RiverDogs' Vargas sharp in best start

Daris Vargas showed why the RiverDogs were wise to move him to a more prominent role on Monday.

The Yankees right-hander allowed two hits and struck out a season-high eight batters over 5 2/3 shutout innings as Class A Charleston beat Greenville, 3-1. Vargas didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning, when leadoff hitter Austin Rei singled to left field.

The 23-year-old exited after giving up a second single to Luis Alejandro Basabe and recording two outs in the sixth. He threw 90 pitches, 50 for strikes.

"He had all his stuff working," RiverDogs pitching coach Justin Pope said. "For the most part, he was using his fastball really well and threw some good changeups. His slider got better as the game went on.

"He was mixing it up. He was throwing really hard tonight, he was up to 97 [mph]. That was a weapon that he had so the hitters had to get started early. He was using his changeup and slider later in the counts."

The outing marked the second South Atlantic League start of the season for Vargas, who made five relief appearances early on for Charleston. The decision to move the Dominican Republic native to the rotation had everything to do with his talent.

"We want him pitching in the big leagues," Pope said. "His stuff plays up. If you can have someone in the rotation with his stuff and sustain it over six innings possibly, it helps him and it helps the organization. It adds value to him. That's what we want in the big leagues. We want guys with plus stuff that can sustain it for a significant amount of innings.

"He's got a live arm. He's got plus stuff. He's got big league stuff. It's just being able to be consistent with it all."

Overall, Vargas is 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA and has limited hitters to a .211 average. But the 6-foot-3 hurler has been hurt by control issues, having allowed 14 walks in 26 1/3 innings this season.

"Just being consistent with his delivery and his tempo -- and trusting his stuff," Pope said. "A lot of times, he's got really good stuff, but he just has to be able to trust it. Just put it in the zone and not try to make perfect pitches because with his stuff he doesn't have to. Young pitchers, it takes some time to realize that. Young pitchers try to make perfect pitches when they don't need to."

Right-hander Anyelo Gomez took over and gave up an unearned run on one hit and two walks while striking out four over the final 3 1/3 innings to notch his first save.

Angel Aguilar homered and drove in all three runs for the RiverDogs.

Righty Jose Almonte took the loss, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks while fanning four over five innings in his debut for the Drive.