Unscheduled Departure

'Hounds forced to use bullpen for eight frames in loss

By Bob Hards

May 8, 2016

Dylan Covey entered Sunday afternoon's game in Frisco with a 1.91 earned run average through five starts, perhaps building the foundation to a breakout season. One inning into the contest, his unscheduled departure changed the course of his early season … and of the game.

After Covey and Frisco's Victor Payano combined to strike out five of the six batters they faced in the first inning, the 'Hounds got to Payano for two runs in the second. Covey went to the mound and completed his warm-up pitches, but something was clearly wrong. He would leave the game without throwing a pitch in the second inning, and the initial diagnosis is a left oblique strain.

The Riders got to reliever Trey Cochran-Gill with four consecutive singles, the last of them, from Preston Beck, driving in two runs to tie the game. The only other scoring came in the fourth when Ronald Guzman led off with a solo home run to right.

Frisco reliever Juan Grullone was brilliant, facing and retiring nine batters (three strikeouts) over three innings. Ryne Slack gave up a two-out walk to Yairo Munoz in the ninth, with Munoz stealing second to put the tying run in scoring position. J.P. Sportman was down in the count, 0-2, but battled back to a 2-2 count (in a 10-pitch at bat) before grounding out to shortstop to end the game.

The clubs have now played two games, each scoring a total of six runs with each team claiming a one-run victory.

The RockHounds

… are 18-12 (10-4 at Security Bank Ballpark and 8-8 on the road) and have dropped two of their last three.

… are now 4.5 games behind the first-place Riders in the Texas League South Division. Corpus Christi fell at home to San Antonio, dropping the Hooks eight games behind Frisco with the Missions staying 12.5 games back.

... continue their eight-game, nine-day road trip with games on Monday and Tuesday evenings (7:05 p.m.) in Frisco. Wednesday is the lone off-day for the league in a 39-day stretch (April 21-May 29), followed by a four-game set against the Missions in San Antonio (Thursday-Sunday).

Kibbles & Bits

STAT OF THE WEEK In Thursday night's (13-0) win over Corpus Christi, Ryon Healy notched his third triple of the season. It was also the "best" of the three, coming simply on a ball hit into the (short) right field corner (325 feet). You gotta love baseball:

Entering this season, in three pro seasons (the first at Short-A and two full seasons), Ryon had hit four triples in 307 games and 1.242 at bats (one every 310.5 AB).
Through Sunday's games, he has three triples in 2016 in just 30 games and 121 at bats (one every 40.3 AB).

MILESTONE The RockHounds' next win will making the franchise just the ninth in Texas League history to win 3,000 (or more) games. The franchise (Cubs-Angels-RockHounds) stands at 2,999 wins, ninth all-time (two ahead of El Paso).

- The first two games of the series have been outstanding baseball … each game been decided by a tie-breaking home run … neither team has led by more than two runs … and both games have been both errorless and very well-played defensively.

- The RockHounds turned four double plays Sunday and have seven in the first two games of the set.

- Viosergy Rosa has reached base 17 straight games (20-for-63, .317 average with a .442 OBP) and has hit in eight straight (11-for-32, .344).