GLENDALE — The following are updates on area athletes playing minor league baseball.
Trevor Bell (Crescenta Valley High, 2005) Salt Lake Bees starting pitcher: Since being promoted to the Bees, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, in mid-June, Bell has been playing the best ball of his career.
His current tear continued on Saturday, when the former Falcon allowed just one run on four hits and one walk over seven innings in an 8-1 win at the Fresno Grizzlies.
With the win, Bell improved to 2-0 as a member of the Bees and has now allowed just one earned run on nine hits over 23 innings pitched in his first three starts with the club for an earned-run average of 0.39. During that span, he’s struck out 12 while issuing just two bases on balls.
Bell began his outing on Saturday by retiring the Grizzlies’ side in order in the first two innings. Holding a 4-0 lead in the third, he surrendered a leadoff double to Steve Holm, who scored on a double by Ben Johnson.
After a spotless fourth and fifth, Bell pitched around a leadoff single in the sixth and worked his way out of a one-out, two-on jam in the seventh.
On June 21, Bell followed up his complete-game shutout Salt Lake debut, with seven scoreless innings pitched against the Sacramento Rock Cats.
Despite surrendering two unearned runs on a seventh-inning home run, Bell left the game with a 4-2 lead. He lost the win when Sacramento rallied for a 5-4 win against the Bees’ bullpen.
On the year, including the beginning of the season spent with the Arkansas Travelers, Bell is 6-3 with an ERA of 1.77. As of Tuesday, the Bees were five games out of first place in the Pacific Coast League Pacific North Division with a record of 41-37.
Jason Hirsh (St. Francis High, 2000) Colorado Springs Sky Sox starting pitcher: Following two of his worst starts of the season for the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A club, Hirsh came back with a solid outing on Friday.
Hirsh shut out the host Sacramento Rock Cats on just three hits over 6 2/3 innings to pick up a 3-2 win, just his second since April 27.
