Call it luck by proximity.  The Mahoning Valley Scrappers games are played by younger prospects who hope to make their way to Cleveland someday.  This week, the script has been flipped and Asdrubal Cabrera is in town for a couple of nights to begin a rehab assignment before joining the Indians later this week.  Hudson Valley rose to the challenge, handing the Scrappers a 10-5 setback, the fourth loss in a row for Mahoning Valley.

Cabrera started at shortstop and played five innings.  He turned a sweet looking double play to end the second inning.  At the plate, Asdrubal was 1-3 with a two-run double in his third at-bat.  Scrappers Manager Travis Fryman said that Cabrera would play five innings the first night and DH on Tuesday for no more than four AB’s.

Scrapper starter Owen Dew came into the game having pitched 17 innings and only giving up one earned run.  Dew reminds me of Tim Lincecum – very skinny, number 40, hair a little longer than usual… Hudson Valley was not intimidated by the resemblance or the numbers and tagged Dew for four runs in their first at-bat.  The big blow was a Derek Dietrich 3-run homer.

Diego Seastrunk closed the lead to 4-1 when he connected for a solo shot in the bottom of the third.  Cabrera followed that with his 2-run double in the fifth, and Giovanny Urshela, who has been heating up at the plate, hit a sac fly later in the same inning to tie the game at four runs apiece.  Seastrunk commented on Wyatt Torregas being promoted to AAA, thus opening the door for him to garner more playing time.  “I have mixed emotions, on one hand I will get more playing time, but I’m really gonna miss Wyatt, he was like my mentor.”

Dew, who had appeared to settle down, got into trouble in the sixth.  Call it failing the “Wunderlich” test, as Phil Wunderlich smashed a Dew offering deep into right center, narrowly missing the scoreboard and handing the Renegades a 6-4 lead.  Wunderlich later connected for a three-run double off of Scrapper reliever James Reichenbach in the seventh to push the lead to 9-4.

Dietrich, a college teammate of Chase Burnette at Georgia Tech,  had a big night for the Renegades going 3-4 with a single, double, homer, and a walk.  Burnette went 2-4 with a pair of singles for the Scrappers.

Manager Travis Fryman is growing a bit frustrated by his team’s inconsistencies.  “Last night we had great pitching and didn’t get any offense.  Tonight we had enough offense to win and we didn’t pitch well.  Obviously, we are fighting a lot of issues.”

Fryman also spoke on Asdrubal Cabrera’s stint with the Scrappers.  “He’s a wonderful player and I have watched him for years.  He is very flashy and you don’t watch him to learn from him, you watch to appreciate what a good athlete he is.  It was like me watching Omar Vizquel play shortstop, I watch but know that I couldn’t do that.  People look at me and say, dang, you are not as big as I thought you were.  He [Cabrera] does things that I can use to teach, some things really, really well.  He came up tonight with the bases loaded and two outs.  He battled with two strikes and choked up on the bat for a double. Those are the things I want these guys to learn from him.”