Sports stats

CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Dazzling De Los Santos Silences Salem

August 16, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


SALEM, VA - A resurgent Miguel De Los Santos continued his dominant August, suffocating Red Sox hitters over six scintillating frames, and the Pelicans jumped on Salem starter Drake Britton early en route to sending Britton to his 13th defeat of the year and the Red Sox to a 4-0 whitewashing in Tuesday's middle game of three at Salem Memorial Ballpark.

Like his no-hit performance over seven innings two starts ago, the only issue De Los Santos faced Tuesday night was at the outset of the evening. Salem leadoff man Heiker Meneses singled on a groundball to deep short, on which he was very nearly thrown out by Pelicans shortstop Andres James, and hardly a man would see the basepaths again for Salem against the lefty. De Los Santos retired Peter Hissey on a flyout one batter later, and with one gone, Pelicans catcher Vinny DiFazio picked a napping Meneses off of first after the runner had strayed too far from the bag. Kolbrin Vitek's strikeout ended the inning and started yet another methodical evening for De Los Santos.

The southpaw retired 15 in a row after Meneses's leadoff single and faced the minimum through five and one-third, a string snapped by the only walk De Los Santos issued, a one-out free pass to Josue Peley in the sixth. After striking out just Vitek in his first two innings, De Los Santos whiffed two in the third, two in the fourth, and struck out the side in the fifth and sixth against an overmatched Red Sox lineup. The 11 strikeouts matched a season high De Los Santos (5-3) posted just five days ago against the Potomac Nationals and marked his third straight double-digit strikeout start. The 23-year-old improved to 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA and 32 strikeouts to four walks in three August starts.

De Los Santos hadn't yet toed the rubber when the Pelicans got him support to begin his night. Salem starter Drake Britton, the top left-hander in the Boston system entering the season, allowed four straight singles and a sacrifice fly to open the night and put his team in an early 2-0 hole with just one out in the first. Britton allowed one more in the second, and though he settled down to complete five innings for just the second time since mid-May, he dropped to a dismal 1-13 with the defeat.

Myrtle Beach got at least one hit from every batter in the lineup, and first baseman Andrew Clark continued his hot start to his Carolina League stay with two more base hits and another RBI. Clark is batting .417 (5-for-12) with a double, a home run, and six runs batted in through his first three games with the Pelicans. Outfielder Jared Prince was plunked by a Chris Martin pitch in the seventh, the 26th time this season that event has occurred, putting Prince four shy of a Carolina League record established last year by Winston-Salem's Seth Loman. Ryan Strausborger, in the leadoff spot for the first time since May 7, and Santiago Chirino added two hits apiece as well.

De Los Santos departed after striking out Shannon Wilkerson, David Mailman, and Meneses in the sixth with a pitch count over his limit of 90, and the lefty turned his gem over to a Pelicans bullpen that, once again, proved up to the task. Despite allowing a leadoff single in the seventh and a one-out knock in the eighth, Jimmy Reyes cruised through his first Carolina League appearance with two strikeouts of his own. Zach Osborne allowed a pair of ninth-inning singles after his team added another run in the evening's final frame to go up 4-0. Neither hit did any damage as Osborne whiffed Miles Head to end the affair.

Pelicans pitchers struck out 14 on the night, two shy of matching their season best. The Red Sox went an anemic 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base as a team. The Pelicans could have made the night a rout but missed out on their own chances, going 4-for-12 with RISP and leaving 12 runners on.

Myrtle Beach looks for a series win this week and a season series win with Wednesday's rubber game at Salem Memorial Ballpark. After Tuesday's victory, the Pelicans have taken ten of the 16 total meetings between the two after dropping the first three. The Birds send right-hander Wilfredo Boscan (4-10, 3.92) in the finale against Salem righty Anthony Ranaudo (3-5, 4.86) with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Tickets for all Pelicans home games can be purchased by visiting the BB&T Coastal Field box office, the Tickets page at MyrtleBeachPelicans.com, or by calling (843)918-6000 or (877)918-TIXX.

Check out the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Statistics



Carolina League Stories from August 16, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Myrtle Beach Pelicans Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central