Faedo regains form to notch first EL win

Since being promoted from Class A Advanced to the Eastern League on June 18, Alex Faedo has experienced it all. Except a decision.
That changed Monday.
The third-ranked Detroit prospect allowed three hits over seven innings to earn his first Double-A victory as Erie shut out Richmond, 2-0, at The Diamond. He struck out four and walked one.

Faedo (1-0) came out strong in his first two starts on the circuit, amassing a 1.64 ERA after allowing two runs on four hits and four walks while whiffing 11 over 11 innings. But on July 5, MLB.com's No. 52 overall prospect surrendered seven runs on six hits and five walks over 3 1/3 frames against Binghamton. On Monday, he looked like the hurler taken No. 18 overall in last year's Draft.
"Any time you have a rough outing, you can't wait to get back out there, and I sensed that," said SeaWolves pitching coach Willie Blair. "He wasn't real open about it, but I could just sense it and that's just the competitor in him. It's a great quality to have."
"This team is always grinding. We've got a great group of guys here and the way they came back in that last game and ended up winning (12-9) was amazing. It really gave me a lot of confidence," Faedo added. "It stayed with me the way they picked me up and I wanted to show them that I could pick them up too. So that made tonight so special, not just my first win here -- which was awesome -- but we had a close game -- two runs -- and I was able to keep the team in it."
The 22-year-old right-hander worked around a one-out double by No. 6 Giants prospectAramis Garcia in the first inning by sitting down the next seven hitters he faced. C.J Hinojosa, San Francisco's No. 14 prospect, worked a seven-pitch walk with two down in the third, and a throwing error by third baseman A.J. Simcox put runners on the corners. Faedo escaped unscathed by getting 20th-ranked Ryan Howard to line out to right field.
"He did a really good job of keeping pressure on them," Blair said. "He was a relentless strike thrower. He pitched ahead in the count most of the time, lots of quality strikes and he mixed in all three of his pitches and commanded them all. He really attacked with his fastball, and I can't pinpoint it, but there is some type of deception there. His fastball gets on hitters and they didn't have a whole lot of good swings. He kept them off the barrel for the most part."
Gameday box score
The University of Florida product shrugged off another double in the fourth after Caleb Gindl sent a liner into right with two outs. Faedo stranded Gindl at second by fanning John Riley on a 3-2 slider.
"They had a really righty-heavy hitting lineup so I think that definitely helped," Faedo said of a batting order that had only one lefty in it: Gindl. "So I was able to throw all of my pitches. The defense played great behind me and [catcher Jake Rogers, Detroit's No. 6 prospect] called another great game. So it was really a good team effort."
The only other baserunner to reach against Faedo was Matt Lipka, who led off the fifth with a bunt single. Faedo retired the next eight in order to finish his night. After throwing 59 of his 88 pitches for strikes, there was some discussion about letting him go out for the eighth.
"We considered it, but with any young great prospect, we have to be careful with the innings. We don't want to cut him short later," Blair said. "And any time you get through seven shutout innings, it's a good time to take him out."

"Tonight is a great feeling with the team winning, but tomorrow the biggest thing is to flip the switch back to work mode and start preparing for the next one," Faedo added. "You can't get too high or too low after games, you have to keep putting in the same work every week or you're not giving your team the best chance to win."
No. 10 Tigers prospect Daz Cameron knocked in the SeaWolves' first run with a base hit to left off left-hander Conner Menez (3-2) in the sixth. Sergio Alcántara (No. 24) added an insurance run with a line single to right off righty Olbis Parra in the eighth.
Righties Joe Navilhon and John Schreiber tossed an inning of relief apiece to complete the shutout. Schreiber recorded his 11th save.