TheCrew07

Pitcher upends Johnson's no-hit bid No. 11 Cubs prospect triumphs, outdueling Stephenson for Smokies

Cubs' Edwards returns to Double-A action Top-ranked pitcher in Chicago system back after right shoulder strain

Without best stuff, Glasnow rolls on Pirates top prospect gets past struggles, hurls six scoreless innings

Lively notches first Double-A win in style Reds' No. 6 prospect takes no-hitter bid into eighth for Blue Wahoos

Jokisch goes the distance for Iowa Cubs farmhand tosses three-hitter, first shutout since no-hitter

FSL notes: Schwarber thrilled to be a Cub Fast-climbing Daytona slugger enamored with Wrigley Field, fans

I'll start catching this thread up again, hopefully things slow down for me so I can actually listen or watch more than 1 T-Rats game a week and keep this thread caught up. Blandino homers in first Class A at-bat Reds' first-rounder makes memorable Midwest League debut

Just a note here to remind everyone once again the the GMs in baseball do not draft or sign amateur players, that is exclusively the domain of the Scouting Director. In this case when Epstein came in he split amateur scouting into separate departments and they now have both a domestic and international scouting and other teams have followed suit. They keep moving people around in Chicago so I lost track of who's doing what, but I have been keeping track of the SDs. Hendry didn't draft anyone, he astutely plucked Tim Wilken from the Rays who actually oversaw both professional and amateur scouting until Theo came in and split responsibilities up. The Cubs current SD is a first timer Matt Dorey but both he and Jaron Madison have absolutely nailed the last 3 drafts . Madison came from the Padres, was the SD for a year, and is now the Farm Director. Wilken had an awful draft in 2010 (although he's one of the best scouts in the business), but since 2011 those 3 have combined to kill it, plus picking up Soler on the international market. Queue the high draft pick excuse... despite that's exactly how the Brewers acquired Fielder, Weeks, and Braun. The Cubs will have the means and the opportunity to drastically upgrade their pitching if they are willing to do so which is something the Brewers couldn't do with that first wave of prospects. Nothing is written in stone but sitting here pretending that they aren't a threat is as foolhardy as it was to make the same claims about Pittsburgh when they were clearly ascending as a franchise. This is a very easy train to see coming...

