Drillers' Shibuya comes inches shy of no-no

Tim Shibuya of the Drillers watched the ball whiz past his outstretching glove and trickle out of second baseman Samuel Ortiz's reach. He realized the irony then and there.
"Those guys have been making plays for me all night," the Dodgers right-hander said. "There were some balls that were hit hard that went right at our guys, and it just happens that a seeing-eye single is the one that breaks it up. There were a lot of other chances that the other team had if it hadn't been for the defense to take away. Baseball evens it out."
That lone hit, off the bat of Midland's B.J. Boyd with two strikes and two outs in the ninth inning, broke up Shibuya's no-no in Double-A Tulsa's 3-0 win at Security Bank Ballpark on Monday.

Gameday box score
"This was a culmination of a lot of things," Shibuya said. "Having the teammates behind me, all the coaches who have helped me, it's just a fun night, to be honest. It was fun to have the teammates on the top rail to support me the whole time. It's just a fun game. It's really fun to be able to compete. Things like this don't happen all the time, so it was just fun to be able to share that with 25 guys in the dugout."

Making his fifth start of the season and the 141st of his seven-year Minor League career, the 27-year-old faced little resistance from the RockHounds lineup. He retired the first 11 batters he faced before Athletics No. 16 prospectMax Schrock drew a four-pitch walk.
"We were mixing fastballs in and out, off-speed pitches here and there," Shibuya said. "[Catcher Jack Murphy] did a great job behind the plate. He called a great game. Defense was unbelievable, just making plays. I was just trying to let them hit the ball into the defense and let them do the work."
Pitching in front of a 5,000-plus crowd on the road, Shibuya struck out the side in the fifth on 15 pitches and began to sense what was brewing on the night.
"I was like, 'OK, you're through five. Let's see how far you can go,'" he said. "I didn't know how many pitches I was going to have, so I was just going to ride it out and see what happens."
After getting ninth-ranked A's prospect Richie Martin to ground out and Branden Cogswell to strike out to begin the ninth, the 2011 23rd-round pick did his best to focus on the task at hand.
"It was just, 'Hey, get this next guy out. It's been a fun game, let's keep it going. Let's get this guy out and go from there,'" Shibuya said.
The Los Angeles native had B.J. Boyd on the ropes when he got ahead 1-2, but the left-handed hitter fought off a fastball inside and got enough of it to roll past Ortiz into center field.
"Murphy came out and [pitching coach Billy Simas] came out to give me a little breather and just said, 'Hey, let's finish this out. Nice job, but let's finish this thing out. Nothing is done yet,'" Shibuya said. "At that point, you're just trying to keep the shutout and win intact for the team, so I just kept it under control and we were able to get the last hitter."

The flirt with history was a positive blip in what has been a trying season for the 27-year-old.
Minor injuries have forced Shibuya to serve four stints on the disabled list since mid-April and his lone appearance at Triple-A was one he hopes to never repeat.
"With the injuries, it's just about keeping with the program to go get ready for the next time you get to go out and compete," Shibuya said. "It's just trying to keep yourself ready so when the opportunities knocks, you're able to take advantage of it."
As for his May 5 spot start for Oklahoma City against Colorado Springs, Shibuya was more disappointed with not being able to do the job.
"It was frustrating just not being able to work deep into the game because their bullpen had been taxed with a lot of long games lately, and I was sent up there trying to eat some innings," saidi Shibuya, who surrendered 14 runs over 2 2/3 frames. "That was the job II was supposed to do there. Yeah, I gave up a ton of runs, and to be honest, that really didn't bother me as much as the fact that I didn't do my job as far being able to get into the sixth, seventh inning, just trying to save the bullpen a little."

But moments like Monday's performance enable the veteran to put everything into perspective.
"Everyone was bummed out, but they just said, 'Man, what a great game,'" he said. "So many guys made ridiculous plays, the offense busted through in the seventh and eighth innings, because it was an 0-0 ballgame through six. That can't go unnoticed. It was just a special moment to be able to share with everybody."
The Drillers broke through against third-ranked A's prospect Grant Holmes, who allowed two runs -- one earned -- on seven hits and two walks while striking out six over seven innings.
Dodgers No. 21 prospectEdwin Ríos collected two hits and Blake Gailen and Jacob Scavuzzo drove in a run apiece.