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One for the books A record night in Mobile, but we'll get to that later...... For now, I learned after having lunch with Bryan Neece that Glenn Woolard will not take his turn in the rotation, Saturday, for the game against Jacksonville. David Bradley will start that game for the Stars. Did not learn why Woolard will not start that game, but he has not won since May 23 and since May 1, Woolie is 2-3 with an ERA of 5.91 with 45 Ks in 48 2/3 innings, 56 hits and 22 walks........ In his last two months of last season, Woolie was 5-2 with a 2.51 ERA, 55 Ks in 64 2/3 IP, 45 hits and 22 walks....... Neither of us at lunch had an answer for this........ Bradley, the Stars best middle reliever this season, made one other start this season, that back on May 29 vs. Tennessee in which he left with a 3-1 lead after five innings (gave up three hits), a game the Stars lost, 4-3 in Matt Ford's final appearance. Ford gave up three runs in that game and was released afterwards......... Right-hander Bradley, currently, is 2-1 with a 2.29 ERA. He's a killer vs. RH hitters, holding them to a .151 average and teams to a 0.83 ERA........ Picked up from the Frontier League on October 14, 2004, he was 21-9 as a starter for two seasons with Washington in 35 appearances, all of them starts. In what otherwise was a relatively quiet game, the Stars set new records in a 12-run 5th inning to wipe out the Bay Bears in the first laugher of the season for the Stars, 14-3. It was a late laugher, but on April 17, they beat Carolina, 11-2. The majority of their runs came in the final three innings, leaving the Mudcats one chance to try and erase a nine-run deficit in the 9th inning. Heretofore, it's been the widest margin of victory this season for the Stars........ It was a record inning for the Stars, who tied a record that was set on April 17, 1988, in a game they lost, 18-17 in the 9th inning, in one of the greatest games ever in Stars history www.starsboxscore.com/gre...eback.html Dennis Sarfate was trailing 1-0 going into the inning. Joe Gerber had led off with a single to right, followed by a double to the wall in left-center by Corey Smith, scoring Gerber but Sarfate struck out Steve Baker and Luke Carlin to enable the Stars to move the infield back and retire Mike Thompson on a fly ball without any more damage........ The Stars batted around nearly twice in the 5th, sending 17 batters to the plate. It would be ridiculous for me to go through the inning batter-by-batter. You can find it by going to the minorleaguebaseball web site: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_mobaax_1 The Bay Bears didn't retire a hitter until the 7th batter, Nelson Cruz, hit into a double play with the bases loaded, scoring Tony Gwynn, Jr. with the 5th run of the inning. That would have ended it, but Bay Bears' Casey Baker dropped a feed from shortstop Ronnie Merrill that should have started a double play. Dennis Sarfate was the hitter with nobody out and the bases loaded and an 0-1 count -- the first time Thompson had loaded the bases all year. Everybody was safe and Sarfate picked up the RBI........ When Sarfate came to bat again later that inning with Callix Crabbe and John Vanden Berg on the bases, he drove in three more with a home run deep to left field, making it 11-1, and giving him a record four RBIs for the inning and the game, establishing new records for a Stars pitcher. Previously, no pitcher had ever driven in more than two runs in a game. The last one was Alec Zumwalt in that previously mentioned 11-2 win vs. Carolina....... Sarfate also became the first Stars pitcher to hit 2 HRs in a season....... Coming up for the 2nd time after hitting into a DP, Nelson Cruz struck out to end the inning........ Mike Thompson, who in two previous appearances, lost both times against Sarfate, is now 0-3 with a 3.57 ERA. Bill Burgamy, who watched Angel Tovar's gopher ball to Sarfate go over the wall, hit a 2-run HR in the bottom of the inning off Sarfate, scoring Tovar, and affording Mobile all the ironic revenge Mobile would get......... After Callix Crabbe doubled in two more runs in the 6th, giving him a season-high four, the game was quiet. There were four hits and six walks issued between both clubs, and no runs. Mobile left 10 on base, six in scoring position........ The 12-run inning was the biggest 5th inning in Stars history, breaking the record of 11 scored by the Stars in a 16-0 whitewash of the Knoxville Smokies on July 18, 1996. The Stars also scored 12 runs in an inning in a 17-7 win over Carolina on April 16, 1993 and on August 12, 1997 vs. Orlando in the 1st inning of a 15-6 victory....... Friday, Manny Parra and Travis Chick square off for the third time this season. Chick, the Padres' top pitching prospect and #4 prospect in the organization, lost to Parra, 10-7 on April 20, then beat the Stars, 8-3, on May 11, but his ERA in those two games is 10.61. Tony Zuniga, Thursday night, homered and drove in four runs as he and Warren Morris combined for eight to beat Albuquerque at Isotopes Park, 11-5. The umpires have been chosen for the Southern League All-Star game at Hank Aaron Stadium in two weeks. They are Garret Watson, the crew chief, Brian Kennedy, and Rob Watson......... Huntsville Stars outfielder Nelson Cruz will represent the Stars and Milwaukee Brewers at the 2005 All Star Futures Game, which will be held on Sunday, July 10th at Detroit?s Comerica Park as part of Major League Baseball?s All Star Week........ The 7th annual All Star Futures Game will be a 7-inning game between some of the best Major League prospects from the United States and from various countries throughout the world. Cruz, a native of the Dominican Republic, will play for the World Team......... Cruz, 24, leads the Stars with a .317 batting average, 13 home runs and 47 runs batted in. His 13 home runs ranks second in the Southern League

The Stars and Dennis Sarfate have their first laugher of the year. They lead 14-3 in the 6th. Highlight was a record 12-run 5th inning (a record for that particular inning. It ties a club record that was set in 1988 and tied in 1993 and 1997.)

Pitcher Mike Meyers was sent from Nashville to Huntsville today. He was 3-3 with a 6.17 ERA for the Sounds in 22 games. Meyers, as the Stars open a home series against the Diamond Jaxx, pitched for WT in 1999-2000 and had a combined W-L of 9-2. He was releaed by the Cubs in May 2002 and re-signed with them a month later. He's in his 9th season of pro ball.

Foiled by the Five Spot... Again The amateur baseball draft was held today...... Past #1 picks by the Brewers have included Ben Sheets, Dave Krynzel, Mike Jones, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and last year, Maine high school right-hander Mark Rogers...... Today, the Brewers chose from the college ranks and made Miami 3rd baseman Ryan Braun their first selection....... Braun was projected by Baseball America as a #14 pick for Cleveland, but Braun didn't have to wait that long. The Brewers drafted in the 5th round. Baseball America believed North Carolina high-schooler Cameron Maybin would be the one, but the Tigers got him in the 10th..... Braun broke Pat Burrell?s record for RBIs as a freshman, and after struggling with a rib-cage strain in 2004, led the Hurricanes in HRs, stolen bases and RBIs, as he ranked among the top 10 in the country in on-base plus slugging percentage and RBIs..... Scouts say he needs work on his swing, but his hands are quick enough to overcome his faults for now, and he?s athletic enough to drive pitches to all parts of the field...... He came to Miami as a shortstop and now plays third, but he has struggled with errors at both spots. Some scouts say he'll have to move to an outfield corner, where his plus arm and speed would be at a better advantage. The Brewers took RHP Will Inman, a high school pitcher from Dry Fork, Va. in the 2nd round, and 3rd baseman Matt Gamel, a JUCO player from Florida in the 3rd....... They picked another Weeks in the 8th --- Jemile Weeks, a shortstop from Altamonte Springs, Florida. For the third straight game going into the late innings, the Mississippi Braves put up five runs to turn a close game into another defeat....... Sunday, it came in the 9th, erasing a 5-3 Stars lead. Monday, it came in the 7th, turning a 2-1 deficit into a final 7-1 rout, and today, the M'Braves erased an 8-5 Stars lead to win, 10-8. A very discouraging loss. "Hate to be in that clubhouse." said Bryan Neece after the game....... The Stars played gamely, and although it doesn't look it from the box score, Khalid Ballouli really pitched well in relief of Glenn Woolard....... Through the 5th, 6th, and 7th, Ballouli retired 9 of 10 batters to face him, giving up just a 2-out slap single by pitcher Ryan Basner in the 6th, but Ballouli could not get out of a bases-loaded, none-out situation in the 8th...... As the sun started to peek out of the clouds on this humid and cloudy 79° afternoon on the last so-called Businessman's Special of the year, Luis Hernandez hit Ballouli's 92 mph fastball off the base of the wall in right field, knocking in Brian McCann from third, loading the bases again, thus starting a new chain of defeat. Matt DeWitt was called in to put out the fire, but wound up getting burned, and once again, the finger-pointing is directed at the bullpen, and I must digress for a moment....... I must be exclusionary when talking about the ineffective relief since May 1st. David Bradley stands alone, although Mitch Stetter has had some good games, as the one reliable arm that I have witnessed or heard from, yet this season, he has no record and no saves, and few opportunites to speak of....... Why hasn't Don Money gone to Bradley more, instead of DeWitt, who had a good May, but was 1-3 with a 5.56 ERA in April, and has given up 6 runs on 7 hits in his last two innings in relief, or Stetter, who after a 0.68 ERA in April, sunk to a 4.11 ERA from the pen since?...... One answer may not be obvious, but is. The Stars are shorthanded. Ryan Miller, Jerome Gamble, and Alec Zumwalt are on the DL, and Matt Ford was released, and all that remains is Ballouli, who pitched three innings today, and Brett Evert, who was shelled Monday. But why not go with Bradley when the Stars have a lead? It would surprise you to see how he's been used...... With still one vacancy on the roster, the Stars need another arm, but let's look at how Don Money has used Bradley since May. David Bradley has made 12 appearances since May 1. One was a start on May 29 in which he pitched five fine innings, giving up 3 hits and striking out 4, leaving the Stars ahead, 3-1, in a game they lost to Tennessee when Matt Ford blew the lead which resulted in his release........ He was brought in with the Stars ahead in only two of his 11 appearances from the pen. On May 9th, he was called in in the 7th with the Stars ahead, 4-1, a game they eventually won. Bradley pitched two scoreless innings in that one....... Then on May 23, the Stars were ahead, 4-3, when he came on in the 7th against Carolina, walked James Shanks, gave up a single to Frank Moore, and gave the ball to Mitch Stetter with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Good move there. Stetter bailed the Stars out, and they eventually won, 6-3. In Bradley's next appearance, he entered for Dana Eveland who gave up two decisive runs in the 7th, and with two out, struck out Jason Hill, but the Stars lost, 4-3....... In 6 of 12 appearances since May 1, Bradley has come in with the Stars behind in the 8th or 9th, 6-2, 4-3 (as just mentioned), 5-3, 10-5, 7-1, and 10-8. On two other occasions, the Stars were behind 3-0 and 7-0 when he came in....... Only one time, on May 15, did he fail, allowing Montgomery to go ahead 5-2 in the 6th, a game the Stars eventually lost in extra innings, 8-7....... Since May 1, Bradley has logged a 1.77 ERA. So you see my gripe boils down to this...... Why isn't Bradley brought in more when the Stars are ahead. It's that simple. Coming back to the 8th inning, DeWitt, inheriting a bases-loaded situtation from Ballouli, walked pinch-hitter Ron Timmons after going 3-and-2, forcing in Velazquez, but only after Timmons, on 1-and-2, sent a fungo straight up...... Brandon Gemoll, standing near the baseline halfway from first base looking skyward, lost sight of the ball and it landed in fair territory just within the chalkline. Gemoll picked up the ball, and was ready to throw, but home plate ump waved it off, causing some confusion........ Some of the fans thought it was a hit and some thought it was ruled an infield fly, meaning Timmons was out........ But Ria Cortesio, the only female ump in Double-A, called it foul....... Timmons wound up going full, walking in Velazquez and it was 8-7........ He went full, too, on Gregor Blanco, but got him to pop up to Guilder Rodriguez on the outfield grass. (Later, official scorer Don Rizzardi charged Gemoll with an error, his second in the game, for not making the catch)....... Onil Joseph then delivered the key blow. After lining a 2-2 pitch foul into the Mississippi bullpen, he grounded a single to right-center field, driving in Jon Schuerholz and Luis Hernandez, putting the Braves in front, 9-8. Joseph is now 16-for-50 (.320) vs. Stars pitching with 11 RBIs......... Scott Thorman, who drove in the final run in the top of the 8th for the Braves, leads the parade with 16 RBIs in 14 games vs. the Stars........ Jorge Vasquez sealed the deal by retiring 6 of the 7 batters he faced in the 8th and 9th innings, striking out three, giving up an infield single to Rodriguez, who came into the game with DeWitt in a double switch. Vasquez has allowed only three hits in 8 innings of relief against the Stars this season. The Braves took 7 of 8 games in this road-home series...... In the season-series, the Braves hold an 11-3 edge. The last time the Braves won 10 games against the Stars in a season was 1988, when they were 10-6. The 2000 Stars were 1-7 against Greenville, their worst record against this franchise. The Stars now go to Chattanooga tomorrow for two games, then return Friday for two here. Ryan Costello will face Ben Koziowski (2-1, 3.92) at Bell South Park....... Friday is the first of four Bobblehead giveaways this year and Dave Krynzel, who made his major league debut with the Brewers last Friday, is the Bobblehead...... Later in the season, Ben Sheets and Bucky Jacobsen dolls will be given to the first 1,500 fans to enter the park........ Saturday will be NASCAR day at the Joe. The Stars will wear unis with a NASCAR motif --- black-and-white checker tops rising from the bottom and angling diagonally up to the middle of the shirt. This wacky-looking fashion piece will be auctioned off during the game....... Should be a sight to see on the field.