Taylor Williams! Prospect Hot Sheet (Aug. 8): Bryant Bests Them All

Gainey strikes out a dozen in Wisconsin's 6-1 at Peoria Rattlers starter goes seven shutout innings in victory By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers PEORIA, IL - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers needed Preston Gainey to go deep into Thursday's game at Peoria. The right-hander responded with seven scoreless innings and a professional single-game high twelve strikeouts to earn the win as the Rattlers defeated the Chiefs 6-1 at Dozer Park. The Chiefs (60-55 overall, 23-23 second half) threatened to score in the first inning. Carson Kelly and Ronald Castillo singled with two outs to put runners on the corners for Peoria. A pitch with Rowan Wick at the plate got away from catcher Rafael Neda and Kelly broke for the plate. However, Neda got to the ball and fired to Gainey covering the plate to get Kelly for the final out of the first. Wisconsin (63-52, 27-19) grabbed the lead in the top of the third inning. Omar Garcia singled and Neda doubled to start the frame. A balk by pitcher Luis Perdomo was called when he dropped the ball on the mound with Angel Ortega at the plate. That allowed Garcia to score from third. Ortega blooped a single into right to allow Neda to score for a 2-0 lead. The Rattlers tacked on three more runs in the top of the fourth inning on a couple more Peoria miscues. The Rattlers loaded the bases against Perdomo with a double by David Denson, an infield single by Taylor Brennan, and Omar Garcia being hit by a pitch. Neda's hard smash to third went through the legs of the fielder and the ball wound up in left field to allow Denson and Brennan to score. Later in the inning, Angel Ortega stole second and the throw went into center to allow Garcia to score for a 5-0 advantage. Wisconsin had used two relievers on Wednesday night to close out a win over the Cedar Rapids Kernels and Harvey Martin pitched two scoreless innings earlier on Thursday in the Rattlers 2-1 victory over the Chiefs in the conclusion of a suspended game from Sunday afternoon. Luke Curtis was the only truly fresh arm in the Wisconsin bullpen. That's why Wisconsin needed Gainey to go deep no matter what on Thursday night. It was not an issue for the 2012 draftee out of the United States Naval Academy. Gainey allowed one hit after the first inning and worked his way out of a pair of jams to toss his seven shutout innings. In the fifth Juan Herrera singled and Cesar Valera walked. Gainey stopped the rally as he got Rafael Medina to ground into a nifty 3-6-1 double play and Garcia made a diving catch in left on a soft, sinking liner off the bat of Richy Pedroza. In the sixth, Gainey waked CJ McElroy, Jr. and Kelly with one out and struck out the next two batters. Wisconsin added a sixth run when Denson singled to right to drive in Johnny Davis in the top of the seventh. Gainey went back out for the bottom of the seventh and struck out Herrera, Valera, and Medina in order to get complete and even dozen strikeouts in the game. The twelve strikeouts in a game are the most by a Timber Rattlers pitcher this season. Peoria did get a run in the bottom of the eighth against Curtis. Vaughn Bryan doubled, stole third, and scored on a grounder to short off the bat of McElroy. Curtis would pitch a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth with two more strikeouts to close out the Chiefs. The Timber Rattlers are a season high eleven games over .500 and are now in a three-way tie for first place in the second half standings for the Western Division. The Rattlers and Chiefs will meet again on Friday night at Dozer Park. Javier Salas (0-0, 0.00) is the scheduled starting pitcher for the Timber Rattlers. Peoria has named Rob Kaminsky (6-2, 1.75) as their starting pitcher. Game time is 7:00pm. Tune in for the broadcast on AM 1280, WNAM or IHeartRadio starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:40pm. WP: Preston Gainey (4-7) LP: Luis Perdomo (2-3) TIME: 2:45 ATTN: 2,568 Wisconsin Boxscore Preston Gainey have a day! He did walk 4 but only allowed the 3 hits and of course had the 12 SOs mentioned in the game story. This was Gainey's first scoreless effort since July 4th when he struck 10 against Quad Cities... he's had a pretty rough stretch since, hopefully this is a sign of better things to come here as the season winds down. Chris had been mentioning his increased velocity all year but I'm still shocked he's working 93-94 on the top end, that's a significant improvement. Earlier in the week I mentioned my man crush on Taylor Brennan (2-4), but in truth there isn't a single position player on this T-Rats roster who I don't have an affinity for on some level, and believe me that's pretty rare for me given how hard I am on players. Not that this roster has the same star power as that 2008 Huntsville club, but I'm similarly attached to the team. David Denson (2-4,2B) and Omar Garcia (2-2,2B,BB) had the other multi-hit games for the T-Rats. Johnny Davis (0-2) walked twice and is sporting a respectable .334 OBP... he's actually walked 32 times in 349 ABs which is a solid ratio, especially given his limited baseball experience. For those that haven't seen him in person he's a little dude but man can he run. He'll be lucky to put up a .700 OPS just because he's not going SLG at all but as he matures baseball wise he could be an interesting bench player assuming Tyrone Taylor continues to ascend in front of him. He's gotten better in the field and on the bases, with an improved line drive stroke at the plate his legit speed could a major asset in Milwaukee. Wisconsin Recap Wisconsin Gameday

