The Storm Chasers ended April with a 5 game road series on the road in Colorado Springs against the Sky Sox then were off to face the Iowa Cubs.  Royals All-Stars Salvador Perez and Alex Gordon returned to the Royals from their rehab stints while the Storm Chasers saw other old faces return to the line up and make an immediate impact.  Even with the boost from the Royals and the old faces returning the Storm Chasers continued to struggle.

Check out the season so far:

April 17 – 23, 2018

April 10 – 16, 2018

Opening Weekend Recap

2018 Omaha Storm Chasers Season Preview.

Omaha Storm Chasers week in review: April 24-30

Weekly Record: 2-4 (Overall: 8-16)

Standings: 3rd (11.0 GB)

Weekly +/-:  -8 (39 runs scored, 47 runs allowed)

Recap:

The Storm Chasers had an off day on April 24 as they traveled to Colorado Springs to face the Sky Sox and the day off did not help them at all.  On Wednesday April 25, Andres Machado took the mound to get the series started and could not stop the offence.  He gave up 2 runs in the first, 4 runs in the second and 4 more runs in the third before his day was done.  Machado does not get the blame for all the runs as only 8 of them were earned runs coming off of 11 hits.  He also managed to get 4 strike outs along the way.  He avoided taking the loss as the offence put up some good numbers managing to score 10 runs to tie the game in the 4th inning.  Kevin Lenik pitched the 4th and 5th innings giving up 1 run on 2 hits with 2 walks and 2 strike outs.  Brandon Maurer came into the game in the 6th inning giving up 2 runs on 2 hits with a walk and a strike out putting the Chasers back in the hole.  Jason Adam finished off the game with 2 scoreless innings with 1 walk and 3 strike outs.  The offense went crazy with 12 runs on 17 hits being led by Hunter Dozier who went 3-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs.  Ramon Torres joined in going 3-5 with 2 RBIs and 3 runs.  Ryan O’Hearn 1-4 with 3 RBIs and a run scored.  Frank “The Tank” Schwindel crushed his second home run as he went 2-5 with 4 RBIs and a run scored.  Maurer gets the loss as the Storm Chasers loose a close one 12-13.

Thursday April 26 was the second game of the series with Heath Fillmeyer getting the start.  He went 4.0 innings giving up 5 earned runs on 7 hits with 3 walks and 3 strike outs.  Josh Staumont lightly tossed 2 scoreless innings with 2 hits and 5 strike outs with no walks.  Willy Peralta tried to get the loss when he went 1.2 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 3 hits with 2 walks and 2 strike outs.  Mike Broadway came in for the last 1.1 innings giving up 1 earned run on 3 hits with 1 walk and 2 strike outs.  The bats started where they left off the last game getting 13 runs on 13 hits.  An unlikely hero emerged during the game, Billy Burns (yes, that Billy Burns) went 2-3 with 5 RBIs and 2 runs including his first home run of the season.  Frank “The Tank” Schwindel hit his second home run in as many games going 1-4 with 4 RBIs and a run.  Humberto Arteaga drove in the other 2 runs going 2-5 and Ryan O’Hearn added 3 hits and 2 runs.  Jack Lopez, who is quietly having a great season scored 3 runs while going 1-3.  Storm Chasers win 13-9 with Josh Staumont picking up the win (1-1) and Broadway getting his first save.

Friday April 27 saw the return of Bubba Starling to the line up and Clay Buchholz on the bump.  Buchholz pitched 5.0 solid innings giving up 1 earned run on 4 hits, 4 walks and 1 strike out.  The one run he gave up was on a home run.  Maurer came in for 1.2 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 4 hits with 1 walk and 2 strike outs while blowing the save opportunity.  Richard Lovelady was his usual superb self in 1.1 scoreless innings giving up just 1 hit, 2 walks and getting 2 strike outs.  Jason Adam goes the final 2.0 innings with no earned runs on 2 hits with no walks and 2 strike outs.  The bats get silenced in this game with a total of 4 hits.  Bubba Starling makes his season debut and goes 1-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored.  Jack Lopez goes 1-3 with a walk and 2 runs scored.  Ryan O’Hearn goes deep for the first time this season going 1-4.  Jason Adam gets his first win for the Storm Chasers as they beat the Sky Sox 6-4.

