In the South Atlantic League, Intimidators Stadium offers a pretty level playing field for pitchers and hitters. It's not the easiest park for home runs, and that drags its offensive tendencies a little below average, but the final scores are fair.
Asheville's McCormick Field is always at the top of the lists for offense, and having watched the Intimidators beat the Tourists there 11-8 Saturday night, I understood why: It's an incredibly small park.
From left to right:
- Left field line: 326
- Left center: 370
OK, that's about average. But keep going:
- Center field: 373
- Right center: 320
- Right field line: 297
There's a 36-foot high wall in right field in an attempt to make it slightly more difficult to hit it out, but with a power alley shallower than many big-league foul poles, all it does is turn deepish flyouts into doubles. I saw at least two of those on Saturday, and Laz Rivera's homer probably would've been a double in most parks, too. Luis Gonzalez's leadoff home run cleared the 373 sign with plenty of room to spare, so I feel a little more confident about that one.
These dimensions are why the Tourists have led the Sally League in OPS the last seven seasons. With this history, it's pretty impressive what the Intimidators have done so far at the plate this year:
- Kannapoliss, .763 OPS
- Columbia, .742
- Delmarva, .735
- Greensboro, .731
- Asheville, .730
Durham 10, Charlotte 3
- Charlie Tilson went 0-for-4.
- Eddy Alvarez, 0-for-4 with a K.
- Casey Gillaspie was 3-for-4 with a double.
- Thyago Vieira: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP
Birmingham 5, Mobile 3
- Eloy Jimenez (one K) and Zack Collins (two K's) were both 0-for-5.
- Seby Zavala went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Matt Rose was 2-for-3 with a homer, double and walk.
- Jameson Fisher doubled, singled twice and struck out once.
- Dane Dunning: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 50 of 89 pitches for strikes.
- Ryan Burr: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
- Ian Hamilton: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Down East 7, Winston-Salem 5
- Joel Booker went 0-for-4 with a walk.
- Alex Call, 3-for-5 with a double.
- Luis Alexander Basabe was 2-for-5 with a strikeout and a stolen base.
- MIcker Adolfo was 1-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Yermin Mercedes, 1-for-3 with a double and two walks.
- Yeyson Yrizarri went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Ti'Quan Forbes hit his first homer, singled and struck out twice.
Kannapolis 11, Asheville 8
- Luis Gonzalez went 2-for-6 with a homer, double and two strikeouts.
- Evan Skoug was 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Justin Yurchak, 3-for-5 with a strikeout, and was caught stealing trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt.
- Carlos Perez went 2-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Tyler Johnson: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
