DeAngelo Mack doubles home the go-ahead runs



Damon Sublett singles home the game-tying score



Rob Lyerly's first Double-A at-bat at home



Jose Pirela singles off of Henderson Alvarez



Adeiny Hechavarria robs Austin Romine of a knock

Lineups

Harrisburg
1. Josh Johnson - SS
2. Steve Lombardozzi - 2B
3. Buck Coats - DH
4. Tyler Moore - 1B
5. Jesus Valdez - LF
6. Bill Rhinehart - RF
7. Devin Ivany - C
8. Tim Pahuta - 3B
9. Jonathan Tucker - CF
10. Luis Atilano - RHP

Trenton
1. Austin Krum - LF
2. Jose Pirela - SS
3. Austin Romine - C
4. Brad Suttle - 3B
5. Cody Johnson - DH
6. Melky Mesa - CF
7. Corban Joseph - 2B
8. Myron Leslie - 1B
9. Ray Kruml - RF
10. Kevin Millwood - RHP

Pregame Notes: This is Game 1 of doubleheader to make up for yesterday's washout. Each game is seven innings, and Craig Heyer (1-0, 1.35) will start Game 2 for Trenton. He'll be opposed by Brad Peacock. ... To make room for Millwood on the roster, the Thunder have placed outfielder Damon Sublett on the DL. His stint is retroactive to Friday.

Prior to tonight's start in Portland, the Thunder activated Manny Banuelos and catcher Myron Leslie from the Temporarily Inactive List and placed outfielder Damon Sublett and left-handed reliever Wilkins Arias on the Disabled List.

Banuelos was in Mexico to be with his sick grandmother. The reason for Leslie's TIE was unknown, but it could just have been a paper move with a backup catcher really not necessary over the first few games.

Sublett hasn't played at all this season, and Arias appeared in two games.

READING, Pa. — There were a couple of additions before yesterday’s doubleheader with the Reading Phillies, one old face and one new face.

Corban Joseph, a second baseman who was hitting .302 with High-A Tampa before his promotion yesterday, came up to replace Brandon Laird. The Thunder’s cleanup man was bumped to Triple-A after tearing up the Eastern League for the better part of four months.

Joseph, whose brother, Caleb, is a catcher with the Bowie Baysox, will primarily hit third with the Thunder. And while he won’t provide the same power production as Laird did, he’s certainly no slouch with the bat.

David Adams, the Thunder’s original starting second baseman, has been on the shelf since May 20 with a sprained ankle and broken foot, so it came as a bit of surprise that Joseph wasn’t given the call a little sooner.

“Considering my age and where I was at in the organization, I wish I would have gotten called up sooner,“ Joseph, the organization’s No. 13 prospect, as ranked by Baseball America, said. “You can’t really control a lot of stuff (like that). I tried to come out every day and play to the best of my ability.“

Also back yesterday was outfielder Damon Sublett, who has been on the disabled list since April 27 with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb. To make room on the roster, Edwar Gonzalez was placed on the 7-day disabled list.

While the diagnosis appeared grim at first, he always thought he would be back this season.

“I didn’t think I was done for the year,“ Sublett said. “I didn’t know when I was going to be back, but I definitely didn’t think I was done.”

He finished up his stint in the Gulf Coast League on Saturday, and was scheduled to make his return with the Thunder in the second game yesterday. Still, with Austin Krum, Justin Christian and Dan Brewer all firmly entrenched in the lineup, finding at-bats for Sublett could prove troublesome.

“The only thing we can do is get him in there the best we can,“ manager Tony Franklin said. “We’ll do the best we can.“

NOTES: Franklin was suspended for two games for repeatedly bumping umpire Jon Byrne on Sunday. He served both as a part of the doubleheader.

After watching Damon Sublett leave in the fifth inning of Sunday's contest, only to be replaced by another left-hander, Kevin Smith, this move is not all that surprising.

