Sand Gnats' Arias fans career-high 13

Martires Arias was on the verge of having the game blow up on him in the second inning Friday night. After a single and three straight walks, the bases were loaded and Savannah pitching coach Marc Valdes was striding toward the mound.

"I went up and talked to him and told him, 'Take it easy,'" Valdes said. "'Bear down, go pitch to pitch and see where it goes from there.'"

The 24-year-old right-hander did just that, working out of the jam and recording a career-high 13 strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings in Class A Savannah's 6-4 loss to Lexington at Grayson Stadium.

Arias allowed three runs on four hits and three walks but did not factor in the decision.

"He started out hot, striking out the side in the first," Valdes said. "He got into a little lapse of focus in the second, but he made some great adjustments and he used his changeup in much better situations tonight. His slider was there, too, and he threw some good ones to an aggressive lineup after he used his fastball to get ahead."

The native of the Dominican Republic was greeted in the second by a single off the bat of Royals No. 22 prospect Elier Hernandez. He walked No. 30 prospect Wander Franco and No. 10 prospect Chase Vallot to load the bases and issued another free pass to No. 14 prospect Brandon Downes.

After the visit from Valdes, Arias gave up an RBI groundout to Samir Duenez before getting Chad Johnson grounded into a double play.

The righty allowed only four baserunners over the next 4 2/3 innings and fanned seven of the last 11 batters he faced before Duenez chased him with a two-out single in the seventh.

The 6-foot-7 hurler signed with the Mets as a non-drafted free agent in 2009. His first five years in the Minors were spent in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer, Gulf Coast and Appalachian leagues.

Arias pitched for Rookie-level Kingsport and Class A Short Season Brooklyn a year ago, going 6-0 with a 1.11 ERA and 60 strikeouts over 57 innings in 12 games, including seven starts. He was bumped up to Savannah this spring for his full-season debut.

"His fastball is in the low- to mid-90s at times and he gets some good runs and sink to it," Valdes noted. "Anybody with that kind of stuff is certainly capable of making progress. He has to continue to work on his fastball command and throwing to both sides of the plate and continue to get a better feel for the changeup, because it's the best it's ever been this season."

Arias lowered his ERA in June to 2.21 and has struck out 28 batters over 20 1/3 innings. Overall, he's 3-3 with a 3.22 ERA and one complete game in 12 starts.

"A 13-strikeout performance by anybody is hard to do," Valdes said. "When he has all three of his pitches going for most of the game, this is what he's capable of."

The Sand Gnats got Arias off the hook with a run in the seventh and two in the eighth. But Lexington got an RBI single from Vallot and took advantage of a throwing error to score two more times in the ninth.

Yunior Marte (2-0) got the win, despite allowing four runs on three hits and three walks with three strikeouts in four innings.

Alberto Baldonado (0-5) surrendered three runs on two hits and a walk in 1 1/3 frames for Savannah.

Sand Gnats second baseman Luis Guillorme drew four walks, stole a base and scored a run.