but he's been inconsistent all year, and has not beaten the Lookouts in two starts and one relief appearance. He's 0-0, 4.73 over 13 1/3 innings, but had one fair start on May 2, going seven innings and giving up just four hits in a game DiFelice eventually won, 4-3. The Stars will take Monday off with the rest of the league, then return home to The Joe Tuesday to face the Tennessee Smokies again. Adam Heether, who got off to a .132 start after the first month of the season, lifted his average to .295 with a 2-for-3 day. He has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games and is enjoying a six-game streak. In his last 13 games, Heether is 22-for-46 (.478) with six doubles, two triples, two HRs and nine RBIs. His four-RBI game Wednesday was his first as a Huntsville Star. Heether has hit .322 against the Lookouts this season. The Stars do not have one hitter among the league's top ten right now, but Heether is within shot of Jacksonville's Juan Gonzalez at .302..... Hernan Iribarren has nine RBIs in nine games this month. He had 12 all of May, his high-water mark. He's also hitting .306 this month....... Steve Sollmann was a model of consistency like none before him, never failing to go without a hit in consecutive games until July 5-6. Since then, he's suffered his first slump, going 1-for-23......... Brendan Katin's two-run HR put him two RBIs shy of the league leadership. Mississippi's Brandon Jones leads the SL with 68. Mike Coolbaugh is back in Double-A, this time as an interim hitting coach for the Rockies' Class AA-Tulsa Drillers....... Huntsville's all-time slugging leader (.542) and 5th-leading hitter of all-time (.308) has signed a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies. Coolbaugh started his career in 1990, was a Southern League All-Star in 1997, and has had a taste of the majors with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2001 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 2002........ The Oakland A's signed former Tennessee Smokies outfielder Jon Zeringue, who was released earlier this season by the Diamondbacks.......... Former Huntsville Stars pitcher Josh Habel (2004-05) is leading the Northern League in victories and is 7th among ERA leaders. Habel is 8-3, 4.08 for the independent Gary Railcats....... Another former Star, Ryan Costello (2004-05), is 10th among Atlantic League ERA leaders. He is 6-6, 3.89 for the independent Camden Riversharks. Brian Adams (Stars 2003-04) is leading the league with nine victories......... The Brewers signed indy league pitcher Mike Marksbury away from Rockford in the Frontier League, Friday. He was tied for the league lead in saves with 14.

David Weiser's www.starsboxscore.com/ WEEKS GETS HIS BOBBLEHEAD, BUT PALMISANO HAS HIS DAY Not to deny the job Sam Narron did today on the mound, or take away from remembering Rickie Weeks, whose bobblehead was given away at the gate, but the day belonged to Lou Palmisano, who snapped an 0-for-July to drive in four runs to help Narron come away with his first win since June 18.. Just slightly more than 1,700 showed up for about 1,500 Rickie Weeks bobbleheads on a mostly cloudy and humid 77° afternoon....... Maybe half of that crowd ever heard of Rickie Weeks and less than that ever saw him play in Huntsville, but the disattachment this city has toward its team and baseball in general has a lot to do with that. Perhaps there were too many people out at the lake today....... Perhaps The Joe can see 2,000 or more when they give away Prince Fielder bobbleheads on the 28th....... Perhaps 4,000 if they give away Jeff Gordon bobbleheads........ Maybe 5,000 or more if they can get Jesus Christ himself to show up....... The Stars office tries hard and they do all they can, but the obstacles they face to bring people in like they did in the '90s are growing more insurmountable every year the ballpark ages........ If anyone has any suggestions how to get the attendance up where it once was, send them to me, and I'll send them on to management. And if anyone in city government is listening, wake up, or you're going to lose a valuable asset to this city......... But on with the game.. On paper, it looked like it would be a high scoring affair with two starters with ERAs over 5.00, one that would be decided by the bullpen, one that would be decided by the long ball, but it turned into a game where one starter had his game on and the other didn't........ Sam Narron, who was clobbered by the Diamond Jaxx in his last start, and exited early in a crucial game before that one, had his best start since June 22......... When Narron's bad, he's really bad, but when he's good, the 6'7" hurler is tough. Of his 17 starts this season, seven have been quality starts, i.e., starts where he goes at least six IP and gives up three ER or less, and that's including Saturday's -- his first daytime start this year. (The Stars are now 18-8 in day games.) Narron scattered a pair of hits over his first six innings -- a two-out double into the right field corner by Jake Fox in the 2nd and a slow, well-placed liner up the middle by Joe Simokaitis in the 3rd. He got the majority of his strikeouts on breaking balls. And he was economical with his pitches, never having to use more than 16 in an inning until the 7th, when he was wearing down. It was that inning that Tyler Colvin hit a curve ball -- his first pitch -- over the wall in right-center, roughly 380 feet, for the Smokies' only run of the game........ In the end, Narron threw 84 pitches, 55 for strikes (65.4%). But the bigger day belonged to Palmisano, who came into the game on an 0-for-16 slump, his longest since an 0-for-17 spell early in June of last year....... His two sacrifice flies gave the Stars a 3-0 lead, sandwiching a Steve Moss HR over the Southern Jamm sign in left in the 2nd....... Thus he became the 2nd Huntsville Star this year with two in one game (Brendan Katin had two on April 23 vs. Montgomery), and the 5th in Stars history....... Adam Heether, 15-for-35 (.428) in his last nine games, and Katin capped a three-run inning to give the Stars a 5-0 lead with a double to the wall in center and a double to the gap in left, respectively. Then to seal the deal in the 7th, Lou slammed a two-run HR off the Corr Wireless sign (the 2nd of three levels of signage in left) to make it 7-1 in the 7th........ With the win, the Stars (9-11) move into 3rd place in the North, past Carolina. The boys now take a rest for the All-Star break before reconvening in Chattanooga on Wednesday for a five-game series, then return home to play the Smokies again on July 17....... What a screwy schedule. The Stars saw this team, the team we were in contention with the entire 1st half, only once, and in early April at that. Now we're finally playing them -- a team in our division -- at home -- in July -- on consecutive homestands. It was a victory for Sandy Guerrero, who took over as pilot today while skipper Don Money flew to San Francisco to take part in the Futures game as a coach (to be televised on ESPN, Sunday). Also missing was shortstop Alcides Escobar, whose spot at short was taken by Guilder Rodriguez, who is in an 0-for-9 slide....... Worse still is Carlos Corporan, who hasn't had a hit since June 20. He's 0-for-22. Corporan, who was promoted from Brevard County on May 2, peaked at .318 after May 12 and has gone 12-for-89 (.135) since....... Scott Sollmann, who for the first time this season Friday went hitless in consecutive games, was rested. It was his first break since June 20. No one since Bucky Jacobsen in 2001 has matched that kind of consistency, and Bucky's stay that year lasted just 27 games. Even among that great offensive team of 1997 (A's organization), only one player -- Ryan Christenson -- was able to do that ...... Mel Stocker raised his average almost 20 points since the start of the month with a big 3-for-5 day including a couple of steals in the 3rd that enabled Palmisano to pick up his 2nd sac fly and set off the Stars' big rally. That brought his total to 20. Callix Crabbe, who led the Stars with 32 stolen bases last year, didn't get his 20th until August...... Brendan Katin has struck out 105 times this season, but has also hit safely in nine of his last 10 games (12-for-40) with three doubles, two HRs, and 11 RBIs...... Brad Nelson, who struck out a team record 146 times in 2004, didn't register his 105th strikeout until July 29. Will Inman will start the Stars' five-game series against Chattanooga after the break. He'll be followed in the rotation by Derek Miller, Lindsay Gulin, Mark DiFelice, and Narron. 3rd baseman Mat Gamel's 32-game hit streak was snapped Saturday, by Palm Beach pitcher Tyler Norrick, who held Brevard County to two hits over six innings as the Manatees were shut out, 2-0.

There were some boos from the crowd when the postponement was announced. For a Thursday night, the turnout was pretty good.

BISCUIT BULLPEN BOMBARDMENT A good crowd for a pleasant 83° Thursday night who saw another bombardment after Montgomery starter Jon Barratt appeared to have Huntsville on a leash through four innings, as Homer paraded up and down on top of the Stars dugout, holding a spatula, a small basket of fries, and an intentionally misspelled banner saying something like "The Biskits are done."..... Barratt, who came in with a mismatched 0-3, 2.84 record, gave up a leadoff single to center by Steve Moss, then would not allow another hit until Yohannis Perez opened the 5th with a one-hop single to right-center....... The Stars did put runners on base through those four innings, and twice got runners in scoring position, but going into the bottom of the 5th, the Biscuits were in control, 4-0. For just the 3rd time in 10 starts this year, Steve Hammond, with a 9.90 ERA in the 1st inning, retired the side in order, but in the 2nd, the Biscuits took a 3-0 lead........ Evan Longoria opened with a single grounded hard through the infield into left. A broken-bat single (there were a lot of those tonight) to the right side of the infield, and a walk to Chris Nowak on four pitches loaded the bases for Gabriel Martinez, who lined a 2-hop single to left, scoring Longoria........ With the bases still full, Hammond caught a break. On a 3-1 pitch, Patrick Breen, who's hit the ball very hard in this series, hit into a perfect 4-6-3 double play. The Stars ceded the run and Nowak moved to third as Montgomery led now, 2-0....... Josh Asanovich (.357 in this series) singled in Nowak...... After Hammond retired 6 of the next 7 batters, the Biscuits tacked on another run in the 5th after Breen led off with a line drive single to right, then went to third when Brendan Katin failed to field the ball on the short hop, then chased the ball to the wall. Asanovich, once more, drove in the run on a single to left. When Montgomery manager Billy Gardner, Jr. went to the bullpen in the 5th, the game changed dramatically....... After Perez singled, Barratt proceeded to throw 12 straight balls to Steve Moss, Hernan Iribarren, and Steve Sollmann, forcing in the Stars' first run........ In came Richard de los Santos, who had been scored upon only once in his last 14 games out of the pen for a 0.42 ERA, including 5 scoreless innings against the Stars....... So would the Montgomery bullpen, 2nd to last in the league in ERA, behind an incredibly effective reliever, be able to hold a team that has hit .353 over six previous games?........ Out of de los Santos' 14 appearances, he had come in with inherited runners only once, and in that case, allowed both those runners to score. On his first pitch to Ruben Mateo, de los Santos got a comebacker right at him, and started a 1-2-3 double play. Just when it looked good for the Biscuits, though, Lou Palmisano, who had struck out twice, and riding a 2-for-17 slump, lined a double all the way to the track in left field, scoring Moss and Iribarren to get the Stars back in the ballgame. The Biscuits stuck with de los Santos in the 6th, and again, the Stars enjoyed using their bullpen as target practice....... Including their first series at Riverwalk, the Stars, into this night, had pounded their pen for 30 earned runs in 29 innings....... Adam Heether got the Stars going by lacing a triple which bounced once, barely in fair territory, inside the first base line, and all the way into the corner. Brendan Katin, on an 0-1 breaking ball, hit the ball hard on the ground for a single to left-center to score Heether, tying the game, 4-4....... After Perez sacrificed Katin to 2nd, Steve Moss was hit in the back on an 0-2 pitch. Both runners moved into scoring position on a passed ball and the bases were loaded by de los Santos on a walk to Hernan Iribarren on a 3-1 pitch....... Steve Sollmann then lined his first pitch deep down the left field line for a 2-run double to put the Stars in front, 6-4. Out goes de los Santos. In comes Evan Meek for the first time in this series, who probably has the best heat on their staff. Meek was anything but meek when it came to his fastball, which consistently came in on hitters at 96-97 mph, inducing a lot of foul balls from late swings, but major league vet Ruben Mateo had seen plenty of those with four different teams. He patiently took a walk........ Meek struck out Lou Palmisano on a 96 mph fastball....... With two out, Drew Anderson, 0-for-3 and sitting on a 9-game hitting streak, swung at a 1-0 sinker, dribbling it off the bottom of the barrel to the first base side of the infield. Meek rushed over and threw high and wide to 1st baseman Nowak, who's the tallest player on the team at 6'5". Two runs score to make it 8-4, but what looked like what obviously should have been an error on Meek, was scored a hit, extending Anderson's streak...... By the end of the inning, the scoring was changed to a hit and an error, which allowed Iribarren and Sollmann the extra base, and the two runs (one earned), and Mateo to go to 3rd......... Meek struck out Heether, the 10th man to come to the plate, to end the inning........ Moss helped add to the damage with a 2-run single in the 7th in another 3-run inning. The Stars' bullpen, quite unlike Montgomery's, did their job...... After Corey Thurman came on in the 6th, they held the Biscuits to a pair of 2-out singles in the 8th........ Both came off Luis Pena, easily the hardest thrower on the team, matching Meek with fastballs of 96-97 mph, and like Meek, inducing his share of broken bats....... Huntsville's bullpen finished May with a 2.61 ERA in 100 innings, even better than April's first impression...... The Stars pen saved 7 games in May and won 7 others, losing 3....... Montgomery's bullpen ERA, 8th in the league when the series started, is now dead last in the Southern League at 4.63. The Stars remain tied for 1st place with the remnants of last year's West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, who have moved to east Tennessee, wearing uniforms identifying themselves as the Tennessee Smokies. The Smokies, Thursday night, behind Casey McGehee's 4 RBIs, beat the Diamond Jaxx, the Mariners' AA affiliate, 5-1. Sean Gallagher (6-2, 3.67) is pitching tonight against WT, looking to join Montgomery's Chris Mason as the only other 7-game winner in the league..... Lindsay Gulin (2-2, 5.59) will get Friday night's game. In four starts, it's been good outing followed by bad outing. He's due for a good one....... The Stars will don pink jerseys which will be auctioned off with a starting bid of $25 in honor of breast cancer awareness. Fans with winning bids can choose to have the shirt of the player's back or have it washed, and for an additional $10, have it autographed......... All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. Facing Gulin will be Mike Prochaska (1-4, 4.63), 0-1, 3.70 in his last four starts since holding Mississippi to 6 scoreless innings on May 5....... The Stars have four players hitting over .300 at home -- Drew Anderson (.375), Lou Palmisano (.350), Steve Sollmann (.337), and Guilder Rodriguez (.321), of all people...... Brevard County's Will Inman (ranked 3rd among the Brewers' top minor league prospects) beat Daytona, 5-1, Thursday, allowing just 3 hits in 8 innings and striking out 7....... He's this year's Yovani Gallardo and you fans will be seeing him in Huntsville some time before the season's over...... Speaking of Gallardo, he's 7-1 with a 2.39 ERA at Nashville so far, 3rd best in the PCL The Stars committed 23 errors in May, a record best. In May 2004, they committed 24 errors, to establish the old record..... They also finish May with a 17-12 mark after going 9-20 in 2005 and 7-23 last year. It's their best May since 1998 when they went 18-9........ In between a 3-0 loss, the Stars have scored in double-figures in their last three victories, which hasn't happened since 2002, when they beat Tennessee 11-9, Chattanooga 14-1, and Mobile 11-1. But between those victories, the Stars also lost 7 games, then lost 4 more after beating Mobile........ Here, the Stars had only one defeat sandwiched between those victories.

