Jim Goulart

Schlosser Outduels Pena, Stars Alex Cohen, Huntsville Stars In game four of a five-game series at Trustmark Park, the Huntsville Stars lost to the Mississippi Braves by a score of 2-1 on Monday night. With three runs combined between the two teams, the game featured a pitchers duel between Stars RHP Ariel Pena and M-Braves RHP Gus Schlosser. Despite giving up an RBI single to M-Braves third baseman Edward Salcedo in the first inning and allowing a solo homer to outfielder Mycal Jones in the fifth inning, Pena threw well in a losing effort. The 24-year-old fell to 7-9 on the year after giving up those two runs on five hits in five innings while striking out five batters. Pena has now given up two runs or less in each of his last four starts. Aside from Pena, righty Eric Marzec retired the M-Braves in order during an inning in relief while righty Greg Holle also tossed two scoreless frames. Unfortunately for Pena and the Stars, two runs was plenty for Schlosser and the rest of the M-Braves pitching staff. The M-Braves 24-year-old starting pitcher notched his third win of the season and improved to 7-5 on the year after giving up just one run on three hits in seven innings of work. The seven innings for Schlosser ties his season-high, while he also duplicated his season-high in strikeouts with seven. Mississippi ensured the victory for Schlosser with a scoreless inning of relief from righty Juan Jaime and a three-up, three-down ninth inning from closer Ryne Harper. The save was the tenth on the season for Harper. Huntsville got their only run against the M-Braves and Schlosser in the seventh inning on a solo homer from first baseman Jason Rogers. For Rogers, the roundtripper was his 22nd on the season, putting him atop the Southern League in that category all by himself. Aside from Rogers, the only other two hits on the night came from two singles by second baseman Nick Shaw. With the loss, the Stars have dropped three of the first four games of this series at Trustmark Park. Huntsville has now scored two or less runs in ten consecutive games. On Tuesday, the Stars will try to salvage the series in the finale of a five-game set against the Mississippi Braves at Trustmark Park. Huntsville will send RHP Brooks Hall (2-4, 4.10 ERA) while Mississippi will counter with RHP Gus Schlosser (6-5, 2.50 ERA). Coming into the game, Pena has given up just two earned runs in his last three starts (15 innings pitched). First pitch is at 7:00 PM.

VIDEO from Sunday: Stephen Parker homers in Nashville's 10-5 win at Albuquerque Unlike in Houston, the CF "hill" is much closer to home plate, just ridiculous.

Rattler Radio Blog -- Postgame Entry from Chris

Rain in Goodyear, Arizona, game never got underway -- the young Brewers and Indians will play two games there Tuesday night, and then game three of the series, the season-ender, will be a morning game in Maryvale Wednesday. Three games in less than 24 hours. Top pick RHP Devin Williams was scheduled to start Monday night.

Pre-game AUDIO: Helena Brewers outfielder Michael Ratterree talks about how he is holding up and how pitchers have been attacking him in the second half

Via Jeff Hem's blog -- Audio from OKC — “Mondays with Mike (Guerrero)” "Here is this week’s installment of “Mondays with Mike” with Sounds manager Mike Guerrero, who discusses the Sounds’ much-needed win last night in Albuquerque, the team’s struggles defensively over this season, the season of Stephen Parker, who was a single short of the cycle Sunday night and the team’s continued great effort despite where it sits in the standings with a week to go in the season."

Hellweg remains confident after stint in Majors No. 3 prospect learned a lot while getting roughed up in three big league starts By Kevin Massoth / MLB.com

Voting continues through August 29th: Moniker Madness is back, and they've abandoned the bracket format for a different voting look. Rankings as of 1:00 PM Central on Monday for the four Brewers are Brevard RHP Damien Magnifico (7th of 75), Huntsville RHP David Goforth (38th place), Huntsville OF Chadwin Stang (48th), and Dionis Hinojosa (75th, back in last ). *** Sicnarf Loopstok is back on top, overtaking Stryker Trahan, here's your leaderboard.

Weather.com: Oklahoma City, OK Pearl, MS Viera, FL (Melbourne) Grand Chute, WI (Appleton) Grand Junction, CO Goodyear, AZ

STANDINGS: AAA - Pacific Coast League American Northern Division AA - Southern League North Division High-A - Florida State League North Division A - Midwest League Western Division Rookie Advanced - Pioneer League North Division Rookie - Arizona Summer League DSL - Dominican Summer League San Pedro de Macoris Division *** NOTE: To view first half or overall standings for Huntsville, Brevard County, Wisconsin, and Maryvale, you'll notice options at the respective links for that. Otherwise it's second-half standings as the default view for those three leagues.

