Pedroza is now batting .335 on the season. His 410-foot home run to straight-away centre in the third inning was his 14th of the season, moving him into a tie for the league lead with teammate Jamar Hill and AJ Valentine of the St. George Roadrunners. Pedroza has also moved into fourth place in the league for RBIs, with 58.
Sergio has been solid at the plate all year long. Earlier in the season, he was drawing a ton of walks and scoring lots of runs, but his power output has ramped up of late. In his last 19 games, Pedroza is hitting .408 with 8 homers and a jaw-dropping 36 RBIs.
Seal Blubber Bits
- Wilver Perez's hustle electrified the crowd a number of times on Friday night. He stole a pair of bases and scored a run on a delayed tag-up from third base on a fly ball into shallow right-centre field. The run was made possible by a beautiful hook slide at the plate that eluded the tag from the Chico catcher. Perez also made a highlight-reel play in the field, diving to his left to scoop up a ground ball and throw out the runner at first. Wilver also won the award for having the dirtiest uniform on either squad.
- Jonny Ash of the Chico Outlaws fouled a ball off the ground and back up into his face on Friday night. The game was delayed for close to 10 minutes so the Seals trainer could attend to Ash. He remained in the game and received a nice round of applause from the classy fans at RAP when he continued his at-bat.
- The new scoreboard has received rave reviews from fans at the ballpark. The scoreboard operator is still getting used to the setup, but it's great for the atmosphere at RAP. Hopefully the team will start posting some of the information on the board that we're use to seeing at other ballparks. For example, showing home run, RBI and stolen base totals instead of just the player's batting average. An indication of what the player has done at the plate in previous at-bats that game would also be of interest.
- Ex-Seal Austin Bibens-Dirkx pitched another great game for the class "A" Peoria Chiefs on Thursday night. He gave up only one run in seven innings of work. Bibens-Dirkx also struck out eight and walked only one batter while raising his record to 4-1.
He has been pitching better in affiliated ball than he did in independent baseball this season, backing up the notion that the Golden League has "AA" hitters but only "A" ball pitchers. Bibens-Dirkx had a 3.70 ERA with Victoria, but he now holds a miserly 2.18 ERA with Peoria. Also, opponents hit .260 against him in Golden League, but they're only hitting .218 against him in the Midwest League.
There are just over four weeks left in the (affiliated) baseball season, so time is running out for a 2009 Bibens-Dirkx promotion to a higher level. However, Peoria is currently tied for first place in the second-half standings with Cedar Rapids, so there is a chance that he could see some playoff action. - Today is the 21st anniversary of the first night game ever at Wrigley Field. Incidentally, Wayne Gretzky was also traded by the Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings on the same day.
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