The River City Rascals begin a seven-game homestand on Tuesday with the series opener of their three-game series against the Florence Freedom. In the teams’ previous series, the Rascals (12-8) swept the Freedom (7-13) in Florence in the second series of the season.
The Rascals are coming off a week in which they were three late runs from a perfect 6-0 road trip. River City swept the Traverse City Beach Bums in Michigan and then headed West to take the first two from the Schaumburg Boomers before losing the final game of that series on Sunday. It was the first week in which the pitching truly shined. River City did not give up more than four runs in any game and shut out the Beach Bums and Boomers once apiece. The highlight was a complete game shutout by reliever turned starter Zeb Sneed in a 2-0 win over Traverse City. Sneed struck out 11 Beach Bums while giving up only two hits.
River City will be trying out a new third baseman on Tuesday night. Josh Silver, who is leading the Frontier League in batting average at .455 and is top five in home runs (5) and RBIs (18), was sold to the Chicago Cubs on Monday. Silver is only one of two Rascals to play all 20 games, and he played every out of those 20 games at third base.
Silver was replaced on the roster by outfielder Alexi Colon. Colon joined the team on Tuesday after being traded twice on Monday. The Lincoln Salt Dogs of the American Association independent league sent him to the Schaumburg Boomers, who sent him to the Rascals for a player to be named later. Colon was hitting .121 with Lincoln. He played the three previous seasons with the Boomers.
The Rascals and Freedom are at opposite ends of the league both in record and statistics. The Rascals are still the leading hitting team in the Frontier League with a .302 team batting average and second in OPS (.808). Florence is eighth in both (.258 and .701). In runs allowed, River City is third; the Freedom are third to last.
As of 6/6
Game 1: Zeb Sneed (1-1, 2.31 ERA) vs. Brandon Bargas (0-1, 6.75), Tuesday, 6:35 p.m.
Game 2: TBA vs. TBA, Wednesday, 6:35 p.m.
Game 3: TBA vs. TBA, Thursday, 6:35 p.m.
Courtesy of Weather.com
Follow @TimJKaiser on twitter for all your Rascals news throughout the summer.
