Santos Combines With Late Offense To Lift Rocks Over Potomac
Woodbridge, VA -Luis Santos turned in his second straight strong outing and the Wilmington offense overcame a slow start as the Blue Rocks beat the Potomac Nationals, 5-1, on Monday at Pfitzner Stadium. Santos (2-1) allowed just one run on three hits in six innings to earn a second consecutive victory over the P-Nats. At the plate, the Rocks scored all of their runs over the final five frames as they moved their record back to .500 in the season's second half (9-9) and improved to 42-44 overall in 2014. It was the Blue Crew's fifth win in their last six games.
Santos retired the first five batters he faced before running into a little two-strike, two-out trouble in the second. He plunked Mike McQuillan with an 0-2 pitch in the shoulder and then yielded an 0-2 double off the bat of Justin Miller. Miller's grounder snuck just inside the third-base line and plated McQuillan to put Potomac on top, 1-0. Santos would then retire 13 of the last 16 batters he faced, never allowing a runner to advance further than second base. He fanned five and walked only one, needing just 79 pitches to make it through six frames and earn the win.
His support came from an offense that out-hit the P-Nats, 10-5. Wilmington ran itself out of opportunities in the first and second innings and then saw double plays thwart potential rallies in the fourth and fifth frames. But with two outs and the bases empty in the fifth, Jared Schlehuber erased all of the Rocks' early frustration by blasting a titanic solo home run over the left-centerfield fence. Wilmington opened the sixth inning with a single by Ramon Torres, an RBI triple by Raul Mondesi and a run-scoring double off the bat of Bubba Starling to take a 3-1 edge. A Mondesi double and an ensuing RBI single by Starling pushed the edge to three runs in the eighth, while Cam Gallagher capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly to right in the ninth.
Potomac starter Ian Dickson (1-7) took the loss by allowing three runs on eight hits in six frames. He almost got off the hook when Potomac brought the tying-run to the plate with two outs in the eighth, but Rocks closer Mark Peterson entered the game and promptly shut the door by inducing a rally-killing pop up. The right-hander worked a one-two-three ninth to record his 17th save of the season.
The Blue Rocks return to action Tuesday night when they continue their four-game series against the P-Nats. Wilmington will send southpaw Sean Manaea (2-7, 4.75) to the mound, while Potomac will counter with righty Brian Rauh (1-1, 5.08). First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
The Rocks return to Frawley Stadium on July 11 for the first game of a four-game homestand against the Salem Red Sox. For tickets, call 302-888-BLUE or visit BlueRocks.com.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
Luis Santos has now strung two of the best starts of his Advanced-A career together over his last two outings. Coincidentally, both have come against the first-half champion Potomac Nationals. Santos allowed just one run on three hits in 5.2 innings on July 1 to earn his first win since joining the Blue Rocks in late-May. He followed that up with his excellent start on Monday. Thanks to his last 11.2 frames, Santos has lowered his ERA from 8.37 to 6.11. Santos began the campaign with Low-A Lexington and put up stellar numbers for the Legends prior to his promotion to the Blue Rocks. With Lexington, he was 4-1 with a 1.76 ERA in nine appearances (six starts). He struck out 34 and walked just five while yielding only 33 hits in 46 innings pitched. Santos was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 18, 2011. He spent 2011 with the Dominican Pirates and had a 2-1 record and 2.70 ERA. In 2012, Santos split time between the Dominican Pirates 1 and the Dominican Pirates 2. The six-foot hurler was traded from the Pirates organization to the Kansas City Royals organization on November 28, 2012. He was sent to the Royals along with lefty Luis Rico in exchange for right-hander Vin Mazzaro and first-baseman Clint Robinson.
