EL1 Richmond Flying Squirrels

Flying Squirrels Game Notes: vs. Altoona

Published on April 13, 2015 under Eastern League (EL1)
Richmond Flying Squirrels News Release


Richmond Flying Squirrels (SF) (2-2) vs. Altoona Curve (PIT) (2-2)

Monday, April 13th -- 6:35 PM

The Diamond -- Richmond, VA

Game #5 - Home Game #5

Radio: Fox Sports 910 (6:00 PM) Internet: FoxSportsRichmond.com RHP Joe Biagini (0-0, ---) vs. LHP Zack Dodson (0-0, 0.00)

TONIGHT'S PRESS BOX FEED: Provided by Wing Zone...Press Box Pilates begin at 5:00 with instructor Michael Scholze.

SERIES AT A GLANCE: Tonight will mark the first meeting of the season between the two Western Division rivals, with both teams entering with a record of 2-2. Altoona comes in off a 2-1 win over Harrisburg, which salvaged a split of a four-game series played at Metro Bank Park. The Squirrels dropped the finale of their four-game set at The Diamond to Bowie, 2-1, allowing the Baysox to get out of town with a split. The Curve hold an all-time mark of 56-50 against the Squirrels. The two clubs will meet 17 times this season, with the Curve visiting The Diamond again in July (16th-19th) and August (8/14-8/15). The Squirrels will travel to Western, PA, in May (5/4-5/7) and August (8/7-8/9).

CHICKS DIG THE LONG BALL: The Squirrels did not hit a home run in their season-opening series against the Baysox, nor did they allow a home run. This is the longest that a Squirrels pitching staff has lasted at the beginning of the year without giving up a long ball. Previously, Richmond had never gone more than the first three games of a season without giving up a dinger. They did not allow a home run until the third game in both 2010 and 2013. Offensively, this is not the longest stretch without a home run to start a season. Twice, (2011, 2012) the Squirrels have not gone yard until their fifth game, with Jose Flores finally going deep against Bowie in 2011 and Chris Dominguez notching the first of the year, also against Bowie, in 2012. Should the Squirrels fail to leave the yard tonight, they will match that string of futility.

GET A WHIFF OF THIS: The Squirrels racked up 50 strikeouts in the their season-opening four-game series with the Baysox, averaging 12.5 strikeouts per game thus far on the young season. Granted, playing 10 additional innings in the series didn't help matters, but the Squirrels were rung up 16 times in each of the 14-inning games (Thursday, Saturday) and an additional 14 times in a nine-inning game on Sunday. Richmond did only strike out 4 times on Friday. The franchise record for strikeouts for a season is 1,115, established in 2013. On their current pace, the 2015 Squirrels would shatter that mark with 1,775. It is more than worth noting however that the 2013 Squirrels also established the franchise scoring record. A mark that still stands at 613 runs.

UNNECESSARY ENCORE: The Squirrels and Baysox played 14 innings for the second time in three nights on Saturday night, managing to eclipse Thursday's 4:47 contest with a ballgame that Bowie claimed right as the clock struck midnight. Saturday night's game registered 4:54. Through three games of the season, the two teams were playing to an average game time of four hours and 13 minutes. Richmond ran out of available pitching on Saturday, and were forced to throw utility man Rando Moreno. Moreno flashed decent stuff, but took the loss in his first professional pitching appearance. To put the rarity of the two 14-inning games in one series in context, the Squirrels didn't play their second game that lasted more than nine innings last season until June 30th.

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON...AND ON AND ON: The Flying Squirrels 14-inning victory over Bowie in the season-openers for both teams, marked the longest season-opener in Richmond franchise history for both innings (14) and game time (4:47). The game was easily the lengthiest in terms of innings, as Richmond had never before played extra frames on opening day. It also breezed past the longest prior opening day game, which lasted 2:53 in 2010, also against Bowie at Prince George's Stadium. That game, did however spread over two days, as it was suspended due to rain and completed the next day. The Baysox were also the opponent for what still stands as the longest game in franchise history. That game occurred on April 30th, 2011, when the Baysox defeated the Squirrels, 3-2, in 18 innings. That ballgame lasted 5:27 and was finally ended current Baltimore Orioles' catcher Caleb Joseph blasted a walk-off solo-home run off of former Richmond lefty David Quinowski.

IT'S A MARATHON: It's a little too early to get caught up in wins and losses, but it is worth noting that 2015 marks the first time in franchise history that the Squirrels began the season with consecutive victories. Richmond lost their bid for a perfect 142-0 season when they fell on Saturday night.

I'LL HAVE A DOUBLE BIG MAC...WITH CHEESE: OF Mac Williamson is making up for lost time after suffering through a lost season a year ago. The Giants' #11 prospect according to Baseball America connected for a double in each of his first two Double-A at-bats, both off of lefty Tim Berry, and added another on Saturday. He then collected three singles (3-for-4) in Sunday's series-finale. The Wake-Forest product has hit safely in each of Richmond's four games thus far on the season and is currently 10th in the Eastern League with an early-season average of .412 (7-for-17).

ALTOONA STARTING PITCHER: LHP Zack Dodson (0-0, 0.00)

Dodson, 24, makes his first start of the season as he repeats the Double-A level with the Curve. A fourth-round selection of the Pirates in 2009 MLB draft out of Medina Valley High School in Castroville, TX, Dodson was signed away from what was believed to be a firm commitment to pitch at Baylor with a $600,000 signing bonus. The early portion of his career went smoothly, as he posted respectable numbers at short-season State College in 2010 and was on his way to a breakout year with the West Virginia Power (A) in 2011. In fact, Baseball America had rated him as a top-30 prospect in the Pirates' chain in each of those seasons (#18 - 2010, #23 - 2011). However, he suffered a broken hand in the middle of the 2011 season that sidelined him for nearly two months and when returned his velocity did not. He has never really gotten back on track since. He repeated at West Virginia with much less success in 2012 and has turned in middling seasons at Bradenton (A+) (2013) and Altoona (AA) (2014). With the Curve last year, he made 24 appearances - 23 starts - and posted a 4-8 record and ERA of 4.62. More troubling however, was his contact rate, as he conceded a league average of .290 and allowed 139 hits in 122.2 innings. His BB:K ratio was also relatively poor as he walked 46 and struck out just 76. Tonight represents his first opportunity to put the last three seasons behind him and begin to try to push past the level for the first time in his now seventh season.

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Eastern League Stories from April 13, 2015


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