Listening to Brandon Hynick talk about his place in the Colorado Springs Sky Sox record book makes it clear that tomorrow is always another day, even in baseball.
The right-handed pitcher was buzzing about his perfect seven-inning game from a few nights before, but the cold, hard facts told him it wouldn’t mean even a run or a clean inning in his next start. Hynick’s masterpiece was a 2-0 victory over the Portland Beavers at Security Service Field with 7,651 Sky Sox fans looking on.
Hynick’s last inning featured some close calls before the 21st out was recorded. Third baseman Jeff Baker and second baseman Eric Young Jr. turned a couple of tough groundball plays into outs before right fielder Dan Ortmeier squeezed a flyball for the last out.
“I really have to focus on the next game and I can’t keep thinking about the perfect game,” Hynick said. “I have to think about what’s ahead and not what’s behind me. I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls about the game and it’s fun to talk about, but I have to focus on my next start. It’s against Portland again and they’re going to come out pretty aggressively against me.”
Hynick, 24, hopes to put up numbers that will attract the Rockies’ attention. An eighth-round selection in the 2006 draft, Hynick wants to have double-figure victories in his first season at the Triple-A level. The perfect game was his seventh win of the year. He had 10 victories last year with Double-A Tulsa and 16 the year before with Single-A Modesto.
“I’m going for as many wins as possible,” Hynick said. “If I can finish strong, that would be great. Win totals in double figures are what you want to get every year.”
Hynick said his bullpen session before his perfect game wasn’t good.
“I wasn’t hitting any of my spots,” Hynick said. “My first inning, I was up in the zone a lot. I knew I had to make an adjustment. I was able to get the ball down and it got me a lot of groundballs later in the game.”
Hynick claims his first Triple-A season has been a learning process.
“We have a lot of big-league experience on this team and I’ve tried to learn as much as possible from all these veteran guys,” Hynick said. “I’m working on a cutter right now and I had a good bullpen with it today. I’ve already learned more this year than any other year, for sure.”
An important lesson has been pitch selection.
“How you execute your pitches with two strikes on a hitter is more important than how you execute the pitches earlier in the count,” Hynick said.
Record-setting pitching staff
Hynick’s perfect game wasn’t the only sign of quality on the Sky Sox staff. Pitching coach Chuck Kniffin’s crew has been putting on a show at the same time the Rockies’ staff was fueling a run at the big-league level.
With quality performances from starters Adam Eaton, Jason Hirsh, Franklin Morales, Alan Johnson and Hynick, the Sky Sox staff posted a franchise record of 28 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings. Over a 62-inning span, Sky Sox pitchers allowed only 17 runs.
“Our starting pitchers have been going seven innings and making quality pitches when they needed to in jams,” manager Stu Cole said. “Our bullpen came through for us several times. If we keep doing that, it will look good for us down the road.”
Minor-league spotlight
Mike Zuanich, 1B, Tri-City Dust Devils
Zuanich apparently knows the value of a second chance.
The acknowledgement came in an outburst last week for the Rockies’s Single-A, short-season affiliate in the Northwest League. A second-year player in the organization, Zuanich blasted six home runs in six games and had 11 RBIs. He raised his season batting average to .344.
Marc Gustafson, the Rockies’ director of player development, noted that Zuanich’s six-game numbers were closer to what the Rockies expected when they selected him in the 28th round of the 2008 draft out of Cal-Santa Barbara.
“We didn’t see a lot from him last year,” Gustafson said. “The numbers we expected didn’t translate in performance. But he has shown us that he’s a very impressive power-hitting first baseman who can hit the ball a long way. Finding right-handed hitters who can hit with power such as Matt Holliday is tough to do. We like to have those kind of players spread through the organization.”
During the Pioneer League season last year at Casper, Zuanich hit only .185 in 30 games. He had no home runs and only eight RBIs.
Gustafson noted that Zuanich went right into the season with Casper after playing a full college season of baseball and might have been tired.
Of his 15 hits last year, the 6-foot-4, 225-pounder sent seven for extra bases, including six doubles.
Organizational leaders (Through Thursday)
HITTING: (65 games) Jordan Pacheco, Asheville, .337; Mike McCoy, Colorado Springs, .333.
RUNS: Eric Young Jr., Colorado Springs, 69; McCoy, Colorado Springs, 64.
HITS: Matt Miller, Colorado Springs, 100; Scott Robinson, Asheville, 91.
DOUBLES: Miller, Colorado Springs, 26; Radames Nazario, Modesto, 25.
TRIPLES: Maikol Gonzalez, Modesto, 7; Jeffrey Cunningham, Asheville, 6; David Christensen, Asheville, 6.
HOME RUNS: Ryan Harvey, Tulsa, 11; Christensen, Asheville, 10.
RBI: Miller, Colorado Springs, 63; Pacheco, Asheville, 47.
STOLEN BASES: Young, Colorado Springs, 46; McCoy, Colorado Springs, 26; Robinson, Asheville, 26.
PITCHING VICTORIES: Joey Williamson, Modesto/Tulsa, 8; Brandon Hynick, Colorado Springs, 7; Alan Johnson, Colorado Springs, 7; Esmil Rogers, Tulsa, 7.
LOSSES: Kenneth Durst, Modesto, 7; Bruce Billings, Modesto, 7.
SAVES: Andrew Johnston, Tulsa, 22; Craig Baker, Modesto, 20.
INNINGS: Hynick, Colorado Springs, 90; Jason Hirsh, Colorado Springs, 89 2/3.
WALKS: Connor Graham, Modesto, 37; Dan Houston, Asheville, 33.
STIKEOUTS: Christian Friedrich, Asheville/Modesto, 86; Bruce Billings, Modesto, 85.
ERA: (starters) Adam Eaton, Colorado Springs, 1.30; Juan Nicasio, Asheville, 2.10; (relievers) Matthew Reynolds, Modesto, 1.19; Edgmer Escalona, Mo- desto, 2.48.