Ex-Brave Gets 7th Inning Scalping The season is not yet half over, and yet a palpable, pervasive mood of pessimism and negativity has been blanketing the stands for weeks....... There are swirling rumors that 1) this team will not be here next year or 2) this team will drop in classification to Class A, meaning a logical drop to the Sally League where it will replace Columbus, which has never drawn well, either in Class AA or Class A. The Catfish, currently the farm club of the Los Angeles Dodgers, are playing in ancient Golden Park, which was built in 1951....... Between innings treats like the base race with Homer don't liven up the crowd like it used to. The Dizzy Bat race is gone and there have been no fresh stunts, other than a lame contest where a fan standing in the outfield, gets to catch a ball propelled from a jet gun and takes a swing for the fences from a tee planted in left field......... Absentee owner Miles Prentice still has not signed a lease with the city for Joe Davis Stadium, after meeting already with Mayor Loretta Spencer, and from this, the buzzing has not stopped......... There is also another reason for all the bad vibes. Everyone knows Carolina and West Tennessee had this race locked up early, but this team is doing horribly....... They're not being blown out by huge margins (a 10-1 loss on May 31 has been the most lopsided defeat), but it seems like every day the bullpen is blowing leads, being blown out by a big inning or losing by one or two runs...... Let's look at the losing string a little closer. The Stars have now lost 25 of their last 35 games, hitting .232 in their losses..... The Stars had leads in 12 of those losses, 9 of them in the middle innings and two of them lost in the late innings by 5-run innings....... Eleven of those 25 losses were by more than three runs and 7 of them by just one run. The defense has not been a major contributor in the losses, but the 44 committed in May is the most for that month since 1993. That's up from 18 in April, which was a record-tying low. The bullpen went from 7-5 with 8 saves and a respectable 3.47 ERA in April, south with an 0-7 record with 4 saves and 4.54 ERA in May and since May 1, 0-8 with a 5.44 ERA....... The Stars, short two players on the roster now with the injury to Alec Zumwalt after he was hit on the wrist by Blaine Boyer's first pitch, Sunday, picked up some stopgap help for the bullpen today when former Greenville Brave Brett Evert was promoted from Brevard County...... Evert was claimed on waivers by the Mariners, August 27, 2004 and was picked up by the Brewers on waivers on May 12........ He was the Braves' 4th best minor league prospect in 2002, but still packs a sharp fastball....... His former team knew what to do with it though. The 6'6" righty who was 0-2 with a 5.06 ERA in seven games for the Manatees, came in after Manny Parra left the game in the 7th inning after throwing 105 pitches, 61 for strikes (58%)....... In his last four losses counting tonight and going back to May 11, Parra has had all of three runs of support over 24 1/3 innings........ Enrique Cruz, who was 3-for-9 with an RBI in Parra's previous three losses, provided the offense, smacking a home run high off the scoreboard in left-center field about 375' away. The Stars only other hit was a soft bunt single down the 3rd base line, straight as an arrow, by leadoff hitter Kennard Bibbs in the 1st inning. He got as far as 3rd on a sac bunt by Tony Gwynn and a hard ground ball to the right side by Nelson Cruz, but Vinny Rottino, now 0-for-16 in Parra's last four losses, lined out to 3rd baseman Wes Timmons to end the first Coming in for Parra with runners on 1st and 2nd and one out in the 7th, Evert gave up a single to center by Onil Joseph, but Tony Gwynn, coming in hard, overran the ball, allowing Luis Hernandez and Gregor Blanco, both Parra's responsibility, to score. Joseph wound up on third....... Then on Evert's first pitch to Jeff Francoeur, the Braves' top minor league prospect hit his 3rd home run off Stars pitching this season over the top wall in left-center, making it 6-1...... While Scott Thorman flied out to right-center for the 2nd out, he hit the ball hard, sending Tony Gwynn, Jr. in front of the track, calling off Nelson Cruz...... Wes Timmons, a .405 hitter off Stars' pitching, continued the rally with a double off the left field wall, his club-leading 7th off the Stars this season and Decatur native Brian McCann finished the five-run inning with a single to center, scoring Timmons to make it 7-1....... Up till then, it was a close game, even though Enrique's 5th inning home run would be the last hit the Stars would get...... Gwynn was the only baserunner after that, walking twice........ Gwynn, with a strikeout/walk ratio of 38:39, has drawn 13 walks in his last 10 games. Tony now has an on-base pct. of .402, a huge improvement over last year's .318. Parra looked good over his 6 1/3 innings. His curve was sharp and moving well and he continues to force grounders, which if you can't strike 'em out, is what you want as a pitcher. Over his last three starts, Parra has gotten 38 ground outs and struck out 19. He's allowed more than one walk in just two of his seven starts, and in both those cases, he allowed just two...... But Lerew, leaning more on sliders and sinkers since his fastball doesn't top more than 90 or 91, was also forcing a lot of grounders --- 13 ground outs in all, most of them to the right side. Lerew cane in with a 2-0 record and 0.69 ERA vs. the Stars and pitched the first complete game against the Stars this season. The M'Braves are now two games above .500 after going 7-16 in April....... The Stars are now 10 games below .500. They haven't been 10 games below .500 since June 1, 2002. Tomorrow is the last Businessman's Special of the year, starting at noon. Glenn Woolard will face Matt Wright, who beat Woolard twice already --- 5-0, back on April 26 and just four days ago at Trustmark Park, 5-3. Wright has a 2.19 ERA vs. the Stars and has held hitters to a .255 average......... Woolard is 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA vs. Mississippi and has been bopped around by Brave hitters for a .394 average...... Don't forget, anything can happen in this game, so hold your bets........ Saturday will be NASCAR day at the Joe. The Stars will wear unis with a NASCAR motif --- checker tops rising from the bottom and angling diagonally up to the middle of the shirt. They, as well as all the other wacky uniforms the Stars have worn, will be auctioned off during the game. Dana Eveland was named BC Powder Pitcher-of-the-Week for May 30-June 5...... Eveland gamve up zero earned runs in his last two starts, pitching seven innings vs. the Smokies, allowing just one hit in picking up his 4th win of the season, May 30, then allowed just three hits in six innings vs. the Braves on June 4 in the Stars' 8-1 win, just their 2nd in their last 11 games...... Eveland, at the start of the day Monday, was tied for 5th among SL ERA leaders with a 2.94 mark, and tied for 2nd with 70 1/3 innings pitched. Eveland is the 12th best prospect in the Brewers organization, according to Baseball America........ Eveland's a pretty good bowler, too. He scored a 208 game at PlaMor Lanes in a well-attended Bowling Party held by the Booster Club, Sunday. 14 or 15 players attended after none showed up the previous year and they all had a great time.... Even Stars announcers Brett Pollock and Bryan Neece showed up as well as several of the Stars' office interns...... After not having picked up a bowling ball in two years, I rolled a 118 and was improving on that in the second game when the lane stopped returning my ball and several others, resulting in a mass strike of our own.

