Here She is.. Three in a Row and Closing when its not.

Asheville made it three consecutive wins with a 4-3 thriller over Rome on Thursday in front of over 4,000 fans. Darin Holcomb smacked a two-run homer to extend his on-base streak to 30 consecutive games, the longest such streak in the league. The Tourists had a 4-1 lead entering the ninth inning and Randal Taylor picked up his league-leading 24^th save of the season with a dangerous ninth. Taylor managed to register a strike out of Carlos Lee that went down as the "Sitel Call of the Game" and can be heard here taylor.7.3.08.mp3...

Although last night was a save situation for Taylor it has been a topic of conversation with closers entering the ballgame in non-closing situations. A couple of interesting articles on the topic can be found with this link regarding Rivera and the all-time save leader Trevor Hoffman

 Here is the break down with Taylor:                      "RT Stands for Real Tough"

24/24 in save opportunities - 23 IP, 5 ER 1.95 ERA

And the NON save situations - 9.1 IP 4 HR 9 Earned Runs  

Taylor the Flavor Saver -

Not sure why this is with closers. From Mariano Rivera to Billy Wagner to the minor leagues in Randal Taylor it seems to be a mindset more than anything else. On a completely unrelated note, here are some more photos of Melissa Chambers Miss North  Carolina International. From the looks of it she seemed to have a good time on the broadcast.. could another appearance be in the works sometime in the future.

Ask.. this guy right here.

"We'll be back in 2-and-2" 

The Tourists try to get four consecutive wins on this Fourth of July and are expecting a sellout crowd. Houston Jimenez continues to coach third base as Joe Mikulik has removed himself from the lineup with Houston bringing in the runs managing the third base bag. Yeah, baseball is that superstitious.