Fireflies Drop Second Straight To Asheville

Asheville Tourists @ Columbia Fireflies

August 30, 2017

Antonio Santos @ Justin Brantley

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

W: Santos (9-9, 5.30 ERA); L: Brantley (2-3, 5.18 ERA); Save: Humphreys (12)

Boxscore

Jose Leger

The Stats:

Pitchers

Justin Brantley (L, 2-3, 5.18 ERA) – 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R (3 ER), 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 13 TB, 3 BB, 9 K (8 K/Sw), 1 GIDP, 9 GB: 6 FB: 2 LD, 97 Pitches (65 Strikes), 14 Swinging, 8 Called, 14.4% SwStr, 24.6% Whiff/Swing, 13.9 Pitches/IP, 29 BF

Keaton Aldridge (6.48 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 3B, 4 TB, 1 BB, 1 K (1 K/Sw), 3 GB: 2 FB: 1 PU, 24 Pitches (16 Strikes), 3 Swinging, 5 Called, 12.5% SwStr, 27.3% Whiff/Swing, 24 Pitches/IP, 7 BF

Aaron Ford (10.38 ERA) – 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K (2 K/Sw), 2 GB: 1 LD, 22 Pitches (16 Strikes), 2 Swinging, 4 Called, 9.1% SwStr, 16.7% Whiff/Swing, 22 Pitches/IP, 5 BF

Table 1 – Brantley pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Total
Total	16	17	21	7	8	9	19	97
Strikes	12	13	13	5	4	7	11	65
Swinging*	2	4	2	2	0	0	4	14

*14.4% Swinging strike rate; 24.6% Whiff/Swing rate

Batters

CF - Gene Cone - 0-4, 2 K, 11.8% SwStr, 40% Whiff/Swing, 4.25 Pitches/PA

3B - J.J.  Franco - 1-4, 1 K, 2.75 Pitches/PA

LF - Quinn Brodey - 0-4, 1 K, 2.75 Pitches/PA

1B - Dash Winningham - 0-4, 2 K, 4.8% SwStr, 12.5% Whiff/Swing, 5.25 Pitches/PA

C - Brandon Brosher - 0-3, 2 K, 27.3% SwStr, 50% Whiff/Swing, 3.67 Pitches/PA

DH - Dan Rizzie - 0-3, 2 K, 9.1% SwStr, 33.3% Whiff/Swing, 3.67 Pitches/PA

2B - Luis Carpio - 2-3, 14.3% SwStr, 40% Whiff/Swing, 4.67 Pitches/PA

RF - Arnaldo Berrios - 1-3, 1 R, 1 3B, 1 K, 10% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 3.33 Pitches/PA

SS - Oliver Pascual - 0-2, 1 RBI, 1 SF, 6.2% SwStr, 14.3% Whiff/Swing, 5.33 Pitches/PA

Recapish

            The Columbia Fireflies dropped a second straight game to Asheville Wednesday night, taking a 4-1 loss to the Tourists in their second to last home game of 2017. Cola starter Justin Brantley rebounded from a weird outing to give the Fireflies seven strong innings and he matched a career-high with nine strikeouts. Unfortunately for Brantley, the Cola offense was a no-show, so he was stuck with the tough-luck loss.

            In his last start, Brantley struck out nine but allowed nine earned runs in a loss to Greenville. On this night, Brantley struck out two but allowed two earned runs in the 1^st, so it seemed like this could be another one of those starts. Fortunately for the Fireflies, Brantley settled in after the 1^st, allowing just the one run on a homer, and facing just one over the minimum during his final four innings of work. Brantley kept the score close enough for a potential Columbia comeback, but his teammates just couldn’t get the job done on the offensive side.

K #1

K #2

K #3

K #4

K #5

43 double play

K #6

K #7

Brodey

Pascual

K #8

K #9

CS for Brosher

        The Fireflies couldn’t get anything going because Antonio Santos was out there throwing a gem. The numbers for Santos this year are not impressive, but when you look at his game log, you see that there are a few really good starts scattered in among the abundance of bad starts, so he’s shown this potential before. He finished with ten strikeouts while walking nobody over eight great innings of work.

            Columbia’s only run came against Santos in the 3^rd. Arnaldo Berrios connected on a one-out triple and then came home on a sac fly from Oliver Pascual. Pascual has joined the team to replace Andres Gimenez, who left Tuesday’s game with a relatively minor injury but won’t be returning this season.

Berrios

Pascual's sac fly

            The other three Cola hits were singles: J.J. Franco led off the 4^th with one and Luis Carpio was responsible for the other two.

Franco

Carpio

Carpio

            Keaton Aldridge took over for Brantley in the 8^th and allowed a leadoff triple, which eventually came around to score and stretch the Asheville lead to 4-1. The Tourists eventually loaded the bases with no outs in the frame and it took a Houdini-like escape from Aldridge to keep them from adding on. He got the first out on a pop up, then struck out Jacob Bosiokovic before getting a fly out to end the threat.

K

            Aaron Ford struck out two in a scoreless 9^th, although the first batter to strikeout (Max George) reached on a wild pitch, which forced Ford to essentially get four outs in the frame. George had just made it to third base when Ford struck out Vince Fernandez to end the inning.

K #1

K #2

Batter's interference called on this play

            Looking ahead, the Fireflies will try to salvage a win from Asheville Thursday behind Darwin Ramos, as they hope to avoid being swept by Tourists in their final home series of 2017.

  

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