Saturday April 28 was game 4 of 5 in Colorado Springs and had Jonathan Dziedzic taking the mound.  Jonathan has been really good this season but the bats have not backed him up and this game was no different.  Dziedzic would take the loss after giving up zero earned runs.  That’s right the Storm Chasers would loose 2-3 after giving up no earned runs.  Getting no little offensive help, Dziedzic went 7.0 strong innings giving up 5 hits and 3 unearned runs with 1 walk and a strike out.  Kevin Lenik finished the game with a scoreless inning and 1 strike out.  The batters managed only 2 runs but used 9 hits to get it done.  Leading the hit parade was, unsurprisingly, Hunter Dozier going 2-3 with and RBI and a walk.  The only other Chasers hitter to log a multi-hit game was Ramon Torres who went 2-4 with a run.  In his second game Bubba Starling went 1-3 with 1 run, a walk and a strike out.  O’Hearn, Schwindel, Lopez and Morin each got a hit.  Jonathan Dziedzic takes his 3rd loss as the Chasers loose 2-3.

Sunday April 29 was the 5th and final game of the series with the Sky Sox and Seth Maness got his first start of the year going 4.2 innings giving up 8 hits, including a home run, and 4 earned runs with no walks and 2 strike outs. Willy Peralta came in for an agonizing 1.2 innings giving up 2 hits and 3 earned runs with 2 walks and a strike out.  Josh Staumont breathed some fresh air into the game with a stellar performance going 1.2 innings giving up 1 hit and no runs.  He once again struck out 5 while waking 1 batter.  Staumont has been on fire and is striking out nearly everyone he faces.  The batters mustered up 3 runs on 8 hits with the top of the batting order doing most of the damage.  Once again Hunter Dozier lead the pack going 2-2 with a run and 2 walks.  Keep an eye on him as he is not going to be in AAA much longer.  Ryan O’Hearn was the other batter to get more then one hit as he went 2-3 with an RBI.  Starling continued doing good since returning to the line up going 1-4, while Torrez and Lopez each had a hit and a run scored while Cam Gallagher contributed a hit.  Maness takes the loss as the Chasers loose 3-7.

On Monday April 30 the team was off to start their series with the Iowa Cubs with Andres Machado taking the start and having the longest outing of the season so far.  He went 6.0 innings giving up 7 hits, including 2 home runs, and 3 earned runs with 2 walks and 6 strike outs.  Richard Lovelady went 1.0 innings giving up a solo home run.  That solo home run was only the second home run given up by Lovelady in his minor league career spanning 100.2 innings since 2016.  Brandon Mauer had another, wait for it, wait for it, bad game.  He went 0.1 innings giving up 3 hits, including a home run, 5 runs with 4 of them being earned runs along with 1 walk.  Mike Broadway finished the last 0.2 innings that Maurer could not and also gave up a solo home run and getting 1 strike out.  The Chasers batters took advantage of an error by the Cubs and scored 3 unearned runs on 4 hits. Adalberto Mondesi made his AAA season debut batting lead off and playing short stop.  He got the first Storm Chaser hit in the 6th inning and finished 1-4 and scoring one of the runs.  Bubba Starling also went 1-4 with a run and Billy Burns went 1-3 with a run.  Ryan O’Hearn came in as a pinch hitter for Humberto Arteaga in the 8th inning and got a hit.  He was promptly replaced by pinch runner Jack Lopez who ended up going to 3rd on a fielding error and then scoring a run on a wild pitch.  Machado took his 3rd loss with the Storm Chasers loosing 3-10.

Next Game:

Tuesday May 1, 2018 @ Iowa Cubs at 6:38pm

Next Home Game:

Friday May 4, 2018 vs New Orleans Baby Cakes at 7:05pm.  Important note: Its Star Wars night!!