Before the injury, Sublett was hitting .267/.365/.810 with two home runs and nine RBIs. Gonzalez has not played in a game this season.

Riding a smart play from Reid Gorecki, a bomb from Damon Sublett and a timely hit from Austin Krum, the Thunder came back and topped the Akron Aeros yesterday, 4-3. The win puts Trenton at a neat 5-2 heading to Portland, instead of 4-3.

Grant Duff appeared in his fifth game of the season and picked up his second save. This feature talks about just how at ease Duff feels as a reliever compared to his starting days, when he says he felt uncomfortable.

The Thunder take on Kyle Weiland and the Sea Dogs tonight at Hadlock Field before getting the meat of Portland's rotation (Casey Kelly, Stephen Fife and Felix Doubront for the rest of the series)

Akron
CF - Fedroff
3B - Chisenhall
LF - Weglarz
DH - Goedert
1B - Mills
2B - Phelps
RF - Drennen
DH - Rodriguez
C - Toregas
P - Putnam

Trenton
CF - Krum
2B - Adams
C - Romine
3B - Laird
LF - Sublett
RF - Gorecki
DH - Brewer
1B - Smith
SS - Nunez
P - Pendleton

This will be Sublett's first start since Opening Day. He got sick after that and hasn't played since, although he did take batting practice yesterday. ... The tarp is on the field here, but the sky is clearing up. ... Adams is 11-for-20 this year. ... Jeremy Bleich, Cory Arbiso (DL) and David Phelps each threw in the bullpen before the game.

Christian Garcia update: He is still in he clubhouse. No surgery has been scheduled yet, and Tommy John is not a definite at this point (although it is likely). He is meeting with Dr. David Altchek on Monday.

First inning: Lance Pendleton allows the first longball of the Thunder's season, a three-run bomb to right field for Beau Mills, who missed the first game of the set.

Thunder get one back in the bottom half after Krum reaches on an error, steals a base, is moved to third on David Adams' fly to right and comes home on Austin Romine's grounder to short. Akron 3, Thunder 1.

Second inning: Pendleton allows three straight hits to load the bases, but gets out with just one run allowed after a 4-6-3 double play and a fantastic diving play from Adams.

The Thunder get a two-out hit from Daniel Brewer, but Kevin Smith's grounder to second quickly snuffed any threat.

Third inning: Pendleton had his best inning, escaping the heart of Akron's order with two swinging strikeouts, much to the delight of the extremely vocal fan sitting directly in front of the press box.

Austin Krum singles with one out, but the Adams and Romine both fan against Zach Putnam to end the inning.

Fourth inning: Pendleton allowed two men to reach before being replaced by Wilkins Arias, who walked loaded the bases but got Lonnie Chisenhall to fly to center to escape the threat.

Laird and Sublett fanned to open the inning, and Reid Gorecki flew to right to end it.

Fifth inning: Arias walks Weglarz to start the inning, but gets two strikeouts and a fly ball to right after that.

The Thunder got a leadoff hit from Dan Brewer, who is 2-for-2, but Putnam set down Smith, Nunez and Krum in order afterward.

Sixth inning: Arias got John Drennen swinging before handing the ball to Josh Schmidt who got the next two men on a fantastic play from Adams and a strikeout of Wyatt Toregas.

The Thunder had their best chance to score here. Austin Romine's RBI groundout scored Adams from third, but Dan Brewer couldn't cash in the two runners who got on before him. He'll settle for a 2-for-3 night. Thunder have left five runners in scoring position tonight.

Seventh inning: Both teams went down 1-2-3, with three strikeouts among the six hitters.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things got terribly hectic with writing for the paper and, unfortunately, the blog got neglected.

Final score: Thunder lose, 4-2

Good afternoon. The Thunder lost last night for the first time in 2010, 5-1 to the Akron Aeros. D.J. Mitchell wasn't sharp, and the bats -- except for David Adams, who had another three hits -- weren't humming.

