Prevost Sinks Late Against Charleston

Savannah Sand Gnats @ Charleston River Dogs

April 25, 2015

Josh Prevost @ Joe Maher

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Savannah	0	0	4	0	1	0	0	0	0		5	10	3
Charleston	0	0	0	1	3	1	1	0	X		6	9	1

W: Frare (2-1, 6.14 ERA); L: Prevost (0-3, 6.75 ERA); S: Coshow (5)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Josh Prevost – 6 IP, 8 H, 6 R (4 ER), 5 SO, 68 Pitches (50 Strikes), 12 GO: 1 FO

Alberto Baldonado (1.80 ERA) – 2 IP, H, 2 SO, 1 FO, 2 IR – 1 S

Batters

Luis Guillorme – 2-3, 2 R, 2 BB, CS

John Mora – 1-5, R, 3B (1), 2 RBI (8), 2 SO

Stefan Sabol – 2-5, 2 2 (4), RBI (8), SB (2)

Jon Leroux – 1-3, BB, 2 SO

Victente Lupo – 1-4, R, 2B (1), 2 SO

Pedro Perez – 1-4, SB (1), SO

Patrick Biondi – 1-3, R, RBI (3), SB (4)

Wuilmer Becerra – 1-1, CS

Recap

            The Savannah bats broke out in a big way during the 3^rd inning, but Charleston would score a run in each inning from the 4^th through the 7^th, and then hold on for the one-run victory. Josh Prevost just kept pounding the zone with his low-90’s sinker, and it was working for him early, but the talented Charleston lineup would hit a double off of him in every inning from the 4^th through the 7^th (which explains the runs scored in each inning), before he was removed for Alberto Baldonado in a very tight spot – runners at the corners and nobody out. The first batter Baldonado faced was speedy Dustin Fowler, who gave Charleston their first lead of the game with a single into RF. Baldonado got some defensive help to finish the inning with no more damage done, but the Charleston bullpen was in shutdown mode the rest of the game. There were two ejections in this game – Manager Jose Leger and infielder J.C. Rodriguez – with details found in the ‘Scoring highlights’ section below. The Sand Gnats send Martires Arias to the mound Sunday at 5:05 PM, and they’ll be looking to salvage a game from this series, which has already seen them lose four if you include the makeup from 4/1. You can check out the 5-inning start he made against Rome earlier this month here for a preview of what Arias brings.

Scoring Highlights

            Vicente Lupo led off the 3^rd with his first double of the season. He’d come around to score on a single from Patrick Biondi. After Luis Guillorme walked, John Mora tripled them both home to make it 3-0. Stefan Sabol would knock in Mora with a groundout to the SS.

Lupo's first double of the year

Mora's first triple of the year

            Luis Guillorme led off the 5^th with a single and then came around to score on a double from Sabol.

Guillorme has a .468 OBP so far

This hot stretch from Sabol might finally catapult him out of the SAL

            Guillorme led off the 7^th with his second hit of the night, but would be eliminated as part of a strike-em out, throw-em out double play, with Mora the strikeout victim. Sabol followed with his second double of the night, which made the caught stealing especially damaging.

Guillorme rocking a 14.5 K%: 19.4 BB%, and that'd be his highest K% in the minors

            Wuilmer Becerra came in to pinch-hit with two outs in the 8^th and reached on an infield single. He’d be picked off before Guillorme saw a pitch, but appeared to be safe at 2B on the play below, as the Charleston first baseman dropped the ball as he tagged Becerra. The call enraged Sand Gnats Manager Jose Leger, who would get ejected after the play. There would be another Sand Gnats player ejected later, as J.C. Rodriguez slammed his bat down in anger after taking a called third strike to end the game.

I was disappointed Becerra didn't start, but he made an impact

If the game's over, and you get ejected, does it really mater?

Pitcher Coverage

Josh Prevost

            It was definitely an unusual start for Prevost, as the Charleston batters kept putting the ball in play early in the count, which kept his pitch count down, even as the River Dogs batters started making loud contact against him. Here’s his pitch count by inning: 1^st – 8, 2^nd – 10, 3^rd – 14, 4^th – 13, 5^th – 13, 6^th – 7, 7^th – 3. According to gameday, which has been known to miss a pitch occasionally, he threw only one pitch to 15 batters and only two pitches to 6 batters. He works with a low 90’s sinker that was sitting 91-93 MPH Saturday, and will mix in a slider and changeup. But it’s the sinker that’s his bread-and-butter, as evidenced by the 12 groundouts Saturday, and his 28 GO: 7 FO through 3 starts. Unlike fellow rotation giant Brad Wieck (check him out here), who throws with a ¾ arm-slot, Prevost throws with more of an overhand motion.

After allowing a leadoff single on his first pitch of the game, Prevost would retire 10 straight before allowing back-to-back hits in the 4^th – a single, and then a double, which put runners on 2B and 3B with one out. The River Dogs would get their first run home on a groundout in the 4^th, and the double was the first hard hit ball since the leadoff hit. After Austin Aune led off the 5^th with a hard hit double lined into RF, Prevost got the next 6 batters to hit groundballs, but two went for a single and Pedro Perez committed a throwing error on another, so three runs scored. Aune would line another double off of Prevost in the 6^th to tie the game up at 5. The River Dogs would hit a double off of Prevost for the 4^th straight inning leading off the 7^th, and Prevost would be removed after committing a fielding error on a sac bunt attempt from Jorge Mateo (he does get credited for a sac bunt on the play).

After allowing a leadoff single in the 1^st, Prevost bounced back to strikeout Jorge Mateo.

Prevost worked a 1-2-3 2^nd inning, including this strikeout of Gosuke Katoh for the second out.

Jose Javier and Devyn Bolasky went down swinging back-to-back to start the 3^rd inning.

Javier chased the pitch in the dirt

Mateo was caught looking leading off the 4^th.

Alberto Baldonado

Baldonado got a little help from the defense in the 7^th, but looked good working a quick 1-2-3 8^th inning. He would strike out the final two Charleston batters to come to the plate Saturday night, although they didn’t show the action during the second K.

It took a great effort from both Pedro Perez and Luis Guillorme to turn this double play for the first two outs of the 7^th.

Katoh went down looking for the second out in the 8^th.

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— Science News (@ScienceNews) April 25, 2015