From Fluor Field in Greenville, it’s time for game one of the 2010 South Atlantic League Championship Series.

Game Notes
Listen Live (at 6:50)

LAK: RHP Trevor May (7-3, 2.91)
GRE: LHP Drake Britton (2-3, 2.97)

Going For Two In a Row…The BlueClaws are trying to become the first team since Savannah in 1993 and 1994 to back-to-back South Atlantic League titles…Savannah was then a Cardinals affiliate.

Now THAT’S Pitching…Lakewood’s four Championship Series starters (Trevor May, Julio Rodriguez, Brody Colvin, Jonathan Pettibone) are a combined 13-5 with a 1.97 ERA (151 IP, 96 H, 33 ER, 182 Ks) since August 1st…Rodriguez has allowed three earned runs in 42 innings since re-joining the BlueClaws on July 27th from Williamsport…Pettibone is 6-1 over his last nine starts with a 1.82 ERA including the post-season.

Valle The Power…Sebastian Valle has hit four home runs in 14 career playoff games (one with the 2008 GCL Phillies, one with Lakewood last year, and two with the BlueClaws this year—games one and three against Hickory in the Division Series).

(more…)

A couple of hours before game one of the SAL Championship Series, we sat down for a few minutes with BlueClaws manager Mark Parent for a series preview.

You’ve worked all year basically to get to this point, the Championship Series, what’s the state of the team? Our team is ready to go. We just got done with a series with Hickory, one of the best teams we’ve seen. Our pitchers certainly stepped up to the challenge, actually made pretty easy work of it. They did a quality job. other than the middle game, our hitters took care of what they had to do and we’re ready.

What stood out about Greenville? They’re speed more than anything. They’re quicker than some of the other clubs. Maybe they don’t have the power that a Greensboro or a Hickory has, but they have speed. They get two games here and they know how to play that wall, but we have Castro who’s everywhere anyway.

From the standpoint of yours as a catcher, what does that speed do to impact a game? Well you know they’re going to steal a few bases. You have to throw out the guys you’re supposed to get. If a guy steals third with two outs, who cares? We’ve given those up before, hasn’t really hurt us. But our pitchers know they are going to run and you have to make them put it in play, can’t walk them.

(more…)

Greetings from Greenville, SC, the site of tonight’s South Atlantic League Championship Series, Game One, between the BlueClaws and Greenville Drive.

Here are tonight’s game notes.

RHP Trevor May
R: 7-3, 2.91, 65 IP, 51 H, 20 BB, 92 K
*9/8 at HIC (W): 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 13 K
9/1 vs AUG (W): 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 7 K
8/25 at HIC (L): 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R/ER, 1 BB, 6 K
8/18 vs GBO (W): 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R/ER, 0 BB, 12 K

Acquired: 4th round pick, 2008 Kelso, Washington

May, who turns 21 on September 23rd, makes his 13th start for Lakewood and second in the playoffs…He threw 6.2 shutout innings in the game one Division Series win over Hickory on Wednesday…Including last year, May has thrown 17.2 shutout innings in three BlueClaws playoff starts (9 hits, 6 walks, 24 strikeouts)…He joined the BlueClaws this year on the 4th of July after opening the season with Clearwater (5-5, 5.01)…May has won four of his last five and seven of his last nine starts (12 ER in 55.2 innings pitched with 83 strikeouts)…May threw six scoreless innings at Greenville on August 2nd (win) and five shutout in game three of last year’s Championship Series (no-decision)…Was 3rd in MiLB in strikeouts (182) between CLR and LAK…He committed to the University of Washington before signing with the Phillies.

LHP Drake Britton
R: 2-3, 2.97, 75.2 IP, 69 H, 23 BB, 78 K
*9/8 vs SAV (W): 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R/ER, 1 BB, 8 K
9/2 at CHA (W): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 K
8/27 vs ASH (L): 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R/2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K

Acquired: 23rd round pick, 2007 Waco, Texas
Britton, 21, makes his 2nd playoff start after winning the postseason opener on Wednesday against Savannah (at Greenville)…Has a 2.72 ERA since July 1st (3.70 before)…Made two starts before going on DL in April and came back on May 24th…Did not get to five innings until July 25th and has not exceeded five innings this year… Pitched just 11.2 innings last year between the GCL and Lowell and debuted with Lowell in 2008…Signed in August of 2007 for $700,000 after committing to Texas A&M…Had TJ surgery in the fall of 2008.

(more…)

2007 BlueClaws pitcher Kyle Drabek will make his big league debut on Wednesday for the Blue Jays, becoming the 36th former BlueClaw to appear in a big league game. Here are the other 35.

His father, former Cy Young winner Doug Drabek, was a coach this year with Short-season Yakima in the Arizona organization, will get to see his son pitch for the first time this year.