STARS SNAP THREE MILWAUKEE-ERA RECORDS Like Quasimodo, this one was ugly, but there was beauty in it because the Stars were on the right side of a record 19-4 smashing of the Biscuits, who if I may refresh your memory, beat us pretty bad in last year's Southern League Championship Series, winning the last three games by a combined 30-8 total....... The Stars set Milwaukee-era records for runs scored and hits (21). It was the highest hit total since August 18, 2000 when the Stars poured 19 at Mobile in a 17-4 win for Al Hawkins...... The last time the Stars put together 20 hits in a ballgame was during the Oakland era, when they destroyed Chattanooga in a record-setting 22-3 ballgame, July 18, 1997. They put together a franchise-record 23 hits in that game. (The information on the Stars official web site is wrong, but that's my fault since I supply the records to them every year, and I found the mistake after their media guide went to print.)....... Among the 21 hits were 8 doubles, another Milwaukee-era record, the most since August 12, 2000 vs. Jacksonville, and one shy of the club record set also against Jacksonville in 1991, and 4 home runs, the most since June 24, 2005 vs. Mobile........ The Stars also finished with 41 total bases. I don't know if that's a record (probably not), but it's going to be one of my future projects. The Stars have been hitting the bejeesus out of the ball since their record 13-run 8th inning against Carolina, May 12...... Since that date, they've scored 119 runs in 18 games, an average of 6.61 runs per game, while hitting .304. For the entire month of May, one day short of it being over, they've hit .285 -- their best month since June of 2005, when they hit .288 (led by Vinny Rottino's .346). But the 268 hits they've had this month is the most since May of 1998, when they had 273 (the last month they hit over .300)....... After two abysmal years when they were a combined 16-43 for the month of May. the Stars are 16-12 this month, their best May since 2001. They haven't won 17 games in this month since 1998, but they will get that chance tomorrow when Steve Hammond (3-6, 7.01) faces Jon Barratt (0-3, 2.84) in what should be an interesting, perhaps emotionally charged game. Tensions overflowed a little bit in the 8th inning when Ruben Mateo was hit by a Brett Wayne pitch that came very far inside. Mateo thought it was a "purpose" pitch, in retaliation for the brutal, frustrating shellacking the Biscuits took on this hazy 82° afternoon....... Mateo had to be restrained after stepping towards the mound, then the Montgomery dugout on the way to first, motioning over and pointing fingers....... In the top of the 9th, Marino Salas hit catcher Matt Spring, once more raising the spectre of a brawl. This time, home plate ump Ria Cortesio came toward the mound to warn Salas and there was no further display of anger after that. But after an embarrassing 19-4 loss and a 12-3 loss on Monday, there's no telling what the Stars may have in store for them, Thursday night, especially considering Hammond's been struggling (1-3, 8.39 ERA this month). The Stars were retired in order only once in this game -- in the 1st inning. They were held hitless in one other inning -- the 5th, with a walk to Steve Moss and a force play sandwiched in between....... In the 2nd, the Stars batted around as Carlos Corporan and Drew Anderson hit back-to-back one out doubles, followed by a one-hop liner to center by Adam Heether to make it 2-0, and a home run blast to left by Brendan Katin to make it 4-0. After Jason Pridie put the Biscuits on the board in the 3rd with a blast to the right of the "star" in left, the Stars began their long day's journey into the record books with a pair of solo HRs by Ruben Mateo and Drew Anderson, who delivered one deep to right about 430'....... Anderson had his second 4-hit day of the season as he continues an awesome hitting string of 9 games in which he's hit .581 (18 hits in 31 at-bats), raising his average since he's been back to .514...... Some of you may remember Bucky Jacobsen's return to Huntsville in mid-may, 2001. He had a similar display, going 12-for-20 to finish the month, then hit an extraordinary .460 in June, driving in 21 runs in 63 at-bats. Adam Heether's single to right followed Anderson's home run, but an umpiring blunder by Ria Cortesio took them out of a further threat....... Houser was ahead on Brendan Katin, 1-and-2, when Houser threw a ball low and outside. Katin held up in time. That should have been ball two, but the scoreboard never reflected the change in the count. Cortesio, perhaps questioning whether she changed her ball-strike counter upon seeing the scoreboard, thought the count was now 2-2 when the next pitch came. But that should have been 3-and-2....... Katin fouled off two pitches, then came ball four, but to Cortesio, it was ball three, and did not call for Katin to take his base. Heether advance toward 2nd and Katin to 1st, but Matt Spring, taking the ump's count, threw down to second base, and confusion reigned as Heether was trapped in a 2-4-3-6 rundown........ Katin, with the bases empty, struck out swinging to end the inning....... I never had any idea what happened until I talked to scorer Don Rizzardi in the press box, but it was agreed that Cortesio lost track of the count. The Stars have now won for the 8th time at home in 10 games and are 13-4 in day games....... Montgomery's bullpen ERA went from 3.87 to 4.40 in one afternoon, 2nd worst in the league....... Going back to his last four games of last season, Drew Anderson is 27-for-52 -- a .519 average, and that includes three 4-hit games...... Adam Heether's 4-hit day makes him 21-for-50 on his 13-game hitting streak (best this season). That's a .420 average and it's boosted his season mark to .263. I'm happy to see that, for back on May 9, he was hitting just .135....... Another Star who has remained hot is Brendan Katin, who hit .210 in April, and is now up to .267 (22 hits in his last 57 at-bats for a .385 average)...... Ruben Mateo has hit safely in four straight, boosting his average from .161 to .234, and Mr. Consistency, Steve Sollmann, has managed to keep his average in the .320 range for the past 13 games. He has not once this season gone hitless in two straight games........ The Stars have committed 21 errors this month, which should be a record May. In May 2004, they committed 24 errors, to establish the old record. The Milwaukee Brewers' #1 draft pick from last year, Jeremy Jeffress, made his debut with the West Virginia Power, Tuesday night, going 5 innings and striking out 3. He got the win in a 6-4 victory over the White Sox' Sally League affiliate, the Kannapolis Intimidators. He gave up two solo HRs before getting out of the 1st inning........ Baseball America's annual 2007 draft preview is out and each year they project each team's draft top draft pick. They're fingering high school 3rd baseman-catcher Mike Moustakas, ranked by the magazine as the best prep power hitter in America....... It's an inexact science. Last year, BA tabbed Travis Snider to be the Brewers' No. 1 pick. The 5'11", 245 lb. outfielder is playing this year with the Class A-Lansing Lugnuts, where he's hitting .347, 3rd best in the Midwest League. Snider was taken in the 1st round by the Toronto Blue Jays. Jeffress? Baseball America projected him to go to the Washington Nationals........ The Brewers get the 7th pick in the draft, which will be televised by ESPN from 2-6 pm, eastern time I presume, on June 7. Huntsville Stars Box Score

OUT OF CONTROL Over the course of a 140-game season, or 138 as the Stars' season will be this year, you get games like this -- horrifically sloppy with a good share of wasted opportunities. It's a wonder the Stars twice were able to stay in this game as long as they did -- trailing by a run, 3-2 until the 7th when prized prospect Carlos Gonzalez sliced a bases-loaded double off Robert Hinton to give Mobile a 6-2 lead........ Then getting those runs back in the 8th to trail 6-5........ But in the end, the numbers told the story of this loss -- their 3rd in their last 4 -- 3 errors, 8 walks allowed, 9 left on base (6 with runners in scoring position and two out), and 5 stolen bases allowed....... Not even Manny Parra (5-1, 3.04 entering this game) was immune. He walked the leadoff hitter in four straight innings (3rd-6th) and gave up a leadoff single in the 1st and 2nd innings....... He had problems controlling his fastball tonight, leaving him unable to use it as a set-up pitch. If you can't control your fastball, you're certainly going to have a problem using your secondary stuff........ Even the bullpen, which has been the Stars' bread-and-butter this year, had its worst night of the season -- 7 runs, 6 earned, on 7 hits and 3 walks in just 2 2/3 innings, raising the club's bullpen ERA to over 3.00 for the first time this year........ Robert Hinton was able to extinguish a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the 6th by striking out Emilio Bonifacio, then getting Wilkin Castillo to foul out to Steve Sollmann, but in the 7th with the bases full and no one out, Gonzalez doubled to break open what had been a close game. Unfortunately, the Stars were never able to take advantage of scoring opportunities in nearly every inning........ In the 3rd, Ruben Mateo was hit by an inside pitch to load the bases for Lou Palmisano, who has been slumping at the plate (4-for-23 in his last 8 games). But patience paid off. Lou fouled off a couple of 2-2 pitches, took an inside pitch, then walked on a low fast ball to force in Manny Parra, who led off the inning with a single....... Brendan Katin then ended the inning by flying out to shallow left after driving a 3-2 pitch deep enough to go out, but foul......... In the top of the 4th, reliever Clint Goocher came in and walked Hernan Iribarren on four pitches to fill the bases with one out. Guilder Rodriguez hit one back to Goocher who forced Mel Stocker out at the plate and Steve Sollmann, 4-for-26 against Mobile and 3-for-5 with 8 RBIs in bases-loaded situations, hit into a force at second....... In the 6th, the Stars had runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out, but Iribarren struck out swinging and Guilder grounded the ball to Goocher to end the half........ In the 9th, with Palmisano batting, Sollmann advanced to 3rd on a balk by Abe Woody, but Palmisano and Katin both grounded to short to end the inning....... In the end, Hernan left 3 runners on base, Brendan left 4 runners stranded, Sollmann left 5, and G. Rod left 6. The Stars are now 2-5 against Mobile this year...... Keeping in mind, this team was transplanted from east Tennessee last year, the Stars had losing records in 3 of the last 4 seasons against the Smokies. Adam Pettyjohn, 0-1 with a 6.61 ERA this month in four starts, will face Jonathan Castellanos (5-3, 3.26), whose only no-decision in 9 starts this year came against the Stars on May 9. Steve Sollmann (2, 21, .322) has been a model of consistency so far. He's not had two straight games in which he's failed to come up with a hit. He hit .362 in April (the 8th best mark for that month in Stars history) and is hitting .288 this month........Speedy Mel Stocker, who stole his 10th base and the Stars' all-time 2,999th base in the 4th inning, is turning it on --- 7 hits in his last 14 at-bats....... G. Rod, after getting his average up to .296, has since gone 1-for-12........ Streaky Steve Moss is hitting .235 (8-for-34) in his last 10 games, with a 4-hit game and a pair of 2-hit games sandwiched in between........ Brendan Katin has struck out 55 times in 157 at-bats (a .350 average), but he had 6 games, compared to 3 in April, in which he's avoided the whiff. Compared to Greg Sain last year, Sain's still far-and-away the whiff king. Sain struck out 49 times in 129 at-bats -- a .380 percentage....... And that still doesn't compare to these hitters: Year ABs SOs Pct. Rob DeBoer 1997 288 111 .385 Lance Burkhart 2002 85 33 .388 Michael Moore 2000 76 37 .487 For those who remember "strikeout kings" Steve Howard, Brad and Rob Nelson, Howard, the former season record-holder with 142 strikeouts, fanned at a 29.2% rate in 1988, Brad at a 29.4% rate, and Rob at 27.5%....... Hernan Iribarren was caught stealing in his 3rd consecutive game, tying a club record held by five other players, the last being Elvis Pena in 2002....... Adam Heether has a 7-game hit streak going (10-for-26, 4 RBIs), his longest since he broke in with the Stars in 2005. Making his Stars debut less than a week before Hurrican Katrina, he made an impression with an 8-game streak before being stopped by the Smokies on August 31. Ryan Braun has made it to the majors........The 5th overall choice in the 2005 June draft is expected to be in the starting lineup when the Brewers face the San Diego Padres on the coast, Friday night. I'm tuning in to MLB's Extra Innings on DirecTV for that one........Braun was hitting .342 for Nashville, 7th in the PCL in batting........ The Brewers placed pitcher Elmer Dessens on the disabled list. Usually, a team replaces a pitcher with a pitcher, but not in this case...... Braun says his manager, Frank Kremblas, didn't say anthing. Just threw his flight itinerary on the table, and it took him awhile to figure out what had happened...... The 3rd base platoon of Tony Graffanino and Craig Counsell made a combined total of two errors there, but Counsell was hitting .231 with no HRs and Graffanino was hitting .187 with 1 HR and 8 RBIs. The Oakland Athletics acquired former Huntsville Stars pitcher Alec Zumwalt from Nashville in a cash trade with Milwaukee. Zumwalt was 0-2 with a 4.82 ERA this season for the Sounds....... For the Stars in 2005, Zumwalt was 1-2 with a 4.15 ERA in 28 games, getting his first promotion to Triple-A after pitching 8 1/3 scoreless innings for the Stars in August. David Weiser's Huntsville Stars Box Score

