from Friday night at First National Bank Field:
Aberdeen IronBirds 7, Greensboro Grasshoppers 4
WP:Noah Denoyer(3-0)
LP:Jack Carey(0-2)
SV:Clayton McGinness(2)
Hoppers(4-9)/Birds(10-3)
IronBirds' line:7-11-0 Hoppers' line: 4- 9-1
The Greensboro Grasshoppers starting pitcher Santiago Florez only lasted one inning on Friday night….Florez gave up two runs, on two hits, with 1 BB/2 K’s before exiting the contest…Pitching coach Fernando Nieve came out quickly to talk to Florez during one break in the action, and Nieve may have seen something that was just not right with Florez…Not sure if there was some kind of injury, or not…
The Aberdeen IronBirds’ Cesar Prieto rocked the Hoppers on Friday night, with two solo home runs and three(3) RBI….Overall, Prieto goes 3-4/BB/Double/2 HR’s/2 Runs/3 RBI….
The ‘Birds Collin Burns was a combination of a magnet and a vacuum cleaner in the field, from his shortstop spot….Matt Gorski goes GO 6-3, Abrahan Gutierrez went GO 6-3, then Dariel Lopez, in his first three at-bats in the game goes, GO 6-3/GO 6-3/GO 6-3…And the six is Burns at SS….You might think Burns could be the next Mark Belanger for the Baltimore Orioles, but Belanger was batting .125, to go along with his Gold Glove, but Burns on Friday night was 3-5, with a run scored for the Aberdeen IronBirds…
Steak n Shake Player of the Game:Hoppers’ Hudson Head goes 3-4/2 Runs….
Other Hopper hitters:Matt Gorski 1-4/HR/2 RBI…Henry Davis 2-3/Double/Run/RBI…Endy Rodriguez 2-4/RBI…
Gorski now with 12 RBI on the season, and Davis now with RBI….
If there is room, or if space on the roster becomes available, Gorski should be moving up to Double A this season…You also might see Davis moving up to Altoona later on in the 2020 season….Needs to be room, at the next level, for these guys to get moving….
CLICK HERE for the Box Score, from Friday night’s Hoppers-IronBirds baseball game……
Attendance:4,304
Time of Game-2:28
Up Next:Aberdeen IronBirds at the Greensboro Grasshoppers on Saturday night at 6:30pm….Location:First National Bank Field…If you can’t be there on Saturday night, be sure to tune in and listen to the Hoppers, as they take on the Birds…
LISTEN HERE, from GSOHoppers.com….
Aberdeen IronBirds lead the Best-of-Six Series, 4-0/Four-Games-To-None, going into the Saturday Night Contest…..
**********/++++++++++We may have been slighting former Baltimore Orioles SS Mark Belanger a little bit when we were talking about his batting average…He in fact was a career .228 hitter, and he homered just 20 times over his 18-year Major League Baseball career…
But, here is more for you on Mark Belanger, one of the best fielding shortstops to ever play the game, and he received 8 Gold Glove awards to prove it…
Mark Henry Belanger (June 8, 1944 – October 6, 1998), nicknamed “The Blade,” was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball as a shortstop from 1965 through 1982, most notably as a member of the Baltimore Orioles dynasty that won six American League East division titles, five American League pennants, and one World Series championship between 1966 and 1979.
A defensive standout, Belanger won eight Gold Glove Awards between 1969 and 1978, leading the American League in assists and fielding percentage three times each; he retired with the highest career fielding average by an AL shortstop (.977). In defensive Wins Above Replacement (WAR), Belanger is tied with Ozzie Smith and Joe Tinker for most times as league leader with six. Belanger set franchise records for career games, assists, and double plays as a shortstop, all of which were later broken by Cal Ripken Jr. After his playing career, he became an official with the Major League Baseball Players Association. In 1983, Belanger was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.
(Belanger was called “The Blade” due to his tall, lean stature. He stood at 6’1, and weighed just 170 pounds….Hard to believe he/Belanger has been gone since 1998….He died at just age 54.)**********++++++++++