Feliz rides Rough-shod on Missions
Feliz struck out 11 over seven innings of three-hit ball as the host Frisco RoughRiders topped the San Antonio Missions, 6-1, to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-5 Texas League playoff series.
The only hits allowed by the 20-year-old righty were a first-inning single by Drew Macias, a double in the third by Josh Alley and a single in the fourth by Jose Lobaton.
"He threw strikes tonight," Frisco manager Scott Little said. "He had a good fastball and his offspeed stuff was effective. He did a heck of a job for us."
Feliz (1-0) had a regular-season mark of 4-3 with a 2.98 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 45 1/3 frames over 10 starts for Frisco. His 11 strikeouts against San Antonio matched his career high, set June 14 while pitching for Class A Clinton of the Midwest League against Wisconsin.
"He's been very consistent," Little added. "We've had to throttle him back a little sometimes, but we've been waiting for a point like this to stretch him out a little. He rose to the challenge."
He was 6-3 with a 2.52 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 82 innings for Clinton before being promoted to Double-A Frisco on July 7.
Trey Hodges gave up one run on one hit, fanning one without a walk in one inning, and Andrew Laughter yielded a hit and struck out one in the final frame to close out the victory.
John Whittleman doubled home two and Thomas Berkery hit an RBI double in a three-run second that snapped a scoreless tie for the RoughRiders. Steven Murphy smacked a two-RBI single and Whittleman added an RBI base hit in a three-run eighth to close out the scoring.
Frisco took Wednesday's series opener, 5-1.
Stephen Faris (0-1) surrendered three runs on five hits, fanning six and walking two over five innings to take the loss for the Missions. Box score
In other Texas League action:
Arkansas Travelers 4, Northwest Arkansas Naturals 1
Chris Pettit's RBI single in the eighth snapped a tie game and sparked the Travelers to a win over the Naturals in their playoff opener. Box score
Alan Friedman is a contributor to MLB.com.