Thursday, May 17, 2012

Midwest League journey: Beloit 4, Quad Cities 2

It's been a few years since I last took in a Midwest League game, and the initial impression was: Man, these guys are scrawny.

That description emphatically does not apply to Miguel Sano. He looks like a full-grown major leaguer, physically.

Not that it helped him much Wednesday night on a coolish night. He flew out to center, struck out looking -- more on that at-bat later -- flew out to deep center and grounded weakly to second.

The strikeout was an interesting at-bat because he took change-ups for strike two and strike three. The first of those two had him fooled so obviously that I fully expected to see another. That Sano didn't foresee it is, perhaps, indicative of what it means to be a 19-year-old in pro ball.

Beloit won, with catcher Matt Koch hitting his first homer of the season in the seventh inning (and running his RBI total from two to five with that one swing). A.J. Pettersen, probably the smallest man on the field, homer for the insurance run in the eighth. Eddie Rosario, who with Sano is the reason I wanted to catch the Snappers, did not play; he spent a couple innings coaching first base, and the last two innings down in the Snappers bullpen swinging a bat.

Beloit's roster sheet lists 11 pitchers; only four of them are right handed. Three men pitched for the Snappers Wednesday, all southpaws. Jason Wheeler was decent in his six innings (seven hits, no walks, three strikeouts, two earned runs). He's another big guy -- the roster sheet says he's 6-6, 250. David Hurlbut threw two perfect innings (two Ks) to get credit for the win, and Ryan O'Roarke allowed a harmless single for the save.

There are photos; however, I neglected to pack the connective cable for the camera, so the pics will have to wait until next week.

Day game Thursday.

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