John Van Benschoten, a first-round pick of the Pirates in 2001, took the disabled Christian Garcia's spot on the roster and relieved Mitchell in the fourth inning. That notebook also has news on Marcos Vechionacci's role with the team and Damon Sublett's status.

Another note on Van Benschoten: He is now the third pick from the first round of the 2001 draft to play with the Thunder, joining Justin Pope and Alan Horne.

Today's starters around the minors:

Charleston - Shaeffer Hall (0-0, 0.00)
Tampa - Hector Noesi (1-0, 0.00)
Trenton - Lance Pendleton (1-0, 0.00)
Scranton - Ivan Nova (0-0, 0.00)

For Trenton, Lance Pendleton is taking Garcia's spot in the rotation, and probably will be for the forseeable future. He and Wilkin De La Rosa were supposed to be relievers this season, but plans changed when Garcia tore a ligament in his right elbow. Here's the story I did on Sunday, just after Pendleton found out he was going back into the rotation.

Check back later for the live blog from Waterfront Park.

Clockwise from top left are: Luis Nunez, Frank Menechino and Vic Valencia with the World Series trophy, Damon Sublett, Reid Gorecki, David Adams and Austin Krum.

In the tradition of, well, just about every baseball writer in America, it's time to make a few predictions. Trying to forecast the outcome of a minor league team is much harder than doing so for a major league team, I believe, because there is so much inherent fluidity.

For instance, there will be two changes to the roster before tonight's game. Those will be the first many, many transactions this year. Players will go up, down, hit the disabled list or leave the organization entirely.

That said, here are the Minor Matters predictions for your 2010 Thunder:

BATTING LEADERS
HR: Brandon Laird (15)
RBIs: Austin Romine (78)
AVG: Damon Sublett (.305)
BB: Dan Brewer (75)
SB: Austin Krum (20)
PITCHING LEADERS
W: D.J. Mitchell (12)
ERA: Christian Garcia (2.11)
SO: Garcia (160)
SV: Pat Venditte (15)
IP: Garcia (142)

-- Josh Schmidt will be out of Trenton by the end of April. He will be replaced by Venditte.

-- Ryan Pope will continue last season's momentum and will earn a promotion to Scranton by June. He will be replaced by Andrew Brackman.

-- Garcia will stay healthy all season and will earn a September call-up to the Bronx.

-- There will be 10 games postponed by rain. One will feature a two-hour delay.

-- The largest crowd of the year will be for Jesus Montero bobblehead night.

-- A guess at tonight's lineup:

CF - Austin Krum
RF - Dan Brewer
C - Austin Romine
3B- Brandon Laird
2B - David Adams
LF - Damon Sublett
1B - Kevin Smith
DH - Edwar Gonzalez
SS - Luis Nunez

-- Lastly, the Thunder will go 82-60 and finish the second in the division to Portland, which will win 90 games.

Well, after many hours of furious writing, tomorrow's special Thunder section is complete. I wrote features about Austin Romine, Christian Garcia, Damon Sublett, Brandon Laird and D.J. Mitchell. There's one more page in the section, which features the Thunder schedule, dates to get your bobblehead dolls and players to watch in the Eastern League.

All pictures except those of Christian Garcia are taken by yours truly. Both Garcia shots were taken by Trentonian photographer Jackie Schear.

Until that comes out tomorrow, here's the story I wrote about Josh Schmidt coming back to Double-A:

