Rochester Red Wings’ Huber belts three-run homer against Lehigh Valley
Red Wings first baseman Justin Huber will compete in the Triple-A All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday night in Portland, Ore.
He warmed up for the task Saturday, belting a three-run homer in the third inning off Lehigh Valley pitcher Brian Mazone.
Monday’s derby will feature five other players: Brendan Katin (Nashville Sounds), Terry Evans (Salt Lake Bees), John Bowker (Fresno Grizzlies) Shelley Duncan (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees) and Andy Tracy (Lehigh Valley IronPigs).
Two Portland area high school players who qualified through preliminaries earlier this season at PGE Park will join the Triple-A sluggers.
Huber played in 61 games for Portland last year. He was named to the Triple-A All-Star team after Red Wings pitcher Anthony Swarzak was promoted to Minnesota.
Streak ends: The eighth-longest hitting streak in minor-league history ended Friday night, when High Desert outfielder Jamie McOwen went 0-for-3 with a walk at Modesto.
The left-handed batter is a top prospect for the Seattle Mariners and plays in the advanced A California League.
He hit in 45 straight games in a streak that began May 10.
That’s the longest since Waco’s Roman Mejias hit in 55 straight in 1954. The all-time minor-league record is 69, by Wichita’s Joe Wilhoit in 1919. Second-best on the list? Joe DiMaggio, who hit in 61 straight for the San Francisco Seals in 1933.
McOwen, 23, was a sixth-round draft pick out of Florida International in 2007.
Tiffee’s back: Former Red Wing Terry Tiffee returned to Frontier Field on Saturday.
The third baseman began the year on the disabled list with a back injury and wasn’t activated by Lehigh Valley until June 22. He played for the Wings from 2004-06 and had quite a 2008 season: He led all Triple-A hitters with a .378 batting average and won a bronze medal with Team USA at the Beijing Olympics.
Starting over: Wings starting pitchers won just 11 games over the first 62 games this season but are 10-10 in their past 25.
Comeback: Catcher Eli Whiteside has come a long way since being released from the Red Wings last year.
Friday night, he caught a no-hitter from Jonathan Sanchez for the San Francisco Giants in an 8-0 win over San Diego.