Look for Nashville and Wisconsin media notes at the links just prior to their game times. New this season: Brevard County has media notes; as of now, it's a unique link each day, but look for it just prior to game time each day within the "Stats and Scores" banner here. Also new this season: Helena has media notes; it's a unique link each day, but look for it just prior to game time each day within the "Stats and Scores" banner here.

To see tweets as to when the Link Report has been technically "completed" with available links, as well as to know when the new day's Report has been posted, please follow @Mass_Haas on Twitter.

There are only three games left in Maryvale's season, all against the Indians. The A-Crew plays in Goodyear again Tuesday, and hosts the Tribe's rookie squad on Wednesday in Maryvale.

Follow Monday's action as it happens with box score / game log links: Nashville Huntsville Brevard County Game One Brevard County Game Two Wisconsin Helena Game One Helena Game Two Maryvale New MiLB.com feature -- organizational scoreboard, Brewers

Via the Sounds twitter feed -- Congratulations to RHP Johnny Hellweg, who has been named to the 2013 All Pacific Coast League Team.

After 39 relief appearances spanning his first two pro seasons, RHP Taylor Mangum makes his first pro start tonight in Game Two for the 'Tees.

Programming notes -- In addition to the Sounds (always), both Huntsville and Helena are available via MiLB.TV for their current series. Speaking of MiLB.TV, it's a rare four-pack of games as Wisconsin (all home games covered) has returned to Appleton. *** DVR Alert! As we mentioned to you Sunday, tonight's 7:05 PM Timber Rattlers game will be televised on TWC Sports 32.

Monday's Daily Menu: All times are Central Nashville: RHP Jimmy Nelson at Oklahoma City (Astros), 6:45 PM pre-game, 7:05 gametime Free Live Audio Link Jeff Hem is the play-by-play voice of the Sounds; follow him on Twitter @jeffhempbp; we'll link to his blog updates at On the Air…and Off MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; all Nashville games, home and away, will be available to watch via MiLB.TV's $39.99 season-long package ($9.99 to pay for a single month). The audio feed is from the home team. All MiLB.TV details available at the link. ********** Huntsville: RHP Ariel Pena at Mississippi (Braves), 6:45 PM pre-game, 7:00 gametime Free Live Audio Link Alex Cohen is the play-by-play voice of the Stars; follow him on Twitter @alexmcohen. All games, home and away, are scheduled to be broadcast. It appears four Southern League teams air their home games on MiLB.TV, and we'll let you know when those dates pop up on the schedule. ********** Brevard County: RHP's Chad Pierce and Taylor Mangum in a doubleheader at home vs. Lakeland (Tigers), 3:30 PM pre-game, 4:00 gametime; each contest slated for seven innings Free Live Audio Link -- Select the link based on listed schedule Manatees audio, hooray! Dave Walkovic is the first play-by-play voice of the 'Tees since 2007, he's joined by Andy Towne; follow the Brevard broadcast booth staff on Twitter @BCManateesRadio. All home games and many road games are scheduled to be broadcast. When road games are only available via the opponents' audio feed, we'll let you know that. ********** Wisconsin: RHP Tyler Wagner at home vs. Kane County (Cubs), 6:45 PM pre-game, 7:05 gametime Free Live Audio Link - 1280 AM WNAM Chris Mehring is back to do his customary fantastic work as the Voice of the Rattlers. Follow him on Twitter @CMehring; we'll link to Chris' infamous blog often -- Rattler Radio. MiLB.TV -- for subscribers; Wisconsin is one of four Midwest League clubs that have all their home games available via MiLB.TV. So for the $39.95 season-long package, fans in Brewer Nation can watch all Sounds games, Stars' road games from four Southern League locales, and all Timber Rattlers home games and some road games. NOTE: Many of the Rattlers' 70 home games will be broadcast on TV this season. Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and WACY-TV My NEW32 will split duties. We'll let you know when and who, and will try to provide day-before DVR reminders, so regularly check with us. ********** Helena: RHP's Tristan Archer and Brandon Moore in a doubleheader at Grand Junction (Rockies), 5:45 PM pre-game, 6:05 gametime; each contest slated for seven innings Free Live Audio Link Voice of the Helena Brewers Steve Wendt is back on board, and this year he's added Twitter to the mix @steve_wendt. We've been treated to Steve's work for many years now (ten!); he is among the very best at the art of the pre-game interview, especially considering how at ease he makes all these first-time professional ballplayers. MiLB.TV -- When the H-Crew makes their way to Grand Junction (August), those games will be available for viewing online. ********** Arizona Rookie (Maryvale): at the Indians' complex in Goodyear, 9:00 PM gametime; never audio for games in this league ********** DSL Brewers: Season complete (26-45), final individual stats found here

