In picking up the win in last night’s 2-1 victory over Salt Lake, starter Alan Johnson continues to ascend some of the Sox all-time pitching lists. Last night was Johnson’s 71st start in a Sky Sox uniform, moving him into a tie for second place all-time with Bryan Rekar. The win was the 25th of his Sox career moving him into a tie for fifth place with Rod Nichols. Johnson is tied for sixth in losses (24) with Mike Saipe. This season he also became the second Sky Sox player with 250 strikeouts and 150 walks joining Tom Kramer who finished his career with 292 strikeouts and 169 walks. Johnson moved into third place in career walks with 151 and now has the fifth most strikeouts for a Sox pitcher with 259. He is also second in hits allowed (547), runs (320) and earned runs (283) and third in innings pitched (412.0). For his Sky Sox career, Johnson is 25-24 with a 6.18 ERA.

Sox closer Jim Miller earned his 24th save of the season in last night’s 2-1 victory over Salt Lake. It was also the 64th appearance for Miller this season which is the most the most ever for a Sky Sox pitcher. He had previously been tied with Don Gordon who set the mark in 1989 with 63 appearances. The 24 saves are tied for the 4th most in a season in Sox history with Steve Olin and one behind Nate Fields who had 25 in 2006.

With last night’s paid attendance of 5,734, the Sox surpassed 300,000 in attendance for the 2011 season. It is the fourth-straight year that the team has reached that milestone and tied for with the 2010 season for the fewest amount of games to reach 300,000 fans (63).

Despite picking up the loss last night against Tacoma, starter Alan Johnson continues to ascend some of the Sox all-time pitching lists. With the loss, Johnson is now tied for sixth in losses (24) with Mike Saipe. He also walked four batters to became the second player with 250 strikeouts and 150 walks in a Sky Sox uniform, joining Tom Kramer who finished his career with 292 strikeouts and 169 walks. Johnson moved into third place in career walks and now has the fifth most strikeouts for a Sox pitcher with 253. He is also second in hits allowed (542), runs (319) and earned runs (282). For his Sky Sox career, Johnson is 24-24 with a 6.25 ERA.

Rehabbing Rockies relievers Huston Street and Matt Lindstrom are scheduled to pitch in tonight’s opening game against the Tacoma Rainiers before rejoining the big league club on Thursday. They previously pitched in Monday’s game against the Salt Lake Bees, with Street pitching a scoreless inning while striking out one while Lindstrom allowed two runs on three hits while striking out two in an inning of work.

In last night’s 9-7 win over Salt Lake, outfielder Ryan Spilborghs became the first Sky Sox player to hit a lead-off homer and a walk-off homer in the same game. There has been one other instance where a lead-off homer and a walk-off homer were involved in the same game, but involved two different Sky Sox batters. On August 9th, 1999 vs. Edmonton, John Cotton led off the game with a homer, then Dave Hajek hit a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Trappers closer Steve Mintz as the Sky Sox beat the Trappers, 10-8.

Injured Rockies pitchers Huston Street and Matt Lindstrom will begin rehab assignments with the Sky Sox tonight. Both relievers are scheduled to pitch that night and on Wednesday, August 24.

Street, 28, has been on the disabled list since August 9 with a right triceps strain
and will be making his first appearance in a game since being placed on the
disabled list. Before the injury, Street was 1-3 with 29 saves and a 4.06 EA
(23er/51.0ip) in 53 games. He last appeared with the Sky Sox in 2010 as part of
a rehab assignment and went 1-1 with a 10.29 ERA (8er/7.0ip) in seven games,
one start.

Lindstrom, 31, was placed on the disabled list on August 10 with a nerve injury in his upper right arm and will be making his first appearance in a game since being placed on the disabled list. Before the injury, Lindstrom was 2-1 with 2 saves and a 2.89 EA (14er/43.2ip) in 50 games. It will be Lindstrom’s first career appearance with the Sky Sox.

Sky Sox outfielder Ryan Spilborghs is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with the Sky sox tonight.

Spilborghs has been on the disabled list since August 6 with plantar fasciitis in his
right foot and will be making his first appearance in a game since being placed
on the disabled list. Before the injury, Spilborghs was hitting .214 (41-for-192)
with 3 home runs, 21 RBI and 22 runs scored in 95 games with the Rockies.

This will be Spilborghs’ first appearance in a Sky Sox uniform since he played for
Colorado Springs from 2005-08. In each of those seasons, Spilborghs split time
between the Sky Sox and Rockies. In his four seasons with Colorado Springs,
Spilborghs played in 173 games and hit .334(217-for-650) with 16 home runs, 85
RBI and 133 runs scored.

After picking up the win in last night’s 6-2 victory over New Orleans, RHP Joey Williamson is now 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA in his last two starts including a win over Oklahoma City on the 13th. Over his last two starts spanning 11.0 total innings, Williamson has allowed just two earned runs and eight hits while striking out 14. Williamson is in the midst of his second stint with the Sox this season. He made his Sky Sox debut on July 7th and made two relief appearances before being sent back to Double-A Tulsa. He rejoined the team on August 8th and has made three starts, going 2-1 with a 4.80 ERA.

After leading the PCL in numerous offensive categories for much of the season, the Sox have seen their production dip in recent weeks. The Sox have failed to reach double digits in runs scored in the last 25 games after reaching the mark 25 times in the first 99 games of the season. In their past five games, the team has scored a total of 11 runs. Despite the recent struggles, the Sox still rank second in the PCL in runs (807) and third in average (.301). In last night’s 8-1 loss to New Orleans, the Sox scored just one run and managed only five hits, all singles.

Last night former Sky Sox Jim Thome hit his 599th and 600th runs of his career, becoming the eighth player in baseball history to accomplish the feat. Here is the writeup by espn.com.

Thome who was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 13th round of the 1989 Amateur Baseball Draft played for the Sky Sox in 1991 and ’92 collecting four home runs and 42 RBI in 53 games.