Fireflies Jump Ahead Early And Llanes Does The Rest

Charleston River Dogs @ Columbia Fireflies

June 11, 2017

Adonis Rosa @ Gabriel Llanes

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

W: Llanes (4-3, 2.93 ERA); L: Rosa (1-2, 4.23 ERA); Save: Uceta (5)

Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Gabriel Llanes (W, 4-3, 2.93 ERA) – 8.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R (2 ER), 1 2B, 1 HR, 10 TB, 1 BB, 1 K (0 K/Sw), 3 GIDP, 15 GB: 6 FB: 5 LD: 1 PU, 104 Pitches (69 Strikes), 1 Swinging, 17 Called, 1% SwStr, 1.9% Whiff/Swing, 12 Pitches/IP, 31 BF

Adonis Uceta (S, 5, 2.08 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 1 FB, 7 Pitches (5 Strikes), 21 Pitches/IP, 1 BF

Batters

CF - Gene Cone - 1-4, 1 CS, 7.1% SwStr, 14.3% Whiff/Swing, 3.5 Pitches/PA

SS - Andres Gimenez - 1-4, 4 Pitches/PA

3B - Michael Paez - 1-3, 1 HBP, 2 K, 25% SwStr, 66.7% Whiff/Swing, 4 Pitches/PA

1B - Dash Winningham - 1-4, 1 K, 8.3% SwStr, 12.5% Whiff/Swing, 3 Pitches/PA

2B - Luis Carpio - 1-3, 1 R, 1 CS, 4.67 Pitches/PA

RF - Jay Jabs - 1-2, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 11.1% SwStr, 28.6% Whiff/Swing, 6 Pitches/PA

C - Ali Sanchez - 0-3, 1 R, 1 K, 10% SwStr, 14.3% Whiff/Swing, 3.33 Pitches/PA

LF - Tim Tebow - 1-3, 2 RBI, 1 GIDP, 1.33 Pitches/PA

DH - Reed Gamache - 2-2, 1 RBI, 1 SF, 14.3% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 4.67 Pitches/PA

Recapish

            The Columbia Fireflies won their eighth straight game Sunday afternoon against Charleston, pulling them to within a half game of 1^st place Greenville with just a week left in the first-half (first-half division winner’s clinch a playoff spot). The Fireflies jumped ahead with three in the 2^nd, scoring first for the twelfth time in their last thirteen games. Columbia starter Gabriel Llanes wasn’t missing bats at all (only one swinging strike), but he was still a groundball machine, which helped lead to four double plays behind him (although one of those was a ‘line out double play’). He couldn’t finish his second 9-inning complete game of the year, leaving just one out shy on a season high 104 pitches, but Adonis Uceta came in and took care of the final River Dogs batter of the game.

            Twenty-one year old Gabriel Llanes has had a lot of success in his first taste of full season ball, limiting the SAL to two earned runs or less in nine of his eleven starts for a 2.93 ERA. He’s also consistently pitched deep into games, as he’s at least started the 7^th inning in seven of his starts, for a total of 70.2 IP to date – that works out to just over 6.1 IP per start. He hasn’t done this with strikeouts (just 32 to date), but with great control (only eleven walks issued), a lot of groundballs (59.5% groundball rate per Fangraphs), and by limiting the number of homerun’s he’s allowed.

            Llanes issued that eleventh walk of the season in the 1^st – the only walk he’d issued in 8.2 IP – but the base runner was erased on the first double play of the day.

163

            The River Dogs appeared to be getting something going in the 2^nd, as the first two reached on a HBP and Dalton Blaser single, but then Mandy Alvarez lined out at Dash Winningham to start a double play.

Dash unassisted

Cone in CF

            Columbia scored all three of their runs in the 2^nd. Dash, Luis Carpio, and Jay Jabs started the frame with singles and then Tim Tebow brought home two with a single to RF on the first pitch he saw. Reed Gamache followed with a sac fly to make it 3-0, which proved huge.

Dash

Carpio

Jabs

Tebow

            In the River Dogs 3^rd, catcher Eduardo Navas took Llanes deep for his first homer of the year, and the first homer against Llanes of the year.

The only swinging strike against Llanes all day

Navas

Paez at third

            Gene Cone singled leading off the Fireflies 3^rd, but he was thrown out by Navas trying to steal second – it was the second straight inning Navas threw a runner out, so he was having a great start to the game.

            The first two Charleston batters reached again in the 4^th, and again a double play helped Llanes through the frame quickly, this time on just ten pitches.

363

Gimenez at short

            Brandon Wagner doubled off of Llanes leading off the 5^th and then came around to score on back-to-back groundouts.

Wagner's double

Gimenez at short

            Gamache had a nice day, adding two singles to his sac fly from the 2^nd. He singled in the 5^th and 8^th, but the Fireflies did little else at the plate. Also shown below is Michael Paez’s single from the 6^th and Andres Gimenez’s single from the 8^th.

Gamache

Gamache (and swing above)

Paez

Gimenez

            After allowing the Wagner double in the 5^th, Llanes started a streak of twelve straight retired, which took him to the beginning of the 9^th. During that streak he would add a strikeout of Navas, which was his only strikeout during the entire start.

Cone in CF

Paez at third

Dash at first

Called strike

K #1

            The 9^th started with another grounder induced from Llanes, but Paez’s throw brought Dash Winningham off the bag slightly, and the umpire judged the runner to be safe at first for an error. As you can see in the GIF below, they got the call wrong, but that didn’t matter for very long, as the next batter hit into another double play. Llanes was allowed to stay out there as his pitch count surpassed 100 with two outs in the 9^th, but Angel Aguilar singled to keep the game alive and knock him out.

Freeze frame don't lie

463

Cone in CF

            Despite four straight wins against the River Dogs, these two teams have one more game left in this series set for Monday night. The Fireflies game notes have Merandy Gonzalez (8-1, 1.56 ERA) listed as Monday’s starter, with game time set for 7:05 PM.

Pitcher Coverage

Table 1 – Llanes pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Total
Total	12	11	14	10	13	7	10	16	11	104
Strikes	7	8	11	7	8	4	7	9	8	69
Swinging*	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

*1% Swinging strike rate; 1.9% Whiff/Swing rate

  

#Saturn’s two-toned moon Iapetus is a world of contrasts. Details: https://t.co/4E3Kmta2gR pic.twitter.com/AqWISpUCi9

— CassiniSaturn (@CassiniSaturn) June 12, 2017