Grizzlies Report for Sept. 2: Fresno 3, Albuquerque 0
Wednesday recap: Fresno returned to its winning ways as Luis Cruz fanned nine while allowing four hits in seven innings to set up a 3-0 win over Albuquerque in front of 4,119 fans at Chukchansi Park. Back in the starting role for an injured Brady Rodgers, the left-handed Cruz (7-5, 4.30 ERA) retired 13 batters in a row – eight by strikeout – from the first to the sixth innings. His nine strikeouts match a season high set June 12 at Salt Lake City. Right-handers Travis Ballew and Jordan Jankowski each pitched a scoreless inning in relief to complete the shutout. Back-to-back doubles from Tyler Heineman and Nolan Fontana to start the bottom of the third set up a two-run inning for Fresno. Fontana scored Heineman, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Tony Kemp and the lead doubled on an Alex Presley groundout. Joe Sclafani added an RBI single in the fourth. At 81-57, Fresno ties its 1998 franchise record for most wins in a season and has the opportunity to set a new mark with five games left in the regular season. Wednesday’s victory was the 13th against Albuquerque this season, the most over an opponent in a single season for Triple-A Fresno. The previous record was 12 wins against Tucson in 1998, the Grizzlies’ inauguaral season and before this year the only one in which the franchise made the playoffs.
Grizzlies on Thursday: RH Dan Straily (10-8, 4.67 ERA) starts for Fresno as its hosts Albuquerque in Game 3 of a four-game series at 7:05 p.m. LH Rudy Owens (1-3, 6.90) makes his seventh start for the Isotopes. Perhaps another one-day return of Fresno’s Taco-themed uniforms will bring Straily some luck, with the Grizzlies 2-0 while wearing the jerseys. Straily is coming off back-to-back rough starts, allowing eight and nine earned runs while failing to get past the fourth inning in losses at Iowa and Omaha.
Tacos rule all: The Grizzlies’ Taco Truck Throwdown 5, which included donning the Taco jerseys for the day, was selected as promotion of the month for August/September, the Minor League Baseball Promotional Seminar announced. The Aug. 6 game drew a stadium record crowd of 16,916, gained national attention and resulted in online orders of Fresno Tacos merchandise from countries as far away as Australia and South Africa. The event is now a finalist for Best Overall Promotion, an award to be presented at the fifth annual Golden Bobblehead Awards on Oct. 2.
This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Grizzlies Report for Sept. 2: Fresno 3, Albuquerque 0."