JUST ENOUGH DISTANCE Brendan Katin worked the count to 3-1 in the bottom of the 11th, then fouled off a pitch....... WT's new pitcher Luis Sandoval tried to slip an outside fast ball past him, but Brendan drove it high to right....... Prentice Redman went back to the track, not far from the foul line....... Could he make the catch? Would the ball go far enough? When Redman dropped his arms and watch the ball barely drop over the first fence, about 346 feet away from home, it put an end to a 4-hour, 11½ inning, 8-7 comeback win, the Stars' 8th in their last 10 ........ I didn't think it would go over, and later, Katin told me he didn't think it was going to make it either. Adam Pettyjohn (0-1, 4.50 in his last three starts) was knocked out in the shortest start for any starter this year. A double, a walk, two singles, a hit batter, and another single later, he finally retired his first hitter, #7 Jeff Frazier on a short fly ball to center....... After Yohannis Perez was unable to make a play on a sharply hit one-hopper that was headed for the hole, Pettyjohn was gone after 34 pitches........ Bo Hall (1-1, 2.00) came in to carry the major portion of 10 2/3 innings of relief work for the Stars and doing a fair job. Hall went 3 2/3 innings, but gave up a 2nd inning home run by Erick Monzon in back of the 2nd fence behind the Admiral sign in left......Now behind, 5-0, the Stars went to work at chipping into the lead. Now herein lies another difference between this Diamond Jaxx team and last year's speedy bunch........ Last year's Diamond Jaxx had the best pitching in the Southern League (2.84 ERA), gave up the fewest HRs, and was the only team to give up less than 400 earned runs....... This year's reminds me a lot of the Stars' 1997 pitching staff --- unable to keep down opposing bats....... Dead last in ERA (4.41) and tops with 39 home runs allowed........ You gotta wonder how the fans in Jackson, what few there are (they're averaging 1,761 per game) feel about this 180° turn....... It only serves to doom this team from staying in the league very much longer. The Stars closed the gap as eight batters went to the plate in the 3rd inning -- sacrifice flies by Hernan Iribarren and Carlos Corporan, (the Stars now have 17, 2nd to the Diamond Jaxx' 18 in the SL), and a one-hop RBI liner to left by Brendan Katin, scoring Ruben Mateo, making the score, 5-3........ Robert Hinton, who heretofore had allowed only 2 earned runs in 17 innings for a 1.06 ERA, came on in the 5th, but the D'Jaxx tacked on two more runs to make it 7-3....... Matt Tuiasosopo bounced a leadoff double off the warning track in right and scored on Charlton Jimerson's line drive single to center. Jimerson, himself, scored on Luis Valbuena's sac fly fairly deep to Steve Moss in center. Hinton, Luis Pena (making his Stars debut), Marino Salas, and Jeff Housman then held the Diamond Jaxx the rest of the way allowing just one hit -- a single to right by Jeff Frazier, who just five days earlier, had a 20-game hit streak, longest in the league this season, stopped by Montgomery....... That gave the Stars enough time to rally -- three more runs in the 6th to make it 7-6 -- the 6th run provided by a balk called after Jose de la Cruz threw a 2-2 pitch outside --- then the dramatic 9th inning. Carlos Corporan started things with a one-out 2-hop single to right and with a relief change, Brendan Katin walked....... Adam Heether (4-for-12 in this series and a livelier .214 this month) fouled out to left for the 2nd out........ With Guilder Rodriguez running for catcher Corporan, a pinch-hitting situation for Lou Palmisano came at the right time........ Batting for shortstop Yohannis Perez, Lou ripped a 3-2 pitch from Craig James into left....... Frazier took the ball on the second hop and fired it home, but not in time as G. Rod crossed the plate with the tying run. G. Rod failed to deliver in the clutch in the 10th inning with runners on 2nd and 3rd, but two double plays -- one in the 10th and one in the 11th -- held the Diamond Jaxx down before Katin came to bat as the leadoff man in the 11th, to provide his 2nd game-winning home run this season........ Ironically, Katin had beaten Montgomery, April 22, with a game-winning 2-out HR in the 11th at Riverwalk Stadium, 9-8. The Stars, who have never been able to take four-out-of-five this year from anyone, have a chance, Monday night......... Steve Hammond (3-5, 6.2http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/glasses.gif will be opposed by Joe Woerman (1-1, 3.82)........ Since his 6-hit shutout over Birmingham on April 29, Hammond is 1-2 with a 7.20 ERA, and had never gotten past the 5th inning........ Woerman threw 7 scoreless innings over Montgomery in his last start, holding the Biscuits to just 2 hits last Wednesday. The Stars are now 11-7 this month, their best May mark in 3 years (in 2005-06 combined, they were 16-43), and hitting .270. Guilder Rodriguez tops all averages with a .387 mark in 31 at-bats and Brendan Katin has bounced back from a .210 April to hit .303 this month with 4 HRs and 14 RBIs, nearly matching his April total........ The Stars are now 11-4 in day games and unbeaten on Sundays (6-0)....... The Stars have released outfielder Mike Carlin (1, 7, .222) to make room for Drew Anderson, who was sent down from Nashville when Ryan Braun came off the disabled list and prior to Sunday's game, released pitcher Luis Villareal, who had just come down from Nashville when Joe Thatcher was promoted to the Sounds....... Villareal, the winning pitcher in relief for the Stars on opening day, had been sent back to Huntsville only a couple of days previously David Weiser's Huntsville Stars Box Score

EARLY INNING BLUES It seemed like it's happened more than once during this series, so I checked it out....... What I mean is, all the action and scoring seemed to stop after I made it to the ballpark, usually the 3rd or top of the 4th inning, because of my job........ Sure enough, 42 of the 52 runs scored in this series (80.7%), and 26 of the Stars' 27 runs, came across in the first four innings....... Does this inability of the Stars to score in later innings show up in earlier games? Well, this series continued a trend that in the last five days was extreme........ In the Stars first 8 games, they scored 17 of their 28 runs (60.7%) in the first four innings....... The same pattern can be said as well for the Stars' opponents. 59.3% of their runs in the first 13 games have come in the first four innings. One only has to look at the breakdown between the rotation and the bullpen to see where the Stars' problems lie right now....... After 13 games, starting pitchers are 4-5 with a 5.45 ERA while the bullpen is 2-2 with a 2.18 ERA and 4 saves....... Particularly vexing has been the 1st inning....... Opponents have pounded our starters for a .429 average in the opening frame, walked 7, and scored 22 runs, more than any other inning by far. (The 5th inning comes second with 10 runs allowed). Tonight was, with no doubt, the best work I've seen out of the bullpen. Unfortunately, Mike Jones had already lost the game, you guessed it, in the 1st inning, in which he has now given up 8 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks. Mind you, I didn't see any of this, but Chin-Lung Hu started with a double to left on the first pitch he saw. With one out, Xavier Paul, who missed Thursday's game to be with his wife and newborn girl, celebrated with a single to left, scoring Hu. Big Cory Dunlap, a lumbering sight at 1st base, followed with another single to left, sending Paul to 2nd...... Marshall McDougall, a free-agent pick-up by the Dodgers after playing in the Rangers' organization, stepped up and hit an opposite-field home run to extend his hit streak to 5 games to right to give the Suns a 4-0 lead, a lead they never relinquished. McDougall his driven in at least a run in every game of this series while hitting .348. The Stars fought back with two out in the 3rd......... With the Suns ahead 6-2, Brendan Katin kept the inning alive, drawing a walk on a 3-1 pitch from Mike Megrew. That moved Steve Sollmann, who led off with a hit to right, to scoring position....... The Stars could have used some of those walks the Suns had been giving up in this series. Megrew walked just two hitters, which was the extent of all the free passes the Stars would get, after receiving 39 in four previous games........Hot-hitting Lou Palmisano , behind 1-and-2, then smacked a double to right-center to score Sollmann....... Palmisano became the first to hit a pair of doubles in consecutives games since John VandenBerg in 2005 (May 15, 17)....... Steve Moss, whose 2-run homer over the 2nd wall in right field in the 2nd inning put the Stars on the board, pulled a 2-0 pitch down the left field line for a double to score Katin to make it 6-4........ A wild 1-0 pitch to Adam Heether went past the glove of catcher Alberto Concepcion sending Palmisano to third. Concepcion chased it down quickly enough to try to throw Palmisano out, but his throw to McDougall was wild, and Palmisano slid into the plate to make it 6-5. Concepcion blocked the plate well, but Palmisano beat the throw. After that, Moss was tagged out on a grounder to third to end the inning...... The Stars didn't get another hit until the 8th inning, when Mike Carlin singled off the glove of McDougall. Brendan Katin followed with another hit, but Lou Palmisano fouled off a bunt on strike two all the way back over the screen and into the upper level of seats, the longest foul bunt I think I've ever seen. Steve Moss then hit into a double play to end the inning......... Two hits and a walk in the final six innings was all the Stars would get. The fact that the Stars bullpen held the Suns hitless for the final five innings didn't matter at all, except beef up their bullpen resume. The game was played before 7,134 fans, the largest crowd at the Joe since July 30 of last year, when 7,879 saw the Stars lose to Chattanooga, 4-0. Friday fireworks and a pleasant night, although still too cool for short-sleeve shirts and shorts. The Stars now start out on a 10-game road trip. Montgomery (8-7) is first, followed by the hottest team in the league, Birmingham (11-4)....... Sam Narron (0-1, 7.20) will start against Chris Seddon (1-1, 2.84). Seddon held the Barons to 3 hits over 7 innings in his last start on April 16. Last year, Seddon was 9-9, 4.72 in Triple-A for Durham (Int'l.). David Weiser's Stars Box Score

PUNCHING VILLA The strikeout is a great silencer. The hitter can't put it in play, so there's no chance a fielder can blow the out, and very rarely will a Mickey Owen drop a third strike and put the runner on base....... The Huntsville Stars' pitching staff got 5+ innings of those outs on a 46° Sunday afternoon....... Starter Manny Parra continued the early inning pattern the Stars have followed against this club........ After four games, the Braves have hit .500 in the 1st inning, scoring 6 runs on 9 hits, 4 walks, a balk, a sacrifice, and two sac flies........ In the 2nd inning, the Braves are 0-for-12 with 5 strikeouts. Starter Manny Parra in his first start since his Game One victory of the Southern League Championship Series, threw 22 pitches in the 1st inning to give the Braves a 1-0 lead......... He walked leadoff hitter John Schuerholz on seven pitches, balked him over to 2nd before ever throwing a pitch to Brent Lillibridge, who quickly sacrificed him to 3rd, then gave up a long fly to left by Brandon Jones, who drove in the Braves only run....... Then two singles on three pitches followed, and Matt Esquivel and Van Pope were on base. It looked like another rally was beckoning for Mississippi, but Parra struck out Josh Burrus with a curve to end the inning........... In the 2nd, Manny retired the side on 12 pitches. Parra showed us his poise in pitching out of trouble again in the 4th and 5th......... The Braves loaded the bases in the 4th with nobody out, and failed to score, and in the 5th, couldn't score after a leadoff single by John Schuerholz and a double to the left field wall by Lillibridge that put runners in scoring position with none out....... Parra struck out Mike Jurich on three pitches to get his 6th strikeout in the 4th for the first out, then losing pitcher Kelvin Villa hit into a 4-3 double play to end the inning, saved by Steve Sollmann's fine play........ Sollmann was forced to dive to take the throw, and stretched out on the ground with his head in the direction of right field, still managed to keep one foot on the bag....... A fine 360° turn by Yohannis Perez at short on a ground ball to his right, and accurate throw to first got Parra out of the 5th. The Stars gave Parra all the support he needed with their first big rally of the year, bringing the entire order to the plate......... Kelvin Villa, after an easy 1st inning facing four batters, lost control in the 2nd, throwing 13 of this first 20 pitches for balls, and 40 in all that inning as the Stars took a 4-1 lead........ Throwing 8 pitches in a leadoff walk to Adam Heether was some indication. After retiring Ron Davenport on a fly out to Lillibridge on the grass behind short, Villa walked Lou Palmisano on six pitches, the Yohannis Perez on four....... Parra, who once in a while in the past two seasons has come through in the clutch, although he is not a threat at the plate, came through on a 1-2 count, slapping a single to right, sending in Heether and Palmisano for a 2-0 lead. Steve Sollmann on an 0-1 pitch, then hit a soft liner over the infield into left to score Perez to make it 3-0 and Hernan doubled off the base of the right center field wall to score Parra for the Stars' final run. The Stars never threatened to score much after that, although Davenport led off the 8th with a double, but then they got all the help they needed from a bullpen combination that struck out 9 in 4 innings, giving up just one hit without a walk......... After four games, the Stars bullpen has an ERA of 1.44, 28 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings, only 2 walks. The 16 strikeouts recorded by Rich Sauveur's staff is the most since August 5, 2003, when Jason Shelley, Mike Adams, and Matt Parker combined to fan 17 hitters in a 4-3, 12 inning win against Mobile....... The nine strikeouts by the bullpen is the most since July 16, 2005 when Andy Pratt, Khalid Ballouli, Brett Evert, and Keith Stamler fanned 10 in relief of Ty Taubenheim in his 2nd appearance for the Stars. This was the first win by a starter this season and the first win by Sandy Guerrero as manager......... Don Money has been up north the past three days on emergency leave. His father, I hear, is in bad health.. Adam Heether is reminding us every day of the reason why we should value his defense over Ryan Braun's, even though Braun spoke louder with his stick....... In the 3rd inning, Heether fielded a hard hit grounder on the short hop, had to pick it on the 2nd bounce, then still had the control to fire a strong throw to first to get Matt Esquivel for the 3rd out after Brandon Jones had doubled with two out. Huntsville warms up to the mid 50s tomorrow, but temps should be in the mid 40s by the time the Stars get underway at the Joe for game five....... Sam Narron will face Francisley Bueno, who faced the Stars twice last year, losing both times, losing 11-0 on a Steve Hammond 2-hitter and 3-1 to Corey Thurman in the first game of an August 10 double-header Huntsville Stars Box Score