Drabek, went 14-9 with a 2.94 ERA in 27 starts for AA-New Hampshire, whose season ended Friday when they were eliminated by Trenton in the Eastern League Division Series. He was the Eastern League Pitcher of the Year.

“It has been my life-long dream, I’m excited my chance has come,” Drabek said. “I definitely wanted to pitch some more this season.”

The Phillies took Drabek in the first round of the 2006 draft and he was traded to the Blue Jays in the Roy Halladay deal in December.

He’ll go straight to the bigs from Double-A in part because the Blue Jays did not want to send him this year to Triple-A Las Vegas, a notorious hitters park in the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League.

No huge surprises in the BlueClaws rotation for the SAL Championship Series which begins on Monday in Greenville:

Game One (Monday at Greenville)
RHP Trevor May (7-3, 2.91)
LHP Drake Britton (2-3, 2.97)

Game Two (Tuesday at Greenville)
RHP Julio Rodriguez (5-1, 1.44)
RHP Ryan Pressly (5-7, 3.72)

Game Three (Thursday at Lakewood)
RHP Brody Colvin (6-8, 3.39)
RHP Chris Balcom-Miller (7-7, 3.30)

Game Four (Friday at Lakewood)
RHP Jonathan Pettibone (8-6, 3.49)
LHP Manuel Rivera (5-9, 4.10)

Game Five (Saturday at Lakewood)
May vs TBA

More on the Lakewood starters below.

The BlueClaws turn to RHP Trevor May for game one, who threw 6.2 scoreless innings, with 13 strikeouts, to earn the win in game one of the Division Series at Hickory on Wednesday.

The 20 year-old, was drafted in the 4th round in 2008 (Kelso, Washington), has thrown 17.2 shutout innings in three post-season starts with Lakewood (including two last year). He went 7-3, 2.91 with the BlueClaws this year after going 5-5, 5.01 with Clearwater to open the season.

(more…)

Congrats to the BlueClaws players and staff who knocked off Hickory 6-0 on Saturday night at FirstEnergy Park to advance to the SAL Championship Series beginning Monday night in Greenville.

Jonathan Pettibone pitched as well as one can pitch, throwing seven shutout innings on just one hit, one walk, two hit batsman and fanning a career high nine hitters.

“Pettibone set the tone right away. He was outstanding in every sense of the way. He probably could have gone longer but we’re going to need him again and we had enough runs where we didn’t have to throw him out there too long,” said manager Mark Parent.

Pettibone said later that he felt good from the outset and just wanted to go out there and do his thing.

That he did.

“Of course there was pressure, but the team was ready,” said Pettibone. “We were all excited, especially after the tough loss the night before. I knew the team was going to score some runs for me, especially getting shut down the night before. I just wanted to do the best I could to keep the guys in the game.”

–

Quick notes:

• This was the first time the BlueClaws have ever faced elimination during a playoff game.
• Sebastian Valle has three home runs in 10 career playoff games, including a two run home run in the first inning.
• Jeremy Barnes’ RBI single in the first came about 5 minutes after alma mater Notre Dame lost to Michigan.
• Trevor May / Julio Rodriguez / Brody Colvin / Jonathan Pettibone / Trevor May is your rotation for Greenville.

–

Lakewood hosts games three, four and five, with the last to “if necessary.” Order tickets here. We’ll have more when we get to Greenville, but needless to say it was a special day here at the park.

One for the money…The BlueClaws and the Hickory Crawdads meet tonight in game three of the Northern Division Championship Series tonight at FirstEnergy Park. Greenville gets the winner in a best-of-five series beginning on Monday in South Carolina.

Game Notes
Listen Live (at 6:50)

LAK: RHP Jonathan Pettibone (8-6, 3.49)
HIC: RHP Jake Brigham (5-5, 3.51)

Win Or Go Home…This is the first time in their history the BlueClaws are playing an elimination game in the post-season…They swept both Division Championship Series (2006 vs Lexington and 2009 vs Kannapolis) and both Championship Series losses (2006 vs Augusta and 2009 vs Greenville) came when the team led the best-of-five series 2-0…Hickory lost game three of the 2007 Northern Division Championship Series 9-4 to West Virginia.

Hot Hitting…Jeremy Barnes (3-6) and Keoni Ruth (5-9) are the only BlueClaws with hits in each of the first two games of this series…Barnes had a double in the 7th inning on Friday night and Keoni Ruth had a tenth inning double but was stranded at second base when the game ended (Valle 5-5-3 double play)…Jonathan Singleton, with one hit in each of the first two games, is the only other BlueClaws player with two hits in the series.

A Pitcher’s Series…Lakewood is 12-68 (.176) as a team in the series while Hickory is 11-65 (.169)…Leury Garcia and Jared Prince each have four hits for the Crawdads…The rest of the team has three combined.

(more…)

Here is the pitching preview for tonight, Jonathan Pettibone for Lakewood and Jake Brigham for Hickory.

