JOPLIN MINER MAGAZINE

Javier Baez Launches 4 Bombs  June 9th: Charlie Morton vs. Clayton Kershaw  Joplin: 6-7-0 Chicago: 7-15-0 WP:E. Ramos LP: C. Sale This game was the most gut wrenching loss of the season. The Black Sox jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to Javier Baez's blast in the first.  Carlos Santana led the Miner comeback with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs off Clayton Kershaw.  Kershaw went 6 innings and left after surrendering 5 earned runs. The teams traded runs to give the Miners a 6-4 lead going into the 9th inning.  Craig Kimbrel was on the hill to pick up another save but the Black Sox' Jed Lowrie and Javier Baez launched bombs in the 9th to tie the game 6-6.  Joplin brought in ace Chris Sale to win the game in extra innings but Tyler White knocked in the winning run in the 10th, leaving the Miner faithful crying in their beer.    June 10th:  Danny Duffy vs. Carlos Martinez Joplin 12-18-0 Chicago 5-11-0 WP:  Jesse Chavez LP:   Carlos Martinez Joplin won this slugfest thanks to

                                  FREEMAN (667/667/1.167) SAVES SPLIT WITH ROCKS   June 13th: Verlander v. Morton Cleveland:  2-5-1 Joplin: 10-11-1 W: Charlie Morton 4-2 L: Justin Verlander 4-9 HR: Peralta  Justin Verlander returned to the Mine in a new uniform to face Charlie Morton and other old teammates.  Memories of the 2018 world series were quickly erased from his mind as the Miners touched up Verlander for 3 runs in 7 innings.  While Verlander was tagged with his 9th loss on the season, Morton improved his record to 4-2. Freddie Freeman led off the scoring in the Joplin 3rd with a 2 run double.  David Peralta added a RBI single to give the Miners an early 3-0 lead.  The Rocks cut the lead to 3-2 in the 6th on a RBI double by Trey Story and Alex Gordon's SF.  Joplin punished the Rock bullpen, exploding for 7 runs in the 8th for a 10-2 win. June 14th: Dan Duffy vs. Miles Mikolas Cleveland:  0-2-0 Joplin:  1-4-0 W: Kazu Makita  1-1 L:  Miles Mikolas  6-7 S:  Craig Kim

              Miners Acquire Ryu and Gio Gonzalez for another run at the Title                              Gio Gonzalez to add Depth to the End of the Rotation Joplin's front office continued to hear Salem management  chirp about the lack of depth in  the Miner's pitching staff, specifically the fact ace Chris Sale has used up 50% of his usage limits after just 2 chapters.  Moreover, although underreported, the Miners have to deal with the fact Mashi Tanaka also has used 50% of his innings even though only 33% of the schedule has been played. In order to correct the problem, the Miners obtained Hyun- Jin Ryu and Gio Gonzalez from the South Loop Furies in exchange for Matt  Liberatore, a high end lefty ranked #52 on the MLB.com top 100 prospect list. Ryu will have have about about 90 innings to use with ace splits ( 250/338/382 and 213/236/ 356) while Gio Gonzalez hopes to eat up some innings for the  Joplin rotation.  Despite some troublesome splits against ri