Perdomo dominant yet again for Lugnuts

Angel Perdomo produced another dazzling start for Class A Lansing.

The Blue Jays' No. 23 prospect gave up one hit and two walks while striking out eight over six scoreless innings Friday night in the Lugnuts' 5-0 loss at Bowling Green.

Perdomo was dominant through five innings, allowing only a leadoff walk to Zacrey Law in the third and plunking Rays No. 21 prospect Kevin Padlo with one out in the fifth. Angel Moreno led off the sixth with a single and stole second as Jake Cronenworth struck out. The 22-year-old left-hander also fanned Michael Russell, walked Joe McCarthy and got David Rodriguez to bounce out to end his sixth and final inning.

"Went into the game feeling well, but I had a little trouble locating my pitches," Perdomo said through teammate and translator Josh Almonte. "But I still managed to find a way to battle and keep them off-balance."

The outing came six days after the native of the Dominican Republic limited South Bend to one hit over a career-high seven innings. He's surrendered just one earned run over his last 26 frames to drop his ERA to 1.28, which ranks fourth in the Midwest League. His .132 opponents' batting average is the lowest in the Minor Leagues.

Perdomo threw 50 of 76 pitches for strikes against the Hot Rods, but he eclipsed 90 in his previous two starts.

"The biggest thing with him is repeating his delivery," Blue Jays pitching coordinator Sal Fasano said after Perdomo's last start. "He's making quality pitches -- or pitches in the zone where he wants them -- around 70 percent of the time. But he still falls off to the third-base side of the mound, although not as bad. It's a work in progress, but he's making some big strides.

"When he starts repeating his delivery with more consistency and starts executing pitches at a higher rate, he'll move quickly. He has the ability to have a pretty good slider, so hopefully, we can work on that and master it. But the development of his off-speed pitches still has a ways to go."

Even with Fasano's assessment of Perdomo's development and his off-speed offerings, the 6-foot-6 southpaw said his fastball has been the pitch that's carried him through his recent stretch of success.

"He's got great deception in his delivery which helps make his fastball look that much harder ... his deception, his high fastballs, it allows him to get away with some pitches," Fasano said. "So we just want to continue to take his best attributes and make them better and better."

On Friday, Perdomo was matched by Rays No. 26 prospect Jose Mujica, who struck out five and gave up four hits and two walks in six shutout innings.

The Hot Rods broke through for a run in the eighth against Josh DeGraaf (3-4), then got consecutive two-run singles from Moreno and Cronenworth in the ninth to break the game open.

Lugnuts manager John Schneider and catcher Ryan Hissey were ejected in the eighth after Hissey took a called third strike. Pitcher Tayler Saucedo was tossed from the dugout in the ninth.