August is traditionally called the Dog Days for professional baseball—and that's certainly starting out to be the case for Bellevue's Ryne Reynoso and the Mississippi Braves in Class AA baseball.
Righthander Reynoso, 24, has been the Braves top pitcher for most of the 2009 season. But the Southern League South team is fading with a third-place 19-21 record in the second half of the season. And Reynoso has suffered from a lack of support at bat and in the field.
Wednesday night, Reynoso (6-7, 3.19 ERA, 124 innings, 20 games started, 77 K, 48 BB) logged his eighth straight "quality start" but the Braves gave the Montgomery (Ala.) Biscuits four unearned runs and lost 6-3 before 2,554 fans at their home ballpark in Pearl.
The 6-2, 215-pounder from Wood River High School scattered seven hits over six-plus innings but absorbed the loss. He has only one victory to show for his last six starts from July 3 to Aug. 5. That's a 38-inning span in which he has allowed only 13 earned runs with 22 strikeouts and 11 walks.