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Converted catcher who is consistently upper-90's, and the Brewers seem to love to protect (and project) the ultra-big arms with limited mileage. Only began pitching during his draft year at Marshall University, 2010. Not exacty sure what's progressed in terms of his off-speed stuff, but 6'5" guy who throws strikes and gets groundballs (stats). Brewers were wise to look past the ERA at Brevard and promote the 23-year-old to Huntsville, where he's been excellent, nearing dominant. Just sayin'...

Converted catcher who is consistently upper-90's, and the Brewers seem to love to protect (and project) the ultra-big arms with limited mileage. Only began pitching during his draft year at Marshall University, 2010. Not exacty sure what's progressed in terms of his off-speed stuff, but 6'5" guy who throws strikes and gets groundballs (stats). Brewers were wise to look past the ERA at Brevard and promote the 23-year-old to Huntsville, where he's been excellent, nearing dominant. Just sayin'...

Beating the odds: Fernandez's life-changing decision helping him realize his dreams by Tim Froberg, Post-Crescent Media GRAND CHUTE — Rodolfo Fernandez’s route to professional baseball has been different and far more difficult than the paths traveled by his Wisconsin Timber Rattlers teammates. If the Cuban-born right-hander continues to pitch lights-out ball like he did Sunday, Fernandez’s journey will continue and take him places he’s dreamed of. Fernandez has been outstanding out of the bullpen the past month and was every bit as effective in his first professional start. The 23-year-old allowed one run on four hits with five strikeouts and in six strong innings to win his starting debut in Wisconsin’s 3-1 victory over Kane County. Fernandez (4-3) blanked the Cougars for five innings to push his scoreless innings streak to 22 2⁄3 before finally allowing a run in the sixth inning. Left-hander Mike Strong finished up with three scoreless innings and five strikeouts to keep the Timber Rattlers’ distant playoff hopes alive. “We gave Rodolfo the ball for the first time as a starter because he earned it,” said Wisconsin manager Matt Erickson. “He throws strikes and gets people out.” Fernandez, who lowered his earned run average to a fine 2.51, isn’t overpowering, but has good command of his fastball and also throws a breaking ball and change-up for strikes. He has excellent control and didn’t walk a hitter Sunday, throwing strikes on 49 of his 78 pitches. The 6-foot-2, 213-pound Fernandez has allowed just nine walks in 61 1⁄3 innings – the fewest among Rattlers pitchers with more than 34 innings pitched. “He’s a guy who doesn’t beat himself,” said Erickson. “He rarely gives up free bases. He has a little bit of deception to his delivery and he’s had a nice stretch where he’s had great command of the strike zone. When he wants the ball to throw the ball down and in, the ball goes down and in.” Fernandez is in his second year of professional baseball after signing with the Milwaukee Brewers as an international free agent in 2012. He was born in Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, and spent most of his life in the country, pitching as a teen for the Industriales team in the Cuban national series based in Havana. But since the Cuban government basically prohibits its players from playing abroad, Fernandez knew he had to leave the country to have a chance to pursue his dream of playing professional baseball. So he made a daring decision to defect. At the age of 19, he left his family and Cuba by boat and landed in Cancun, Mexico, where he spent a month with family and friends before taking a flight to the Dominican Republic where he established residency and eventually signed with Milwaukee. “I just felt I would get a better opportunity to play baseball,” said Fernandez through teammate Max Walla, who served as an interpreter. “I’m happy. I don’t regret anything. I’m here working hard for my family.” Fernandez hasn’t seen family members since the day he left Cuba and says that he misses them. His life-changing boat trip out of Cuba was harrowing and the vessel survived a brutal storm before reaching Cancun. “I was pretty scared, but God was looking out for me,” said Fernandez. “It was scary, but I was confident that God would lead me to where I wanted to go.” Walla, a second-round draft pick by the Brewers out of Albuquerque, N.M., in 2009, just shakes his head when asked if he could identify with Fernandez’s unique trip to pro ball in America. “I can’t even image going through something like that,” said Walla. “It must take incredible strength of character to be able to do that. He’s a fun guy to play behind and he’s one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met.” Erickson knows all about Fernandez’s journey and marvels over the courage shown by such athletes. “It’s amazing the opportunities we have that we take for granted,” said Erickson. “The nice thing about my spending my life in baseball is that I get see stories like this involving really good people from all over the world. I had a teammate in Class A ball with the Marlins’ organization, a left-handed pitcher named Michael Tejera who had a similar story. “He was playing for the Cuban junior national team and defected in the Miami airport with his uncle while the team was traveling to Canada. As his English improved he would me tell stories that were pretty incredible. After he settled here, he paid some people to bring the rest of his family over from Cuba hidden inside tractor tires. Can you image that?” A Time Warner Cable Field crowd of 5,417 watched Fernandez and Strong help the Rattlers gain ground in the chase for a wild card spot in the Western Division of the Midwest League. The Rattlers are three games back of the Clinton LumberKings for the final wild card with eight games remaining. Wisconsin made the most out of six hits, including RBI singles by Alfredo Rodriquez in the third and Walla in the sixth. “Obviously, we’re a little pressed for time and a lot of things have to go our way,” said Walla. “We’ve been playing good ball and we have to keep it rolling.”