A Tale of Two Streaks This game is a perfect example of what makes baseball so great....... In this instance, nothing happened for 6 1/2 innings. Mobile seemed well on a path of ending its miserable 9-game losing streak. Mike Bumstead was totally in control of this game, holding the Stars to a pair of 1st inning hits. And from the time Nelson Cruz hit into an inning-ending double play that inning until retiring the side in the 6th, he had set down 16 of 17 hitters, striking out four straight in the process....... All-in-all, a relaxing, quite ordinary game to that point, unsatisfactory only in the respect that it looked as if the Stars' 5-game win streak would be coming to an end........ Then everything happened. It had rained early in the morning, making the skies dreary and gray, but by early afternoon, the sun had broken through, and humidity had filled the air with a thick, redolent scent. By an hour before gametime, it was 80° and cloudless....... Huntsville apparently wasn't too thirsty for "Thirsty Thursday" --- dollar beers and sodas...... In kitchen-sized dixie-cups........ Only a little over 1,300 -- most of them from the Chamber of Commerce, who had the run of the picnic tent tonight, came out. Glenn Woolard struggled with his control early, got behind on a couple of hitters in the 1st inning, and threw a lot of pitches (34 in the first two), but it wasn't until the 3rd that Mobile began to do damage. Kennard Jones hit Woolie's first pitch through a diving Enrique Cruz into left field for a single, then stole second on an 0-1 pitch to Casey Baker. A lot of people were unhappy with the call of local umpire Matt Wilbanks, who was filling in for Jason Dunn, who as I mentioned the past three days, was attending the funeral of his grandfather....... Nick Trzesniak then hit a sharp grounder to Enrique Cruz, who made a wild throw to first. It was a tough play for Cruz, who had to make the play on the run behind the bag as the ball tried to escape into the oufield, so Trzesniak was given a hit, but Cruz was given the error on the throw to John Vanden Berg, making his first start. Jones scored........ Brandon Gemoll, who normally mans 1st base, was injured in Wednesday's collision with Greg Sain, and will be out at least a week. He has a cut on the underside of his chin and a deep bruise on the right calf...... Corey Smith followed up by stinging a 2-1 pitch up the middle to the left of the bag for a hit sending Trzesniak to second....... Ronnie Merrill followed with a bloop hit to right, scoring Trzesniak to give the Bay Bears a 2-0 lead. An error led to another Mobile run in the 4th....... Luis Cruz, an .093 hitter, who wound up collecting three straight hits, got his second --- a single over the glove of Enrique into left. Mike Bumstead laid down a good bunt in front of Woolard on the 3rd base side. Woolie reacted at once. It was a close play, but his throw beat Bumstead by an eyelash, moving Cruz to second....... Kennard Jones then hit a 3-2 pitch through the legs of Tony Zuniga for a two-base error, making the score, 2-0. After that Woolard retired 7 of the next 9 hitters, and left after expending 91 pitches, 58 (63.4%) for strikes........ A leadoff home run to dead center on Alec Zumwalt's first pitch made the score 4-0 for Mobile......... That's the way it stood going to the bottom of the 7th........ The next half-inning would take more than 30 minutes to play. I think I put the curse on Mobile by notating in my scorebook: "MOBILE ENDS A 9-GAME LOSING STREAK" ........ After Bumstead issued walks to Callix Crabbe and Nelson Cruz on a combined 11 pitches, Mobile manager Gary Jones came out and called for Jack Cassel........ Cassel had pitched in the opening game of this series, holding the Stars scoreless for two innings of that 2-1 11-inning game, although he gave up five hits........ He started out by walking Tony Zuniga on eight pitches, loading the bases for Jeff Winchester. Zuniga has now drawn a walk in 8 of his last 11 games....... On 1-and-0, he singled up the middle, scoring Crabbe and Nelson Cruz, making it a 4-2 game....... With runners on first and second, John Vanden Berg was up there to bunt. After fouling it off twice, the count on him was 1-and-2. Would the sign be taken off?....... NO........ Vandy lays it down to the left side of the infield. Cassel comes off the mound, looks to 3rd, looks to 1st, still with the ball in his hand....... TOO LATE!........ The bases are loaded again. Enrique Cruz struck out swinging on a 2-2 inside breaking ball for the first out........ Up comes Vinny Rottino. Rottino, mired in an 0-for-13 slump, was hitting .118......... This was the best time to break out of it....... On a 1-1 pitch, Vinny singled up the middle, bringing in the two runs that tied the game....... Out goes Jack Cassel. In comes sidearm/submariner Geoff Jones. He will face the top of the order. He gets behind Kennard Bibbs 2-and-0, but strikes him out on a sweeping breaking ball for a strikeout....... But then he gets behind 3-and-0 on Tony Gwynn and walks him, then with the bases loaded again, throws an 87 mph pitch into the dirt for ball four, giving the Stars a 5-4 lead....... Out goes Geoff Jones. In comes Nate Mateo to face Nelson Cruz, the 11th batter of the inning....... At this point, Mobile pitchers were able to deliver a first-pitch strike to only two of 10 batters. But Mateo gets the Bay Bears out of the inning by getting Nelson to hit into an easy force play at second. Southpaw Mitch Stetter retired the side in the 8th, but after getting righty Casey Baker to pop out in the 9th, Don Money deferred to his right-handed flamethrower Jerome Gamble to get the final two outs on right-handers Nick Trzesniak and Corey Smith........ Gamble's 1-0, 94 mph fastball is blooped to right for a single, then Smith clocks a 95 mph 0-1 pitch up the middle for another hit. Runners on 1st and 2nd. Mobile has outhit the Stars to this point, 12-5. Right-hander Ronnie Merrill then gets a hold of a 1-0 pitch and sends it to the opposite field in no man's land for double and this game is tied again....... With runners on 2nd and 3rd, Luke Carlin is intentionally walked and the heat is on Gamble as the bases are loaded for Mike Richardson, who is 0-for-3 with a walk and a pair of strikeouts........ Gamble throws a 94 mph fastball down the middle, get his to foul off the next pitch to the screen, and takes something off the next fastball and throws it outside. He goes fishing......... Richardson slams his bat....... Two out......... Here's Luis Cruz, who struck out his last time up against Stetter........ Gamble blows a 96 mph fastball by him and Cruz comes up empty for strike two, wastes a change-up, then gets him fishing at a 94 mph pitch. Now it feels like the final 2 2/3 innings have lasted as long as the first part of the ballgame, but the unexpected turn of events is what endears baseball to so many people. When this season is over, I feel this game will be a strong candidate to wind up on my list of Top Ten games of the year......... Enrique Cruz snaps an 0-for-8 slump with a leadoff double off Rusty Tucker, a former SL All-Star reliever who missed most of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery......... Gamble comes up. Stars pitchers are 2-for-26 this season, but he's up there to bunt. On 3-and-2, he strikes out, but Carlin drops the ball and makes the tag just as Gamble is trying to get out of way, thinking that Carlin held on to the ball. Gamble apparently didn't know that and thinks Carlin is being confrontational, so he pushes Carlin and the two nearly trade swipes while they eyeball each other, Gamble with the bat still in his hand........ The home plate ump gets between him as both benches begin to empty and the crowd rises in gladitorial anticipation....... Does this throw Tucker off? A wild pitch sends Cruz to third with the potential winning run, then Bibbs walks and steals second on a 1-0 pitch to Gwynn....... Tucker walks Gwynn on five pitches and now Gary Jones calls Dale Thayer, Mobile's 6th pitcher, in from the bullpen to pitch to Crabbe. It seemed like the longest full count to any batter I have witnessed, but that could just be the heat of the moment........ Crabbe hit Thayer's 3-2 pitch deep to right field and it looks like it's going over all three signs, but it doesn't........ Richardson goes deep to the track to make the catch, but it doesn't matter. Cruz strides in with the winning run........ The Stars finish with a 6-1 homestand and win their 6th straight game --- their longest since 2002 when they closed the season winning 9 of their last 11 games......... Mobile loses their 10th straight --- the longest losing streak in their history, which goes back to 1997. They now go to Trustmark Park where they will battle another 4-10 team, the Mississippi Braves........ After losing Wednesday, I'm told Gary Jones, who has the look of a bulldog when he's upset and a temperament to match, had a meeting with his team that lasted an hour and a half. After this loss, I almost feel sorry for the players, but I don't think anyone felt sorry for us when we lost 9 straight in 1995 and 1996. The Stars now go to Jackson, where they will try to win their 7th straight........ They haven't had a streak that long since 1994 (May 7-13)....... It was also the first four-game sweep of Mobile since 2001....... The Stars are now 3-5 in one-run games. The Stars' record for one-run games in April is 12, when they went 7-5 that month in 1994........ Glenn Woolard's ERA goes down to 3.07, but his strikeout-walk ratio is 9:8....... Josh Habel, who pitched to one batter in the 6th, is unscored upon in his last four games covering 4 2/3 innings........ Mitch Stetter's ERA is now a microscopic 1.04. In 8 2/3 innings, he's struck out eight and walked none........ Callix Crabbe now has a 6-game hit streak. Combine him and Tony Zuniga, and you have 20 walks and 10 strikeouts...... Nelson Cruz hit .370 on this homestand....... Dana Eveland is 2nd among SL ERA leaders (14 IP min.) with a 1.15 ERA....... The Stars' team ERA of 2.99 is 2nd best in the league, but curiously, the staff leads the league with 12 wild pitches......... Khalid Ballouli (0-0, 2.00) will start the first game of a three-game series against the Diamond Jaxx. He'll be opposed by Raul Valdez (0-0, 11.57). Then the Stars go to new Trustmark Park for three games before they return home next week to play the Smokies. At the Brickyard in Oklahoma City, Rickie Weeks drove in 5 runs, but Nashville lost a 13-10 slugfest with the Redhawks........ The Brewers other affiliates, Class A Brevard County and West Virginia, are doing poorly. The Manatees are in last in the FSL East at 4-9, hitting .235 --- 10th among 12 Florida State League clubs and their 4.46 ERA is 9th in the league. They have also scored just 42 runs, fewest in the league, in 13 games........ The West Virginia Power are 2-12 in the SAL North and have yet to win on the road. They are hitting just .200 -- dead last in the 16-team league and are last in hits (37), runs (37), doubles (14), and on-base pct. (.267). The team ERA of 5.60 is also the worst in the league.

20 years later... Another beautiful day for baseball. This, in my memory, is the best weather we've had for an season-opening homestand in a long time, going back at least to 1995....... 78° and mostly clear skies for a Businessman's Special........ Nothing special about the attendance, though --- a sickly 813. Can you imagine if the weather was in the low 50s, as sometimes happens here in April?. Dennis Sarfate and the Stars made quick work of the Mobile Bay Bears....... Backed by Chris Barnwell's 2-run HR over the left field wall in the 2nd inning, Sarfate wasted little time with hitters, using only 10-15 pitches to finish an inning until the 5th....... He went to a three-ball count only three times, walking two batters, and striking out Corey Smith on a 79 mph 3-2 curve in the 4th inning...... Mostly, Sarfate relied on his heat, and found the strike zone consistently with it....... As late as the 5th inning, he was still hurling it --- two straight 95 mph fastballs to strike out Nick Trzesniak to get the second out of the inning, then a 97 mph fastball to shortstop Juan Cruz...... However, by the time he hit the 70 pitch count, he was missing with that blazer more. He walked Cruz on a 3-1 fastball inside, the first pass issued in 11 2/3 innings, then walked right fielder Mike Richardson. He retired pinch-hitter Jason Clements to end the inning......... Sometime during the 6th, manager Don Money got Josh Habel up and working in the pen. In a day of defensive highlights from the Stars, Sarfate was saved twice in the 6th....... Kennard Jones led off with a blast to left field on a 2-2 pitch. The other Kennard, Bibbs by name, sprinted towards the left field corner and made an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track, before crashing into the wall...... One out later, Paul McAnulty was robbed for the 2nd time by Callix Crabbe on a ground ball to his right, diving to make a stop, then getting up and firing a one-hop rocket to Brandon Gemoll, who made a dandy stretch and pick-up...... I think that was topped by the play he made on McAnulty in the 4th -- a sharply hit ground ball, this time to his left, headed for the hole on the right side near first base. Crabbe sprinted over for this one and made a diving major-league highlight-reel stop on the high hop, sprung up, and made the throw to first for the out....... Chris Barnwell climbed the ladder in the 7th inning to make a leaping steal of a liner hit by Greg Sain, and nearly converted it into a double play for the fourth great defensive play that I counted....... Sarfate left the game after 87 pitches, 56 (64.3%) for strikes........ Jerome Gamble came on in the 9th to pick up his first save by throwing more smoke...... 94, then 95 mph fastballs to McAnulty for strikes, then a big 76 mph curve for the strikeout....... Corey Smith worked him for a 3-2 count. After fouling off a 79 mph curve, he brought home a 96 mph and 95 mph fastball for the 2nd out....... Sain got a hold of a 96 mph fastball and singled it off his glove, the ball going up the middle to Crabbe, who couldn't make a play on him, but Gamble struck out Trzesniak looking on 95 mph heat to end the game, giving Mobile their 8th straight loss and the Stars, their 4th straight victory...... The Stars are now 5-7 and find themselves chasing Chattanooga for 3rd place in the SL North. The kids come by the busload tomorrow for a 10 am game....... Manny Parra will go for the Stars against right-hander Travis Chick, the Padres' top pitching prospect....... Chick is known to get consistently ahead in the count, relying on a fastball that sits in the low 90s and touches 94-95 mph, a hard slider, and a very good change-up. If he has any fault, he works high in the strike zone at times. Nate Mateo, who worked the final inning for Mobile, was signed by former Stars catcher Wil Tejada. Tejada played for the Stars in 1992........ After 11 games, the Stars had a 4:1 strikeout-walk ratio -- best in the Southern League by a wide margin. Last year at the same point, it was 2.88....... The starting rotation, now after 12 games, has a composite 2.61 ERA and a 5.14 K-BB ratio........ Comparing that to last year, the starters in 2004 had a 4.41 ERA and a 2.82 ratio....... After 11 games, the Stars ERA last year was 3.89. This year, it's 3.09....... Even at the plate there's improvement over last year. The Stars, after 11 games, were hitting .256, compared to .233........ The only thing that hasn't improved is the record. The Stars were 7-5 after 12 games last year........ Batting in the leadoff position, Tony Gwynn, Jr. is hitting .167. In the #3 slot, he's .412 (7-for--17). The Huntsville Stars played their first game at Joe Davis Stadium 20 years ago on this day against the Birmingham Barons before a crowd of over 10,000...... For the record, it was a 10-0 Stars victory for Tim Belcher and Wayne Giddings........It was a state-of-the-art stadium then, built by a local contractor, Goodrum and Knowles, several years before HOK breathed new life into the construction of baseball parks with Oriole Park at Camden Yards....... Since then our "state-of-the-art" park has become the Cleveland Municipal Stadium of the Southern League, with a capacity that now emphasizes our empty seats, instead of a baseball experience revolving around the fan's comfort and convenience....... It's now a dinosaur sitting on what used to be an airport runway, forlornly waiting for an infusion of cash to bring it up to a modern era that is now over 10 years old....... It's the home of a baseball franchise in trouble, taken under the wing of an absentee owner who still hasn't signed a lease with the city to keep the club in Huntsville, (it's over a year passed, but a good faith agreement keeps it going), situated in one of the smallest markets in Double-A, whose most loyal fans are getting smaller and older in number, and whose city for the most part, has abandoned its interest, and will no doubt, not bother to come to the rescue...... It's a pretty grim picture, I know. I'm by nature a positive person. I don't think negatively in situations, for more than likely, they'll come to their fruition, but I'm also a realist and pragmatic. Unless attendance comes well above 200,000 this year, I can't see Miles Prentice being very willing to keep this club in town very much longer........ Last year, the team with the lowest attendance figure is no longer there, and the 9th place team, the Diamond Jaxx, are leaving (or were trying to until the Capital City Bombers took Greenville away from them)....... We were 8th in attendance in the league, and it's very likely we'll be 9th or 10th this season.