TRENTON — Even after a season as the Thunder’s best pitcher — he posted a 1.61 ERA and was named to the Eastern League All-Star Game — Josh Schmidt is back with Trenton to begin 2010.
He obviously did all he could to prove to the Yankees’ brass that, despite underwhelming stuff, he deserved a chance to move up in the organization. That included trying his hand as a starter in the Venezuelan Winter League, where he was just as dominant as ever.
“I think it shows versatility, obviously,” Schmidt said yesterday at Thunder Media Day. “Starting is different than relieving, and if they need me to step into a different role at any time in the season, I can.”
Schmidt wouldn’t comment much on his feelings about having to return to Trenton, but what he did say spoke volumes.
“Obviously I can count,” Schmidt said. “There’s a lot of guys who can pitch up there in Triple-A right now. I can see why it happened.”
If Schmidt needs any inspiration, he needs only to look back to last year at this time.
The snub last year was George Kontos, who led the organization in strikeouts in 2008, yet lined up as the Thunder’s No. 2 starter when 2009 rolled around.
He didn’t stay in that position for long, though, moving up to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after just four starts.
Still, it seemed hard yesterday for Schmidt to wrap his head around the reality that he was still two steps away from the major leagues.
“Everybody wants to move up,” Schmidt said. “That’s the nature of the beast, it’s what we’re all here trying to do.
Roadblocks aside, Schmidt said, his key to advancement is the same as it was last year: Going out there every time and doing the best he can.
“I’m just here doing the best I can, trying to help them win ballgames. What happens happens, I don’t have a whole lot of control over it. I’ve got to just pitch, and let other people make decisions. That’s not my job, that’s their job.”

This is going to be quick, but here's a rundown of what I did today and what I plan to do tomorrow.

I interviewed Ryan Pope (check The Trentonian for a feature tomorrow), Brandon Laird, Damon Sublett and Austin Romine. All were very good and well-spoken. Sublett had some interesting things to say about his transition from second base to the outfield, Laird talked with me about facing Stephen Strasburg in the Arizona Fall League, and Austin Romine ... well, you'll just have to wait for his feature in The Trentonian's special section, which prints on April 8, the day of the Thunder's season opener.

Tomorrow I plan to report to minor league camp around 9:00-9:30, as has been the case all week. This time, though, I'm not sure how long I'll be sticking around. One schedule I have says the Thunder are traveling to Dunedin tomorrow to play the Jays again. Another, however, says they are staying in Tampa for a camp day.

There's a Yankees vs. Future Yankees exhibition game across the street at George M. Steinbrenner Field, so that's always an option, if the game features Thunder players.

If I stay at camp, some interview targets will be David Phelps, Pat Venditte and the Thunder coaching staff. More importantly, I will be trying my best to cajole the preliminary roster, which was released today but kept away from the media, out of someone.

That's all for tonight. I'll check back in the morning.

Here are some photos I took today. Clockwise from top are: Dan Brewer, Matt Cusick, Dellin Betances, Craig Heyer and Damon Sublett.

Photos are, clockwise from top right: Wilkin De La Rosa, David Adams' glove, Frank Menechino, Kei Igawa (and his fabulous blue glove), Damon Sublett and D.J. Mitchell.

At my second day in Thunder camp, I spoke with Myron Leslie, Jeremy Bleich, David Adams, Christian Garcia and D.J. Mitchell. Leslie is a probable Thunder catcher, joining Austin Romine and possibly Jose Gil. Adams will be Trenton's second baseman, and Bleich, Mitchell and Garcia are all likely to be in the team's rotation come April 8.

In tomorrow's paper, I have a long feature on Leslie and a notebook with bits and pieces from today's 4-4 tie with the Pirates' Double-A work group. On the Web site, there will also be pictures from today's action, as well as videos of the interview I conducted with Leslie, today's starter David Phelps, and Austin Romine working with Victor Valencia in the batting cages.

The interviews with Adams, Bleich, Garcia and Mitchell will more than likely be used in the Thunder season preview section, which hits newsstands on April 8, the day the Thunder open the season.

There's a good chance the roster will be finalized tomorrow some time, so that could be the big news.

I plan to also speak with Tony Franklin (who was at home today in Los Angeles), Austin Romine, Damon Sublett, Kevin Mahoney and Ryan Pope tomorrow. Also, later tonight (once I get done uploading video) I will post some of best (that term is VERY relative) pictures from the day's action.

Also, remember that there will be a Web chat on Saturday night at 8 p.m. wrapping up my short stay in Tampa.