That statement is only half true... Our legitimate power armed relief prospects like Goforth are stuck repeating AA because the Brewers loaded up the AAA team with a bunch 28+ year old "veteran" relievers. I admit that i was focusing on the AAA level, but do you think Goforth could come up to the big league roster and be effective? His stats on the AA level are ok, but don't exactly jump off the screen either. I get that you could say the same for a guy like Wooten who keeps getting chances, but Goforth has a pretty high walk rate and mediocre K rate for that level. I'm not sure his season goes the same way if there's a chance of a promotion, he would have had a legit shot at helping the Brewers next year regardless, I'm not saying grab him from AA, I'm saying those players knew from day 1 just like we did that all of the veterans were moving up first. When they resigned Dillard and assigned him to AA that was basically the final blow promotion wise. For example Toledo had to start a 3rd season at BC because of all the veteran depth that was assigned to AAA and AA to start the season. Now that I look I glossed over the AA veteran depth at the start of the season in my other post, but the system was definitely backloaded on veteran arms at the top of the system. Speaking of Toledo, if he figures out how to not be Estrada 2.0 I like him for a bullpen option down the road as well. I wouldn't have guessed he'd serve up so many gopher balls, AA has been quite the step up for him.

Rattlers win on walkoff walk to finish Sunday's suspended game DeMuth draws free pass with bases loaded in eleventh to beat Peoria 2-1 By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers PEORIA, IL - It was worth the wait. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers defeated the Peoria Chiefs 2-1 in eleven innings in a game the started on Sunday in Wisconsin and ended Thursday at Dozer Park. Dustin DeMuth drew the third walk of the eleventh inning to force in the winning run for the Rattlers. In action on Sunday afternoon at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, Cesar Valera hit a slow dribbler to short with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the fourth. Valera just beat the throw for an infield single to allow Justin Ringo to score to put the Chiefs (60-54, 23-22) up 1-0. The Timber Rattlers (62-52 overall, 26-19 second half) tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning on a two-out, RBI single by David Denson that scored Taylor Brennan. The game remained tied through the end of the ninth inning. Then, a torrential downpour halted play and the game could not be resumed until Thursday in Peoria. Wisconsin reliever Harvey Martin pitched around a pair of singles in the top of the tenth with help from a caught stealing and a strikeout. Peoria reliever Jhonny Polanco gave up a one out single to Steve Halcomb in the tenth. Angel Ortega was next and drove a pitch to the wall in left, but it was caught on the track for the second out. Polanco got the game to the eleventh with a strikeout for the third out. Martin worked a 1-2-3 top of the eleventh inning and that set the stage for Wisconsin's eighth "walkoff" win of the season. Omar Garcia started the game winning rally with a single to right on an 0-2 pitch. The first out of the inning was recorded on a sacrifice bunt that was popped up back to Polanco. From there, Polanco lost the strike zone. He would walk Clint Coulter on four pitches and miss with the first two to Denson before walking him on a 3-2 pitch. That brought DeMuth, the 5th round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2014 draft to the plate. Polanco missed with the first two pitches, but came back with two strikes to even the count. DeMuth fouled off the next two pitches and took another for a ball to run the count full. The Rattlers designated hitter fouled off two more pitches before taking ball four well wide of the strike zone to force in Garcia with the winning run. The win, their eighth "walkoff" win of the season, moved Wisconsin's record in extra-inning games to 6-4. The regularly scheduled game is set to start at 7:00pm with Preston Gainey (3-7, 4.36) set to start for the Timber Rattlers against Luis Perdomo (2-2, 3.97) scheduled to start for the Chiefs. WP: Harvey Martin (4-5) LP: Jhonny Polanco (3-1) TIME: 2:55 (:39 delay) ATTN: 5,977 Wisconsin Completed Boxscore What an AB by Dustin DeMuth to end the game! Wisconsin Completed Recap

