Goldeyes bats explode, wallop RIverHawks

They say there is nothing better than a rest. For Juan Diaz, one night off almost made him a brand new man.

Diaz, the Goldeyes’ 36-year-old designated hitter, went four-for-four with a walk, a three-run homer, four RBI and three runs scored as he led the Goldeyes to an impressive 13-5 victory over the visiting Rockford RiverHawks at Canwest Park on Sunday afternoon.

Diaz had three singles and his league-leading 11th homer of the year as he led the Fish on a 16-hit assault of the RiverHawks. He also drove in his 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st runs and raised his batting average to .278.

“It was a good game for me after a day off,” said Diaz, the Shaw TV player of the game. “At 36-years-old I need a day off every now and then. We did the same thing last year. Sometimes I need to get things straightened out in my head and that night off did clear my head.”

With the win, the Goldeyes improved to 21-15 and won their third straight game. The Fish moved past Kansas City into second place in the Northern League, a-game-and-a-half back of first-place Fargo. The Goldeyes also won the four-game series from Rockford 3-1.

“It’s good to play at home,” Diaz said. “It’s nice to play in front of our big home crowds and in our ballpark. We all feel good in here.”

The Goldeyes are now 13-9 at Canwest Park this season and on Sunday afternoon, every hitter in the lineup was comfortable enough to pound out at least one hit. Rookie Price Kendall went three-for-five with two runs scored and two RBI and raised his batting average to .357; Vince Harrison continued his hot hitting by going two-for-four with a run scored and two driven in; Justin Justice went just one-for-four, but that “one” was a three-run homer; and Luis Alen went two-for-five with two runs scored and a RBI on a solo homer in the seventh.

Starter Chris Salamida went six complete innings and got the win. Zach Baldwin pitched three strong innings in relief and earned his third save of the year.

“We played a very good game,” Diaz said. “It was good for us to win three in a row before going out onto the road.”

The Fish will open a 10-day road trip with a game Monday night against Lake County in Kenosha, Wis. Ace Walker (2-2, 3.77 ERA) will get the start.

Holliman's start and West's homer send Fish past RiverHawks

Even after a three hour and 20 minute rain delay, the Winnipeg Goldeyes went out and played an almost perfect baseball game.

A great start by Mark Holliman and a three-run bomb by Kevin West turned out to be the big difference as the Goldeyes went out and whipped the visiting Rockford RiverHawks 7-3 at Canwest Park on Saturday night. With the win, the Goldeyes improved to 20-15 on the season and won their second straight game.

Mark Holliman worked six complete innings, allowed two runs on only four hits to earn the win and improve to 4-1 (although his ERA actually rose from 1.88 to 2.02) on the season. Holliman has been terrific in most of his starts this year and after waiting three hours and 20 minutes to take the mound on Saturday night, he was outstanding once again. However, because he walked four and struck out 10, threw 101 pitches after six innings so manager Rick Forney decided to go to the bullpen.

“That’s how it goes sometimes,” said Holliman afterward. “It’s (strikeouts) really not something you’re trying to do. You want to get in and out and let your hitters get out there and do their jobs. When I strike out a lot of hitters I don’t stay in the game that long because it means I’ve probably thrown a lot of pitches.

“What I’m trying to do is pitch to contact and let the defence get the job done. That’s a good hitting team over there. I’m surprised so many of them struck out. Just one of those nights.”
In total, Holliman and relievers Casey Hodges, Chad Benefield and Bobby Korecky struck out 13 RiverHawks. With 10 Ks on the night, Holliman now leads the Northern League with 47.

“The strike out pitch tonight was the slider,” Holliman said. “They were all over my fastball early tonight. Those guys are fastball hitters. I started out using the slider just to get them off the fastball, but by the end I was throwing almost exclusively fastballs and sliders.”

Offensively, the Goldeyes started slowly and fell behind 2-0 after three innings, but in the bottom of the fourth, red-hot Dee Brown delivered a two-out, two-run double to tie it up and then, in the fifth, Kevin West hit a monster three-run homer over the leftfield wall to all but seal the deal.

“He (former Goldeyes reliever Justin Knoff) threw me a fastball, belt high,” said West with a laugh. “If he wants to do that, well...”

In a very rare occurrence, the Goldeyes put up more runs than hits – seven runs on only six hits – but also in a very rare occurrence the Goldeyes also scored five of their runs when two were out. Dee Brown had the only multi-hit game with a double and a single.

Game 4 of this four-game series goes this afternoon at Canwest Park. Former Goldeyes starter, lefty Roger Lincoln (2-2, 5.06 ERA) will get the start for Rockford while Chris Salamida (4-2, 3.24 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Fish. Game time is 1:30 p.m.

Big comeback thrills crowd of nearly 7,000

The Winnipeg Goldeyes got exactly what they needed on Friday night: A big win in front of an even bigger crowd.

In the bottom of the eighth, and the Rockford RiverHawks leading 3-2, the Goldeyes got a little two-out lightning as Vince Harrison singled home the tying run and Dee Brown singled home the eventual winner as the Fish beat the visiting RiverHawks 5-3 in a rare late-inning comeback.

With the win, the Goldeyes improved to 19-15 on the season and put a stop to a mini-two-game losing streak.

“It’s always nice to watch our guys put some two-out hits together,” said starter Stephen Flake, who scattered six hits and allowed only one run over six-and-a-third innings of work.

“They were fun to watch tonight.

It was a terrific ball game. The Goldeyes took a 1-0 lead on a solo homer by Wes Long to open the first, Rockford tied it in the second and the Goldeyes went ahead 2-1 in the fourth when Justin Justice was hit, stole second and scored on a Harrison single.

Rockford put up a pair of runs against relievers Zach Baldwin and Philip Roy in the top of the eighth and then the Goldeyes put their comeback rally together. Aharon Eggleston singled to lead off and then after Juan Diaz struck out and Kevin West flied out to left, Justice singled to send Eggleston to third. Harrison tied the game with a hard single to right, then Brown knocked in the game winner with a flair to right, Luis Alen was walked intentionally and then Harrison scored when rookie Price Kendall was hit with the bases loaded.

It was a great night for Kendall who got his first hit as a professional plus his first RBI. However, it was a fabulous night for Harrison who had three hits in four trips, scored run, drove in two and raised his batting average to .279. He was hitting just .226 two weeks ago.

“Maybe I’m heating up with the weather. I hope so,” Harrison said with a smile. “It’s really just a matter of trying not to do too much. I was working in the cage with Tom (hitting coach Vaeth) yesterday and he just said keep it simple: Just get a pitch to hit and put a solid swing on the ball.

“Tonight I just stopped thinking too much. When I think too much, that’s when I think myself out of it. I just went up there looking for a pitch to hit and then tried to put a good swing on it. We were better tonight. Flake pitched a good game and we put together some two-out hits. That’s what we needed.”

Game 3 of this four-game series will be played tonight at Canwest Park. Mike (0-2, 3.18 ERA) will get the start for Rockford while Mark Holliman (3-1, 1.88 ERA) will take the ball for Winnipeg. Game time is 6 p.m.