Wieck K's 9, Beccera and Nido Go Deep, But Gnats Lose

Savannah Sand Gnats @ Charleston River Dogs

April 23, 2015

Brad Wieck @ Andre Del Bosque

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Savannah	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0		2	11	2
Charleston	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	X		4	7	0

W: Del Bosque (1-0, 3.18 ERA); L: Wieck (0-3, 3.60 ERA); S: Coshow (4)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Brad Wieck – 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R (3 ER), BB, 9 SO, 84 Pitches (55 Strikes), 5 FO

Jimmy Duff (3.86 ERA) – 2 IP, 2 SO, 4 GO

Batters

Luis Guillorme – 2-4

Jean Rodriguez – 1-4

Wuilmer Becerra – 2-4, R, HR (3), RBI (8)

Tomas Nido – 2-4, R, HR (1), RBI (4)

Recap

            After finishing up a blowout game that had been rain-shortened this past Sunday, the River Dogs got off to a hot start against Savannah’s big lefty Brad Wieck in the 1^st inning of the regularly scheduled game, and never looked back. The first four hitters would reach on singles off of Wieck, which brought home all 3 runs, before Wieck would recover to strike out 3 in the inning – he had a chance for a fourth strikeout after his breaking ball got away from Nido for K #2. The River Dogs would again use their speed to score a run off Wieck in the 2^nd inning, but Wieck was locked in by that point, and would only allow a walk and a single through the 6^th. The Sand Gnats would pick up a hit in each of the 4^th through 9^th innings, but couldn’t do anything with runners on base all night. Wuilmer Becerra and Tomas Nido provided some fireworks in the 4^th, each blasting a solo shot off of Charleston spot starter Andre Del Bosque. Jimmy Duff would replace Wieck for the 7^th, and he looked great while not allowing a base runner over his two innings. Check out the offense and pitching highlights below, including some from the last 3 innings of Sunday’s make-up game.

Scoring Highlights

            Check out the speed of infielder J.C. Rodriguez, who reached on a bunt single with one out in the 1^st but would be erased on a fielder’s choice.

            The Sand Gnats scored both of their runs in the 4^th, with solo blasts from Wuilmer Becerra and Tomas Nido.

So much power...

Reverse of Becerra

Starting to show some of the power that got him drafted

            Luis Guillorme kept his hot streak alive with two more hits, which raised his average to .341 so far.

            Becerra added a single in the 8^th and Nido hit one in the 9^th, but the Sand Gnats couldn’t do much with runners on base all night.

            Before they played the scheduled game Thursday night, these two teams finished a rain-shortened game from Sunday. The game was over by the time they resumed in Charleston, but there were still a few highlights from the Gnats over the 3+ innings. Tyler Moore led off the 7^th with his first double of the season.

            Becerra lined a single into CF, but Moore was held at 3B – Moore would come home to score when Patrick Biondi grounded into a double play. Pedro Perez would reach on grounder the just squeaked into RF, but Savannah couldn’t get a two-out rally going.

Becerra had 3 hits on the night

Pitcher Coverage

Brad Wieck

            Of the first four hits off of Brad Wieck, two never left the infield, and the other two were flares into the outfield, so it’s not like he struggled early. He put himself into a big hole when he threw away the sac bunt attempt from Jorge Mateo, which allowed the runners to advance to 2B and 3B with nobody out. The next batter hit a one-hopper that bounced off of his glove, so he made fielding mistakes on what should’ve been two straight outs. The next two runs came in when a flare fell in just fair down the 3B line. He’d strike out the next three batters, but because the second strike out pitch got away, he had to make a sixth out in the 1^st inning. The River Dogs used speed again to manufacture their run in the 2^nd, as Abiatal Avelino reached on a one-out bunt single, stole 2B, and then scored on a grounder into CF. Again, Wieck was not hit sharp, and then struck out two in the inning – the third out came on a nice throw from Nido to catch a runner trying to steal 2B (see below). The first two batters reached against Wieck in the 3^rd, on a walk and a HBP, but then Wieck retired nine of the next ten batters, with four strikeouts during the span. He worked around a leadoff single in the 6^th, but was still looking good, so I was a little surprised/disappointed that he didn’t head out there for the 7^th.

            Although I didn’t get many radar readings from the announcers in this one, Wieck’s fastball tops out in the low-90’s, and he was throwing a nice change and an occasional curve. Considering his height and long reach, the baseball is leaving Wieck’s hand closer to the plate than most, and his heater really sneaks up on hitters. He was locating his fastball and changeup well for most of the night, really attacking the zone with both pitches. He threw some curves with mixed results, as it looked like a get-me-over pitch a few times. Overall it was a great start for Wieck that will look worse in the box score thanks to some poor defense (by Wieck) and good, aggressive speed from Charleston.

K1 - Eduardo de Oleo

K2 - Gosuke Katoh

K3 - Austin Aune

Nido looking good behind the plate this year

K4 - Devyn Bolasky

K5 - Dustin Fowler

K6 - Katoh

K7 - Aune

K8 - Jose Javier

K9 - de Oleo

James Duff

            I wasn’t disappointed about Wieck sitting down for too long though, as Duff came in and struck out the first two batters he saw. This was my first look at Duff and I shouldn’t be surprised he’s another tall (6’6”) Savannah pitcher. He’s also a local boy, as he grew up on Long Island rooting for the Mets. He was exactly as advertised in his two innings: throws strikes and gets groundballs. After a couple of walks and 3 runs allowed over 0.2 IP in his first appearance, Duff now has 11 SO: 0 BB over his last 8.2 IP.

Jorge Mateo goes down swinging

Top prospect Abiatel Aviano goes down looking

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