Gnats Win Rain Shortened Opener in Rome

Savannah Sand Gnats @ Rome Braves

April 13, 2015

Martires Arias @ Chad Sobotka

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Savannah	1	0	1	0	3	X	X	X	X		5	8	0
Rome	0	2	0	0	0	X	X	X	X		2	2	0

W: Arias (1-0, 3.60 ERA); L: Sobotka (0-1, 11.25 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Martires Arias – 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 6 SO, 74 Pitches (44 Strikes), 4 GO: 2 FO

Batters

John Mora – 1-3, R, SO

Luis Guillorme – 1-2, R, SAC

Wuilmer Becerra – 1-2, 2 R, GIDP

Jon Leroux – 2-2, R, 2B (1), 3 RBI (4), BB

Tomas Nido – 2-3, 2B (2), 2 RBI (3)

Pedro Perez – 1-2, 2B (1)

Recap:

            In the opener of a three game series in Rome, the Sand Gnats came away with a rain-shortened victory that Mother Nature nearly robbed them of. After trading leads over the first 3 innings, the Gnats would add three runs in the top of the 5^th as the rain started. As the top half of the 5^th ended, the rain had intensified to the point that it was clear a delay was coming, but the umpire were set on making this game official – as were the Gnats. After a long 26-pitch 2^nd inning during which Martires Arias could barely find the strike zone, Arias would need only 17 pitches combined to work through the 3^rd and 4^th innings unscathed, which definitely helped them complete 5 innings to beat the rain. Aside from his brief bout of wildness in the 2^nd, the tall (6’7”) and lanky Arias looked very good against the Braves – a 24-year old is expected to look good in the SAL, but his stuff was pretty electric (see below for more). The Sand Gnats finish their first turn through the rotation Tuesday night at 7 PM, as Scarlyn Reyes makes his 2015 and Savannah debut in game 2 of the series. Reyes (23), another late bloomer, was mostly a starter for the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2014, where he had great season – 2.39 ERA/2.89 FIP over 49 IP with 23.9 K%: 8.6 BB% and only 1 homerun allowed.

Scoring Highlights

            Wuilmer Becerra got a two-out rally started in the 1^st with this infield single.

            After Leroux walked, Tomas Nido brought Becerra home with this RBI single to CF.

            Pedro Perez picked up his first extra base hit of the season with this one-out double in the 2^nd, but he would be stranded at 3B.

            Luis Guillorme led off the 3^rd with this single, but was erased by a Becerra GIDP.

            Leroux followed with an infield single and then scored on this Nido double to deep CF.

            John Mora and Luis Guillorme led off the 5^th by reaching base on back-to-back bunts – Mora’s was a single and Guillorme’s is currently classified as a sac bunt on MiLB.com (for some reason).

Ruled a sac bunt for some reason

            After Becerra was hit in the head by a pitch, Leroux cleared the bases with this double to deep CF – Becerra was clearly OK, as he nearly caught up to Guillorme by the time they reached home plate.

Arias Coverage

1^st inning

           

Total: H, CS, 11 Pitches, 8 Strikes

2^nd inning

           

Total: 2 R, H, 3 BB, HBP, 3 LOBsters, 26 Pitches, 15 Strikes

3^rd inning

           After struggling through the 2nd, this was a huge bounce back inning - I can only imagine how mad their manager was that Arias only needed 5 pitches this inning.

Total: 5 Pitches, 4 Strikes

4^th inning

           

Total: 3 SO, 12 Pitches, 9 Strikes

5^th inning

           

Total: BB, PO, 17 Pitches, 8 Strikes

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