The Huntsville Stars and University of Alabama-Huntsville Chargers game, scheduled for tonight at Joe Davis Stadium, was called off...... Wet field....... We go weeks without rain here, then just before 2 pm, just as the players arrived, it came down like cats and dogs....... Chilly forecast for Thursday's opener vs. Mississippi with winds N 10 and mostly cloudy skies. www.starsboxscore.com

BRING YOUR BEST, MONTGOMERY Stars win division with 15th win in 16 games Before the first ball was thrown, the Stars had two things going for them tonight.. That is if you believe in fate, karma, whathaveyou....... First, Chattanooga's team bus had a flat coming into town. As a result, they arrived too late to take batting practice....... Second, I coaxed my mother to come with me to the ballpark tonight........ Now, my mother really doesn't like baseball and doesn't know squat about the game. I had to explain to her how to read the scoreboard........ But she had been to only one other Stars game in their whole long history, and that happened to be Game Four of the 1997 Western Division Playoffs against Mobile --- a game you can revisit below by clicking on my choice as the greatest game in Stars history --- a game, and a division title they were one strike away from losing, until Justin Bowles stepped and hit a 3-run HR to tie it in the 9th before Mike Neill's home run in the 10th won it...... The Stars won the next night, and the Division title as well. My good luck charm in place, the Stars came away with a sweep of the Lookouts, and a chance to win the Southern League Championship in the most improbable 2nd half comeback in Stars history....... They'll face Montgomery, a team that's won 16 of their last 19, Tuesday at Joe Davis Stadium with Tim Dillard (10-7, 3.15) getting the call against a pitcher the Biscuits have yet to announce........ Montgomery, like Huntsville, swept their opponent, Jacksonville (who I'd rather have seen win this series) on a 9th inning 2-run home run by Evan Longoria, the 3rd overall selection in last June's amateur draft. Everything was marked down as we walked into the Stadium....... The $2 programs were 25 cents, Southern League All-Stars card sets went from $8 to $3, and T-shirts with the Stars logo sandwiched between two words: "2006 PLAYOFFS" were free with a yellow ticket handed out as you stepped through the turnstile........ The skies were cloudy, but the weather a comfortable 84°, with winds blowing lightly to left........ A good crowd tonight, by Huntsville standards. Quite a few Chattanooga fans made the 1½-2 hour trip to fill the seats right behind their team's dugout on the first base side to futilely cheer their team. The Stars have had a remarkable run, taking the Lookouts 2-0 in the first game in back of Corey Thurman' s 2-hit, 7-inning shutout performance. When we needed him the most, he answered the call with one of his best games of the season....... In Game 2, which I was present for, a pitching duel between Yovani Gallardo and Josh Hall turned into a late-inning rout, as the Stars embarrassed the Lookouts in their own park by scoring all 12 of their runs in the final three innings -- 7 coming in the 9th -- in a 12-3 victory. Tonight was the night....... They had come too far. 14 wins in their last 15 games. 28-6 since August, and it all started with two 9-8 sweeps against the Lookouts, August 1-2........ The Lookouts were back for the first time since losing both games in the 9th inning. The Lookouts' pitching in August had fallen flat. They were 14-14 with a 4.30 ERA, and starting pitcher Tyler Pelland was 2-2 with a 7.03 ERA in five August starts...... The Stars found him inviting right from the start. Steve Moss lined his first pitch for a double to left, his 4th in 8 games this month. Before Pelland could get a single out in the 1st inning, the Stars had taken a 4-0 lead........ He hit Callix Crabbe on the foot with a 2-2 pitch, then Ryan Braun loaded the bases with a well-placed, but not hard-hit single through short into left....... Brendan Katin's two hits put together probably didn't go more than 230 feet, but they drove in three runs. The first, looped into right, scored Moss and Crabbe, moving Braun to 2nd....... Brad Nelson then cracked the first pitch he saw off the wall in left, scoring Braun and sending Katin to 3rd....... Ron Acuna's sacrifice fly to left-center scored Katin with the 4th and final run of the inning, setting the tone for the game, and a message right away to the Lookouts. They would need all of it....... Manny Parra did not have an easy time with Chattanooga, but credit Manny with this --- when he needed a strikeout, he got it! And he got 8 in his 5 innings of work. He mixed his pitches well. He set up hitters beautifully, using the fast ball to get them with the curve, which was deadly, or using the curve as a set-up for his fast ball, which I believe topped at 92. In the 3rd inning, with the Stars holding a 4-0 lead, and Pelland, apparently settled down, the Lookouts strung together four straight hits from the top of the order, attacking Parra early in the count....... Javon Moran lined an 0-1 pitch down the left field line for a double. Drew Anderson singled to left-center, and with runners on the corners, SL MVP Joey Votto lined a double into the left field corner, tailing away from Brendan Katin, making it a 4-2 ballgame....... Noochie Varner grounded a single through short into left, and with one out, walked Paul Janish, who was added to the roster from Sarasota, August 31st. That filled the bases with one out........ But Parra ralllied. He struck out Chris Dickerson, who drove in a team-high 11 runs against the Stars during the season, on a 91 mph slider and Ryan Hanigan grounded out to Ryan Braun to end the inning....... After three, Parra had six strikeouts, four of the last five looking. The Lookouts, fired-up and ready to rally again, loaded the bases in the 4th, and for the most part, swung early....... Tyler Pelland didn't, but he started the rally with a sharply hit grounder on a 3-2 pitch that deflected off Parra's glove to Ozzie Chavez, who couldn't make a play...... Moran's high chopper through the infield near the left field line sent Pelland to 2nd and Anderson's one-hopper to left on Parra's first pitch loaded the bases again with no one out........ Parra had given up 9 hits to this point in 3+ innings. The bullpen was up........ Parra, at the suggestion of Lou Palmisano, then went to his slower stuff, breaking balls....... He got a big out when Votto popped an 0-2 pitch to Braun in foul territory. He then got Noochie Varner swinging at a 78 mph curve and threw three curves to Jeff Bannon, retiring him swinging........ After giving up 9 hits in the first 4 innings, Huntsville's bullpen settled Chattanooga down, allowing just 3 hits to the final 18 batters of the game. Meanwhile, the Stars stretched their lead in the 4th....... Pelland, who allowed more walks to Huntsville hitters than anyone on the Chattanooga staff this season, and was 2nd in the league to Corwin Malone, could not find the plate and walked the bases full to start the inning, at one point, throwing eight straight balls....... Callix Crabbe then chopped a 3-1 pitch over the glove of Bannon at third into left, scoring Ozzie Chavez and Manny Parra........ It's now 6-2........ In comes 6''7" Justin Mallett, another of many of Chattanooga's late-season call-ups...... He gets Braun to fly out near the foul line in right to Moran, moving Steve Moss to third, but Brendan Katin dropped a hit over short to bring him home for the Stars' final run........ Chattanooga had found the right pitcher too late. Mallett struck out Nelson and Acuna swinging, then retired the side in the 5th........ The Stars were never a serious threat after that, although they had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out in the 7th before Ozzie Chavez hit into a double play....... Matt Yeatman and Chris Mabeus worked three scoreless innings, not allowing a runner to second before Joe Valentine came on in the 9th with the fans over on the third base side, standing, clapping in unison, until he struck out Jeff Bannon with a 96 mph fast ball on an 0-2 pitch, sending Chattanooga home......... Most of their fans by this time had beat them out the gate. So the Stars now go for the Championship, and who would have thought this would happen in the middle of June, when any team with three or four runs in their pocket against us had the game sewn up........ They went from scoring an average of 3.54 runs on 7.28 hits in the first half to 5.48 runs and 9.11 hits in August, and adding 35 points to their team batting average. This is the Stars' 11th post-season appearance. They are now 34-32 in the post-season since their first appearance in 1985 (23-20 in divisional playoffs, 11-12 in the LCS). For a playoff history of the Stars, see www.starsboxscore.com

Huntsville's final regular season game with Mississippi has been cancelled. Strong thundershowers moved through the area about 3 pm today. The tarp was put on the field in time but according to GM Tom Van Schaak, strong winds ripped about a 100' hole in it the middle where it was covering 2nd base. About 20 minutes before game time, grounds crew was trying to dry the area with an industrial strength fan and rake the area around first base, but the game was called at about 7 pm to "unsafe playing conditions." The Stars are 3½ on top with six games to go. The magic number is 4. I heard Tim Dillard will start half of a doubleheader on Saturday.

THE FULL NELSON Stars now lead by two games What's a game here without humidity? It would be nice to finish the season with a little drier weather, but it didn't happen on this 89° evening. I can't remember a summer consistently as hot and humid as this one........ The 2007 magnet schedules were issued at the park tonight. If you didn't get one, there's still plenty more and no doubt, they'll be given out when the Stars open the 2007 at home, April 5 against the Mississippi Braves....... The Stars will spend July 4 at home against the Tennessee Smokies and finish the season at Hoover Met against the Barons. The home season ends with the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, August 25-29...... The Stars will have 10 home dates in April, 19 in May, 11 in June, 14 in July, and 16 in August. Before the game, the Stars beefed up their bullpen after placing catcher Carlos Lee on the disabled list........ Getting a morning call in Florida, lefty Joe Thatcher received the good news that he was coming to Huntsville to join in on the fun of a playoff race, and 3 hours after arriving at Huntsville International Airport, he was warming up in the pen to pitch to two lefties, Mike Rozema and Matt Young....... The Brewers had picked up Thatcher last July 20 from the independent River City Bandits of the Frontier League and assigned him to West Virginia (1-3, 2.43)....... After 26 appearances there, he moved up to Brevard County, where he had a murderous 0.29 ERA --- that's no misprint, either Stars fans, in 16 appearances........ In the 9th, the 6'2" Indianapolis native struck out both hitters swinging on seven pitches, his 6th -- a ball to Young....... Joe Valentine then was waved in, striking out righty hitter Eddie Perez, the major league vet who homered to left off starter Steve Hammond in the 1st to give the Braves an early 2-0 lead. The 7-6 victory was the 19th win in the month for the Stars........ Only three times in the Stars' long 22-year history have they won 20 games in a month, and never more than that. They have nine games remaining on the schedule....... For a comeback like this, Don Money should be a breeze as the Southern League manager-of-the-year, but the ballots were mailed in early August. Between that time and the August 21st deadline, the Stars were still in 2nd place, not taking over 1st place until the day after the deadline, but they were 12-5 in that stretch, so we'll have to see what happens. After Friday's 14-inning game, hopes were on Hammond to have a strong outing to give the pen a little rest, but instead, it was his briefest of his 12 starts with Huntsville, and the first time he had pitched less than 5 innings....... Hammond had two quick innings, retiring six hitters over the 2nd and 3rd innings, getting a double-play from his defense in the 3rd, but by the end of the 4th, he had thrown 68 pitches, and after throwing 10 pitches in a walk to Perez in the 4th, then walking Yunil Escobar on four pitches to load the bases with nobody out, he was done. Fortunately by this time, the Stars had a 6-2 lead, and that came from a power surge, the deficiency of which the Stars can partially blame for such a dreadful 1st half........ The Stars hit just 25 home runs in the 1st half. In games they didn't hit a home run, they were 13-36! When they did, they were 11-9....... In the 2nd half, they have hit 43 home runs, and in those games, they are now 23-12..... What a difference! (For the record, they're 13-13 when they're homerless in the 2nd half). For the first time this season, the Stars got two HRs from one hitter, and three in one game...... The first of three came on the very first pitch to Steve Moss in the 1st inning, going over the StarMarket sign to the left of the scoreboard and below the large star-shaped ad sign....... In the 2nd, Brad Nelson tied the game up, 2-2, on a 3-1 pitch with a shot that cleared the third wall in left that I would guess went easily over 400'........ Brad then capped off a 4-run 3rd inning with a 3-run blast to right this time, once again clearing the fences....... Mississippi starter Eric Schmitt set the inning up by walking the bases full at the top of the order. Brendan Katin then grounded Schmitt's first pitch slowly down the third base line. Josh Arteaga came in and made a fine defensive play, picking the ball up with his throwing hand and whipping the ball to first to get the out on Katin, moving the runners up and scoring Moss........ Nelson then hit a 1-1 pitch out to make it 7-3, and that made a loser out of Schmitt, whose record is now 0-4....... Schmitt spent six years in the Yankee organization before being released last December 19. This was just his 2nd start of the year after 26 relief apperances. In two previous appearances against the Stars this season, he gave up 3 runs on 8 hits over 4 innings in games the Braves ended up winning. Gerrit Simpson, reliable as ever, came in to clean up for Hammond, who left the bases full in the 5th. He got Josh Burrus to hit into a 5-3 double play, Ryan Braun tagging out Eddie Perez going to third, then going to first. Simpson then struck out Mike Rosamond swinging on three pitches........ Simpson then struck out the side in the 6th on 16 pitches, 9 of them on Arteaga, who fouled off a few before looking at strike three........ Fans did a good job of warding off the mortar rounds that were going into the seats this night. There were a lot of them, and some nice catches were made........ Simpson tired out after three innings, giving up Burrus's single to center in the 8th before Michael Rosamond hit his team-leading 15th home run on a 3-0 pitch to left to make it 7-6, close to where Steve Moss hit his in the 1st......... Chris Mabeus finished the inning for Simpson and retired the side on 12 pitches, 9 for strikes. Ignore his 6.87 ERA. Mabeus now has a 3.46 mark since July over 13 innings in 13 relief appearances as a set-up/middle reliever after giving up 9 runs in his first three appearances with the Stars. Sunday night, Yovani Gallardo (4-2, 1.63) will face Chris Waters (7-13, 5.01)....... Waters has given up a league-leading 23 home runs on the season. Moss homered off him on July 13th in a 3-1 victory for the Stars and Ron Acuna and Jeff Eure targeted him in the 2nd game of a double-header on August 10th in another loss for Waters..... He also leads the league in losses. At a post-game awards celebration put on by the Booster Club for the Stars, Callix Crabbe was awarded this year's Rocky award, the Boosters' budget equivalent of the Emmys. The Rocky has been given out every year since 1992 when it was awarded to Eric Fox. It honors the player whose spirit, desire, hustle, and love of the game manifests itself on the playing field, and believe me, after watching Callix's major-league caliber defense, and lately, his offense, he richly deserves it......... Callix is the all-time club leader in sacrifice hits (36), breaking Jared Mathis's record last June 27th. This month, he's outshined the sluggers on this team, leading the club with a .388 average this month on 38 hits, the most by a Stars infielder since Jeff Pickler in 2001...... Callix also picked up his 100th career run as a Star last night...... He's close to cracking the Stars' all-time top 20 in games played, at-bats, and hits, and is already 10th on the list in walks (131), passing Tony Gwynn, Jr. and tied for 12th with the player I compare his defense most to, Gary Jones, in stolen bases (50)....... The Eagle, named in honor of Bob Bennett, was given to Corey Thurman. Bennett, who pitched for the Stars from 1995-97, was a full--blooded Lakota Sioux Native American whose Indian name was "One Eagle". Bennett was very popular in the community, so the award is mostly a popularity award, but the award is also handed out to the pitcher who characterizes fortitude and resiliency in face of long odds. It fits for Corey, whose ERA never dropped below 3.06, despite 9 losses and almost a constant lack of runs behind him. Brad Nelson continues to have the hottest month of his four years as a Huntsville Star, hitting .359 with 15 RBIs and 3 HRs. He became the first Huntsville Star this season to hit two out in one game. That now gives him 31, ranking him 7th all-time, one behind another Nelson -- Rob -- and Ben Grieve........ Brad, dubiously if I must say, is now one of five players to have played in over 300 games for the Stars, and ranks at this moment 4th in at-bats (1,087), tied for 5th in hits with Jeff Pickler (278) , 12th in runs scored, tied for 2nd in doubles with Terry Steinbach (64), 4th in RBIs, 5th in total bases, tied for 4th in sac flies, and 6th in walks...... On the negative side, Brad broke the Stars all-time strikeout record once held by Steve Howard when he struck out four times in last Thursday's game. Nelson, now with 281 strikeouts in 303 games, broke the single-season record in 2004 with 146. That record had held up since 1987 when Howard struck out 142 times. If you haven't seen it, go to the standings page and see, in numbers, how the Stars made their miracle climb to the top in the Southern League.. www.starsboxscore.com/standing.htm Edit: Added link...

