Dodger Pride Awards — July

The Dodger Pride Awards were created in 2008 by Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti, and are given on a monthly basis to the players at each level of the club’s minor league system who play the game with a hustling, smart, aggressive style. The players and staff on each respective club vote for the awards.

Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes

 Pitcher – RHP FERNANDO NIEVE ranked fifth in the PCL with a 2.17 ERA and had the circuit’s seventh-lowest opponents’ batting average with a .219 mark, going 2-0 in five July starts. The 30-year-old allowed two or fewer earned runs in each of his starts during the month, including three quality starts and his July 13 start at Nashville when he allowed just four hits in 6.0 scoreless frames. Overall, Nieve is 5-6 with a 5.44 ERA in 19 games (18 starts) with the Isotopes.

Player – 1B/OF JERRY SANDS tied for the Pacific Coast League lead with eight July home runs and tied for third on the circuit with 26 RBI, while batting .327 in 27 games in the month. Sands was named PCL Player of the Week for the period of July 23-29 after becoming just the fifth player in PCL history to hit two grand slams in a game, doing so in the second game of Albuquerque’s doubleheader on July 29 at Nashville.  He joined Gregorio Petit (Oklahoma City, 2010), A.J. Pierzynski (Salt Lake, 2000), Babe Pinelli (San Francisco, 1929) and Pete Schneider (Vernon, 1923) as the only PCL players to accomplish the feat. Overall, the 24-year-old is batting .279, including a .311 mark with runners in scoring position, and ranks among the league leaders in home runs (19, T-7th) and RBI (79, 3rd).

*Follow this link for the press release in its entirety:  http://atmlb.com/Rubucs