That statement is only half true... Our legitimate power armed relief prospects like Goforth are stuck repeating AA because the Brewers loaded up the AAA team with a bunch 28+ year old "veteran" relievers. This was the AAA bullpen to start the season: [pre]Rk Name Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W 3 Brent Leach* 31 4 2 .667 3.44 49 1 12 0 0 0 49.2 43 22 19 6 20 0 50 3 1 4 201 1.268 7.8 1.1 3.6 9.1 2.50 5 Alfredo Figaro 29 4 2 .667 3.88 34 2 11 0 0 2 58.0 68 27 25 4 21 1 43 0 1 0 255 1.534 10.6 0.6 3.3 6.7 2.05 6 Johnnie Lowe 29 1 4 .200 5.55 18 5 5 0 0 0 35.2 40 24 22 6 15 0 35 1 0 0 161 1.542 10.1 1.5 3.8 8.8 2.33 8 Dustin Molleken 29 3 2 .600 4.78 44 0 11 0 0 3 58.1 57 35 31 4 28 2 67 4 0 4 259 1.457 8.8 0.6 4.3 10.3 2.39 9 Jose De La Torre 28 2 2 .500 2.60 13 0 3 0 0 0 17.1 12 6 5 1 11 2 21 0 0 3 74 1.327 6.2 0.5 5.7 10.9 1.91 10 Donovan Hand 28 1 7 .125 5.40 43 4 28 0 0 13 60.0 77 39 36 4 14 2 51 3 0 1 274 1.517 11.6 0.6 2.1 7.6 3.64 11 Rob Wooten 28 0 1 .000 5.25 12 0 11 0 0 9 12.0 12 9 7 0 4 1 13 0 0 0 54 1.333 9.0 0.0 3.0 9.8 3.25 14 Kyle Heckathorn 26 3 2 .600 5.48 26 4 5 0 0 0 44.1 48 28 27 6 19 1 30 2 1 2 199 1.511 9.7 1.2 3.9 6.1 1.58 17 Michael Blazek 25 2 4 .333 3.84 32 12 8 0 0 1 75.0 80 36 32 6 30 0 67 2 0 5 330 1.467 9.6 0.7 3.6 8.0 2.23[/pre] There are really only 3 guys on that list I wanted to keep around, I griped about it for the first month or so of the season and then let it go. Players like Jeffress and Leon were added as the year went on but that was the bullpen to start the year. Here's the relief situation in AA: [pre]Rk Name Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W 1 David Goforth 25 4 3 .571 3.05 45 0 37 0 0 23 56.0 47 20 19 2 24 1 38 2 0 3 238 1.268 7.6 0.3 3.9 6.1 1.58 2 Tim Dillard 30 5 1 .833 2.56 37 0 13 0 0 1 52.2 33 18 15 3 14 0 44 7 0 1 209 0.892 5.6 0.5 2.4 7.5 3.14 3 Tommy Toledo 25 4 2 .667 5.04 31 0 13 0 0 0 44.2 51 26 25 7 13 1 45 2 0 2 198 1.433 10.3 1.4 2.6 9.1 3.46 4 Kevin Shackelford 25 1 3 .250 5.59 30 0 11 0 0 1 38.2 51 29 24 3 13 0 16 2 0 4 179 1.655 11.9 0.7 3.0 3.7 1.23 5 Casey Medlen 24 4 0 1.000 2.82 29 0 6 0 0 1 38.1 31 13 12 4 21 0 38 3 0 2 167 1.357 7.3 0.9 4.9 8.9 1.81 6 Eric Marzec 26 1 3 .250 3.47 27 5 11 0 0 0 59.2 62 30 23 6 26 1 44 0 0 3 265 1.475 9.4 0.9 3.9 6.6 1.69 16 Jose De La Torre 28 1 0 1.000 1.93 9 0 3 0 0 2 14.0 8 3 3 2 6 0 16 1 0 0 56 1.000 5.1 1.3 3.9 10.3 2.67 18 Manny Barreda 25 0 1 .000 1.46 8 0 4 0 0 0 12.1 7 3 2 1 9 0 13 1 0 3 54 1.297 5.1 0.7 6.6 9.5 1.44[/pre] We have 2-3 interesting relievers at every level but the problem is with the veteran backlog at AAA there's no upward mobility for any of the young guys behind them. The Brewers have been + players at every level so some of the relievers have been put on the DL at various times to stay at the minimum roster requirements, basically a taxi squad situation. edit. I should add that's just the "relievers" for each club, there are also starting pitchers like Pena and Magnifico (though he's at BC) whom I believe are relievers as well.

That's disappointing as I have a prior commitment, I'd love to watch him pitch.

