The Springfield Cardinals scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth, all with two outs, to defeat the Frisco RoughRiders 6-4 in Game Two of the Texas League Championship. The Cardinals lead the best-of-five series 2-0.

Frisco scored an unearned run in the top of the third and added two more in the fifth with back-to-back two-out base hits from Jared Prince and Guilder Rodriguez. The Riders added two insurance runs in the top of the eighth when rehabbing Rangers big-leaguer Mike Napoli hit a two-run home run to left field.

The Cardinals would rally in the bottom of the eighth when Oscar Tavares hit a two-out double, bringing Mike O’Neill to third after his leadoff walk. A Jamie Romak walk would load the bases for Greg Garcia, who hit an RBI single through the right side of the infield to get the Cardinals on the board. Straight singles from Xavier Scruggs and Adam Melker brought in three runs to tie the game 4-4. Audry Perez hit a two-run double down the right field.

The Championship Series will continue with game three Friday night at 7:05 pm in Frisco, Texas.

The  Springfield Cardinals launched three homers and got a solid start from Carlos Martinez to shutout the Frisco Roughriders, 5-0 in game one of the Texas League Championship Series.

Greg Garcia homered in the second for a 1-0 lead and it stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh. Jamie Romak hit a solo homer to give Springfield an insurance run making the score 2-0. After a hit batter and a walk, Mike O’Neill launched a three-run shot, his first of the season, to grab a 5-0 lead.

Frisco starter Cody Buckel retired 10 straight batters from the 3rd into the 7th, before running into trouble. Cardinals’ starter Carlos Martinez pitched seven shutout innings allowing just four hits with seven strikeouts. Eric Fornataro and Michael Blazek each added scoreless innings to finish off Frisco.

The Championship Series will continue with Game Two Wednesday night at 7:08pm at Hammons Field.

The Texas League held its All-Star game Wednesday night in San Antonio. The AA affiliates for both the Cardinals (Springfield) and Royals (Northwest Arkansas) are in this league and had players representing the North team. The South won the game 3-2 before a crowd of 6,121.

[Read more...]

The Springfield Cardinals will have five players on the All-Star roster for the Texas League when the game is played June 29th in San Antonio.

Matt Adams and Alex Castellanos were named starters, while pitchers Maikel Cleto and Michael Blazek and shortstop Ryan Jackson, will be reserves.

Adams leads the Texas League in slugging percentage (.667), is third in RBIs (47) and second in both batting average (.354) and home runs (15). Castellanos is third in the Texas League with 14 home runs.

Cleto is 2-1, with a 2.70 ERA. He has pitched only 30 innings in the Texas League, but has 34 strikeouts. Blazek (7-2, 4.50) leads the league in wins and has 54 strikeouts, more than double his walks total (24). Jackson hit .337 in April but has slumped down to .265 average.

The four-thousand tickets for the Cardinals exhibition game at Hammons Field in Springfield between the major league squad and the AA team went quick this morning. However, for the fans who tried to buy tickets online, they were met with frustration after they were kicked off the system as they finished up their purchase.

Apparently, this was the same broker who handled the Elton John tickets for MSY earlier this week. He says to avoid any potential problems there were experts from that company on sight to work out bugs, but there were still some glitches.

Springfield GM Matt Gifford tried to best explain what happened.  Gifford’s comments