1987 Revisited? No one else is going to know this, I'm sure, but this season is following to the letter, the pattern of wins and losses of the 1987 season -- five straight losses to start the season, then a win, then two more losses to give the Stars a 1-7 start -- then three straight wins...... What are the odds?....... A 4-7 start is nothing to brag about, but it's progress, and the 1987 Stars did go to the playoffs that year........ By the way, for this bizarre repeat to continue, the Stars must suffer a loss tomorrow. Another beautiful night in Huntsville...... Where are all the fans? Get outta the house!......... 75° at gametime, no humidity, a few high clouds, but nothing threatening, although the weatherman is calling for a small chance of rain Thursday through Saturday....... What's this?........ A radar gun is set up behind home plate in back of the screen??? Could it be the speed display on the scoreboard is working? And lo and behold, the inning-by-inning display is working! I must be dreaming!...... No, it was true. Someone got on the stick and for the first time in a year since the new scoreboard was promised to us, everything is in 100% working order, and it was nice to include the speed gun readings in my scorebook occasionally....... Mobile has been one of Huntsville's most competitive opponents every year since 1997. No lopsided advantage over the other has ever existed..... Although the Stars have an 85-73 edge, neither team has won 2/3 of every game in the season series each year..... Despite the fact that Mobile hit more homers against us than any other opponent we faced in the league (28-13 over Birmingham and Montgomery), the Stars won the season series last year, 13-11....... Only one home run tonight. In the 4th inning, Corey Smith hit Dana Eveland's first pitch (43rd in the game) over the right-center field fence for a home run that tied the game, 1-1...... Corey, in his 3rd straight year in Double-A, hit 19 HRs for Akron last year, and was traded to the Padres by Cleveland for Jake Gautreau last February 2nd. He was the Indians' 1st pick in the 2000 draft. Eveland, for the 3rd time this season, was in control..... Seven more strikeouts to his total, now at 18 in 15 2/3 innings........ He mixed his fastball, which topped at 94, with his breaking pitches and off-speed stuff. Didn't see the slider a lot........ He scattered six hits. Only in the 4th inning did he give up more than one hit, and that was after giving up that home run........ One batter after giving up a four-pitch walk, his only pass, to Nick Trzesniak, he finally yielded to the bullpen in the 7th. He threw somewhere around 94-96 pitches and never more than 16, nor less than 11 in any inning he worked. Roughly 62% of his pitches were for strikes. He ended four of the innings he worked with a strikeout....... Although he's winless in three starts, he is the rock of this rotation. Facing him tonight was Brian Whitaker, and we know his story if you tuned in on Monday....... Whitaker started against the Stars six times last year. He lost four times, becoming only the 6th pitcher to lose to the Stars four times in a season. Given two chances to break the record, he won on July 20 and then on August 15, left after five innings and took a no-decision in a 3-2 Stars victory....... Whitaker doesn't have Eveland's hummer. He seems to top out at 89-90 mph, so the Stars hit him early --- five hits through the first three innings. It wasn't until the 3rd, they put a run on the scoreboard, though....... After Tony Gwynn struck out on an 89 mph fastball, Callix Crabbe showed the small crowd of fans his wheels when he tapped a slow roller to the right side of the infield. Ronnie Merrill came in and tried to barehand the ball and heave it to first to get the speedy Crabbe, who has stolen 81 bases in his three minor league seasons...... But Merrill could never get the handle on it and his momentum caused him to pass up his effort. Crabbe, who had the play beat anyhow, just kept running like a deer to second and did a head-first slide into the bag ahead of the tag. A ground ball to short by Brandon Gemoll moved him to third........ With two out, Nelson Cruz, the star of this game with two key hits, slapped an 85 mph pitch outside to right field for a single, scoring Crabbe, which made it 1-0. Cruz was picked off, but his moment emerged again........ In the 8th inning, after Crabbe singled to center and was caught stealing on a close call, Gemoll singled through the right side of the infield to right. Next, Cruz smacked a double deep to the gap in right-center..... With two out, Gemoll, who is not a great runner, although he's not afraid to go, was off to the races. Gemoll chugged around third as the ball came in to the cut-off man. Ronnie Merrill made a strong throw to the plate, but Trzesniak had to dive slightly away from the plate, just as Gemoll slid into the catch. Clearly a goner......... Mitch Stetter (1.23 ERA through five games, no walks in 7 1/3 IP) and Matt DeWitt, fortunately held the Bay Bears to just one hit through the next three innings so Cruz could have his final chance. Greg Sain, in the 9th, doubled to the right-center field wall and went to third on a broken bat grounder to Gemoll (there were six broken bats tonight, one of which went into the stands on the third base side where most of the fans sit). But Stetter struck out Trzesniak on an 86 mph fastball....... Trzesniak hit just .148 last year against the Stars. Nelson's next chance came in the 11th inning. Leading off, he stroked a single to left-centerfield gap. A little harder and he would have had a double, I'm sure, for he took a big turn around first...... On a 2-2 pitch to Tony Zuniga, he stole second. The throw to Merrill was good. It was low and headed into his glove, but Merrill never got a handle on it completely and it lay dead on the ground near his glove instead of in his glove........ .133-hitting Vinny Rottino was then walked to set up a double play, or at least a force, but Don Money was not going to let Matt DeWitt take his bat up there........ Jeff Winchester, hungry for a hit, anxious to be a hero, knocked a single into the gap in right-center. Right fielder Paul McAnulty gave it a little chase, but it was to no avail as the ball was on its way to the wall....... The Stars had won their 3rd straight game in a speedy 2:41 for an 11-inning contest. The Bay Bears lost their 7th straight and their 2nd straight in 11 innings. Sunday, they lost to the Smokies, 3-2 when Dan Uggla homered in the 9th to tie the game and our old friend Noochie Varner, won it in the 11th on an RBI single....... This Mobile team should look familiar. 14 members of this year's team played with Mobile at some point last year........ R.D. Spiehs, who gave up the game-winning hits to Cruz and Winchester, held the Stars to just 3 runs in 14 2/3 innings over 12 appearances last year for a 1.84 ERA......... Since going 2-for-12 in the first series against Carolina, Nelson Cruz has gone 12-for-28 (.429) and has 6 hits in his last 9 at-bats........ Enrique Cruz, much improved over last year offensively and defensively, is 5-for-9 in his last 3 games.......... Matt DeWitt now has a decision in 3 of his 6 appearances........ Tony Gwynn, Jr. (.282) has hit safely in 7 of his 10 games this season. There's another improved players......... Ben Van Iderstine (.360) has struck out only twice in 25 at-bats. Tuesday's game is a 12:05 businessman's special......... Dennis Sarfate (0-1, 1.00) will face Mike Thompson (1-1, 3.00)......... Thompson was 2-0 in six starts last year against the Stars, with a 2.25 ERA....... Sarfate was 1-3 against Mobile last year, with a 4.88 ERA in five starts. Last year, he gave up five HRs to the Bay Bears, more than any other pitcher on the staff against Mobile last year.

A beautiful day to breakaway Check your crystal ball, squarepusher........ A BrewerFan.net.poster who was uncanny the last time he predicted Khalid Ballouli's first performance, missed the target this time, predicting he would strike out 6 and get the win......... Well, Ballouli missed the target, too, squarepusher.. It wasn't, by his admission, a great start. I asked him which of his pitches was working. He said none of them. It was four innings of "damage control"........ Still, for damage control, it was pretty good work. 77 pitches, 53 for strikes (68.9%). That's a lot of pitches for four innings of work though. After four, it was wise for Don Money to yank him. In the 4th inning, behind on Drew Niles 2-and-0, he offered a two-seam fastball, a good pitch to throw in that situation. Really his lifeboat........ Niles crushed his lifeboat over the Allstate sign in right field for a home run, giving Carolina a 2-1 lead........ It was Niles in the 2nd inning who snapped Ballouli's string of 18 straight batters retired with a two-out single up the middle, going back to his 1st start of the season......... It was the 8th home run given up by the Stars pitching staff this season, 2nd worst in the league, but really a modest figure. In 1999, after their first ten games, Stars pitchers served up 18 home runs. But where Ballouli felt he failed, Josh Habel, Alec Zumwalt, and Jerome Gamble combined to shut the Mudcats out over the next 5 innings, giving up just 2 hits and not allowing a walk. Who noticed that though?........ This was the day the dam broke. The Stars, averaging little more than 2.5 runs per game, broke out with a frenzy in the last three innings, scoring 10 runs, crushing the Mudcats, 11-2........ Everyone who could wield a bat, took part in the damage. Even Alec Zumwalt, the converted outfielder, delighted in taking revenge on the embarrassing four-game sweep of last week, but we'll get to that........ Justice prevailed on this warm, beautiful, summerlike 78° afternoon at Joe Davis Stadium....... The Stars won the series against the Mudcats, and the bats awoke from their slumber, hitting .317 in the 3-game series, raising the team average to .246, the best club batting figure in six years after the first ten games of the season. (The 1999 Stars were hitting .267 after 10 games). In the 2nd inning, Carolina starter Logan Kensing ended the inning with one of two great catches in this game, diving off the mound to make an outstretched catch of Ballouli's popped up bunt, which he turned into a 1-4 double play to get Enrique Cruz, ending the inning, and holding the Stars to one run...... After that play, Kensing retired 10 of 11 batters to face him....... In the 6th inning, the Stars batted around, taking a 6-2 lead into the dugout with them....... Ignited by a 2-2 fastball that hit Junior in the back, the Stars were quick to rally........ Kensing gave up a single to right to Brandon Gemoll, a double by Nelson Cruz over the head of centerfielder James Shanks, a wild pitch and a walk to Tony Zuniga, and a grounder to short by Jeff Winchester that scored Cruz with the go-ahead run...... Two batters later, Alec Zumwalt came up with the big blow of the inning --- a bases-loaded single threaded through short to left field, putting the Stars ahead, 5-2, and chasing Kensing from the game. Manager Gary Allenson brought in Ross Wolf and stuck with him the rest of the game........ In the 7th, Brandon Gemoll's first-pitch double off the right field wall set up the Stars' 6th run, a sacrifice fly by Tony Zuniga scoring Gemoll who managed to get to third on Nelson Cruz's single. Even though he had Joe Rodriguez warming up in the Stars' 5-run 8th, Allenson left Wolf in to take a beating when the Stars brought 10 men to the plate........ Kennard Bibbs, the only batter to go hitless for the Stars, drove in the first run on a grounder with the sacks full....... Tony Gwynn drove in the next run with a first pitch single into a gaping hole at shortstop, scoring Enrique Cruz.......... Next, Brandon Gemoll, who scored on a sacrifice fly, drove in pinch-hitter Ben Van Iderstine on a fly ball to center......... Nelson Cruz walked, then Zuniga hit a 2-1 pitch to center, falling in just the right place, for it short-hopped off Shanks' glove and got away, allowing Gwynn to score...... Jeff Winchester drove in the final run of the inning on a hot grounder that 3rd baseman Niles could only keep in front of him. With no chance to throw anyone out, Cruz scored to make it a final 11-2. I mentioned Kensing's great diving catch in the 2nd inning....... The other noteworthy defensive gem came from Rex Rundgren...... Nelson Cruz, leading off the 4th, lined a ball up the middle when out of nowhere, Rundgren running, leapt high in the air and outstretched, speared the ball...... It was like watching a ballet leap. After ten games, the Stars are 3-7, tying their worst mark at that stage of the season, done twice in the Milwaukee-era, and twice by the A's-affiliated Stars in 1986 and 1987........ After ten games, the Stars have hit only two home runs, both by Nelson Cruz, the fewest since 1991, when the only one hit after ten games was by Dwayne Hosey....... The Stars have also scored only 34 runs after ten games, just two more than the fewest in the Stars' 21-year history. (32 in 1987 and 2000)....... Better news --- this team is the best defensively at this point since 1995. The Stars have made only 7 errors after ten games, which was the record low established that year. However, the Brewers have burdened us with inadequate defense at the catching position, while two experienced catchers are sitting on the bench night after night........ Four passed balls in 10 games and too many escaped third strikes that have led to runs, including one tonight when Jason Hill swung at a wild pitch by Ballouli that caromed off Winchester's glove in the 3rd. Not one opposing baserunner has been caught stealing from a catcher's throw and most of the time, it's been Rottino behind the plate. This was Winchester's 3rd start. John Vanden Berg has not started a game yet........ If it was up to me, Rottino would be catching at Brevard County, instead of two steps up in Huntsville........ I understand he's got potential with the bat, but let him wait a year if you're going to make a catcher out of him this late in his career. I think I'd just find another position for him and let Lou Palmisano and Angel Salome take care of the Brewers' future catching needs. Monday starts a four-game series at home with Mobile........ Dana Eveland (0-1), with 11 Ks in 9 innings in his two starts will face Brian Whitaker........ Whitaker, last year, served up the only grand-slam HR of the season for the Stars --- to Brandon Gemoll on May 10 in an 8-5 Stars win........ Whitaker faced the Stars six times last year --- all starts. He beat them only once after becoming only the 6th pitcher to lose to the Stars four times in a season. Given another chance to break the record on August 15, he left after five innings and took a no-decision in a 3-2 Stars victory........ The Stars are 85-73 against Mobile ever since they joined the Southern League in 1997. After 10 games and 49 1/3 innings, the starting rotation has a strikeout-walk ratio of 57:11....... Tony Gwynn, Jr. is 9-for-24 (.375) in his last six games with just three strikeouts....... Enrique Cruz is hitting .409 in his last six games. Last year after 10 games, Cruz was hitting .240 with 14 strikeouts in 22 at-bats. This year, he has 9 Ks in 32 at-bats........Brandon Gemoll is starting to hit the ball. He's hit safely in six of his last seven games....... Noochie Varner delivered a game-winning RBI single in the 11th inning to give the Tennessee Smokies a 3-2 victory over Mobile, handing Mobile their 6th straight loss.