Lakewood: RHP Jonathan Pettibone

8-6, 3.49, 131.1 IP, 114 H, 41 BB, 84 K

9/3 vs KAN (W): 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R/ER, 0 BB, 7 K
8/27 at HIC (W): 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R/ER, 4 BB, 5 K
8/21 at HAG (W): 8 IP, 3 H, 1 R/ER, 0 BB, 8 K
8/16 vs DEL (L): 5.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R/2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Acquired: Supplemental 3rd round pick, 2008 Yorba Linda, California

Pettibone, who turned 20 on July 19th, makes his 25th appearance for Lakewood and has won three starts in a row and four of his last five to end the regular season…Over his last 15 starts, since allowing six runs in 1/3 of an inning on June 6th, Pettibone is 6-4, 2.38, the third best ERA in the league over that time period…He has not allowed more than three earned runs in a start since June 6th and has only allowed three earned runs once in that period (7/18 at Kannapolis)…After his June 6th start, his ERA sat at 5.98…He is 5-1, 2.06 over his last eight starts and gave up two runs in six innings at Hickory on 8/27, his lone start against the Crawdads this year…Drafted between Vance Worley (now in big leagues) and Trevor May (current teammate) in 2008…Committed to USC before signing.

Hickory: RHP Jake Brigham

6-5, 3.36, 83 IP, 66 H, 24 BB, 67 K

9/6 at GRE (W): 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R/ER, 3 BB, 5 K
9/1 at ASH (W): 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R/ER, 0 BB, 6 K
8/26 vs LAK (L): 5 IP, 8 H, 5 R/ER, 3 BB, 5 K
8/21 vs DEL (W): 7 IP, 7 H, 4 R/ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Acquired: 6th round pick, 2008 Orlando, Florida

Brigham, 22, makes his 15th appearance with Hickory after opening the season with Bakersfield (1-5, 6.93)…He gave up five runs in five innings against Lakewood on August 26th, including a home run to Anthony Hewitt…Brigham gave up 10 runs in 2.1 innings (at AUG 7/24) in one game; without that start, his ERA would be 2.34…Began the year with Bakersfield (1-5, 6.93)…Went 2-11, 5.52 with Hickory last year… On 8/10 at Greensboro, he gave up hits to the first two batters and retired the next 27 for a complete game shutout…Missed entire 2008 season.

While the end result was not what BlueClaws fans had in mind, they were treated to a wonderfully entertaining game on Friday night, a true playoff game with a packed house, scoring chances, and drama. It was just that the wrong team won.

Here is the story in the Asbury Park Press.

Eighteen Lakewood hitters went down on strikes in the game.

“Yeah, that’s frustrating but it’s (Class) A ball, “Parent said. “It’s a big game, some of these guys first big game in front of a big crowd.

“Some of these guys put a little too much pressure on themselves.”

Lakewood had 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in the 7th, their best chance, but three of those 18 strikeouts (against Miguel de los Santos) ended the threat.

Lakewood went 0-8 with runners in scoring position and wasted some great pitching by Brody Colvin and Julio Rodriguez, who combined to give up just three hits and one run over eight innings.

This will be the first elimination game in BlueClaws history.

The BlueClaws can wrap up the Northern Division Championship tonight with a win over Hickory at FirstEnergy Park. First pitch at 7:05. Lakewood won game one 7-0 on Wednesday in Hickory.

Game Notes
Listen Live (at 6:50)

LAK: RHP Brody Colvin (6-8, 3.39)
HIC: LHP Robbie Erlin (6-3, 2.12)

Digging the Long Ball…The BlueClaws hit at least three home runs in a game just twice this year (four 6/4 at HAG, five 8/10 at WV) but hit three in game one of the series…Sebastian Valle (hit 16), Jonathan Singleton (hit 14) and Alan Schoenberger (hit 5) all went deep for Lakewood.

You Can’t Lose If They Can’t Score…In 13 post-season games (11-2), the BlueClaws have given up a total of 25 runs, 11 in one game (an 11-1 loss to Augusta in game three of the 2006 SAL Championship Series)…In Lakewood’s 11 all- time playoff wins, they have allowed a total of 11 runs.

Mirror Images…With the game one win, the BlueClaws are now 5-0 all time in the South Atlantic League Northern Division Championship Series (2-0 vs Lexington in 2006, 2-0 vs Kannapolis in 2009, 1-0 vs Hickory in 2010)…They are 4-2 all time when they can eliminate the opponent and have never faced elimination in their three year postseason history.

J-Rod…Julio Rodriguez finished the regular season allowing just three earned runs in his last 39 innings (since re-joining the BlueClaws on July 26th)…He gave up 19 hits, 12 walks and struck out 68 in that stretch).

(more…)

He signed both Jiwan James and Julio Rodriguez, not to mention Domonic Brown. While Chip Lawrence is now a crosschecker with the Padres, his impact has been certainly left on the Phillies organization.

Buy viagra soft