THE FULL NELSON Stars now lead by two games What's a game here without humidity? It would be nice to finish the season with a little drier weather, but it didn't happen on this 89° evening. I can't remember a summer consistently as hot and humid as this one........ The 2007 magnet schedules were issued at the park tonight. If you didn't get one, there's still plenty more and no doubt, they'll be given out when the Stars open the 2007 at home, April 5 against the Mississippi Braves....... The Stars will spend July 4 at home against the Tennessee Smokies and finish the season at Hoover Met against the Barons. The home season ends with the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, August 25-29...... The Stars will have 10 home dates in April, 19 in May, 11 in June, 14 in July, and 16 in August. Before the game, the Stars beefed up their bullpen after placing catcher Carlos Lee on the disabled list........ Getting a morning call in Florida, lefty Joe Thatcher received the good news that he was coming to Huntsville to join in on the fun of a playoff race, and 3 hours after arriving at Huntsville International Airport, he was warming up in the pen to pitch to two lefties, Mike Rozema and Matt Young....... The Brewers had picked up Thatcher last July 20 from the independent River City Bandits of the Frontier League and assigned him to West Virginia (1-3, 2.43)....... After 26 appearances there, he moved up to Brevard County, where he had a murderous 0.29 ERA --- that's no misprint, either Stars fans, in 16 appearances........ In the 9th, the 6'2" Indianapolis native struck out both hitters swinging on seven pitches, his 6th -- a ball to Young....... Joe Valentine then was waved in, striking out righty hitter Eddie Perez, the major league vet who homered to left off starter Steve Hammond in the 1st to give the Braves an early 2-0 lead. The 7-6 victory was the 19th win in the month for the Stars........ Only three times in the Stars' long 22-year history have they won 20 games in a month, and never more than that. They have nine games remaining on the schedule....... For a comeback like this, Don Money should be a breeze as the Southern League manager-of-the-year, but the ballots were mailed in early August. Between that time and the August 21st deadline, the Stars were still in 2nd place, not taking over 1st place until the day after the deadline, but they were 12-5 in that stretch, so we'll have to see what happens. After Friday's 14-inning game, hopes were on Hammond to have a strong outing to give the pen a little rest, but instead, it was his briefest of his 12 starts with Huntsville, and the first time he had pitched less than 5 innings....... Hammond had two quick innings, retiring six hitters over the 2nd and 3rd innings, getting a double-play from his defense in the 3rd, but by the end of the 4th, he had thrown 68 pitches, and after throwing 10 pitches in a walk to Perez in the 4th, then walking Yunil Escobar on four pitches to load the bases with nobody out, he was done. Fortunately by this time, the Stars had a 6-2 lead, and that came from a power surge, the deficiency of which the Stars can partially blame for such a dreadful 1st half........ The Stars hit just 25 home runs in the 1st half. In games they didn't hit a home run, they were 13-36! When they did, they were 11-9....... In the 2nd half, they have hit 43 home runs, and in those games, they are now 23-12..... What a difference! (For the record, they're 13-13 when they're homerless in the 2nd half). For the first time this season, the Stars got two HRs from one hitter, and three in one game...... The first of three came on the very first pitch to Steve Moss in the 1st inning, going over the StarMarket sign to the left of the scoreboard and below the large star-shaped ad sign....... In the 2nd, Brad Nelson tied the game up, 2-2, on a 3-1 pitch with a shot that cleared the third wall in left that I would guess went easily over 400'........ Brad then capped off a 4-run 3rd inning with a 3-run blast to right this time, once again clearing the fences....... Mississippi starter Eric Schmitt set the inning up by walking the bases full at the top of the order. Brendan Katin then grounded Schmitt's first pitch slowly down the third base line. Josh Arteaga came in and made a fine defensive play, picking the ball up with his throwing hand and whipping the ball to first to get the out on Katin, moving the runners up and scoring Moss........ Nelson then hit a 1-1 pitch out to make it 7-3, and that made a loser out of Schmitt, whose record is now 0-4....... Schmitt spent six years in the Yankee organization before being released last December 19. This was just his 2nd start of the year after 26 relief apperances. In two previous appearances against the Stars this season, he gave up 3 runs on 8 hits over 4 innings in games the Braves ended up winning. Gerrit Simpson, reliable as ever, came in to clean up for Hammond, who left the bases full in the 5th. He got Josh Burrus to hit into a 5-3 double play, Ryan Braun tagging out Eddie Perez going to third, then going to first. Simpson then struck out Mike Rosamond swinging on three pitches........ Simpson then struck out the side in the 6th on 16 pitches, 9 of them on Arteaga, who fouled off a few before looking at strike three........ Fans did a good job of warding off the mortar rounds that were going into the seats this night. There were a lot of them, and some nice catches were made........ Simpson tired out after three innings, giving up Burrus's single to center in the 8th before Michael Rosamond hit his team-leading 15th home run on a 3-0 pitch to left to make it 7-6, close to where Steve Moss hit his in the 1st......... Chris Mabeus finished the inning for Simpson and retired the side on 12 pitches, 9 for strikes. Ignore his 6.87 ERA. Mabeus now has a 3.46 mark since July over 13 innings in 13 relief appearances as a set-up/middle reliever after giving up 9 runs in his first three appearances with the Stars. Sunday night, Yovani Gallardo (4-2, 1.63) will face Chris Waters (7-13, 5.01)....... Waters has given up a league-leading 23 home runs on the season. Moss homered off him on July 13th in a 3-1 victory for the Stars and Ron Acuna and Jeff Eure targeted him in the 2nd game of a double-header on August 10th in another loss for Waters..... He also leads the league in losses. At a post-game awards celebration put on by the Booster Club for the Stars, Callix Crabbe was awarded this year's Rocky award, the Boosters' budget equivalent of the Emmys. The Rocky has been given out every year since 1992 when it was awarded to Eric Fox. It honors the player whose spirit, desire, hustle, and love of the game manifests itself on the playing field, and believe me, after watching Callix's major-league caliber defense, and lately, his offense, he richly deserves it......... Callix is the all-time club leader in sacrifice hits (36), breaking Jared Mathis's record last June 27th. This month, he's outshined the sluggers on this team, leading the club with a .388 average this month on 38 hits, the most by a Stars infielder since Jeff Pickler in 2001...... Callix also picked up his 100th career run as a Star last night...... He's close to cracking the Stars' all-time top 20 in games played, at-bats, and hits, and is already 10th on the list in walks (131), passing Tony Gwynn, Jr. and tied for 12th with the player I compare his defense most to, Gary Jones, in stolen bases (50)....... The Eagle, named in honor of Bob Bennett, was given to Corey Thurman. Bennett, who pitched for the Stars from 1995-97, was a full--blooded Lakota Sioux Native American whose Indian name was "One Eagle". Bennett was very popular in the community, so the award is mostly a popularity award, but the award is also handed out to the pitcher who characterizes fortitude and resiliency in face of long odds. It fits for Corey, whose ERA never dropped below 3.06, despite 9 losses and almost a constant lack of runs behind him. Brad Nelson continues to have the hottest month of his four years as a Huntsville Star, hitting .359 with 15 RBIs and 3 HRs. He became the first Huntsville Star this season to hit two out in one game. That now gives him 31, ranking him 7th all-time, one behind another Nelson -- Rob -- and Ben Grieve........ Brad, dubiously if I must say, is now one of five players to have played in over 300 games for the Stars, and ranks at this moment 4th in at-bats (1,087), tied for 5th in hits with Jeff Pickler (278) , 12th in runs scored, tied for 2nd in doubles with Terry Steinbach (64), 4th in RBIs, 5th in total bases, tied for 4th in sac flies, and 6th in walks...... On the negative side, Brad broke the Stars all-time strikeout record once held by Steve Howard when he struck out four times in last Thursday's game. Nelson, now with 281 strikeouts in 303 games, broke the single-season record in 2004 with 146. That record had held up since 1987 when Howard struck out 142 times. If you haven't seen it, go to the standings page and see, in numbers, how the Stars made their miracle climb to the top in the Southern League.. www.starsboxscore.com/standing.htm Edit: Added link...