At least there was some success All the ingredients were right........ It was Friday. The sky was nearly cloudless and even the day was warmer than forecasters had predicted. At gametime, it was 71° at Joe Davis Stadium. And there would be fireworks....... A poor crowd would truly tell what kind of year it would be at the gate, as if the Stars' record 1-6 start at gametime wasn't bad enough........ But they did come....... The 2005 home opener, coming on the latest date in Stars history in six years, saw the largest crowd since 2001 when 5,763 came out to see the April 13 opener against West Tennessee. Maybe it's too early, and maybe there wasn't enough time for newly-hired personnel to get ready, but there were plenty of blank spaces on the advertising wall in the outfield, and the pitch-speed meter that was supposed to be a big, new feature of the scoreboard -- STILL WASN'T READY. (I heard a new radar gun was being ordered and wouldn't come for at least a week.)...... There were other opening night glitches. The inning-by-inning display decided to quit on the fans in the 2nd inning, and didn't return until the 6th........ Even in the broadcast booth, for those listening in on the headphones, the audio mix was simply horrible. The crowd mike overwhelmed Brett Pollock's voice, which has a tendency to trail off a lot of times, so that he was unintelligible or simply couldn't be heard far too many times, and there was still that tinny quality in his own mike, a noticeable lack of bass that was a problem on the road gamecasts. The crowd, though, had a good time. The familiar between-innings promotions to make the fan the part of the game was back....... Homer ran around the bases and lost to the little kid again, and everyone got to guess the attendance, which is another point to bring up........ I've been to enough games to know there were a lot more than 5,300 tonight. I thought at first -- 7,000 or more -- and was satisfied to hear later from Mark McCarter and Jim Gattis, the Huntsville Times beat reporters for the Stars, that they had believed the same. They suspected, as I had, that the count was really off for some reason. Unfortunately, the success at the gate did not match the Stars' tonight, who fall to 1-7, tying the club record for the worst start since the 1987 season....... It was also another one-run loss, and after eight games, they are 1-5 in those matters........ They're not far away already from the all-time worst record for games decided by a run --- they were 1-7 in May of 1993. Manny Parra's control was excellent tonight....... He walked only one batter (Todd Sears in the 6th on a 3-0 pitch) and went to three balls on nobody else!....... In the end, he threw by my count, 88 pitches, 60 for strikes (an incredible 68.1%)....... But it takes just one fatal pitch to get you in the loss column, and he threw it to Jeremy Hermida in the 6th inning after Robert Andino had led off the inning with a sharply hit ball up the middle --- a high 0-1 fastball that was jacked to right field, falling over the middle tier of advertising to make the score 3-1....... Then after getting two out in the 7th --- a grounder to Tony Zuniga and a ball Enrique Cruz had to go a long way on the outfield grass for --- Drew Niles, a defensive substitution, lined a 1-0 pitch off the University Furniture sign in the right field corner for a double........ On a 1-0 pitch, Eric Reed sent a pitch over the head of Ben Van Iderstine, who was in and not expecting Reed to go the opposite way. He did and the ball went over his head and to the wall for an RBI double, sending in the go-ahead run. That ability to drive in runners with two out is the mark of a contending team. That description hasn't fit the Stars at all this year....... They left runners on the corners with one out in the 2nd, Callix Crabbe tried to stretch a double in the 3rd and was met by a ball in the outstretched glove of Chris Bass, and John Vanden Berg was left on second base after doubling in two runs in the 8th. Parra's counterpart, Scott Olsen, was not as sharp as Parra. He went full on quite a few batters, and his slider hung a few times, but he used it to get Nelson Cruz in the 2nd, who struck out four times tonight (the first Stars hitter since Kade Johnson on May 11 of last year to do that)....... After Cruz struck out, Vinny Rottino hit a high hop to Bass, who did a fine job in coming down with it, but threw it away after he did....... Rottino then moved to second on a passed ball, then followed a walk to Tony Zuniga, and a line single to right by Brandon Gemoll. Zuniga's was given the sign to hold up by manager Don Money, but Hermida's throw in sailed too high, and Gemoll was able to take second. Meanwhile, Money waved Zuniga in. Chris Bass, who took the ball in the infield, sailed the ball over the head of catcher Chris Ashby. It went to the screen and the desperation toss to the plate was to late to get Zuniga. In the bottom of the 8th with Joe Rodriguez in relief of Jerrod Fuell, Chris Barnwell lofted a double down the left field line with one out, followed by a walk to Tony Gwynn, Jr. ....... Under-utilized Jeff Vanden Berg hit a 2-1 pitch in the gap in right-center against the wall, scoring both, ending a string by the Carollina bullpen of 20 consecutive scoreless innings. A couple of unusual moments in the game..... Van Iderstine's line drive single in the 3rd went straight up the middle and nearly took Olsen's head off, causing him to dive to the ground in defense of himself........ And in the 4th, the 1-1 pitch to James Shanks went about 35 feet when Parra lost his balance on the mound (that was a sight) and the ball left his hand and fell to the grass to the right side of the infield in front of him. Parra was bemused and took it in good stride. I'm sure there were some jokes about it long after the game, cause there is nothing initially funny about their record right now. The play-of-the-game was made by opposing 1st baseman Todd Sears..... He took a sure hit away from Gemoll in the 9th with one out and Tony Zuniga on first, when he speared a sure hit by diving to his right in the hole on the dirt portion of the infield to get to the ball, then getting up and making the throw in time to pitcher Chris Resop for the out......... Zuniga was left stranded on second when Enrique Cruz, who backed out of the box on a 2-1 pitch, thinking that the umpire would grant him time called, thought wrong. Ump Brandon Bushee has no obligation to grant anyone "time" whether Cruz thought so or not, especially with new rules in effect saying that the batter must stay inside the box to cut down wasted minutes in the game........ With a 2-2 count, Cruz struck out swinging for the final out of the game. Saturday, Nic Ungs, who was supposed to start for Carolina, Friday, but did not because of the cancellation of the Birmingham-Carolina game on Wednesday, will get the call against Glenn Woolard....... Woolard, many of you fans remember, set a club record last year by throwing 29 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings in August......... The Stars are hoping for a crowd of 3,000+ after the opening night success.

Gwynn rescues the Stars for Win #1 Matt Ford, last year, gave the Stars their first win of the season, then didn't win again until September. We hope he doesn't wait that long this year........ He won last year as a starter. This year, he vultured it from Dana Eveland. I say vultured because Dana Eveland, again, pitched a fine, quality ballgame, one he deserved to win, going five innings (four last time)....... In his two starts, Eveland has given up just one run on 7 hits, striking out 11 in 9 innings. Eveland had to remove himself from trouble in the 1st inning, though........ When he picked off leadoff hitter Todd Donovan, who had opened the bottom of the 1st with a line drive single to left, it became a pivotal point early in this ballgame, for Sergio Garcia and Brian Sprout followed with singles, and it's pretty certain Donovan would have scored in this game that was decided in the end by one run........ After loading the bases by walking Delwyn Young, Eveland again extricated himself from his own mess by getting Derek Michaelis to ground out to Brandon Gemoll......... With a half-inning of rest, Eveland then proceeded to retire 15 of the next 16 Jacksonville hitters, walking one batter along the way. The Stars had struck early for Eveland and given him a 2-0 lead....... With two out in the 1st, Gemoll singled to right, then stole second........ His last stolen base for the Stars was on July 29, 2003. Under Frank Kremblas, Gemoll stole 7 times in 16 attempts. In 80 games for Indianapolis last year, he stole three times in five attempts........ Gemoll's surprise move paid off....... Nelson Cruz, the next hitter, hit his 3rd double of the year, giving the Stars a 1-0 lead. Cruz would score on Tony Zuniga's single to center making it 2-0....... Cruz is now hitting .316, and with Ben Van Iderstine (.353) is emerging, to no surprise, as one of the big bats in this lineup. And then nothing happened until the 7th inning, except for a pair of walks between both sides...... After Callix Crabbe walked in the top of the 2nd, 26 consecutive batters were retired between both pitching staffs....... Nelson Cruz was walked in the 6th by Alfredo Gonzalez. After stealing 2nd, the Stars had their first runner in scoring position since the 1st. He was 90 feet away after a wild pitch, but Zuniga flied out to end the frame for Huntsville. But Jacksonville so far this season has developed an odd propensity to score in the late innings.... 22 of its 29 runs had come in the 7th inning or later. Unfortunately, it's realized once again in the 7th inning. Just like Jason rising from his grave to cause more trouble, the nightmare of last night began surfacing again. Leadoff hitter Delwyn Young had struck out swinging on an 0-2 breaking ball from Ford, but the ball had gotten away from catcher Jeff Winchester and back to the screen for a passed ball and Young was on first. (A Eugene O'Neill moment here. We're having ungodly problems, it seems, with our defense in back of the plate. Why don't we see what Jeff Vanden Berg can do back there. Now back to our play.)....... Derek Michaelis walks on four pitches. That gets Mitch Stetter up in the bullpen........ James Rohan lays down a perfect bunt. No one can get to it. Ford looked like he had a chance at first, but lost his footing. By the time he maintains his balance, it's too late and the bases are loaded without a hit and nobody out........ Eric Langill, making his first start in this series, loops an 0-1 breaking ball into shallow right-centerfield in front of Tony Gwynn, Jr..... The one-hop throw to the plate is not in time and Langill has driven in Young and Michaelis. Rohan holds at second. This game is tied, 2-2. Nick Alvarez comes up to pinch-hit for Gonzalez, actually looking to bunt again. A pick-off attempt comes off the glove of Callix Crabbe, but Rohan on second stays put seeing the ball didn't get far from Enrique Cruz....... On the 1-0 pitch, Alvarez retires the bunt attempt and hits a shallow fly ball to right. More adventure. Nelson Cruz backs up to his left, then turns to his right on the warning track. Will he catch it? Yes! Rohan could have gone to third, but was frozen watching whether Cruz will make the catch....... The inning finally ended quickly when Todd Donovan (2-for-9) hit a 2-strike pop-up to Winchester and Sergio Garcia popped out to Gemoll. In the top of the 8th, Jacksonville sends Beau Dannemiller to the mound, picked up in last winter's Rule V draft......... After pinch-hitter Chris Barnwell lines out to third, Kennard Bibbs sends Dannemiller's first pitch over the head of Todd Donovan to the warning track for a double, his second among his three hits this season. The go-ahead run is now on second base........ Tony Gwynn, Jr., 1-for-10 in the Carolina series, then gets his 3rd hit of this series when he sends Dannemiller's 3-2 pitch on a line to left field to Brian Sprout, who takes the ball on the hop. But his throw cannot be handled by Langill at the plate and the speedy Bibbs scores the winning run to give the Stars their first win of the season. The suspense didn't end there....... Mitch Stetter give up two straight singles in the 8th and after a force, had runners on the corners with one down, but Stetter came through in the clutch, striking out Derek Michaelis on an 0-2 breaking ball. After disposing of him, however, Delwyn Young stole 2nd without a throw, putting both runners in scoring position. But James Rohan hit an easy grounder to Crabbe to end the inning........ Matt DeWitt closed the door in the 9th for the save, leaving a runner in scoring position after a single and stolen base by Todd Donovan. The rubber game of the series gets underway at 11:50 am, CDT with Dennis Sarfate dueling Suns' right-hander Jonathan Broxton. Broxton went 5 innings in his last start, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk against Birmingham. He's 9th among the Dodgers' top minor league prospects, 4th among their top pitching prospects. Chris Barnwell's sacrifice fly Monday night was his 9th in his 3rd season with the Stars, tying him for 14th on the Stars' all-time leaderboard........ The Nashville Sounds, off to a 4-1 start and in 1st place in the PCL American Division, plays the Oklahoma Redhawks (1-4) at 7 pm, tonight.