Six-run fourth inning leads to Wisconsin win at Cedar Rapids Timber Rattlers top Kernels 6-1 By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers only needed one big inning to defeat the Cedar Rapids Kernels 6-1 on Wednesday night at Perfect Game Field. The six runs in the fourth inning was more than enough for Chad Thompson and a pair of relievers. Chris McFarland had a pair of hits, including a two-run double in the decisive inning. Wisconsin's offense sent ten men to the plate in the top of the fourth inning as they scored six runs on seven hits against Cedar Rapids starting pitcher Chih-Wei Hu. The Kernels right-hander had allowed a total of six hits over 18 innings in his previous three starts. Michael Ratterree started the outburst with a leadoff double. Clint Coulter singled to drive in Ratterree for a 1-0 lead. Taylor Brennan followed with a single that put runners on the corners. Dustin DeMuth delivered a double to left-center that scored both runners on base to make it 3-0 in favor of the Rattlers (61-52 overall, 25-19 second half). Hu retired the next two batters, but Jose Pena singled to keep the inning alive. Johnny Davis would single to center and DeMuth scored. McFarland capped the inning with a double off the wall in left to knock in both Pena and Davis for a 6-0 lead. Thompson kept the Kernels off the scoreboard through 6-2/3 innings. Cedar Rapids (57-58, 26-19) would get to Thompson in the seventh. They had runners at the corners with two outs and Engelb Vielma drove in a run with a single. Seth Harvey came on to get the final out of the seventh. Thompson went 6-2/3 innings and scattered seven hits while allowing one run and striking out four. The Kernels mounted a rally against Harvey in the eighth as they loaded the bases with two outs. But, Harvey stopped the rally by striking out Michael Quesada for the final out. Chris Razo came on in the bottom of the ninth and the Wisconsin reliever tossed a 1-2-3 inning to close out the Kernels. Wisconsin won this series two games to one and won the season series 11-7 over the Kernels. Wisconsin holds the tiebreaker over the Kernels should the teams end the regular season tied for a playoff spot. The Timber Rattlers continue their road trip with a series that begins on Thursday night at Peoria. Wisconsin and the Chiefs will restart the game that was suspended by rain on Sunday at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium with the score tied 1-1 after nine innings at 5:00pm at Dozer Park. That game will be played to its conclusion and the regularly scheduled game will start no earlier than 7:00pm. The scheduled starting pitchers in the regularly scheduled game are Preston Gainey (3-7, 4.36) for the Timber Rattlers and Luis Perdomo (2-2, 3.97) for the Chiefs. The broadcast on AM1280, WNAM and IHeartRadio begins at 4:40pm with the Miller Lite Pregame Show. WP: Chad Thompson (2-0) LP: Chih-Wei Hu (4-1) TIME: 2:54 ATTN: 2,162 Wisconsin Boxscore Wisconsin Recap

I've mentioned this in the past but I would think 2016 would be pretty realistic. They will be very young position player wise next year even with Alcantara and Baez getting some playing time now. I would think all of Russell, Bryant, and Soler will be in the mix during the 2015 season at some point, but that will be a ton of young talent to build around. They have a couple of interesting pitchers but no one who profiles as a top of the rotation guy. However if they can sign a couple of those guys to gowith their hitting depth it could be very interesting (or disheartening as a Brewers' fan). Price would line up very well with their needs for 2016, I would think he would be a guy they'd be all over. They can solve their hitting issues in house and they have the money to spend on pitching, it's just a matter of landing that pitching in FA or via trade. They have a ton of SS depth, and if you don't have pitching depth that's the next best position to have a surplus of from a trade stand point.

If you think Braun will last in RF for the rest of his career which I personally doubt very much.