AUDIO -- Helena Brewers catcher Clint Coulter talks about his return from injury and his expectations for the remainder of the season

AUDIO via Alex -- Huntsville's Brock Kjeldgaard smashes a two-run home run off former Stars' reliever Thomas Keeling making it a 6-2 ballgame *** Now watch the VIDEO of the same blast, plus some outfielder confusion, via the Braves' call *** Stars Silenced By M-Braves, Northcraft By Alex Cohen / Huntsville Stars In game three of a five-game series at Trustmark Park, the Huntsville Stars lost to the Mississippi Braves by a score of 6-2 on Sunday evening. After getting shutout one night earlier, the M-Braves broke out to a hot start against Stars starting pitcher Taylor Jungmann. To begin the game, the M-Braves worked three walks from Jungmann into an RBI single from first baseman Omar Luna and an RBI groundout by outfielder Jose Martinez to make the score 2-0. Mississippi then got a two-run, two-out double from second baseman Tommy LaStella in the second inning to go up by four. That offense was plenty for M-Braves starting pitcher Aaron Northcraft. The 23-year-old tossed five scoreless frames against the Stars to improve to 8-8 on the year. Northcraft is now 3-0 in three starts against Huntsville this year. The win for the ninth-ranked prospect in the Braves organization was preserved by a combined three scoreless innings of relief from righties Shea Simmons and James Hoyt. For the Stars, their only offense in the eighth inning against former Huntsville reliever Thomas Keeling. Following a walk by third baseman Mike Walker, outfielder Brock Kjeldgaard launched a two-run blast off the batters eye in centerfield to make the score 6-2. For Kjeldgaard, the homer was his 21st on the season, tying him for the league lead with two others, including fellow Stars teammate Jason Rogers. It was also his 7th homer on the year against Mississippi alone. From a pitching perspective, Jungmann fell to 9-10 on the season after giving up five runs in 3.1 innings while walking a season-high seven batters. Jungmann has now lost three straight starts. Aside from the Brewers second-ranked prospect, Huntsville got an inning of scoreless relief from righties Micah Owings, Michael Olmsted and Eric Marzec. Mississippi's offense tacked on their other two runs on an RBI groundout by third baseman Edward Salcedo in the fourth inning and an RBI single from Northcraft one inning later. On Monday, the Stars will play game four of a five-game set against the Braves at Trustmark Park. Huntsville will send RHP Ariel Pena (7-8, 3.88 ERA) while Mississippi will counter with RHP Gus Schlosser (6-5, 2.50 ERA). Coming into the game, Pena has given up just two earned runs in his last three starts (15 innings pitched). First pitch is at 7:00 PM.

Final, AZL Athletics 7, @AZL Brewers 3 AZL Brewers Box Score Five different Brewers reached base twice, the team hit .300 with RISP, seems like more than three runs should have scored. 20-year-old Venezuelan RHP Jorge Ortega managed a "quality" six innings despite four walks. RHP Milton Gomez followed with an unfortunate 7th inning. AZL Brewers Game Log