Yu-Min Lin Dominant in Sod Poodles Win

Amarillo, Texas (August 10, 2024) – The Amarillo Sod Poodles took a 3-2 series lead on Saturday night on the back of a stellar performance from Yu-Min Lin. The left-hander worked seven scoreless innings and the offense did just enough to earn a 2-1 win in front of a sell-out crowd despite nearly a one-hour delay to start of the game.

The D-backs' no. 4-rated prospect allowed a leadoff double in the top of the second and then plunked Peyton Wilson to put the first two Naturals of the inning on base. Lin worked out of the pickle by getting two quick outs before issuing a two-out walk to load the bases. Lin responded by inducing a ground out to leave all three stranded and start his dominant run.

Tim Tawa drew his second walk of the night in his second trip to the plate to start the home half of the fourth. A.J. Vukovich promptly brought him home all the way from first base with a RBI double to give Amarillo a 1-0 lead. Following Lin's two-out walk in the second he sat down 10 in a row before the Naturals leadoff man broke it up with a single in the top of the sixth. Lin retired each of the next three to get himself through six scoreless innings on the mound.

Lyle Lin extended his hit streak and the bottom of the sixth with a two-out bloop single to right field to put runners on the corners. Amarillo wasn't able to add to their lead with J.J. D'Orazio flying out to center field to end the threat. Wilson singled to start the Naturals half of the seventh and Lin issued a five-pitch walk to put two on board to navigate. Neyfy Castillo fielded a grounder and fired it across the diamond to nab the lead runner from making it to third. Lin picked up his fourth strikeout of the night to dispose of Dillan Shrum and punctuated his stellar outing with a full-count strikeout of Jack Pineda to make it seven scoreless innings and preserve Amarillo's 1-0 lead.

Wilderd Patiño singled and swiped second base to place himself into scoring position for Jancarlos Cintron who came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Cintron delivered a clutch two-out single to double Amarillo's advantage and gave Jake Rice a 2-0 lead to work with as he took over on the mound for the eighth. The fellow left-hander saw the Naturals string back-to-back singles to start the inning and put immediate pressure on. He got Josh Lester to fly out to deep center field, allowing Javier Vaz to move up to third base. The second fly out of the inning brought the Naturals back within one as Luca Tresh's sac fly did a job. Rice got out of the inning with a grounder and only one run of damage.

The Sod Poodles were unable to capitalize having runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the eighth after a Lyle Lin double. Jhosmer Alvarez headed to the mound for the top of the ninth. The hard-throwing Alvarez walked the tightrope. Three flyouts including one to the warning track in right field were enough though to hold on for the 2-1 win.

Amarillo and NW Arkansas will wrap up their series on Sunday evening from HODGETOWN with the Sod Poodles looking for a series win. RHP Joe Elbis (0-0, 3.75 ERA) will make his second start of the series after kicking the series off on Tuesday night. It'll be the same pitching matchup as the opener with the Naturals turning to RHP William Flemming (3-3, 7.16 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.

NOTES:

PRINCE OF PLATING RUNS: A.J. Vukovich continued his great series at the plate, collecting his eighth RBI of the series to grab Amarillo an early 1-0 lead. The D-backs' no. 14-rated prospect has played in all five games so far this series and has gone 4-for-19 with two homers to go along with his eight RBI, drawn two walks, and scored twice. He leads the Sod Poodles in RBI this year with 65 and his fourth-inning RBI double was the 170th of his Amarillo tenure. His two-bagger was his first since July 21st at home against Springfield but still holds the season lead for Amarillo with Saturday night being his 22nd of the season.

SUPER BLUE MIN: D-backs no. 4-rated prospect Yu-Min Lin turned in his best outing of the year, giving Amarillo seven scoreless innings on the bump. The left-hander matched his career-high with the seven innings and set his high for innings in a game this year. It was his second quality start with his last coming on July 24th at HODGETOWN against Wichita. Saturday night was the first fourth time in his minor league career that he went seven innings, the last coming in his final start of the 2023 season against Frisco on September 14th.

WALKING THE PLANK: Jake Rice saw his eight-game streak without allowing an earned run come to an end on Saturday night after working the top of the eighth. He allowed consecutive singles to start the inning before two flyouts were enough to move a runner home. The two hits were just the second and third hits he had allowed since July 10th when his streak began. On the season Rice now owns streaks of 10 games (4/12-5/12), eight games (7/10-8/7), and seven games (6/5-30) where he did not allow an earned run. In 35 total appearances this season, Rice is 2-1 with a 3.05 ERA and has allowed 35 hits over 44.1 IP.

TREASURE IT: Lyle Lin extended his hitting streak to five games with a multi-hit game, finishing 2-for-4 and a double. It was Lyle's fifth multi-hit game of the year in nine games played with Amarillo. In his nine games, Lin is hitting .538 (14-for-26) with four doubles, a homer, six RBI, and three walks.