Gnats Game Notes: Thursday, August 18 at Greenville
August 18, 2011 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Savannah Sand Gnats News Release
Savannah Sand Gnats (32-19/71-49, 1st, Southern) @ Greenville Drive (28-23/66-55, 2nd, Southern)
Game #122 - Road Game #59 - Thursday - 5:00
Suspended Game: RHP Michael Hebert (2-1, 5.21) vs. RHP Andrew Jones (0-0, 1.29)
Game Two: RHP Yohan Almonte (6-6, 3.65) vs. RHP Scott Swinson (3-3, 3.07)
Historic Grayson Stadium, Savannah, GA
Radio: News/Talk 630 and sandgnats.com, begins at 6 pm
Tonight: The first-half champion Gnats will play both a home and a road game today in Greenville. First, the Gnats and Drive will first finish the suspended game from Savannah last Saturday. The game will resume with Joe Bonfe leading off the bottom of the fifth for the Gnats, with Savannah down 1-0. The Gnats and Drive will then play their regularly scheduled game in which the Drive will be the home team, although that game is now slated for seven innings.
Last Night: The Asheville Tourists used a four-run top of the sixth to beat the Gnats 5-2 to earn a split of the teams' four-game series.
Now Pitching (Suspended): The Gnats will hand the ball to Michael Hebertin the resumption of the suspended game. Hebert threw two innings against Asheville on Monday, yielding two runs on two hits with a walk and a strikeout. The 21 year-old has not faced Greenville in his six appearances with the Gnats in 2011.
Now Pitching (Two): Yohan Almonte is scheduled to make his 20th start of the year in game two tonight. Almonte started last Saturday's game that was eventually suspended, holding the Drive to one unearned run on one hit with four strikeouts and two walks in five innings. In August, Almonte has fanned 15 batters in 15 innings pitched (9 K/9 IP) his highest strikeout rate of any month, surpassing his 6.8 K/9 (23 K/ 30.1 IP) in July. In the first half, Almonte walked four of the 168 batters he faced for a rate of 2.3%, but in the second half, he has walked 19 of the 209 batters he has faced, a rate of 8.1%, where the SAL average is 8.5%. In 2010, Almonte led the New York-Penn League in ERA (1.91), IP (89.2) and WHIP (0.93), averaging nearly six innings per start. He had the second-lowest batting average against among New York-Penn League starters at .207 and the third-lowest unintentional walk/9 IP (1.41) with a K/BB ratio of 4 (60 K/15 BB). The Mets signed Almonte as a non-drafted free agent in 2007. The Gnats are 9-9 when Almonte starts and have supported him with 3.72 runs per game.
Home Stand Wrap: The Gnats finished their recent home stand against Greenville Drive and the Asheville Tourists at 4-3. The Gnats scored 24 runs in the seven completed games and allowed 28 runs to their opponents.
Darrell's Doings: Darrell Ceciliani rides a six game hitting streak into tonight's action. His .320 batting average (8 H/25 AB) was the best among all of the Gnats on the team's recent home stand.
That's Odd: The homer last night was Blake Forsythe's sixth of the season. The Gnats are 0-6 in games in which Forsythe has homered.
Playoff Scenario: The Gnats will play the number two seed in the best-of-three Southern Division Championship series beginning on the road on Wednesday, September 7, returning to Savannah on Friday, September 9, with game three, if necessary, scheduled for Saturday, September 10. The number two seed will be the second half winner, or if the Gnats win the half, the team with the next best overall record. The Gnats currently lead the second half standings by 2.5 games over the Augusta GreenJackets, 4.0 games over the Greenville Drive and 4.5 games over the Asheville Tourists with 18 games to play in the half, plus the completion of Saturday's game for Savannah and Greenville. In terms of overall record, the Greenville Drive are currently 5.5 games better than the GreenJackets and 7.0 in front of the Tourists.
Strong Arms: The Gnats still lead the SAL in ERA (3.15), WHIP (1.20) and fewest hits allowed (916). The Gnats are fifth in the SAL in strikeouts (941), and have allowed the sixth-most walks in the SAL (377).
Vs. Greenville: The Gnats are 8-7 against the Drive in 2011, 8-3 at home and 0-4 on the road. The Drive swept four games from the Gnats in Greenville at the end of the first half June 16-19, one of three road sweeps the Gnats have suffered in 2011.
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