Round Rock Outlasts Fresno In Opener

The opening game of the PCL Championship Series was a real cliffhanger.

It lasted 12 innings, there was a big comeback, a dramatic moment in the ninth, and eventually Round Rock won it, 9-8.

Texas Rangers top prospect Lewis Brinson – who already had three hits in the game – drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the 12th inning to force home the winning run. Round Rock leads the best-of-five series, 1-0.

Fresno overcame a six run deficit, took an 8-7 lead, and then allowed a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth to the Rangers other top prospect, Nomar Mazara.

From the Austin Statesman story:

This 4-hour, 46-minute game between the Rangers’ and Astros’ top farm clubs had a lot of everything: 17 runs … 29 hits … 46 baserunners … 14 pitchers … 504 pitches.

Game Two is tonight at 5:05 (Pacific), with Fresno’s Dan Straily (10-9, 4.77) facing Round Rock’s Roberto Coello (7-6, 4.18). You can follow along in a variety of ways presented on the PCL Scoreboard page.

Links:

• Here’s the recap from the Austin newspaper. A series notebook mentions all of the prospects on the field.
• The Fresno Bee has reaction from Grizzlies manager Tony DeFrancesco and hitter Tyler White.
• Felix Hernandez and the Mariners took a 4-3 loss to the Angels last night, and now Felix has to win his final three starts if he is going to reach 20 wins for the first time in his career.
• Bob Dutton’s Mariners Notebook includes an update on the starting rotation and a look at the M’s instructional league which starts today.
• John Sickels took a look at Ketel Marte.
• I feel sorry for the Cleveland Indians fireworks guy who accidentally shot them off after a home run hit by the visiting Kansas City Royals. Whoops!