Fireflies Go Doubles Crazy Behind Merandy Gonzalez For Third Straight Win | Astromets Mind

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Fireflies Go Doubles Crazy Behind Merandy Gonzalez For Third Straight Win

Lexington Legends @ Columbia Fireflies


June 7, 2017



Teams
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

R
H
E
Lexington
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1

1
7
0
Columbia
0
1
1
2
1
0
0
0
X

5
12
1
W: Merandy (8-1, 1.56 ERA); L: Davila (4-2, 5.75 ERA)


The Highlights:

Pitchers

Merandy Gonzalez (W, 8-1, 1.56 ERA) – 6 IP, 3 H, 3 TB, 1 BB, 5 K (2 K/Sw), 5 GB: 5 FB: 4 LD: 2 PU, 90 Pitches (59 Strikes), 9 Swinging, 20 Called, 10% SwStr, 23.1% Whiff/Swing, 15 Pitches/IP, 22 BF
Adonis Uceta (2.22 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 H, 2 TB, 2 K (2 K/Sw), 2 GB: 1 LD, 30 Pitches (24 Strikes), 5 Swinging, 4 Called, 16.7% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 30 Pitches/IP, 5 BF
Taylor Henry (3.80 ERA) – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 TB, 1 K (0 K/Sw), 1 FB: 1 LD: 1 PU, 17 Pitches (12 Strikes), 2 Swinging, 5 Called, 11.8% SwStr, 28.6% Whiff/Swing, 17 Pitches/IP, 4 BF
Joseph Zanghi (3.00 ERA) – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 HR, 4 TB, 1 K (1 K/Sw), 1 GB: 2 FB, 14 Pitches (10 Strikes), 3 Swinging, 2 Called, 21.4% SwStr, 37.5% Whiff/Swing, 14 Pitches/IP, 4 BF

Batters

RF - Gene Cone - 1-3, 1 RBI, 1 SF, 7.7% SwStr, 16.7% Whiff/Swing, 3.25 Pitches/PA
SS - Andres Gimenez - 1-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 K, 21.4% SwStr, 50% Whiff/Swing, 3.5 Pitches/PA
3B - Michael Paez - 1-3, 1 BB, 6.2% SwStr, 14.3% Whiff/Swing, 4 Pitches/PA
DH - Dash Winningham - 1-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 SF, 3.75 Pitches/PA
CF - Desmond Lindsay - 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K, 11.8% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 4.25 Pitches/PA
2B - Luis Carpio - 2-4, 1 R, 3.5 Pitches/PA
C - Ali Sanchez - 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 3.25 Pitches/PA
LF - Jay Jabs - 1-4, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 6.7% SwStr, 12.5% Whiff/Swing, 3.75 Pitches/PA
1B - Reed Gamache - 1-4, 5.75 Pitches/PA


Recapish


            The Columbia Fireflies made it two straight over Lexington Wednesday afternoon thanks to a dominant performance on the mound from co-ace Merandy Gonzalez. Merandy allowed just three singles and one walk over six shutout innings for his eighth win of the year, which ties him for most wins in the minors with two other pitches, one of which is co-ace Jordan Humphreys. Offensively, the Fireflies connected for five doubles between the 2nd and 5th innings, when Columbia jumped ahead 5-0.
            The one knock you can have on Merandy in this start is that it took him 60 pitches to get through the first three innings, which limited how deep he could go into the game. That said, he’s gone deep into all of his starts (5+ in all ten starts, 6+ in eight starts, 7+ in four starts), and he’s dominating the SAL, so there’s no need to push him deeper than six innings right now.
Merandy started the afternoon with a strikeout of Rudy Martin. He issued a walk to Kort Peterson in the 1st, which drove his pitch count up a little early.




            Gabriel Cancel and John Brontsema went down on strike back-to-back to start the 2nd, and then Merandy worked around a two out single in the frame.

K #2

Replay

K #3

            Desmond Lindsay stayed hot with his fourth multi-hit game in his last six starts. He led off the 2nd with a single and then came around to score on Ali Sanchez’s third double of the season. Ali has two doubles and a homer over his last six games.

Lindsay

Lindsay

Sanchez

            The Legends struck for another two out single in the 3rd, but Merandy ignored to runner on first and struck out Kort Peterson to end the inning.


            Andres Gimenez hit a liner into CF and hustled for a double in the bottom of the 3rd – he forced the Legends center fielder Marten Gasparini to make a good play but instead Gasparini’s throw was way wide. Gimenez went to third on a Michael Paez single and then scored on a Dash Winningham sac fly.

Gimenez

Paez

            There were no strikeouts from Merandy in the 4th but Desmond Lindsay made a fantastic diving catch in CF. Merandy allowed a leadoff single in the 4th but then retired the final nine batters he faced, adding a strikeout of Angelo Castellano in the 6th.



Gimenez at SS

K #5

            The Fireflies got back-to-back singles from Luis Carpio and Ali Sanchez to start the 4th and then Jay Jabs hit a laser that deflected off the pitcher for an RBI double. Sanchez came home on a sac fly from Gene Cone later in the inning.

Carpio

Sanchez

Jabs

            Dash and Desmond went back-to-back with doubles in the 5th for the final Columbia run. Luis Carpio followed with a single that sent Lindsay to third, but Carpio was caught trying to take second base on the throw home.

Dash

Lindsay

Carpio

            The final two Columbia hits came from Reed Gamache and Cone in the 6th, but it led to nothing for the Fireflies.

Gamache

Cone

            Adonis Uceta took over for the 7th and allowed a pair of singles in the frame, but then struck out Mark Sanchez and Gasparini to strand runners at the corners. Per the broadcast, Uceta was hitting 93-94 in the frame.



            Taylor Henry worked the 8th and added another strikeout of Peterson to the Fireflies tally.


            The Fireflies went to the 9th with a shot at their ninth shutout of the season, but Cancel was quick to end that thought, taking Joseph Zanghi deep to start the frame and make it a 5-1 game. Zanghi responded by quickly shutting down the next three batters for the win, striking out Manny Olloque to push the Columbia total to nine strikeouts on the afternoon (Legends pitching finished with two).


            With this series win already assured the Fireflies turn to Gary Cornish (0-1, 4.26 ERA) Thursday night at 7:05 PM. After missing 50 games with a suspension, Cornish joined the team and made his first start of the season on the last road trip. He dominated from the Brooklyn pen to the tune of 44 K: 3 BB over 25 IP, so he should be a pretty effective starter in the SAL (beyond that we’ll see), and I’m curious to get a good MiLB.tv look at him.



Pitcher Coverage


Table 1 – Merandy pitch stats by inning

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
Total
Total
22
17
21
10
9
11
90
Strikes
13
11
15
6
6
8
59
Swinging*
3
2
2
0
0
2
9
*10% Swinging strike rate; 23.1% Whiff/Swing rate



  

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