Saturday BPKC Hitter of the Day: Nathan Eaton 4-5 R, 2b, 3b
Sunday BPKC Hitter of the Day Rudy Martin 3-5 2R, 2b, HR, 3 RBI

Saturday BPKC Pitcher of the Day: Josh Dye 5 IP 4 H 1 R 0 ER 1 BB 6 K 5-3 GO-OF 71p/51k
Sunday BPKC Pitcher of the Day Josh Staumont 2.2 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 5 K 1-1 GO-FO 35p/27k

Saturday Lexington Legends 2 Hagerstown Suns 1
Sunday Hagerstown Suns 10 Lexington Legends 5

Despite a split over the weekend, the Legends find themselves three games up in the loss column with eight to play to win the second half division title. Saturday’s game featured a pair of good starting outputs as Yefri Del Rosario kept his run of good starts (1.98 ERA last 9 starts) with six innings of one-run pitching. For six innings Del Rosario was outdone though as Hagerstown starter Andrew Lee no-hit the Legends until the seventh. In that seventh inning, a leadoff walk by MJ Melendez started the inning before Nick Pratto’s blast to the left of centerfield gave Lexington a 2-1 lead with their first hit of the game. The bullpen shut things down and Lexington earned the win despite just three hits in the game. Sunday’s affair didn’t feature as much pitching with Lexington starter Charlie Neuweiler giving up seven runs in just three and one-third innings including a pair of home runs. The Legend scored five runs off the Sun’s starter in just three-plus innings but it wasn’t enough as the bullpen kept them off the board the rest of the way.

Nick Pratto: 2-6 HR, 3b, BB, 3K
MJ Melendez: 2-7 2R, HR, 2b, 2BB, 2 RBI
Janser Lara: 2 Ip 0 H 0 R 1 BB 2 K 3-0 25p/16k

Saturday Wilmington Blue Rocks 8 Salem Red Sox 2
Sunday Wilmington Blue Rocks 8 Salem Red Sox 3

A sweep of Salem over the weekend ended Wilmington’s abysmal 12 game losing streak that likely cost them a shot at the division title. The offense scored eight runs in all three games with an 11 hit output on Saturday making a winner of Gerson Garabito despite five innings in which he walked three and struckout just one. The righty did limit the damage to just one run while Gabe Cancel and Travis Jones paced the offense with two hits and two runs scored each. Sunday’s game saw Dan Tillo get his first victory since June 17th as the lefty worked into the seventh inning with five strikeouts while navigating seven hits with two runs allowed. Outfielder Rudy Martin did much of the offensive damage, finishing a triple short of the cycle while accounting for four of the Wilmington’s eight runs. Leadoff man Blake Perkins pitched in a four-hit effort as well. The Rocks trail Lynchburg by five games with nine left to play although their next four comes against the first place squad.

Rudy Martin: 5-10 3R, 2b, 3b, HR, 5 RBI, 3K
Emmanuel Rivera: 4-9 R, 2-2b, SB
Dan Tillo: 6.2 IP 7 H 2 R 2 ER 0 BB 5 K 9-2 GO-FO 89p/59k

Saturday NW Arkansas Naturals 3 Arkansas Travelers 1
Sunday NW Arkansas Naturals 4 Arkansas Travelers 3 F/10

A weekend sweep kept the Naturals season alive for now. Both games featured quality starting pitching as Jace Vines gave the Naturals five innings with just a run allowed on Saturday before Emilio Ogando toss his fifth consecutive quality start on Sunday. A throwing error in the third inning on Saturday put a pair of runners in scoring position and first baseman Samir Duenez made the Arkansas pay with a two-run single. A wild pitch gave them insurance in the sixth and the bullpen did some lifting with four scoreless innings. Sunday’s game saw Ogando’s streak of 31 innings scoreless pitching end in the first inning when a passed ball allowed an unearned run. Two innings later the lefty gave up an earned run as he completed six innings of two-run ball with just three hits allowed. Trailing 2-0 into the seventh the Naturals got a run with an Anderson Miller rbi double before scoring two more in the eighth on Jecksson Flores RBI single and Samir Duenez’s sacrifice fly. The Travelers answered that with a run in the ninth off Franco Terrero to send the game into extra innings. In extras, Erick Mejia doubled in the free runner for the Naturals and Grant Gavin secured the win with a pair of strikeouts sandwiched around a groundout. The win pulled the Naturals even with Arkansas for second place with an opportunity to overtake them on Monday before a five-game series with first place Tulsa.

Samir Duenez: 2-7 R, 3 RBI, BB
Jecksson Flores: 3-9 R, 2b, RBI
Emilio Ogando: 6 IP 3 H 1 R 1 ER 1 BB 5 K 4-4 GO-FO 74p/45k

Saturday Omaha Storm Chasers 3 Iowa Cubs 2
Sunday Omaha Storm Chasers 7 Iowa Cubs 2

The Chasers used home runs to take the weekend games over Iowa. Shortstop Nicky Lopez hit his third home run in six games as part of a three-run sixth inning. That made a winner out of Jon Dziedzic as the lefty didn’t give up a hit until one out in the sixth inning. Reliever Richard Lovelady finished things up with two and one-third innings with just one hit allowed to secure the save. With Glenn Sparkman back from Kansas City on Sunday, the Chasers bats showed they could hit like major leaguers as Paulo Orlando connected on a three-run home run to go with Frank Schwindel’s 23rd home run of the season. Six of the seven runs came late which made a winner out of Josh Staumont who tossed two and two-thirds innings of perfect ball with five strikeouts.