So I was just thinking about Clint Coulter again today. WI has played 112 games so far this season, he's caught parts of 53 games which is 47.3%. Originally I thought the Brewers were just being cautious through the first couple of months and his playing time at C would pick up over the course of the season. They have to know how defensively deficient he is as a C but his playing time hasn't picked up at all. I could see if Charlie Greene was there continually working with Clint but with 6 teams rolling now I don't think that's realistic. The catch22 here is that with Denson at 1B, Brennan/DeMuth at 3B, and Ratterree in RF where does Coulter play if not C? I'd rather this not turn into another Michael Brantley situation where they DH a guy just to get his bat in the line-up but he's not playing his ultimate MLB position every day. I would think DeMuth could start in WI next year and I wouldn't mind Coulter rotating between 3B and C or Garcia could repeat WI and Coulter get OF/C time, but I hope the Brewers put an end to the C/DH scenario of this season. He didn't get enough enough time behind the dish to make significant improvement over the course of the season, he's pretty much the same guy now that he was in April. His errors (8) and PBs (12) are down relative to last year's numbers (12E and 20PB in just 49 games) but a guy like Cameron Garfield who isn't a defensive wizard either has 8 errors and 3 PBs in 77 games. A healthy Garfield has never caught fewer than 93 games in a season, and he was much more seasoned as a C coming into pro ball than Coulter was. I understand there's a huge difference in age and experience between the 2 players but my point here is that with Clint's lack of experience it would stand to reason he needs more development time than someone like Garfield who came in with much more C experience. If they want to stick with him behind the dish fine, but then play him 2/3+ of the time or give him another position in the field so he has some flexibility. I can get behind the DH thing from a health standpoint for this season given Clint's injury plagued 2013 but we don't have a DH in the NL, he needs to be a competent defender some place. I've said before that since he won't get down and block a ball I don't think he'll be even an average MLB C, but he was a HS SS and is a decent athlete so there's a chance he could be a plus defender elsewhere. However, he has to be given the reps, coaching, and time to become proficient, which won't happen as a DH.

We just traded that guy away for Parra, Davis doesn't have the arm to play in RF, nor does Taylor. Coulter would if he ultimately ends up an OF but that would be a worst case scenario for me.

I'm glad he's alright but 6 seasons of Indy ball? I can't even imagine...

Please remember it's a top 25, not top 20, we've had 2 posters drop in top 20 lists now.

Sounds Suffer 7-1 Defeat In Series Finale Nashville Sounds METAIRIE, La. - The Nashville Sounds (62-56) fell victim to a 15-hit attack from the New Orleans Zephyrs in Tuesday night's series finale to lose 7-1 at Zephyr Field. The Sounds drop the series with New Orleans, 1-3, which is only the team's second losing series in their last 10 sets. The Zephyrs broke through for three runs on six consecutive hits against Sounds starter Donovan Hand (1-7) in the 2nd inning. Outfielder Logan Schafer helped prevent the Zephyrs from adding another run in the frame by throwing out Rob Brantley at home plate. After the three-run 2nd inning, Hand allowed home runs in each of the next two innings: a solo shot by Kyle Jensen in the 3rd and Brian Bogusevic's three-run blast in the 4th. It marks the first time Sounds pitchers have allowed two home runs in a single game since Round Rock hit two off the Sounds on July 13, a stretch of 19 games. Hand allowed 11 hits, the most by a starter this season, and was charged the loss after surrendering seven runs over four innings of work. He also becomes the fifth Sounds pitcher to allow multiple homers in a single game and the first since Michael Blazek on June 17. Sounds reliever Arcenio Leon took over in the 5th to record two scoreless innings for Nashville before Dustin Molleken stepped in for a spotless 7th inning and Alfredo Figaro recorded a scoreless 8th. The 15 hits allowed by Sounds pitchers matches the team's season high, previously set at Memphis on June 8. The Sounds finished with four hits offensively and picked up their lone run in the top of the 3rd inning, when Schafer lifted a double to the outfield that scored catcher Matt Pagnozzi. Following a league-wide off day, the Sounds will return for their second-to-last homestand as they host the Round Rock Express to a five-game series at Greer Stadium. The Sounds will send RHP Taylor Jungmann (5-5, 4.90) to the hill opposite the Express' RHP Luke Jackson (1-0, 6.58). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Nashville Boxscore Nashville Recap Nashville Gameday

