Quakes Lose To 66ers In Five Hour Marathon, Seager Ties Career High In Hits

I should preface this postgame recap with some background. You know this is a family thing over here. So an important member of our family will be covering the Quakes on a daily basis from now on. Our father Mark Andes will be bringing the dailies, as he will be covering the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. We feel that our minor league coverage has been lacking in recent years, so this is where our dad comes in. And yes this is really our father. So check in over here for more updates on the Quakes From Mark. His first game was quite a doozy, a 14-inning, five hour marathon loss to the 66ers. Corey Seager had a career high four hits in the game. Here’s how it went down for the Quakes in a game where Julio Urias started, and ended with utility infielders on the mound once Inland Empire had run out of pitchers. 

Urias had a rough start against the 66ers-Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Mark’s Minor League Minutes

The Rancho Cucamongo Quakes (3-4) dropped the series finale to the Inland Empire 66ERS (2-5) in a 14 inning California League match Wednesday evening, and early Thursday morning.

In the first inning Rob Garvey led off with a sharp single and after a pretty sacrifice bunt moved him over to second base, Corey Seager got Garvey home with a lazy single to center field.

Julio Urias, the 17-year-old southpaw phenom made it through the fist inning, but ran into control problems in his second inning of work.  He gave up two walks, hit a batter, and was charged with two wild pitches.  P.J. Forbes ended his night early, pulling him with the bases loaded and a run in.  The 66ERS Alex Allbritton struck out to close out the inning.  Urias never seemed comfortable on the mound, and his pitches seemed to be all over the place.

The 66ERS blasted two home runs in the top of the third inning to take a 3-1 lead over the Quakes.  Cal Towey led off the inning with a sweet blast to the right field seats and then Wade Hinkle homered off of reliever Geoff Brown.

Corey Seager’s bat has come alive and the Dodger prospect showed his eye for the strike zone.  With two outs in the seventh inning Seager doubled home Jeremy Rathjen whose double set up the RBI.  Catcher Pratt Maynard’s single scored Seager to tie the game at 3-3.

These teams have played 3 extra inning games in a row and their pitching corps was pretty much depleted.  The 66ERS moved infielder Brian Hernandez to the mound in the 12^th inning.  Although Hernandez has not pitched in his minor league career, he did see mound time in college for the UC Irvine Anteaters.  Hernandez got into trouble in the 13^th in his second inning of work.  The right-hander loaded up the bases with nobody out resulting in the 66ERS pulling an outfielder into the infield to cover for the double play.  Hernandez pitched his way out of trouble, coaxing Brandon Dixon into a fielder’s choice squibber to short, a strike out of James Baldwin and a sky ball to short stop by leadoff hitter Rob Garvey.

Inland Empire ended the night in the 14^th inning with a right field blast by Sherman Johnson off of reliever Owen Jones (1-1, 9.00 ERA).  Hernandez ended up with the win for the 66ERS and reliever Andrew Ray, another infielder seeing action got the save.

Corey Seager tied his all-time high with 4 hits in a game.  The Quakes travel to Modesto on Thursday for a four game series with the Nuts.

Check out Mark’s Unique daily coverage of the Quakes over here at Lasorda’s Lair