Ballouli stunning... Stars stunned Well, we're not that bad, after all. We're just Star-crossed. It was one of the most improbable, heart-breaking losses I have ever had to sit through........ The Stars were six outs away from a 6-0 shutout, their first victory of the season. Khalid Ballouli, in his debut with the Stars, looked like the ace of the rotation, even though he was #5 in the order...... And they had more than made up for the last four losses by surpassing their entire hit total of the Carolina series........ But oh stinging irony. The reputed strength of this team --- pitching and defense failed them in the 9th inning. If you had decided to shut the radio off before the Suns got to the bottom of the 9th, then returned one inning later --- or perhaps after the game, you would most likely ask, "What on earth just happened?" "How did it happen?"........ How does it happen that three wild pitches, two of them on third strikes, and an error can turn the sweet taste of success to the bitter pill of defeat? I'd like to know what went on in that dugout after the game........ Well, here's how it happened. Jerome Gamble came on to protect a 6-1 lead in the 9th. Delwyn Young had homered to right field with one out in the 8th, but this game seemed safely put away........Two outs away, in fact, after Brian Sprout had struck out swinging, but wait....... The ball gets away from Vinny Rottino and rolls back to the screen. Gamble is charged with a wild pitch and Sprout is on at first. An omen?........ i breathe easier after Joel Guzman, the Dodgers' top minor league prospect, strikes out for the third straight time. But then pinch-hitter Sergio Guzman singles through the middle, moving Sprout to 2nd. Russell Martin hits a ball past Enrique Cruz into left for a single, but then as Sprout holds up, the relay throw from Ben Van Iderstine gets past Cruz and 3rd baseman Chris Barnwell and rolls in front of the Suns' dugout. Sprout scores. It's 6-2........ Both bullpens now get busy. Garcia is on 3rd and Martin on 2nd. Delwyn Young swings at a 2-2 pitch for strike three, which would make that the fourth out of the inning, but the ball hits off the mask of Rottino and pops off the screen behind home plate. It's scored as another wild pitch. Garcia scores. It's 6-3........ Martin moves to 3rd and that's all for Gamble........ In 61 2/3 innings for the Class AA -Portland Sea Dogs (East) last year, Gamble was charged with four wild pitches. Alec Zumwalt, designated as this year's closer, finally gets his chance to save the day. Nick Alvarez hits his first pitch to centerfield for a single scoring Martin. It's now 6-4. Young goes to 2nd. Tydus Meadows, the former Diamond Jaxx outfielder two years ago comes up. On a 1-1 count, Zumwalt uncorks a wild pitch, the third of the inning. Rottino has no chance to recover the ball which is coming up the third base line and Young goes to 3rd. Zumwalt, unnerved perhaps, throws a ball in the dirt and walks Meadows......... James Rohan flies out to shallow center. Gwynn races in for the catch and Young has no chance to score........ It's the second out, and perhaps we can win this one after all....... Yeah, keep dreamin'. I've seen this act before. One out away from victory and one out from a save, former Mobile Bay Bear Todd Donovan lines Zumwalt's first pitch to center and Young and Alvarez score, tying the game...... Unfrigginbelievable....... Khalid Ballouli's masterpiece of a debut is forgotten, but for the record, after Ballouli gave up a 2-out single to Guzman in the first, he retired 13 straight batters, striking out six of them. He was so in control that of 43 pitches in his first three innings, 32 were strikes. He was so poised that even after going behind 3-and-0 on James Loney in the 4th, he struck him out........ In each of his five innings, he finished with a strikeout..... Can't wait to see his next start at home........ Sprout, who started the inning, ended it when Zumwalt knocked down a sharp grounder back to him, throwing to Brandon Gemoll for the final out. In the bottom of the 10th, Zumwalt was ahead of Guzman 1-and-2, then walked him. Garcia sacrificed him over to second and Russell Martin ended this game for Jacksonville with a double over Van Iderstine's head........ I can't recall the last time we lost a lead like this, this late. I really had notes, but I can't find them...... I do recall a loss to Birmingham much like this in July of 1994 when Jason Giambi booted Michael Jordan's two-out grounder in the 9th with the bases loaded, allowing all three runners to score. That capped a six-run 9th and a 6-5 loss at Hoover Met. The Stars had one big chance to cushion their lead in the 8th inning when Chris Barnwell's single to the opposite field loaded the bases with 1 out, but with a fresh pitcher, William Juarez, on the mound in relief of Richard Bartlett, who gave up an amazing 9 hits in 2 1/3 innings, Tony Gwynn, Jr. and Callix Crabbe both flied out....... Brandon Gemoll, in the 9th, had a chance to send in Nelson Cruz, who doubled, but flied out to left. Tomorrow morning at 10:05, the Stars will face the Suns once again...... Dana Eveland will face the Dodgers' top pitching prospect, Chad Billingsley and his explosive fastball. Some scouts have compared him to Mark Prior. Time for bed. I'm out.

The good, the mostly bad, and the just-plain ugly Well, let's get the good news out of the way cause it won't take long....... The forecast for the home opener looks good. The rains will come early in the week while the team is in Jacksonville. Friday is supposed to be clear for a Fireworks night, with the high temperature in the low 70s. I'd bring a light jacket. I think a crying towel might be in order, too. Is Carolina that good, or are we that bad?...... That's a question I intended to answer last night but never got around to because an early 4 am job gets in the way (as it will for much of the season, and it will cause a lot of afternoon naps)...... Well, consider that five of the Marlins top 10 prospects are in Carolina this season, including their top hitting and top pitching prospect at #1 and #2. You would have known that if you followed this site. The Marlins' minor league organization, though, is ranked 14th among the 30 major league teams. The Brewers rank 3rd....... Conclusion -- they're competitive, but beatable. Maybe we are that bad, but we're not going to be this bad the rest of the season....... The Stars set club records for fewest hits in a 4-game series (14) and fewest runs (1), but the good news is --- they're not getting blown out....... The pitching staff gave up 10 earned runs in 28 1/3 innings --- a 3.18 ERA....... The bullpen in 11 2/3 innings gave up 2 runs on just 8 hits (1.54 ERA)....... I don't think this is much consolation, to tell you the truth. We'll see if we can't do better against Jacksonville on Monday for the start of a three-game series. Khalid Ballouli will make his Huntsville Stars debut as the starter for that game. Last year at High Desert, he was 6-14 with a 5.97 ERA. He has a 91-94 mph fastball, a tight slider and deceptive change-up. Three years ago, he was ranked 28th among the Brewers' top 30 prospects and hasn't been on the radar since....... Khalid has a little bit of injury history, but when he's in the rotation, his numbers are fantastic. His 5.91 K:BB ratio in Ogden was absolutely amazing. He's 25 and ready for Double-A. Coming in, Logan Kensing had only pitched in 35 minor league games but had major league experience with the Florida Marlins last year, making three fill-in starts in five appearances, although the trial had disastroug results....... He has a 91-94 mph fastball, doesn't get rattled, and has a solid-to-average slider, and is developing his change-up....... He sounds hittable, but he held the Stars to two hits -- a double to Callix Crabbe with one out in the 1st and Brandon Gemoll's single, but he also walked four and Huntsville had a chance to take advantage of his wildness........ The Stars stranded seven runners in the first three innings. With Ben Van Iderstine on first and Crabbe on second in the 1st inning, Nelson Cruz and Tony Zuniga were retired to end the inning....... The Stars had the bases loaded in the 2nd with nobody out, but Kensing struck out Glenn Woolard, Tony Gwynn, Jr. flied out to left, but not deep enough to score Gemoll, then struck out Crabbe looking....... Zuniga walked with two outs in the 3rd and Gemoll followed with a single, but Enrique Cruz was called out on strikes to end the inning....... In the end, the Stars were 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position in this series. Such ineptness doesn't go ignored........ Carolina broke through in the bottom of the 3rd......... Dennis Anderson hit Woolard's 3-1 pitch down the right field line past Gemoll for a leadoff double........ Logan Kensing, a shortstop in high school who pitched only out of necessity, sent a fly ball deep toward right-centerfield, moving Anderson to third..... After James Shanks struck out on a 1-2 pitch, Robert Andino, 7-for-11 in the four-game series, legged out an infield single to short. The sharply hit hopper was a tough play for Enrique Cruz who one-hopped the ball on target to Gemoll, but it was not in time, and the Mudcats took a 1-0 lead. The Mudcats added their second run in the 4th on Anderson's bouncing ball up the middle on a 3-2 count. It could have been worse because the bases were loaded and nobody out for Woolard, but he held the Mudcats to just that run, getting the final outs on a double play, the second in four innings for Woolard. ....... The final run in the 6th on a home run by Chris Bass off reliever Josh Habel, making his Stars debut........ Kensing retired the last 10 hitters to face him and got strikeouts on the final hitters from the 2nd through the 5th inning. He left the job to a bullpen that had not given up a run in the previous three games. Their pen kept that record clean, and Chris Resop closed it out to get his 3rd save in the four-game set, something unprecedented in Stars history. The Montgomery Biscuits are off to a 4-0 start and their leading hitter is Johnny Raburn, 6-for-9...... Noochie Varner for the Tennessee Smokies is 4-for-14 after four games........ Derek Lee, who was with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats last year, is not on their roster or on any of the Blue Jays' minor league rosters. The General, who holds many of the Stars' career pitching records, including victories, started only 9 games for the Fisher Cats last year, going 1-3 with a 3.14 ERA before going on their disabled list....... Robinson Cancel, who started spring training in a Cubs uniform, is not on the rosters of the Cubs' top two farm clubs....... Steve Scarborough (4-for-8) , Rickie Weeks (4-for-9), Brad Nelson (3-for-7), and Dave Krynzel (3-for-8) are off to good starts for the 3-1 Nashville Sounds. www.starsboxscore.com

So based on the latest, LHP Josh Habel and RHP Jerome Gamble are additions based on the initial report, and RHP Ryan Miller is off the squad -- current status unknown. According to Ryan's younger brother Kirk, who e-mailed me, seems "Ryan is having some soreness in his forearm...he is suppose to throw in the bullpen on Wednesday....a decision is suppose to be made after they see how his arm feels on Thursday......but who knows if a decision will come that quickly. He didn't find out he wasn't going to Huntsville until after his clothing and gear had already been shipped."

Scott Brosius for a 2005 Huntsville bobblehead? Ugh, c'mon.... Brosius was very popular with the fans here, Mass Brew. They still remember him. In fact, he came back to Huntsville a couple of years ago at the invitation of one of the Boosters he maintained a friendship with and threw out the first ball in a game sometime that summer. And in two seasons, he was a real contributor with the team, hitting .271 as a regular in 1989 and .296 with 23 HRs, 88 RBIs, and 81 walks in 1990.

That means former Brewers star Cecil Cooper will return for a third season at the helm of the Brewers' Triple-A affiliate, which will be in Nashville for the first time next season, and his old teammate Don Money will be back for a sixth season at Class A, which has been moved to Charleston, W.V. Kremblas is expected back at Huntsville for a third season. Correction: 4th season, which would be a first in Stars history.

