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There were a flurry of moves:
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GREENSBORO -- If the Greensboro Grasshoppers thought it was hard to keep track of their roster, they soon discovered a greater challenge Thursday night: keeping track of the Hickory Crawdads' run total.
Forced to play with two vacant roster spots because of injuries, the Hoppers absorbed a five-run first inning and a 9-4 loss before 6,879 at NewBridge Bank Park.
"Before you knew it, it was 5-0 in the first inning," Greensboro manager Darin Everson said. "They did a good job of causing havoc."
It has been a general downer of the week for the team, which lost two starters in Wednesday's 5-2 win over Hickory. Center fielder Kevin Mattison had his potentially historic season cut short by a broken finger that will almost certainly keep him out the rest of the way. Third baseman Jake Smolinski may return, but he'll have to overcome the trauma of getting hit in the face with a pitch.
The Florida Marlins were already planning roster moves, and that put the Hoppers in the import-export business. As Smolinski and Mattison were going on the disabled list, the Marlins were promoting three guys -- pitchers Dan Jennings and Tom Koehler and outfielder Jeremy Synan -- to Jupiter.
Three newcomers replaced that triumvirate when outfielder Tom Hickman and infielder Smelin Perez arrived from Jupiter and pitcher Sandy Rosario was promoted from Jamestown, but the moves still left Greensboro with 23 active players -- two under the maximum.
"We're going to compete like crazy with what we've got," Everson said. "Having three guys promoted was great. That's part of what we do here. Our job is to get each guy a little better each day."
The attrition was compounded when center fielder Isaac Galloway went head-first into the fence in a courageous attempt to snag along drive. Galloway left the field on his own but will be held out of tonight's game as a precaution.
Unlike in the Major Leagues, in which rosters are fixed at 25 from Opening Day through Aug. 31, Minor League teams can operate short-handed. The Marlins are expected to assign a pitcher to the Hoppers today or Saturday to get them to 24 players. They operated with 24 for three weeks earlier in the season; Thursday's roster was the smallest of the year.
The Hoppers will surely miss Mattison, an East Forsyth High School graduate who was on pace to become the first Minor Leaguer in three years to amass 15 or more home runs and 40 or more stolen bases in a season. At the start of Thursday's play, he was hitting .250 with 15 long balls, 47 RBI and 41 steals.
The Crawdads jumped on Hoppers starter Kyle Kaminska for five runs on five hits and padded the advantage when former Clemson catcher Doug Hogan hit his 15th homer of the season -- in 66 games -- in the fourth.
Forced to play with two vacant roster spots because of injuries, the Hoppers absorbed a five-run first inning and a 9-4 loss before 6,879 at NewBridge Bank Park.
"Before you knew it, it was 5-0 in the first inning," Greensboro manager Darin Everson said. "They did a good job of causing havoc."
It has been a general downer of the week for the team, which lost two starters in Wednesday's 5-2 win over Hickory. Center fielder Kevin Mattison had his potentially historic season cut short by a broken finger that will almost certainly keep him out the rest of the way. Third baseman Jake Smolinski may return, but he'll have to overcome the trauma of getting hit in the face with a pitch.
The Florida Marlins were already planning roster moves, and that put the Hoppers in the import-export business. As Smolinski and Mattison were going on the disabled list, the Marlins were promoting three guys -- pitchers Dan Jennings and Tom Koehler and outfielder Jeremy Synan -- to Jupiter.
Three newcomers replaced that triumvirate when outfielder Tom Hickman and infielder Smelin Perez arrived from Jupiter and pitcher Sandy Rosario was promoted from Jamestown, but the moves still left Greensboro with 23 active players -- two under the maximum.
"We're going to compete like crazy with what we've got," Everson said. "Having three guys promoted was great. That's part of what we do here. Our job is to get each guy a little better each day."
The attrition was compounded when center fielder Isaac Galloway went head-first into the fence in a courageous attempt to snag along drive. Galloway left the field on his own but will be held out of tonight's game as a precaution.
Unlike in the Major Leagues, in which rosters are fixed at 25 from Opening Day through Aug. 31, Minor League teams can operate short-handed. The Marlins are expected to assign a pitcher to the Hoppers today or Saturday to get them to 24 players. They operated with 24 for three weeks earlier in the season; Thursday's roster was the smallest of the year.
The Hoppers will surely miss Mattison, an East Forsyth High School graduate who was on pace to become the first Minor Leaguer in three years to amass 15 or more home runs and 40 or more stolen bases in a season. At the start of Thursday's play, he was hitting .250 with 15 long balls, 47 RBI and 41 steals.
The Crawdads jumped on Hoppers starter Kyle Kaminska for five runs on five hits and padded the advantage when former Clemson catcher Doug Hogan hit his 15th homer of the season -- in 66 games -- in the fourth.
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