Raul Mondesi busted his way out of a 5-for-51 slump on Monday by going 2-for-4 with a pair of extra-base hits. The switch hitter tripled from the left side of the batter's box in sixth inning and then roped a double batting from the right side just two frames later. Mondesi also drove in a run and scored twice in Monday's victory. It was a good day all around for the 18-year-old, who was named the 22nd-ranked prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America, which released its midseason top 50 prospects list on Monday afternoon. Mondesi is batting just .220 on the season, but is the youngest player in the Carolina League, and is widely viewed by many scouts as the best defensive infielder in all of Advanced-A.
Glenn Sparkman took a no-hitter into the seventh inning on the Fourth of July, and before the game on Monday he was named Carolina League Pitcher of the Week for the effort. Sparkman lost his bid for a no-no with one out in the seventh, but it was the only hit he allowed in a career-long seven-inning outing of a 5-0 Wilmington win. Sparkman set the tone early by fanning the first two batters he faced. He finished his night in similar fashion by punching out the final two hitters he opposed as well. In between, the right-hander worked five one-two-three innings. The only base runner he allowed over the first six innings came on Ramon Torres' one-out error in the third. Sparkman paid it little attention, however, retiring the next two batters he faced. Joey DeMichele was the lone Winston-Salem batter to register a hit off the righty, lining a single into center with one down in the seventh. Sparkman finished his night with nine strikeouts and no walks. Sparkman took a no-hitter deeper into a game than any Blue Rocks pitcher this season. Luis Santos was the only other Wilmington hurler to make it through five frames without yielding a knock in 2014. Sparkman also turned in only the third start by a Blue Rocks pitcher not named Christian Binford that lasted at least seven innings. Binford did it five times on his own. Wilmington is now 7-1 in Sparkman's eight starts. Since shifting to the rotation Sparkman has posted a 2-1 mark and a 1.13 ERA. His only loss came when he yielded one run in six innings as the Hillcats no-hit the Blue Rocks on June 27.
THEY SAID IT:
MANAGER DARRYL KENNEDY: "He was able to get away with some pitches up early in the game, but did a good job getting the ball down when he had to at that point in the game. Then he really seemed to settle in and pitched a very good ballgame. With him, he's got that herky-jerky delivery and he throws enough pitches up and in that he gets the hitters a little defensive. That pays off for him. He gets them off balance and when he comes back and locates he's tough to deal with. He pitched a heck of a game and put us in position to win."
"At least when were making mistakes on the base paths it was mistakes being aggressive, and we haven't always been aggressive enough on the bases, especially with balls in the dirt."
"It looked like we were swinging the bats pretty well, we just weren't getting anything out of it, but then Jared comes up and gets that home run, which catapulted us to some success. That was a big spot for us there."
"It was good to see [Raul] Mondesi get some hits for us [Monday} and see that smile back on his face. We hadn't seen that smile in a while. I know he's been struggling, but we tend to forget he's only 18-years-old. He's been going through some growing pains, but hopefully this is a sign that he's starting to come out of it. We definitely need his presence in our lineup. Then Bubba swung it well again. He's really been hitting the ball well for a couple weeks now, it just goes a little unnoticed at times. We really need both of those guys to get going. Hopefully with the additions of Ramon Torres and Mark Threlkeld it takes some of the pressure off those guys and allows them to relax a little bit.
"Mondesi is a guy who you've always watched in the past play stellar defense, but his bat has been right there with him. I think he has really shown this year what he is, simply because his bat hasn't always been there, but his defense never stopped. For an 18-year-old kid to not let his offense carry over into his defense is very impressive and pretty rare. That's why he is who he is."
"We are definitely a little more balanced now. We were very right-hand dominant most of the first half. With two switch hitters now [Mondesi and Torres] it helps us out. And then it also gives us a lot of flexibility with really three shortstops available in the infield between Jack Lopez, Mondesi and Torres. That's only going to improve our defense which has been a strength of ours all year long."
"[Mark] Peterson has really gone unnoticed in terms of his importance to our team this year. I remember earlier in the season he worked four innings to get a save. It seems like whatever we need him to do for us, he just gets it done. I have a lot of confidence in that man."
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