TOP TEN GAMES OF THE YEAR First of all, thanks to my cat for stepping all over this keyboard. Now, thanks to Mass Brew and the folks and posters at brewerfan.net for the kind words, perusing my site, and posting my rantings and reports. Here it is: 10) May 25 vs. Jacksonville... Stars 7, Suns 6 A day after the old scoreboard was dismantled, the Stars trailed Jacksonville, 6-0 into the bottom of the 7th. From the 5th to the 8th inning, they had left 11 runners on base. Three straight innings, they left the bases loaded....... While Jason Shelley was holding the Suns to just one unearned run in three innings of relief, Tony Gwynn, Jr. started the engine with two out in the 7th with a 2-run single to right. That made it 6-2. In the 8th, a bases-loaded walk to Johnny Raburn made it 6-3........ After Fernando Rijo retired the Suns in order in the 9th, Prince Fielder got the 9th going with a leadoff double off the centerfield wall. One out later, Jason Belcher's single through the left side moved him to third and then Chris Barnwell, 0-for-4, tied the game with a 3-run home run....... But this wasn't going to go to extra innings........ Joel Alvarado walked and went to third on a 2-0 wild pitch to Ozzie Chavez. On 2-and-1, Chavez drove in the winning run with a smash hit to the centerfield wall, giving the Stars 3 wins in the 4-game series. 9) June 8 vs. Birmingham... Stars 4, Barons 3 With both teams engaged in a race, the Stars are behind 3-1 and down to their last two outs in the 9th. They were 5-23 in games when they trailed after six....... Ozzie Chavez starts a rally by drawing a walk. Rickie Weeks then singled up the middle, moving him to 2nd.......Tony Gwynn, Jr. then laced a 1-1 pitch through the middle and that scored Chavez, making it 3-2....... Fielder played it patient at the plate, and got his pitch on 3-and-1, lacing it to right field on one hop to bring Weeks in with the tyring run..... Brad Nelson was intentionally walked to pitch to Ryan Knox, who's more dangerous than Nelson in the clutch....... Of course, you know in a bases-loaded situation, Frank Kremblas is going to call for the squeeze. Knox tried to bunt on the first pitch, but missed. Kremblas took the signal off, and Knox got a piece of it on the bat handle up the third base line...... The ball rolled along the line, on the grass. Third baseman Rob Sasser came in on the ball quickly, but could not get a handle on the ball in what would have been a difficult out anyway. Gwynn is just too quick. He scored, and the Stars won a dramatic 4-3 game over despised Birmingham. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/glasses.gif July 31 vs. Birmingham... Stars 3, Birmingham 2 (11)Tony Gwynn, Jr.'s mission -- atone for a dropped fly ball with two out and two on in the 4th that allowed the Barons to take a 2-0 lead...... Jim Bullard, one of the Stars' toughest pitching foes, held the Stars to just one hit after four innings, but in the 4th, the Stars quickly tied the game after Chris Barnwell hit a 2-run HR to left-center...... Gwynn, in the leadoff spot for the first time since April, missed a chance to redeem himself in the 8th with a runner on third when he fouled out to left, but the game went into extra innings with Paul Stewart and Roberto Giron holding the Barons hitless over the last five innings....... In the bottom of the 11th, Gwynn laced a 1-1 pitch to left-center beyond the reach of left fielder Michael Spidale. Gwynn is now the winning run on second...... Rickie Weeks comes to the plate and lays down a bunt. To who else? Rob Sasser. This time at first base....... While taking a look at third, Sasser barehands the ball, juggles it, then rushes a throw to first, throwing it wildly up the right field line, scoring Gwynn....... Mission accomplished. 7) July 18 vs. Montgomery... Stars 3, Biscuits 0 Pitching was the Stars strongest points, and this was one of the best pitching performances of the season....... In a fast 1:52 game, missing a record by one minute, Ryan Costello pitched the first complete game shutout since Derek Lee's 7-0, 4-hit victory over Mobile, July 13, 2001...... Costello struck out 11, went to a three-ball count only four times, and threw four no-hit innings before Eric Reece singled to lead off the 5th...... Costello gave the Stars their 4th straight win and a four-game sweep, their first of the season. 6) August 2 vs. Birmingham... Stars 1, Barons 0 (2nd game) Double-headers are intended to go seven, but this scoreless pitching duel was going close to 11 pm when it was decided in the bottom of the 9th....... It took 18 hits and just two walks to decide it........ Between the two teams, 18 runners were left on base...... Paul Stewart, In the top of the 6th, struck out Ruddy Yan and Scott Bikowski, but Aaron McNeal and Brian Anderson came through with back-to-back singles, putting both runners in scoring position...... Carlos Maldonado at the plate hit a ball between first and second and it's going to be a thriller at first base....... Prince Fielder makes a diving stab at the ball and gets enough of it that the ball trickles behind him twoard the garss, but Rickie Weeks alertly is backing up the play. He scoops the ball and throws almost in one motion to Paul Stewart, who also is alertly on his toes. Weeks' throw is just in time to nip Maldonado, preventing the run...... The Stars, who leave two runners on with one out in the 7th, and two on with two out in the 8th, finally get it together in the 9th...... Ryan Knox, dh-ing after almost two months out with a stress fracture in his back, singles to start a rally. Johnny Raburn's double down the right field line sends Knox to third and following a walk to Joel Alvarado to load the bases, Tony Gwynn, Jr. singles to left-center, scoring Knox for the 1-0 victory, giving them a win for Saul Rivera and a double-header split..... For Glenn Woolard, it's just the beginning of a record string of 29 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings. 5) July 3 vs. Mobile... Stars 5, Bay Bears 3 A turning point in Jeff Housman's season, one that would take him the next step up to Indianapolis in August....... Housman had not gone beyond the 4th inning in his three previous starts and he comes in with a 1-5 record after a 5.06 June....... So he shocks and awes the holiday crowd of over 8,200 by striking out 8 of the first 10 hitters to face him, including six straight, allowing walks to Ronnie Merrill and Greg Sain in the 1st inning..... He doesn't allow a hit until the 4th inning...... 64 of his 100 pitches are thrown for strikes, he fans 10 in 7 innings, and leaves with a 5-3 lead, thanks to a 4-run 3rd inning capped by Chris Barnwell's 2-run single. 4) August 7 at Carolina... Stars 5, Mudcats 0 Glenn Woolard, in the middle of one of the hottest stretches of pitching in Stars history, combines with Brian Adams to carry a no-hitter into the 8th inning at Five County Stadium. Woolard exits after 5 2/3, allowing just three walks, but Rex Rundgren says "Hello, it's Me" with a single to left to break up the no-hit bid and the Stars have one of a record-breaking seven shutouts in the August-September stretch run. 3) July 22 at Mobile... Stars 11, Bay Bears 10 The Stars blow an 8-4 lead, then survive a bases-loaded, none out jam in the 9th at Hank Aaron Stadium when John Novinsky strikes out Steve Morales, gets Jason Clements to hit into a force at the plate, and retires Kennard jones on a fly ball to center...... In the top of the 10th, with Tony Gwynn, Jr. and Prince Fielder on after a double and a walk, Brad Nelson sends R.D. Spiehs 1-2 pitch deep to right-center field for a game-winning 3-run HR, and an 11-10 victory that puts the Stars in a 1st place tie. 2) July 8 vs. Mobile... Stars 8, Bay Bears 3 The Stars pound out 13 hits in an 8-3 romp, but what made this game interesting and memorable was Jamie Gann's inside-the-park HR and Prince Fielder's chase for the cycle....... While Jeff Housman and Paul Stewart held the powerful Bay Bears to just two hits through seven innings, Fielder put the Stars on the board in the 1st inning with his 14th HR of the year over the second wall in right-centerfield....... With two out in the 3rd inning and Jeff Housman on third, Fielder got the toughest of the cycle requirements with a triple down the right field line, scoring Housman. Brad Nelson's infield single scored Fielder, then Jamie Gann, batting .346, hit an exciting inside-the-park home run thanks to Kennard Jones' unsuccessful attempt to make a diving catch on his hard hit liner to mid-center......... The single was an easy goal for Fielder to reach. It came in the 5th, giving Prince one more, maybe two more chances to do what no other Huntsville Star hitter had ever done. But with three runs already in in the 6th, and the bases loaded, Prince hit into a 4-6-3 double play, and in the 8th, with runners on the corners and a 3-1 pitch, he ended the inning with a fly ball to Jones in left-center. 1) August 6 at Carolina... Stars 1, Mudcats 0 This may come as quite a shock, but the best game on the year was probably seen by no Huntsville Stars fan. It was far away at Five County Stadium, but this 1-0 contest was no pitchers' duel. It was a defensive duel....... And 1-0 games aren't supposed to last three hours and 46 minutes....... In the 53 1-0 games in Stars history to this point, only one nine-inning game had gone over three hours, and that one on July 20, 2002 just went one minute over....... In a nearly scoreless game, 14 hits, 10 Mudcat walks and 7 walks issued by the Stars only produced frustration for both teams....... 25 runners were left on base, producing only frustration for both teams....... The Mudcats had runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 2nd inning and failed to score, as Dennis Sarfate struck out 3 of the next 4 batters The Stars loaded the bases in the top of the 3rd and failed to score. In the top of the 4th, the Stars had runners on second and third and two out and failed to score. The Stars in the top of the 5th put runners on first and third with no one out, and still failed to score...... In the bottom of the 5th, the Mudcats loaded the bases with nobody out, and failed to score........ Finally in the top of the 6th, Jamie Gann led off with a single to center, advanced to second on Barnwell's ground ball, to third on Johnny Raburn's fly to right, and with two out, Kade Johnson singled to left, scoring what would be the only run of the game....... Saul Rivera made the heads-up play of the year with two on and none out in the 6th. Chip Ambres popped up a bunt in front of the mound. Rivera coolly let the ball drop to decoy the runner on third. He then picked the ball up and fired to Chris Barnwell for the force out, then Barney relayed to second for the double play...... Rivera got Andy Rohleder to hit into a force play to end the inning...... Dennis Sarfate notched his first win since June 25 and extended his string of scoreless innings to 18 without allowing an earned run. Even though only heard it on the radio, I heard it and this, in my mind, had to be the best game of the year.