David Weiser's www.starsboxscore.com/ DOUBLE TIMESmokies' lead cut to 2½ gamesToo little, too late........ Too late for the Stars to come back and win a second-half title. Too little help in the second half...... That's what I was told to believe tonight in the press box, but this is a crazy game, and it's ridiculous to buy that notion....... The Stars are now only 2½ games back with Tennessee's loss to Mississippi tonight....... Both teams are coming around the final turn at full throttle. But as the Smokies have won nine of their last 14, the Stars are the ones who are smokin', winning 17 of their last 22 and seven of their last eight..... The Stars have gone to the playoffs ten times in their history, but never have had a comeback as grand as this one has been........ Of the ten playoffs they have gone to, they've done it by winning the second half title three times...... Of those, they took the title once after finishing last in the first half. That was in 1997 (Oakland organization)........ But that was a very competitive first half race. Mobile won it, in their very first season in the Southern League, by finishing 10 games over .500. The Stars, at .500, finished just five games back and had they not had a 10-20 May, they may have given Mobile more of a battle, perhaps even won it, but the pitching on that team, up until July, was nothing short of horrendous. This time, the Stars are coming back from the second-worst half-season in their history, going from 24-45 to 28-23....... No way in hell are they out of it. Too little, too late? Time will only tell. A great night for Steve Hammond, and it didn't hurt to have a pitcher's ump behind the plate, either....... Hammond was working his pitches in and out at different speeds, confounding hitters, many times swinging early and not working the count. And Hammond was throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes, as coaches and managers ceaselessly emphasize. 15 to 29 hitters faced, 12 in the first five innings ....... He tired out only a bit in his final two innings, throwing 12 of his 22 pitches for strikes, but in the end, he got 66 of his 99 pitches over........ He retired the side in order in four of the eight innings he pitched. Facing pinch-hitter Jon Acevas, former Birmingham catcher, in the 8th, Hammond gave up a home run on a 1-2 pitch to left, like Brett Carroll's the night before, inside the left field pole, only further and not as high....... Hammond then threw five of his next seven pitches for balls, walking Rex Rundgren, but when you're winning, good things happen........ Ryan Bear hit a hard grounder to short, a ball that had surely looked as if it would go through, but Ozzie Chavez, speeding over to the hole on his right, stopped the ball with one knee down, then got up and fired the ball to Callix Crabbe for the force, then to first for a major league double play, ending the inning. It was the one play you'd want to put a star next to. Hammond, like Corey Thurman the night before, helped his own cause tonight in a five-run 2nd inning with a two-run double....... Prior to last night, Tim Dillard was the only pitcher on the club to get a double. Now you have two pitchers to do it in two nights. With one out in the 2nd, Carolina starter Manu Olivera loaded the bases...... Jeff Eure stroked a one-hop single to the opposite field, hit Drew Anderson with a 1-2 pitch, then walked Lou Palmisano on five pitches....... Chavez then drove in the Stars' first two runs, sending a 1-0 pitch high and far to the gap in center field, over the head of centerfielder Carroll....... With Ozzie on 2nd and Palmisano on 3rd, Hammond, 2-for-13 at the plate, then hit a hard grounder on a 1-2 pitch that hugged the left field foul line, staying fair long enough for the umpire's satisfaction to clear the bases for a 4-0 lead.......... Steve Moss grounded out to short for the first out, but it moved Hammond over to third....... It was important, for Crabbe laid down Olivera's first pitch for a perfectly executed bunt to the left side of the infield, close to the line. Olivera made the play, but it wouldn't have mattered who picked up the ball. Crabbe, the team's all-time sac leader, was on with a hit and Hammond was easily able to cross the plate........ Ryan Braun ended the inning by hitting the ball back to the pitcher, but the Stars had a cushy 5-0 lead, and behind Hammond, that was plenty. Outside of three solo home runs, Hammond never allowed a runner to reach 2nd base........ Barcelona-born outfielder J.C. Muniz was the only hitter in the lineup to find Hammond to his liking...... In the 3rd, he powered a 1-0 pitch over the top wall in right-center field. In the 5th, he took ball one, then hit a pitch long and deep --- but foul to the deserted aluminum bleachers in left........ He got it right the third time, blasting the ball off the scoreboard in left, making it 5-2....... Acevas in the 8th narrowed Huntsville's lead to 5-3. The Stars missed a chance to score in the 3rd when Ron Acuna led off with a double to center, but Olivera struck out Eure, Anderson, and Palmisano on off-speed stuff........ Olivera doesn't have great speed, but he does seem to have good control, evidenced by the number of times he moved the ball around, a reliable breaking ball, and as I mentioned before, both sides had a pitcher's ump, Jason Millsap...... Carlos Lee added an insurance run pinch-hitting for Hammond in the 8th with a single that seemed for an instant like a routine out, but his grounder to short took a bad hop over Rex Rundgren's glove and squirted into left, scoring Drew Anderson who got on with a one-out bunt hit, then stole second....... Travis Phelps picked up his 4th save, his 3rd this month, by striking out Jason Hill on a 94 mph fast ball and Josh Pressley on an 84 change. Kevin Randel, the team's home run leader, walked to lead off the inning, but was picked off by Phelps with a 1-1 count on Hill........ Phelps has been unscored upon in relief in six appearances this month, covering 8 2/3 innings Hammond is now 2-1 this month with a 3.72 ERA....... The three HRs he gave up are the most since Dennis Sarfate on May 10 of last year at Mobile. Steve Moss is in an 0-for-12 cold snap....... He's had a few of these 0-fers this year. An 0-for-14 in April, an 0-for-15 in May, another 0-for-15 in June, and an 0-for-16 slide in July. Personally, I think Drew Anderson would make a better leadoff hitter, even though you're putting a left-hander there. He has 16 stolen bases to Moss's 7 in 18 attempts, and it seems his .285 batting average is empty and he doesn't seem to drive in runs in key situations. For the record, he has 43 RBIs, but only three this month........ Sabermetrician Bill James, who you know well if you've browsed the baseball section of your favorite book store all your life, introduced the concept of secondary averages in the '80s........ As built by James, the secondary average, which reads like a batting average, measures how beneficial a player's batting average is. Does a .280 hitter contribute with a full share of walks, extra-base hits, and stolen bases, or is he just a singles hitter? The difference is spelled out in a player's total contribution in run production. It's computed by dividing a player's at-bats into the sum of his walks, stolen bases, and a weighted formula of extra-base hits....... By his formula, Anderson has a secondary average of .262, 23 points below his average, better suited to a leadoff hitter than someone in the middle of the order. Moss has a secondary average of .268 (he's walked 62 times to Anderson's 39), 13 points above his average. I can understand now manager Don Money's preference, but I like Anderson's stolen base percentage better. Ryan Braun is 3-for-14 in his last four games, dropping his average from .313 to .305........ Ozzie Chavez is 10-for-40 since his four-hit day on August 1 that boosted his average 11 points. It's since dropped two, but where would the Stars be without his defense?......... Callix Crabbe is 11-for-17 (.647) with four RBIs vs. Carolina in the seven games he's played against them....... Lou Palmisano is hitting .156 this month and .184 while the Stars have won 17 of their last 22 ballgames. Everett Stull, who pitched for the Stars during the tail end of the 2001 season, and beat Birmingham in Game 3 of the Western Division Series, 13-2, was traded across independent leagues, going from the Golden League's Reno Silver Sox to the United League's Laredo Broncos. Reno also added former Stars outfielder Demond Smith (1997-98) to their roster. EDIT: Added link...

STARS HELD AGAIN BY HARRISON Moss left three times at third by Acuna A second straight record crowd at Trustmark Park, wanting a last look, and no doubt, autographs from Chipper Jones. The Stars dropped another game behind Tennessee, as the Smokies won their 5th straight (8 of their last 10) in defeating Chattanooga, Saturday night. They are now 4½ in back of first, still in 2nd place after the Diamond Jaxx and the Suns game was suspended in the 4th by rain, with the Suns ahead 1-0. The Stars again were blanked by Matt Harrison, making just his 9th appearance with the Braves....... The 6'5" lefty ranks 10th among the Braves' top prospects (by Baseball America)....... The last time he faced the Stars, on July 15, he tossed 7 scoreless innings at the Joe giving up 5 hits without walking a batter. He gave up a leadoff triple to Steve Moss in that game, but Harrison beat Dillard that day, 3-0. Harrison (3-2, 3.04) now has held the Stars to just one run in 13 innings, and that was an unearned run in the 5th inning. It was a frustrating night for the Stars, who kept it close, but never held a lead, but they were not without opportunities that were remindful of the total wreck that was the first half of the season. In the 5th, the Stars had runners on 2nd and 3rd and couldn't score........ Three times, Steve Moss (3-for-4, 2 stolen bases) was left stranded on third . In the 1st inning, Steve Moss led off by legging out an infield single over the mound that Yuni Escobar couldn't handle. Moss went to second on a balk on what started as a one-hop throw by Harrison to get him on a stolen base attempt.after a 3-2 pitch to Callix Crabbe. Moss was a dead duck, but the balk was called by umpire Eric Loveless....... Moss went to third on a fly ball by Ryan Braun for the first out, but Ron Acuna struck out and Jeff Eure grounded out to Chipper Jones to end the inning. The Stars missed another chance to send Moss in from third in the 3rd inning....... Moss singled past a diving Chipper Jones with one out. Callix Crabbe nearly reached, but was retired on a nice catch by Brandon Jones of a sinking liner. His return throw sailed past the bag at first, but catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia backed him up........ Moss stole second with Braun at the plate, and reached third when Chipper threw an off-line one-hop throw to first on Braun's sharp grounder behind the bag at third, but again, Ron Acuna stranded a runner in scoring position when he struck out. The Stars trailed 1-0 on an unearned run in the 4th, the 3rd straight time the Braves have scored that way, but they rallied to even the game in the top of the 5th. But it was deja vu, as Moss was stranded again at third by Acuna. After Travis Ezi popped out to start the inning, Tim Dillard bounced a ground ball to 1st baseman Mike Rosamond, who tried to make a backhand play, but failed, and he was charged with an error. Moss then walked, pushing Dillard to second....... Callix singled up the middle to score Dillard and tie the game, moving Moss to second. With a count of 1-0 on Ryan Braun, the double steal put both runners in scoring position, but Braun was called out on strikes and Acuna flied out to end the inning. With Glenn Tucker now on the mound for the Braves, the Stars evened the game in the 7th...... Brad Nelson, pinch-hitting for Dillard, and Moss opened with singles. This time, with two out, Acuna came through, grounding a ball past Rosamond to right, a ball Rosamond should have fielded, but it scored Nelson to tie the game up at 2-2....... Acuna has had hits now in 11 of his last 12 games, having lost his 10-game hitting streak, Friday night........ The Stars inability to execute hurt them again, though. On another double-steal attempt with the count 1-and-2 to Jeff Eure, Saltalamacchia took Tucker's low-and-inside pitch and fired to second trying to catch Acuna, who was attempting to take second, but Moss broke for the plate, perhaps seeing that Acuna would surely be tagged out, and Moss was tagged out on a throw from Yunil Escobar to Saltalamacchia. The Braves came right back in the bottom of the inning to score what would be the winning run on a two-out, two run single by Escobar. Zach Schreiber picked up his 3rd save against the Stars in as many appearances to close the game, and his 18th in 19 opportunities. Sunday, in just 15 minutes from now, the Stars will send Manny Parra (1-0, 2.70) against Dan Smith (3-6, 3.45)....... Smith no-hit the Stars for five innings in his only start against the Stars this year on July 16th. Since then, he's given up just one earned run in 17 2/3 innings in 4 starts, but won only one of them, his last start against Montgomery in which he gave up 3 hits in 6 innings. The Stars have won 14 of their last 19 games, hitting .264 in the process, but the starting rotation has put up a fine 3.09 ERA and it's been going down....... Brad Nelson hit in the 7th inning moved him into 9th place on the Stars all-time hit list, ahead of Joel Wolfe (1993-95). Nelson is 5th on the list in games played (291) and is 4th in at-bats (1,049). He is one of only six Stars in their history with over 1,000 career at-bats. An impressive, but rather dubious distinction......... Ryan Braun is hitting .297 on this road trip, but he has kept his average above .300 since July 29th. He's hit .328 during the Stars' 19-game hot streak, but Callix Crabbe is the one swinging the hot bat, going 25-for-71 with a .352 average........ Aside from Carlos Lee's .316, the Stars' two other catchers, Lou Palmisano and J.C. Boscan, have not pulled their weight, going a combined 11-for-67 (.164). Chris Michalak (1995-96) is back in the majors for the first time since 2002. The Reds purchased his contract from Class AAA-Louisville (Int'l.). They like the 35-year old's outstanding pickoff move. He was 9-5, 3.00 for the Bats in 22 starts. Ryan Knox may be done in pro ball. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays released him August 2nd after hitting .149 in 25 games...... Knox played with the Stars from 2001-2004, hitting .236 with 6 HRs and 52 RBIs in 255 games, tying him for 17th on the Stars' all-time list. The Stars will open the 2007 season at home against the Braves on April 5........ The Southern League has released their 2007 schedule, keeping the present five-game series format "to cut down our travel and eliminate back-to-back series" according to league president Don Mincher........The 2007 SL All-Star game will be played at Trustmark Park....... The Stars will finish the season, like this season, at Hoover Met against the Barons........ Look for the calendar-type schedule on my web site soon. Brett Evert, who was released by the Stars on July 15, was picked up by the Boston Red Sox and assigned to Pawtucket. He has since dropped down to Class AA-Portland (Eastern). Thursday, Evert pitched an inning against Harrisburg in the Sea Dogs' blowout 13-4 win. Butler, Alabama native Johnny Ruffin, resigned as pitching coach for the Chillicothe Paints of the Frontier League after he was arrested in June for failing to register as a sex offender, according to the Chillicothe Gazette....... Ruffin, a 4th round pick by the White Sox in 1988, pitched for the Birmingham Barons in 1992 and 1993 before making it to the majors with the Cincinnati Reds in 1993........ Ruffin was 0-7 for the '92 Barons, losing to the Stars 3-1 in a May 2 game that saw only four hits between both teams, and 3-0 on May 17. The next season, he was 0-4 for Birmingham, losing to the Stars, 2-1, on April 24. On July 31, the Sox traded Ruffin to the Reds with pitcher Jeff Pierce for Tim Belcher -- yes, that Tim Belcher. Former Mobile Bay Bear Nick Trzesniak was traded to the Texas Rangers, August 6, and assigned to Oklahoma..... Mobile, meanwhile, has picked up former Birmingham Barons pitcher Jim Bullard. Bullard started the season with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Blue Jays' AA farm club. Bullard pitched for the Barons from 2002-2005. Baseball America released their annual "Best Tools" survey. No Huntsville Star received any notice this year, but Ryan Braun was named as best batting prospect from the Florida State League........ Former Stars 2nd baseman, now Mobile manager Gary Jones was named as the Southern League's best managerial prospect........ Nelson Cruz, who has since been traded to the Texas Rangers, was named the PCL's best power prospect......... West Virginia Power pitcher Will Inman was named best pitching prospect in the Sally League....... Alcides Escobar was named best defensive shortstop in the Florida State League.

Huntsville: RHP Corey Thurman at home vs. Birmingham (White Sox), 6:50 PM pre-game, 7:05 gametime Tonight's game has been postponed due to heavy rains. (Greatly needed, but at the wrong time) No make-up date has been announced, but the Stars finish the season with a 5-game series at Hoover Met.

