Two closers facing their old teams
The Arkansas Travelers were in San Antonio to play the Missions. The Angels AA Affiliate in Little Rock Arkansas are red hot - they are in first place in the Texas League North and are 23-7 in their last thirty games. They took on the San Diego Padres AA club Thursday night in San Antonio.
On July 18, relief pitcher R.J. Alvarez was one of four Angels minor leaguers traded to the Padres for Huston Street. San Diego threw in a minor league reliever named Trevor Gott. Since joining the Travs on July 20 after the trade Gott had put together seven scoreless appearances totaling 10.1 innings. Alvarez has been almost as impressive for the Missions.
Tonight, fate would match them up late in the ballgame. Gott came in to save a 6-5 Travs lead and gave up his first earned run in the Angels organization. Alvarez then came in to face his old teammates and did even more poorly - allowing three runs on four consecutive hits before being pulled. Gott returned in the bottom of the tenth, and got three outs amidst two singles against his old club and the Travs lit up the Mini-Halo.
So both Gott and Alvarez are mortal. They can be excused for having a little case of the nerves in all this. Perhaps they will reunite in major league interleague box score a season or two from now.