One More Loss

The Asheville Tourists' are getting pitching to good enough to rack up some wins, but are struggling to score runs, with defensive lapses at the wrong time, and this all adds up to long losing streaks. In last night's 4-1 loss to Augusta, the Tourists pitchers gave up only one earned run led by starter Jayson Aquino's 6 1/3 innings, 4 runs and the one earned run. The Tourists only had 6 hits and one run with Righfielder Derek Jones scoring on a sacrifice bunt by Juan Ciriaco in the top of the fifth, giving the Tourists a briefly held 1-0 lead. The Tourists made 3 errors, all in the bottom of the seventh inning, that allowed the Augusta Greenjackets to score 3 unearned runs and steal the win. Asheville's lack of offense is really hard to figure out. They are leading the league in several key offensive categories. They are leading the league in Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, OPS, stolen bases, and have fallen to second place in runs scored to Hagerstown thanks to their recent inability to touch home plate. Hopefully the answer will appear out of thin air real soon.

A Power Outage

The Asheville Tourists offense has hit a little bit of a slump as the Tourists could only manage 1 run on 6 hits last night in a 5-1 loss to the West Virgina Power. Tourists starter Jayson Aquino took the loss (0-1) but he only gave up 2 earned runs in 6 innings and Andrew Brown, Trent Blank, and Patrick Johnson all pitched an inning a piece. Blank gave up 2 unearned runs and 3 of the Power's 5 runs were unearned. Patrick Johnson was used as a spot starter his previous two seasons in the minors and this is his first season as a full time reliever and his stat line is pretty impressive. 22 games, 25 innings, 8 earned runs, a 3-3 record, and a 2.66 ERA. His opponents only have a .184 batting average against him. His fastball hits about 90 MPH and his breaking pitches are showing some improvement. He was a 25th round draft pick in 2011 by the Colorado Rockies out of the University of North Carolina so he is a fairly local product.