IT DON'T COME EASY Stars survive three bases-loaded situations Corey Thurman and Manny Olivera hadn't won a game in over a month and a half entering this game at Five County Stadium....... Well folks, they still haven't.........There's no question that Corey Thurman is a fine pitcher. Heck, in 17 starts he has the 5th best ERA in the league and he's got the most experience of any pitcher on the staff with a fine resume behind him --- 4th among Texas League ERA leaders in 2001 after holding hitters to a .206 average in a tough league for pitchers....... His work ethic is excellent, he's durable, and he's got a fine arsenal of pitches. In other words, he's a winner......... Unfortunately, his record doesn't show it because the lack of run support he gets is unparalleled in the history of Stars baseball........ Corey is 2-8 with an ERA of 2.66. Let's look back at other Huntsville starters with mismatched stats that show evidence of non-support...... W-L, ERA Tim Birtsas 1987 5-10, 3.60 Jeff Shaver 1987 7-9, 3.39 Scott Chiamparino 1988 4-5, 3.21 Todd Van Poppel 1991 6-13, 3.47 Dave Zancanaro 1991 5-10, 3.38 Brad Rigby 1996 9-12, 3.95 Jose Garcia 2000 4-8, 3.76 Derek Lee 2001 7-11, 3.38 Derek Lee 2002 5-10, 3.04 Pedro Liriano 2003 9-13, 3.79 Tim Bausher 2004 1-6, 3.67 Jeff Housman 2004 5-8, 3.13 Corey Thurman 2006 2-8, 2.66 These were the most outstanding examples. There were some such as Eric Dubose in 1998 who was 7-6 mark and 2.70 ERA in 14 starts. Not extreme enough. And Dennis Sarfate, who was 7-12 in 2004 with a 3.98 ERA. SL hitters teed off at a .266 clip against him, and then there's the issue of all those walks. And there were, of course, a lot of hard-luck starts in the course of history. But if you look at Corey's numbers and compare, there's just no comparison. He's the only one I mention with an ERA under 3.00, and he's got the worst W-L Pct. along with it. Now let's look at each of his 17 starts and see the record. Keep in mind, RS means run support and not runs allowed: www.starsboxscore.com Without a doubt, he's Huntsville's all-time hard-luck champion......... In only 2 of his 17 starts has Thurman received more than 3 runs of support -- and he won both of those starts...... In all the rest, he's had 15 runs of support in 15 starts........ Last night, the Stars won the only game he started where he didn't get the decision, and it was a nail-biter at that. Owe it all to the Stars' defense -- performing this year at a club-record best. With one out in the bottom of the 1st inning, Frank Moore singled and stole 2nd....... Tony Schrager, the toughest out for the Stars in this series (10 hits in 17 at-bats) after being rescued from the Indy circuit, on a 3-2 pitch, bounced a ball through the right side for a hit. Moore raced around 3rd, ignoring the stop sign from the 3rd base coach, and was gunned down on a perfect throw to the plate by none other than Ron Acuna, who has done this what seems like a countless number of times this year. Acuna leads Southern League outfielders in fielding (1.000 in 135 chances) and is 2nd to Montgomery's Jeremy Owens in assists with 14...... Let no one doubt the worth of Acuna to this team. Schrager came back in the 4th inning to light another fire, and this time, it was successful....... After Thurman got behind, 3-and-0, Schrager worked the count full before smacking a ground ball past Ryan Braun down the left field line for a double. Ryan Bear, 5-for-16 (.313) in the first four games belted a line-drive single to left-center to drive in Schrager, giving the Mudcats a 1-0 lead. The Stars soon would face their first crisis situation in the game. Kevin Randel legged out a bunt for an infield hit to put runners on 1st and 2nd....... Brett Carroll bunted the ball third base side to advance the runners into scoring position........ Thurman struck out catcher Patrick Arlis on a 2-2 slider for the opportune second out....... Brian Cleveland walked with a full count and with the bases loaded, pitcher Olivera, on 2-and-1, popped a ball toward the mound. Lou Palmisano, dashing in, fielded the ball and rushed over to tag Ryan Bear coming down the line for the final out. After the Stars were taken out of a potential rally with runners on 1st-and-2nd by a fine diving stop by 1st baseman Ryan Bear, the Stars defense was called to duty again In the 5th........ Frank Moore drove a 3-1 pitch to the wall to deep center for a double. After Schrager flied out to right for the 2nd out, Bear singled to right. Once again, as he did in the 1st inning, Moore tried to cheat in a run off Acuna who took the grounder and fired him out at home plate, saving another run. Another Carolina opportunity vanished as they held on to a 1-0 lead in the 6th, as Patrick Arlis was left stranded after a two-out double when Bruan Cleveland grounded out to short. After giving up 9 hits in 6 innings, Thurman was gone, after giving up just one run in six innings, but the Stars would put him in position to win the game........ Palmisano doubled to left with one out and moved to 3rd on G.Rod's grounder....... Olivera was taken out and replaced by Chris Mobley and Carolina moved Schrager to 3rd base, replacing him at short by Rex Rundgren....... With Carlos Lee batting for the Stars, Palmisano scored on a 2-0 passed ball by Arlis to tie the game........ Lee singled to left and was replaced at first by Travis Ezi, who went to 3rd on Kevin Randel's throwing error with Steve Moss at the plate........ With two out, Callix Crabbe, 2-for-3 on the day after going 4-for-24 in his last 7 games, bunt singled to third to score Ezi, giving the Stars the lead. Chris Mabeus came in to relieve Thurman and got the side in order in the 7th, but after Schrager lined a single to lead off the 8th, Joe Valentine was called in, and it was Valentine who lost the lead for Thurman this go-around, but the Stars' latest pitching acquisition would get them out of their 2nd bases-loaded jam......... Ryan Bear hit a bloop single to right, moving Schrager to 3rd. Schrager then scored on Kevin Randel's fly out to left to tie the game at 2-2........ Brett Carroll's ground-rule double put runners in scoring position and Patrick Arlis was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out and the game in definite jeopardy........ But Valentine, the former Birmingham Baron who tied a SL record for saves in 2002, struck out pinch-hitter J.C. Muniz and Rex Rundgren, both swinging to end the inning......... Valentine retired the side in the 9th inning and into extra innings we went. The Stars this season had won only one game in extra innings, back on May 14 vs. the Smokies, and lost 9, by far the worst record in Stars' history. Callix Crabbe walked to open the 10th, then moved to 2nd on a ground ball single to the right side by Ryan Braun....... Both runners advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt in front of the mound by Ron Acuna, his 1st since May 31. Brad Nelson was then walked for the 3rd time in the game, loading the bases, and tying him with Toby Kominek for 18th on the Stars' all-time list....... After Jeff Eure took a big cut at Chris Young's first pitch, he hit a 0-1 grounder to the left side that Schrager couldn't reach in time. Deep in the hole, Rundgren fielded the ball and could only throw out Eure at first, driving in Crabbe for the go-ahead run......... Eure knocked in a run in all five games of this series, and is 2nd to Drew Anderson in RBIs by one......... Young struck out J.C. Boscan. Now it was up to Huntsville's defense again and Travis Phelps. Only six days prior, Phelps (3-7, 4.40) had come into a 4-4 tie game in the 10th, in a game Thurman had started, and blown it, giving up four runs in an 8-4 loss to Mississippi. He was entrusted again. Such is baseball. The last thing a pitching coach or manager wants to do is destroy a pitcher's confidence......... Phelps got into trouble immediately. He got behind Ryan Bear and walked him on a 3-and-2 change-up as the ballgame plodded past the three-hour mark........ Kevin Randel, who wasn't going to lay one down this time, worked the count to 3-and-2, then drove a ball to the alley in right-center for a double, sending Bear to 3rd....... Brett Carroll was intentionally walked to load the bases with nobody out and the Stars clinging to a 3-2 lead. Phelps, with a 13.50 ERA with runners in scoring position was to face Patrick Arlis, 4-for-11 in the series, but he struck him out on a 2-2 pitch....... In position to get the double play to win this game, Braun backed up at third and Jeff Eure positioned himself even with the bag at first......... On Phelps' first pitch, pinch-hitter Jonathan Acevas chopped a ball to Callix Crabbe at second. Crabbe shoveled to G. Rod for the force there. G. Rod then turned the DP at first to end the game....... A tremendous job by Crabbe and Rodriguez to save the game and move the Stars back into a tie for 4th place with the Mudcats. Monday, the Stars return home with Jorge de la Rosa (2-1, 2.52) making his 6th and final re-hab start. Adam Russell (1-0, 2.79) is scheduled to start for the Birmingham Barons....... Russell will be making his 3rd start for Birmingham after being called up from Class A - Winston-Salem (Carolina), where he was 7-3, 2.66....... The Barons have lost 7 of their last 11 games. Lou Palmisano has a new look. Batterymate Khalid Ballouli gave him a shave up top and now he's bald. Check it out Monday.

THE OTHER GARCIA Former Stars namesake is six perfect As clouds finally roll into Huntsville, alleviating a long heat wave, the Stars, anything but hot lately, play with the clouds rolling in on them........ Suffering the latest dry spell at the plate, Tim Dillard pitched well enough last Saturday to win, going 8 innings and giving up an earned run, but getting no run support of his own. The clouds certainly didn't shy from him. Last night, he was long gone after the Stars scored twice in the 7th inning......... Dillard got the quickest hook of his season in the 2nd inning, as the Carolina Mudcats took back 4th place in the Northern Division with an 8-2 victory........ Dillard has had a tough month. After going 4-0 with a 2.17 ERA in June, he's 0-3 with a 4.96 ERA this month, his worst of the year. The Stars (11-1http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/glasses.gif have now lost 6 of their last 7 to fall 5 games back in a very competitive 2nd half in the North (the 1st place Lookouts are only 3 games above .500)....... Although the pitching has been sub-par in the last 7 games (starters are sporting a 3.76 ERA, the bullpen: 4.63), at the plate, the team is hitting a milquetoast .209....... Oddly, five hitters are banging the ball at a .300 clip: Jeff Eure (.300), Ron Acuna, Drew Anderson, Ryan Braun (all at .316), and J.C. Boscan (.444), who got three of his four hits in the Stars' 9-0 whitewash of the Mudcats on Thursday, but the rest of the team, pitchers included, are 19-for-140 (.136)....... Steve Moss, the leadoff hitter for every game until last night, is hitting just .148 with one run scored........ Breaking down the lineup for the last 7 games, the 1-2-3 hitters have scored 10 of the Stars' 24 runs and hitting .244. The 3-4-5 hitters are hitting .208. Brad Nelson, who has been in the mix in each of the games, has gone 2-for-24 without an RBI. The 7-8-9 hitters are 11-for-67 (.164). After being outscored 1-0 in their first three games, the Mudcats jumped on the Stars early, Friday night, taking a 6-0 lead as the Stars were being held hitless by Jose Garcia, promoted from Class A-Jupiter (Fla. St.) last June 8........ For the curious, this is not the same Jose boosters called "Paco" during his days with the Stars from 2000-02. His career ended with Class AA-Arkansas (Texas) in 2003. Dillard faced seven batters in the 1st inning, allowing the first three to reach on a single and a couple of walks...... Ryan Bear hit into a force play at 2nd to drive in the first run. Kevin Randel followed with an RBI single to complete the scoring for that inning........ The 2nd was the big inning, the one that forced Dillard from the game. It began when 2nd baseman Jeff Eure knocked down a 2-1 grounder down on the backhand, but was unable to make a play on what looked routine. It was scored as an error........ He moved to 2nd on Garcia's sacrifice bunt........ Jose Campusano, a speedy 4th-year player, lined a one-hop hit to left, sending Cleveland to third....... Frank Moore then lined Dillard's first pitch beck through the middle to drive in Cleveland, making it 3-0. That got Matt Yeatman throwing for the second time from the bullpen........Tony Schrager, acquired just before the start of this series from the independent Long Island Ducks where Bucky Jacobsen is playing, then made it 4-0, dropping a two-strike pitch into shallow center field, scoring Campusano....... Schrager, who played some shortstop in a utility role for the Diamond Jaxx from 2001-2003 is 7-for-12 in this series. He went on to Boston's chain and then the Dodgers, hitting .308 for LA during spring training 2005 before being let go....... Against Stars pitching in 2001 and 2003, he hit just .239, driving in 9 runs in 71 at-bats. Ryan Bear then stepped up and bounced a ball the other way, loading he bases. That spelled the end of the night for Dillard....... In his three previous starts, he had gone into the 9th twice and finished eight in his last start....... Matt Yeatman was asked to eat some innings, and coming in, he was unscored upon in six July appearances covering 7 1/3 innings........ Randal lined a 2-1 pitch to Acuna in right, scoring Frank Moore to make it 5-0. Schrager got hung between 2nd and 3rd base. Carlos Lee threw to Guilder Rodriguez, who dispatched him on the basepaths to end the inning....... Yeatman, who served up four home runs in relief in June, served up his first in the 3rd to leadoff hitter Brett Carroll on his first pitch to make it 6-0. Both of his home runs this year have come in this series. That broke a string of 9 2/3 scoreless inning streak for Yeatman. 18 up, 18 down, 10 by strikeout......... Travis Ezi ended it all in the 7th, breaking up Garcia's perfecto on a 2-1 pitch, smacking a line drive down the first base line and off the wall in right field for a double........ After Ron Acuna flied out to right, a wild pitch back to the screen on Garcia's first pitch to Ryan Braun sent Ezi to third. Ezi then scored on Braun's two-hop grounder to Cleveland. That ended the shutout....... The inning wasn't done however for the Stars. Brad Nelson, on a 1-for-22 skid, legged out an infield single and Jeff Eure, working on a 4-game hitting streak, ripped a line drive over a leaping Kevin Randel down the 3rd base line for a double, scoring Nelson, and making it 6-2....... Carlos Lee, however, ended the inning on the first pitch to him, lining a ball to Frank Moore for the final out........ Any chance for a comeback was put away in the bottom half of the inning when Randel's 2-run home run deep to right off Garrit Simpson, his 10th of the season and his first since July 5th, made the score 8-2. Embarrassingly, the Stars have lost this series, as well as the last, to last-place teams, and been shoved in the process back to the bottom of the Northern Division........ The Mudcats, Saturday, will look at Corey Thurman (2-8, 2.74), who hasn't won since June 2nd. The Mudcats will counter with Manny Olivera (3-6, 3.39). Olivera is 0-2 with a 5.91 ERA this month. Ron Acuna, who had not hit in the 2nd spot in the order all year, went 0-for-4 there, Friday night........ Ryan Braun's 11-game hitting streak, the 2nd longest of the year, ended. Braun hit .419 during his streak, raising his average to .301, making him the Stars' first .300 hitter this season of note since Ozzie Chavez hit that point on April 13........ In Oklahoma City, Friday night, the Nashville Sounds handed Derek Lee his 8th loss....... Lee, the Stars' all-time winningest pitcher, lasted only four innings, giving up 2 runs in a 4-1 loss in a regularly-scheduled 7-inning game. "The General" has now lost 5 of his last 6 games and is 0-4 in July with a 7.08 ERA.

