Fireflies Lose Finale Of A Lopsided Series In Greenville

Columbia Fireflies @ Greenville Drive

August 24, 2017

Justin Brantley @ Bryan Mata

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Columbia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	4	0
Greenville	5	4	0	0	1	0	0	0	X		10	15	1

W: Mata (4-6, 3.99 ERA); L: Brantley (2-2, 5.45 ERA)

Boxscore

The Stats:

Pitchers

Justin Brantley (L, 2-2, 5.45 ERA) – 4 IP, 10 H, 9 R (9 ER), 2 2B, 2 HR, 18 TB, 2 BB, 9 K (8 K/Sw), 1 HBP, 4 GB: 3 FB: 5 LD: 1 PU, 95 Pitches (68 Strikes), 19 Swinging, 13 Called, 20% SwStr, 34.5% Whiff/Swing, 23.8 Pitches/IP, 25 BF

Taylor Henry (3.56 ERA) – 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 2B, 4 TB, 2 GB: 4 FB: 1 LD: 2 PU, 28 Pitches (19 Strikes), 3 Swinging, 5 Called, 10.7% SwStr, 21.4% Whiff/Swing, 14 Pitches/IP, 9 BF

Cameron Griffin (3.47 ERA) – 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 2B, 3 TB, 3 K (3 K/Sw), 2 GB: 2 FB: 1 LD, 25 Pitches (19 Strikes), 4 Swinging, 2 Called, 16% SwStr, 23.5% Whiff/Swing, 12.5 Pitches/IP, 8 BF

Table 1 – Brantley pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
Total	35	21	14	25	95
Strikes	23	15	13	17	68
Swinging*	7	5	2	5	19

*20% Swinging strike rate; 34.5% Whiff/Swing rate

Batters

SS - Andres Gimenez - 0-3, 1 BB, 14.3% SwStr, 33.3% Whiff/Swing, 3.5 Pitches/PA

2B/3B - J.J.  Franco - 0-4, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 17.6% SwStr, 42.9% Whiff/Swing, 4.25 Pitches/PA

LF/CF - Ian Strom - 1-4, 2 K, 21.4% SwStr, 50% Whiff/Swing, 3.5 Pitches/PA

1B - Dash Winningham - 0-3, 1 BB, 3 Pitches/PA

C - Brandon Brosher - 1-3, 1 HBP, 2 K, 1 CS, 5.6% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 4.5 Pitches/PA

CF - Gene Cone - 0-1, 1 BB, 1 K, 7.1% SwStr, 16.7% Whiff/Swing, 7 Pitches/PA

PH/2B - Luis Carpio - 0-1, 1 BB, 4.5 Pitches/PA

DH - Natanael Ramos - 0-4, 1 K, 22.2% SwStr, 44.4% Whiff/Swing, 4.5 Pitches/PA

3B/LF - Jay Jabs - 2-4, 2 2B, 1 K, 7.1% SwStr, 25% Whiff/Swing, 3.5 Pitches/PA

RF - Arnaldo Berrios - 0-3, 2 K, 18.2% SwStr, 28.6% Whiff/Swing, 3.67 Pitches/PA

Recapish

            The Columbia Fireflies took another blowout loss in their finale with Greenville Thursday, making it three lopsided games in three nights during this series. The Fireflies jumped out to a 14-0 lead in game one of this series, but the Drive have outscored Columbia 33-5 since, so the Fireflies have several problems to iron out as they head to Hickory next.  A night after Martin Anderson allowed eight unearned runs, Cola starter Justin Brantley allowed nine earned runs, and he struck out nine over his four innings of work.

            Five of Brantley’s nine strikeouts came over the first two innings… as Greenville jumped ahead 9-0. The rallies went: walk-single-single-double-homer in the 1^st, and then HBP, single, single, homer in the 2^nd. Just like in yesterday’s game, if the Mets had more healthy arms available, the Fireflies pen wouldn’t be so overworked, and Brantley could’ve been taken out while he was struggling over the first two frames. Fortunately for the Fireflies, Brantley did settle down enough to keep Greenville off the board in the 3^rd and 4^th innings, which lessened the workload left for the pen.

K #1

K #2

K #3

K #4

K #5

K #6

K #7

K #8

K #9

            The Fireflies managed just four hits in this game, and half of the hits were Jay Jabs doubles. The other two hits were singles: one from Ian Strom and a late one from Brandon Brosher.

Jabs

Jabs

Jabs

Strom

Brosher

            Taylor Henry took over for Brantley in the 5^th and allowed a two out double to Bobby Dalbec in the frame, which gave Greenville their 10-0 lead. Henry bounced back with a scoreless 6^th before exiting.

            Cameron Griffin replaced Henry and found more success. Griffin allowed a pair of hits but struck out three over two scoreless to wrap things up on the mound for Columbia.

K #1

Gimenez

K #2

K #3

            Looking ahead, after an ugly finish to this series, the Fireflies will head to Hickory, North Carolina and look to have more success against the Crawdads.

  

This dually discovered dwarf galaxy is ~40K light-years across and its diameter is about half that of the Milky Way: https://t.co/p0GIJHUcme pic.twitter.com/tB23x5APe0

— NASA Goddard Images (@NASAGoddardPix) August 25, 2017