from www.starsboxscore.com HELLO, TOMORROW PART IIWhen Nestor Corredor flied out to centerfield in the bottom of the 9th, that put the lid on a very disappointing season, one that held so much potential in April, yet realized so little in the end. The 2004 Stars hit .241, the worst club average since 1991. They also played the fewest number of games in which they collected 10 or more hits (38) and had the fewest in August (5) than any Stars team in history........ Although the team ERA of 3.59 was 3rd best in the league, and the bullpen alone was 3.22, there was not one nine-game winner for the first time in our history. John Novinsky led the club in saves with 17, all of them recorded after May. (Novinsky, by the way, is fine and recovering after being smashed in the face by a line drive off the bat of Aaron Holbert in last Saturday's game against Louisville.)......... It was pitching that kept the Stars in the race early in both halves of the season....... Even in the field, the Stars led the league in errors with 154, tied in passed balls with Montgomery (20), and was last in fielding percentage in a year where every team improved in the field. But what hurt most was at the gate where the Stars finished a poor 8th in attendance....... Buoyed by buyout tickets for the last home game, the Stars broke the tape at just over 180,000, a record low........ Only West Tennessee, in jeopardy of losing their team and Greenville, which lost theirs, did worse....... Greenville baseball ended with a Ray Aguilar strikeout and a 3-0 victory at 3:04 pm........ Mark Hauser's final goodbye to Greenville fans was emotional and moving, following a 1:45 game, perhaps the shortest, if not one of the shortest nine-inning games in Southern League history. (The Southern League Media Guide does not list it in their records.)....... Over the strains of Sarah McLaughlin, Hauser spoke of his association with the late Jim Phillips, his predecessor who broke him in with the G'Braves in 1991 and thanked him, his colleagues, past and present who taped :10 and :20 second soundbites for the pregame, the G'Braves staff, and above all, the fans, staying above the reasons why Greenville lost their team. But when Hauser began to thank his own family for their support for the many days and weeks away from home, he began to break down, and lost it at the end, managing to whisper out a final goodbye........ Hauser, one of the finest baseball voices in the league, left open his decision to come back, saying, "This may or may not end my run in baseball... It saddens me a great deal to see our franchise break up."....... Hauser may or may not come back to the sport he deeply loves, but he's listed on the Mississippi Braves web site as their Director of Broadcasting. Individually, Joel Alvarado finished with 12 hits in his final two months, and hit .156 in August, which was his busiest month (64 ABs). Up at 47% at one stage during the season, Joel caught 31.1% of the runners trying to steal against him........ Chris Barnwell hit just .214 down the stretch after a .299 June and .308 July, but he played gritty, determined baseball at third base down to the end. His last error was taken back by the official scorer, giving him 24, tying him with Mike Coolbaugh (1997 Stars), for the fewest errors among the five 3rd basemen in Stars history who played more than 130 ballgames, and his 138 games played at third is now a Stars record........Ozzie Chavez hit just .194 in August following months of .169 and .219 in June and July......... Nestor Corredor picked up two hits in his final seven at-bats...... Prince Fielder, my pick as Player-of-the-Year on the club this year, went 8-for-15 in the final series to raise his average to .272. Against Chattanooga, he was 20-for-42 with four doubles, four HRs and nine RBIs. He hit .223 in May and June, but .305 the rest of the season. Prince, on the last day, passed Brad Nelson for the club lead in RBIs and finished tied for 4th in the league with Carolina's Jason Stokes........ Jamie Gann went 3-for-20 in his last nine games and drove in just three runs in his last 12........ Tony Gwynn, Jr. finished at .244, unable to crack the .250 barrier after August 18. I would be surprised if he moves up next year, but then again, I wouldn't........ Johnny Raburn played every position on this team at least once, made three untouched pitching appearances and three catching appearances, including two starts, but at the dish, he slumped down the stretch, hitting just .169 after hitting .275 in June and July combined........ Ben Van Iderstine came on strong, going 10-for-27 (.370) in his last eight games....... On the pitching side, Brian Adams was unscored upon in his final six appearances, covering 11 innings...... Ryan Costello lost three of his last four games, but had a 2.43 ERA in August, his best month...... Matt Ford has a unique place in Stars history for picking up his two wins on his first and last appearance of the season. His six scoreless innings last Friday lowered his ERA under 4.00, finishing with a 3.94 mark, his lowest since July 15....... Jeff Housman struggled at Indy after his promotion, but had a 1.91 ERA in six starts in May and a 1.55 ERA and three wins in July....... All 17 of John Novinsky's saves came after May. He left the Stars with a 1.20 ERA and five saves in August....... Fernando Rijo had a 3.00 ERA down the stretch and 11 Ks in 15 IP...... Saul Rivera, in June and August combined, had an ERA of 0.00 in 17 IP and a stretch of 19 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run from July 24 to September 2. I think he's earned a trip to Triple-A......... Dennis Sarfate's best month was down the stretch. Even though he led the league in losses (12) and walks (78) , his ERA down the stretch was 2.81......... Paul Stewart, this year's Eagle winner at the post-season awards party following the last home game of the season, was unscored upon in his final two appearances. Although he had a 4.39 ERA in August, his 74:16 K-BB ratio (4.63-1) was second only to Chris Saenz. On the bench, the Stars hit .256, led by Ryan Knox, who was 7-for-14, and Jason Belcher's .417....... In one-run games, the Stars were 21-17. There were 13 of them down the stretch........... In shutouts, the Stars were 10-14, but only after winning seven of eight down the stretch, a record for August-September....... In extra-innings, the Stars were 11-5, best in the league, and tying the club record for most extra-inning games won with the 2001 club. It's been a treat again with this web site. Next year, will be the 10th and I will be back. I couldn't imagine going a day without having my say on various topics as well as providing the box scores, league scores, and many other goodies. It's like nicotine........ While I let this thing rest for awhile, I will fill this site up occasionally with news, thoughts and stats. Thank you, all of you, players, parents of players and fans who've e-mailed me to express your thanks and fill the fires of enthusiasm with your compliments. Have a good off-season........ My pick for Game-of-the-Year was tough. I shaved an original list of 23 down to 13, then 11, and came up with this....... I leave you with my picks of the ten most memorable games of the year. (go to next thread)

According to the Sports Network transactions and roster updates, LHP Jeff Housman has been returned to Huntsville. I may be wrong here, but I don't trust this information at all. For a number of reasons, I don't think TSN is very conscientious when it comes to the services they provide. They've had Ozzie Chavez's and Paul Stewart's stats wrong all season, mistaking Ozzie for Endy early in the year and giving him Endy's line for a couple of games, then leaving out a complete pitching line by Stewart in a suspended game that he completed for Sarfate. Recently looking for Southern League transactions, I got the Sally League instead for a week. What more can I say? I'm very skeptical of this information.

Once again, I'm having server problems, so no update on my website, www.starsboxscore.com today. I called my server, HostSave, and they've acknowledged it's on their end. (I'm relieved to hear that.) As soon as they resolve their issues, I'll be back up. It's frustrating for me, but there's nothing I can do. When I'm up, I'll let you know. David Weiser

My apologies to those looking for an update on my site. The gremlins have taken my site hostage (server problems manifesting itself in timeout errors). As soon as I can resolve this or by some chance it resolves itself, I'll let you know. So that being said here is what should have been up Monday cut and pasted: ON THE ROAD AGAIN Not your ordinary road trip....... Twelve games....... If the Stars do well enough to shake Birmingham, and they're tied again after destroying West Tennessee, 11-4, they could sitting pretty watching the rest of the league chase them in August........ Dennis Sarfate, with a 7.88 ERA in the 1st inning, survived that, and the two innings to follow, pitching no-hit ball, but struggling with his control. Still lighting up the radar gun in the mid 90s, he struck out Kennard Jones and Marcus Nettles In the 1st inning, then walked Ben Johnson and Greg Sain --- a hitter you're better off walking then trying to challenge at 2-and-0...... He walked the leadoff hitter in the 2nd, Josh Barfield, but picked him off. Sarfate probably has the best pickoff move on the staff........ He walked two more batters in the 3rd, but once again, Mobile failed to drive anyone in. It took Mobile's favorite weapon to beat Sarfate........ After Rico Washington hit a ball off the handle, dumping it in front of Jamie Gann for a hit, Josh Barfield got a piece of a 3-1 pitch and drove it over the wall in right field, clearing two levels of billboards --- the 98th home run for the Bay Bears this season........ It was Barfield's 6th home run against the Stars this year, his 2nd off Sarfate. Two have come off Brian Adams and one off Paul Stewart, both of whom pitched in relief of Sarfate this night......... I don't know if that's a record for one batter, but it would come darn close if it's not........ Barfield is now hitting .279 vs. the Stars....... That was the 98th home run for the Bay Bears Mike Thompson began to disintegrate in the 5th inning, walking Brian Adams and Rickie Weeks........ That would have loaded the bases, as hot-hitting Kade Johnson reached on a one-out single, the Stars' first hit since Sarfate's double in the 3rd, but Johnson was thrown out trying to steal --- the 4th straight unsuccessful attempt going back to the Montgomery series....... Tony Gwynn, Jr. flied out easily to center to end the inning. The Stars actually had their best chance to take the lead in the 6th...... Prince Fielder led off with a loud single to right. After Jamie Gann walked, things started looking good, but Mobile manager Gary Jones decided he'd seen enough....... Thompson had walked more batters in a game than he had all season. In fact, in five appearances against the Stars this season, he had not walked a single Huntsville batter....... Jack Cassel (1-1, 1.50 in 7 appearances vs. the Stars) came in and struck out Chris Barnwell, who chased a pitch up and out of the zone. To make it worse, Prince Fielder was thrown out at third on the strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play. Make that the 5th straight unsuccessful stolen base attempt for the Stars........ The inning wasn't done, though. Ryan Knox rifled a 1-2 pitch off the glove of Ronnie Merrill, advancing Gann to third....... Ozzie Chavez, now batting .224 this month, lined an 0-1 pitch to right-center field........ Chavez was held up between first and second and Merrill had a great chance to trap him in a rundown. They had no chance to get Knox, but the throw never got to Merrill. Gann scored making it a 2-1 game........ Kade Johnson walked to load the bases, but with the bases loaded, Johnny Raburn, a .250 hitter with 6 RBIs against Mobile, hit a grounder to Sain, who made the play at first unassisted. The Stars left a total of nine men on base in this game....... They had their opportunities to win their 5th straight game, which would have matched their longest win streak of the season........ Other breaks didn't go their way. Prince Fielder was on first with two out in the 7th. Jamie Gann hit a pop up in foul territory and Nick Trzesniak circled under it and flat dropped it, giving Gann new life, but Gann in an 0-2 hole, struck out........ In the 2nd inning with Knox on second and two out, Kade Johnson, batting .302 over his last 15 games, hit a two-hop smash that appeared would go in the hole, but Merrill made a great backhand stab in the grass and threw à la Dave Concepcion to nip him at first. Tuesday, the Stars will have a chance to make a little club history when the Bay Bears start Brian Whitaker........ Whitaker is one of six pitchers to lose four times in a single season to the Stars. No pitcher has ever had the ignominy of losing five...... Whitaker, in his four starts, has an 8.15 ERA vs. Huntsville, giving up 28 hits in 17 2/3 innings, striking out 10 and walking 7........ Opposing him will be Matt Ford (1-2, 3.72) is still looking for his first win since opening day after 12 starts. He's 0-1, 4.13 since coming off the disabled list in June........ The five other pitchers to lose four games to the Stars in a season: Dustin Moseley- 2003 Chatta. Lookouts 7.43 Dennis Ulacia - 2002 Birmingham Barons 5.11 Ricardo Palma - 2001 WT Diamond Jaxx 7.20 Derrin Ebert - 1997 Greenville Braves 8.87 Steve Foster - 1990 Chattanooga Lookouts 10.29 Tough night for Ben Hendrickson at Cincinnati, Monday night...... First his flight was delayed, arriving in Cincinnati Sunday around 11 pm, then his start turned out to be a longer road, much worse in fact than his debut against the Dodgers........ He allowed six runs on seven hits in three innings...... An old Southern League foe, Wily Mo Pena, hit a low pitch home run 425 feet homered to give the Reds a 6-1 lead........ Wily Mo is a low ball hitter....... The funny thing is, Ben had been trying all night to get the ball down in the strike zone. When he wanted it up to Pena, it went down........Better luck next time, Ben.

David, Good article, as usual. When are you going to start believing in Ryan Costello? Chris Saenz was a tough act to follow. Costello went deep on quite a few batters that night and walked four. If it hadn't have been for some particularly sharp defense, there's a good chance the Smokies would have pulled that one out.

good analysis as usual. But regarding Stars starting rotation for 2nd half. Don't you think that there must be some thought of moving Saenz to Indy?? And how about Ford when he gets all the way back. Don't you think the organization wants more than AA out of a guy that was a Rule 5 2 years ago??... Quickly!!?? From the inside dope I've been able to get, nothing is in the works for a quick promotion for Ford, Saenz, Jones, Sarfate, or anyone on the pitching staff. I wish we could get Gemoll back or somebody to get us an extra bat in the lineup, but that's how it stands. I guess Milwaukee considers Saenz' success at the dish this year an extra bat.

Speaking of Huntsville faithful, what did y'all think of Nestor Corredor? You guys were the first ones to see him play in the US... want to share your "scouting report"? He was obviously playing way over his head, probably three levels above where he belongs, but it would still be interesting to get an idea of what he looks like, how he plays, etc. Baby-faced kid, good-looking, but that has nothing to do with his ability. Blocked the plate pretty well and seems fundamentally sound, but doesn't have the gun for this level. Needs some muscle in that arm. At the plate, I saw him hit a couple of fly balls to center, neither of them too deep. If memory serves me, he played in only two games, both at home. Time will tell whether he's just another Matt Ceriani, who also flew through here on emergency duty, three years ago and wound up hitless when he left, too.

Don't hope for too much. Mr. Portnoy is not feeling well at all (I talked to him today) and probably won't be on air tonight. Bryan Neece (subbing tonight) is not a fountain of news and information. He's just a balls and strikes announcer. Reid, do you know what you're doing?