RUBBER BALL Braves even series -- Hits hard to come by Another muggy night at Joe Davis Stadium, though not as bad as Friday with a breeze blowing in, favorable for the pitchers, but not for the fans......... Depending on whose report you'd like to believe, and MILB's web site differs, the Huntsville Stars committed four errors on the way to losing again to the Mississippi Braves, 3-0. But even though the Braves scored a pair of unearned runs late in the game, it was lost in the 1st inning. With one out in the 1st, 3rd baseman Dave Rozema lined a single to center. He was forced out at 2nd base while breaking up a double play on a grounder by Josh Burrus, but the aggressive move (which he reduxed in the 7th) became the game-winner......... Josh Burrus, who reached on the fielder's choice, stole 2nd and scored under Lou Palmisano's tag on Brandon Jones' two-out single to right....... The game belonged to Matt Harrison, Jose Ascanio, and Zach Schreiber after that and they had little problem holding the inconsistent offense of the Stars. Golden opportunities were again wasted........ Steve Moss belted a 1-0 fastball straight down the middle against the Gibson's BBQ sign in left-center and sprinted for a triple ahead of the throw in. But that's as far as he got......... Yunil Escobar hustled on a slow roller by Callix Crabbe, a smart move rushing in to field the ball on the grass to keep Moss from entertaining any ideas of advancing........ Jeff Eure struck out looking and Brad Nelson ended the inning grounding out to second on a 2-0 pitch. The Stars wasted another leadoff extra-base hit in the 2nd........ Ron Acuna sent a double all the way to the warning track in left-center and went to third on a one-out grounder by Lou Palmisano, but Milko Jaramillo flied out to right to end the inning....... After that, no Huntsville Star would get as far as second base until Drew Anderson's stolen base in the 7th inning. By the time the Stars began dropping balls in the 4th inning, the game was already decided, despite two unearned runs......... In the 6th, Escobar reached on Milko Jaramillo's throwing error, went to third on Canizares' single to right-center, and scored on a Dillard's 1-0 wild pitch to Jarrod Saltalamacchia, back after three weeks on the DL....... Saltalamacchia put an end to an 0-for-18 slump with a single in the 2nd inning....... In the 7th, Jeff Eure bobbled a grounder with one out to put Onil Joseph on. With the hit-and-run on, he moved to third on Dave Rozema's single and scored on another broken double-play attempt. The four errors gives the Stars 83 on the season, 4th lowest in the league. The Stars are 4th in fielding (.976) in the league. In four of the last five seasons, the Stars have either finished 8th, 9th, or 10th in the league. The last two seasons, they were 10th. They are on course to become the best fielding team in Stars history. (The 1999 team finished with a .972 percentage.) The Braves will send Dan Smith (2-5, 6.65) to face Corey Thurman (2-8, 2.62), Sunday at 6:05. ....... Matt Wright, the scheduled starter, was promoted to Richmond before Saturday's game. Wright is the SL's ERA leader, so that certainly is a big break. Thurman is 4th among ERA leaders, but he can't escape the black cats that have crossed his path this year. According to the Huntsville Times, Jorge de la Rosa will get two more rehab starts here. His next comes on Wednesday vs. Carolina. Ron Acuna is working a 7-game hitting streak. He's 10-for-29 (.344) since it began on July 4.......... Drew Anderson is hitting .333 in 48 ABs this month, but has driven in just 5 runs........ Ryan Braun is hitting .371 for July with 7 doubles. A mild groin sprain has kept him out the last two games, but he should be back in the lineup soon........ Callix Crabbe is 1-for-12 in this current series after hitting .417 in his previous six games........ Mississippi's pitching has held Jeff Eure to 2-for-12 at the plate after hitting .423 in his previous six games......... Steve Moss is hitting .280 this month with 4 extra-base hits and 8 RBIs........ Brad Nelson has struck out just 5 times in 32 at-bats this month, but is carrying a .188 average for July........ Guilder Rodriguez is 4-for-32 in July. Lou Palmisano is 7-for-29 (.241) this month, bolstered by a four-hit game last Wednesday. Behind the dish, he's thrown out 24% of the runners trying to steal, but don't hold it against him. Palmisano has "all the tools" according to former Stars catcher Jimmy Jones, who praised his ability behind the plate. Pitching coach Rich Sauveur and manager Don Money points to the slow release times by our pitchers, something Sauveur has been working on with the staff. This has been allowing runners to get a quick jump and not even Brian Moon, one of the best defensive catchers we've ever had, who had one of the quickest releases Jones or anyone in the stands had ever seen, could get them out if he were behind the dish. A day after explaining why the Stars were fine carrying three catchers instead of another arm in the bullpen, I find out the Stars have picked up relief pitcher Joe Valentine....... If the name sounds familiar, it should. He was the heavy every time we faced the Barons in 2002, making 55 relief appearances, saving a record 36 games to go with a 4-1 record and razor-sharp 1.93 ERA. Six of those saves came against the Stars....... Since then, Valentine was shuffled to Oakland, and then Cincinnati in trades, then became a free agent and was signed by the Astros. Pitching for Class AAA-Round Rock (PCL) this season, he was 1-2, 4.70 in 20 appearances, and never a terrific control artist, he struck out 17 while walking 21 in 30 2/3 innings. PCL hitters were banging the ball at a .298 clip against him........ Aside from a 0.79 ERA in 9 appearances with the Reds' top farm club in Louisville in 2003, he had just one season after 2002 in which his ERA was below 5.00, and that was after his record-breaking year with Birmingham. To make room on the roster, the Stars released Brett Evert. Evert had a 2.45 ERA in 17 innings over 14 appearances and held hitters to a .237 average, but he also was 0-4, and gave up three leadoff HRs in June, a 10th inning HR to Darren Blakely on June 6, another 10th inning HR to Mobile's Matt Lauderdale on June 22nd, and a game-tying HR to Chattanooga's Joey Votto in the 9th on June 26th, a game the Stars lost in the 10th. No Huntsville Stars pitcher since Tanyon Sturtze in 1993 has authored a no-hitter, but Saturday night, three former Stars combined to pitch one for Nashville as Carlos Villanueva, Mike Meyers, and Alec Zumwalt pitched one against the Memphis Redbirds in front of over 8,700 at Greer Stadium....... It was Villanueva's first start for the Sounds. Tony Gwynn, Jr., unsurprisingly, has made it up to the big leagues and Saturday night, he became the 161st former Huntsville Star to graduate to the majors........ Gwynn got the call-up as Corey Koskie was placed on the disabled list with post-concussion syndrome........ The Milwaukee Brewers considered promoting the versatile Vinny Rottino, who would have filled the holes created by the absence of J.J. Hardy and Koskie, but favored the left-handed bat of Gwynn........Pinch-hitting for pitcher Jeremi Gonzalez, Gwynn, wearing #22, lined a 1-1 pitch sharply to first base to end the 6th with the Brewers trailing the Arizona Diamondbacks in the game, 8-0. Driving all the way to Bank One Ballpark from San Diego, his father Tony Sr. was in attendance.

LEREW's MASTERY CONTINUES 4-0 vs. Stars since 2005 What looked like a real pitching duel, statistically seemed so one-sided when I looked at Anthony Lerew's success against the Stars........ Last year, Lerew beat the Stars three times in all three starts, allowing only 3 runs (2 earned) on 8 hits in 21 innings. Add his win tonight, and he's 4-0 against the Stars in 4 starts with a ridiculous 0.62 ERA, making him one of the toughest opponents in club history. Some day, I'm going back in the records and list the 10 toughest and I would bet he's among them........ Facing a virtually new lineup of Stars (only Callix Crabbe and Guilder Rodriguez had seen him last year, for a combined 0-for-8) , Lerew totally handcuffed the Stars. He relied on his fast ball, splitter, and slider, all of them wicked, with a deceptive motion to hold the Stars to just 3 hits. To date, he still has not given them more than 3 hits in any of his 4 starts going back to last year. Lerew allowed the only unearned run ever charged to him in the 4th inning after striking out Crabbe. Drew Anderson hit Lerew's first pitch deep in the hole to short. Yunil Escobar caught up to it on the backhand, wheeled his body around and threw over the head of 1st baseman Barbaro Canizares. Occupying his time on Drew Anderson, who has 12 steals, with three throws over to first base, Lerew walked Brad Nelson on six pitches...... After a strikeout of Jeff Eure, Ron Acuna, on 0-and-2, hit a two-hop single to the right of the 2nd base bag into center to score Anderson, cutting the Braves' lead to 2-1. After some raindrops descended on the stadium, a portend of what was to come later, the Stars muffed an excellent chance to score in the 6th with the Braves leading now 3-1....... Drew Anderson lined a one-out triple, his triple-of-the-month, down to the right field corner just after landing on the hop near the line in fair territory. Nelson received an unintentional intentional walk to put runners on the corners....... The situation worked for Mississippi as Eure hit into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning...... Eure has hit into 5 double plays this year. This was his first since June 14. The Braves got on board in the 2nd on a 2-run home run by Ray Serrano off the Big Star advertising sign plugging my employer, WHNT, Channel 19. It was Serrano's 1st of the year, and first in 126 at-bats going back to last year as a member of the Braves. It came after a fielding error by Guilder Rodriguez put Canizares on base with one out....... In the 5th, a one-out walk to Onil Joseph led to another run. Dave Rozema singled him to 3rd on a hit-and-run play, then Yunil Escobar's fly to right-center scored Joseph. The game finished in a downpour that slowly began as Drew Anderson stepped to the plate in the 9th. It built quickly, and when Brad Nelson stepped up, I had to cover and secure my scorebook on the arm of the seat next to me. By the time J.C. Boscan, came up, everyone had scattered and so did I, as a strong wind was blowing rain in every direction, as play continued. I'm sure the umpires were thankful Zach Schreiber, who walked Nelson and Eure, was able to strike out Boscan on four pitches to end it, for in less than five minutes, puddles were showing all over the infield. Jorge de la Rosa will make his unprecedented 5th rehab start for the Stars on Wednesday in the Stars' first trip to Five County Stadium. I asked pitching coach Rich Sauveur if he knew what Milwaukee's plans for de la Rosa were, but he had no idea. For just a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, he would have been gone long ago, but I'm of the opinion at this point, Milwaukee's just going to leave him here through August and possibly till the end of the season....... Sauveur also didn't know whether Stars fans would see Ohka here either. Instead, the Stars picked up catcher Carlos Lee, who started the season with the Birmingham Barons. I know carrying three catchers sounds like it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. A lot of fans and observers think we're short one man in the bullpen after Steve Bray was promoted to Nashville, but Sauveur explained to me we're actually not......... The Stars are so deep with rotation pitchers, they could afford to move Travis Phelps to bullpen duty and carry an extra bat on the bench, which is what Lee is........ Lee played in two games for the Barons in April, went 1-for-7, then was released on the 28th....... Ryan Braun was a late scratch from the lineup Friday night with a mild groin strain. He's fine so there's no cause for alarm, and he'll be ready Saturday when Tim Dillard (6-5, 3.29) goes to the mound against Matt Harrison (0-2, 5.40)....... It starts getting interesting now to see Dillard at the plate. Dillard has 10 hits in 26 trips (.385) and is a couple of hits shy of tying the record for most hits by a pitcher in a season, held by Travis Smith with 12 in 2000. Edit: accidental emoticons

Maybe David Weiser can research this a bit, but it seems Steve Hammond's stellar debut in the pitching-friendly Southern League isn't the first in Brewer-Huntsville memory. Remember the Jeff Housman / Jason Shelley double-debut double-shutout doubleheader in 2003? I would imagine nothing possibly tops that... The first scoreless debut for a Stars pitcher in the Brewer era was actually Hideo Nomo's 7-inning, 7 K, 5-hit performance, May 2 vs. Greenville in 1999. Jamey Wright then had two scoreless rehab starts in 2000, the first going 6 1/3 innings, May 3 vs. Orlando. He gave up 5 hits. They were seasoned major league vets, though. Nothing still matches, at least in the Brewer-era, the Housman-Shelley double debut. Housman, without the benefit of a strikeout, gave up just one hit, while Shelley in game two, struck out 10 and gave up just three hits in a 1-0 sweep. Hammond had some real control issues from the start. He threw first-pitch strikes to only 4 of the 11 hitters he faced in the first three innings and of the 44 pitches he threw, only 20 were for strikes, 5 being batted balls. But he settled down the next three innings, throwing 32 of 53 pitches (60.3%) for strikes. My vacation is over, so daily web updates are going to be difficult. Sleep and jobbie-job trumps my other avocations, but I'll try to send some report on Gallardo's awaited debut tonight.