Richard Lovelady: 2.1 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 2 K
Frank Schwindel: 2-7 HR, 2b, 2 RBI
Glenn Sparkman: 5.1 IP 3 H 2 R 2 ER 1 BB 5 K 9-1 GO-FO 78p/57k

Saturday Burlington Royals 11 Kingsport Mets 2
Sunday Burlington Royals 9 Kingsport Mets 5

A very offensive weekend for the Royals as they piled up 20 runs on 26 hits against the Mets rookie squad. Starter Josh Dye earned the win for his one run (0 ER) five-inning effort that featured five strikeouts while lefty Marcelo Martinez earned Sunday’s win with a quality start over six frames. Saturday’s game featured a seven run sixth frame that included a Michael Emodi three-run home run to blow things open. Looking for the weekend sweep the top five hitters in the lineup each had multi-hit games on Sunday to pace the way for a win.

Jose Marquez: 3-9 3R, 3b, 3 RBI
Eric Cole: 4-10 R, 3 RBI
Isaiah Henry: 3-4 2R, 2 RBI

Saturday Grand Junction Rockies 9 Idaho Falls Chukars 5
Sunday Idaho Falls Chukars 3 Grand Junction Rockies 1

The Chukars defense let down start Jon Heasley Saturday as four defensive miscues led to five unearned runs in just four and two-thirds innings despite just four hits allowed. The offense missed plenty of opportunities, going just 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position in the loss. Sunday’s starter Rito Lugo gave the Chukars his third consecutive outstanding start with six innings with just a run allowed while striking out eight. The lefty has now put away 24 hitters via strikeout in his 18 innings of work in the Pioneer League. The Chukars scored a pair in the fifth on a balk and a Julio Gonzalez double before adding an insurance run in the eighth via a groundout by Kyle Kasser that scored Jesus Atencio after his leadoff double.

Nathan Eaton: 6-9 R, 2-2b, 3b, K
Rito Lugo: 6 IP 6 H 1 R 1 ER 0 BB 8 K HR 4-3 GO-FO 86p/60k
Jon Heasley: 4.2 IP 4 H 7 R 2 ER 2 BB 4 K 8-5 GO-FO 84p/55k

Friday Boxscores
Saturday Boxscores

As you know, the Royals haven’t exactly had the best season in 2018. They don’t score runs and they allow too many. It’s sort of a recipe for disaster. So which players are the Royals helping the most this season? Let’s take a gander.

Shin-Soo Choo

After another huge game against the Royals last night, Choo has continued his assault on Royals pitching. A big factor in his resurgence has been the fact that he’s absolutely destroyed the Royals.

Matt Davidson

And now it’s time for the obvious. If the Royals had played the White Sox as few times as they’ve played the Twins, Davidson might have been designated for assignment. But they haven’t and he isn’t. Here are the numbers:

Adam Engel

Sticking with the White Sox, Engel has proven to be, we’ll say, less than as a hitter in the big leagues. But don’t tell Royals pitching that. He’s somehow carved up the Royals. With him, I’m going to show how he’s done this season against the Royals:

But also his career numbers, which are really just this year and last year. It’s not so much that he was actually that great against the Royals last year, but he’s just SO bad against everyone else:

Marwin Gonzalez

Gonzalez was a huge piece of the 2017 championship run for the Astros, but this season hasn’t exactly gotten off to a great start. He’s not a liability necessarily because he can play multiple positions, but he just hasn’t been exceptional for them. We’ll see if this weekend was a blip or if the Royals are responsible for getting him going.

Francisco Lindor

Lindor is a heck of a player and is an All-Star no matter how many time he faces the Royals, but the numbers are just so jarring that I had to include him in this list. The 26 plate appearances against the Royals raise his average by 15 points, his OBP by 17 and his SLG by 33. That’s impressive.

Yoan Moncada

Do you sense a bit of a theme here? The White Sox are not good, but boy do they love seeing the Royals. Moncada is insanely talented, but he hasn’t shown a ton in the big leagues to this point. That doesn’t mean he won’t, but let’s just say he’s very thankful for the Royals this season.

Matt Olson

Olson had one fantastic rookie year for Oakland in 2017 hitting 24 home runs in just 59 games. He looked the part of a big time slugger for years to come. And even this season when he’s struggled, he’s absolutely mauled some home runs, routinely going 450+. Against the Royals, though, it’s been a different level for him.

Albert Pujols

Man he’s had a great career, and he’s punished the team that played mere miles from where he played college ball. This year is no different. As The Machine is no longer capable of much, he continues to make the Royals miserable.

Justin Upton

Upton has been a very good player for the vast majority of his career and after a nice half-season with the Angels, he signed a new deal with them rather than opting out of the deal he signed with the Tigers. Things haven’t gone well for him on his new deal…other than when the Angels take on the Royals.

There are others that maybe aren’t quite as dramatic. And yes, there are actually some who the Royals have handled so well that they actually make their overall numbers worse. Jose Abreu is the rare example of a White Sox player who hasn’t benefited greatly from facing Royals pitching. He’s hit .284/.339/.504 this season but just .174/.321/.348 against the Royals. Every team has those players who are just thorns in their sides throughout the season. Bad teams with bad pitching tend to have more. There’s still plenty of baseball left to add to this list too, so watch out for more batters to be Raised Royal as 2018 goes on.