Kernels shutout Rattlers 9-0 Wisconsin drops game in Cedar Rapids By Chris Mehring / Wisconsin Timber Rattlers CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - The Cedar Rapids Kernels defeated the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 9-0 on Tuesday night at Perfect Game Field. Cedar Rapids scored six times in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the 9-0 lead and held the Rattlers to just five hits in the game. The Kernels (57-57 overall, 26-18 second half) had runners at the corners with no outs in the bottom of the first inning after an infield single and an error allowed the first two batters of the frame reach. Joe Mauer, on a rehab assignment for the Minnesota Twins, stepped in as the Kernels designated hitter and grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to score the runner from third for a 1-0 lead. Cedar Rapids added to their lead in the third inning and Mauer started the rally with a one out single. A wild pitch by Barrett Astin allowed Mauer to take second and he scored when Bryan Haar lined a single to left. Haar would take second as the throw came through to the plate. Alex Swim followed with another single to score Haar for a 3-0 lead. Mauer wasn't the only Minnesota Twin in town on Tuesday night. Ricky Nolasco made the start for the Kernels and went 3-2/3 innings before running into his pitch limit. Nolasco didn't allow any runs and struck out a pair. He gave up a pair of hits - both to Taylor Brennan. Brennan lead off the game with a single and lead off the third inning with a double. The Kernels would score six times in the bottom of the fourth inning to break open the game. Michael Quesada reached on an error to start the inning. Tanner Vavra followed with a double. Engelb Vielma would single to drive in both runners. Chad Christensen followed with a two-run home run that barely cleared the wall in left for a 7-0 lead. Astin retired Mauer on a grounder back to the mound, but back-to-back singles and a wild pitch put two more runners in scoring position. Logan Wade, the ninth man to bat in the inning, singled to knock in both runners and the Kernels were up 9-0. Ryan Eades, who took over for Nolasco in the fourth inning, tossed 4-1/3 scoreless innings and allowed two hits to pick up the win. Wisconsin reliever Clint Terry started his night in the bottom of the fifth inning and retired all twelve batters he faced. Terry struck out a pair of Kernels hitters in the game. The shutout loss was just the fourth of the season for the Timber Rattlers (60-52, 24-19). The loss also knocked the Timber Rattlers back to 1-1/2 games behind the Kernels for the top second half playoff spot in the Western Division. The final game of the series between the Rattlers and Kernels is Wednesday night. Chad Thompson (1-0, 1.29) is the scheduled starting pitcher for Wisconsin. Cedar Rapids sends Chih-Wei Hu (4-0, 1.50) to the mound. Game time is 6:35pm. Tune in for the radio broadcast on AM1280, WNAM or IHeartRadio starting with the Miller Lite Pregame Show at 6:15pm. HOME RUN: CR: Chad Christensen (9th, 1 on in 4th inning off Barrett Astin, 0 out) WP: Ryan Eades (7-11) LP: Barrett Astin (7-6) TIME: 2:36 ATTN: 4,401 Wisconsin Boxscore Well this one did sucketh, but at least Clint Terry kept up his studly ways, he's Suter 2.0 at this point. I don't believe I've mentioned this but I have a man crush on Taylor Brennan, I have all season as anyone who's been to a T-Rats game with me will attest, and he made me happy once again tonight with a (2-4,2B,BB) effort. His error was costly as it directly led to a run but he's like a 3rd base version of our recent SS past... lots of flashy to incredible plays with poor/ill advised throws in between which pads the error count. I also like that he's a total sabermetric lead-off guy... low BA, averagish speed, but huge OBP. Wisconsin Recap

Gatewood's contact rate is going to be the issue just like it is with Roache. I'm thrilled we got him where we did but I'm even more thrilled we got Harrison with the next pick... it was a pretty awesome draft from an upside perspective, hopefully the results reach talent level of a couple of those first 3 picks for us.

Wow awfully late in the season to be promoting players up the chain but it's hard to argue, I agree with MH that this really hurts the Rattlers' playoff chances but Williams was certainly deserving of a bump. A rotation with Lopez, Wagner, and Williams has the potential to be pretty interesting next season.