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Reid-Foley dominates again for Dunedin

Blue Jays' No. 3 prospect allows one hit, fans nine over 7 1/3 frames
July 3, 2016

Sean Reid-Foley's great second stint with Class A Advanced Dunedin rolled on Sunday. 

Toronto's No. 3 prospect allowed one hit without a walk and struck out nine across 7 1/3 innings to lead the Blue Jays to a 1-0 win over the Tampa Yankees at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. It marked the third start out of his last four in which the right-hander worked at least six scoreless innings. But Reid-Foley was more proud of one of his other glowing stats.

"No walks," he said. "When it is my time to pitch, I just go out there and want the guys behind me to feel like we have a good chance to win the ballgame."

Reid-Foley (3-0) retired the first 13 hitters he went up against, five of them via strikeout. Abiatal Avelino's one-out single to right field in the fifth inning was the first time the Yankees put aboard a runner. 

"I wasn't aware that I hadn't allowed anyone on base," Reid-Foley said. "I am just trying to get through six innings. The more innings I can get through, the more it helps the staff here. My changeup and curveball were really good today, and at times, when I needed it, my slider was working too."

The 2014 second-round pick didn't lose any steam after that, setting down the last nine hitters he faced, including getting Avelino to ground out for a fitting end to a strong start.

"I really established my fastball and that's what helped me get into good counts," Reid-Foley said. "Having that kind of just took care of everything else. Now when I've been getting ahead, I've been putting batters away or getting them to ground out. I've been establishing the bottom half of the plate with my off-speed stuff."

The Blue Jays promoted the Guam native to Dunedin after he amassed a 4-3 record and a 2.95 ERA over 11 outings for Class A Lansing in the Midwest League. The 6-foot-3 right-hander has responded with a 0.68 ERA and a 32-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio across four starts.

"[Lansing pitching coach] Jeff Ware and I worked a lot on perfecting my delivery and repeating it every time," Reid-Foley said. "We all know it's not perfect, but the more we can repeat it, the better results I'll have. I think that's the biggest thing we've been able to do this year in my development."

Colton Turner took over in the eighth, allowing a hit and striking out a batter to close out the frame. Carlos Ramirez gave up a hit and walked a batter, but closed out the game for his ninth save. 

Shortstop Richard Urena provided the game's only run, plating Aaron Attaway with a single in the sixth inning. 

Josh Rogers (5-4) gave up a run on four hits and struck out five across seven innings for Tampa.

Michael Leboff is a contributor to MiLB.com.