EL1 Richmond Flying Squirrels

Flying Squirrels Game Notes vs New Hampshire

Published on August 5, 2015 under Eastern League (EL1)
Richmond Flying Squirrels News Release


Richmond Flying Squirrels (SF) (56-52) vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (TOR) (55-51)

Wednesday, August 5th -- 7:05 PM

The Diamond -- Richmond, VA

Game #109 - Home Game #60

Radio: Fox Sports 910 (6:35 PM) Internet: FoxSportsRichmond.com

Richmond LHP Matt Gage (2-1, 1.56) vs. New Hampshire RHP Austin Bibens-Dirkx (4-5, 4.58)

Thursday, August 6th NHM 7:05 PM Richmond RHP Edwin Quirarte (0-2, 3.61) vs. RHP Casey Lawrence (10-10, 4.63)

Friday, August 7th @ALT 7:00 PM Richmond RHP Tyler Beede (2-5, 5.51) vs. RHP Chad Kuhl (8-4, 2.80)

Giants Update - 8 to 3 win over the Braves. Hunter Pence blasted a three-run homer in this game. Game tonight at 7:10 p.m. against the Braves. Madison Bumgarner will start for San Francisco.

SERIES AT A GLANCE: Kelvin Marte executed a superb performance on the hill as the Squirrels blanked the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Toronto Blue Jays), 3-0, in game one of this three-game duel. Marte threw a season high 114 pitches in seven scoreless innings for Richmond. It is the first time this year the Squirrels have registered back-to-back shutout victories. They have now shutout their opponent for the last 21 innings. The RVA recorded nine hits during the contest (all singles) and five of them came in the sixth inning, which was also when all three runs were scored. New Hampshire makes the long trek down to the RVA for their first and only regular season series (three games) at The Diamond. The Fisher Cats drove more than nine hours to reach this destination. It is the second furthest ballpark from Richmond in the Eastern League as the Portland Sea Dogs are over 10 hours away. This is the second and final meeting of the season between New Hampshire and Richmond during the regular season. The two clubs battled in Manchester, NH at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium for a three-game showdown (6/5-6/7). The Flying Squirrels swept the Fisher Cats and in total outscored this Eastern Division foe 23-5. In game one, Richmond tallied 12 runs, which is tied for the most in a game this season for the team. They also compiled 18 hits and that is the most in a contest this year for the RVA. Rando Moreno also notched a team high five hits in this one game.The Fisher Cats are third to last in the Eastern League with a 3.88 ERA. They have won three of their five series so far since the All-Star break. The Blue Jays organization recently lost one of their top pitching prospects who was with New Hampshire at the start of the season. Matt Boyd was involved in the deal with the Tigers that sent MLB hurler David Price to the Blue Jays. In 12 starts with the Fisher Cats, Boyd was ridiculous with a 1.10 ERA (70 K, 18 BB).

HOME NORMALLY WON'T KEEP YOU LONG: The Richmond starting pitchers did not last six innings in any of the four games over the weekend against the Binghamton Mets. That changed on Tuesday, following the off day, as Kelvin Marte zoomed through seven shutout innings. That is just the fourth time at home all season a Richmond hurler has logged seven innings. Before Tuesday, the last time a seven inning performance occured for the Squirrels at The Diamond was Kelvin Marte's complete game shutout in game one of a seven inning doubleheader on July 17. Richmond has not lost any of the four games in the RVA when their starter has gone seven innings. On the road, Squirrels' starters have lasted seven innings in an outing 13 times (9-4).

ONE COLLAPSE PROMPTED BLANK SCORECARDS: On July 30, the Richmond relievers allowed a collective 10 runs in an 11-3 defeat. Since the bullpen imploded for 10 runs that day, the relievers have completely directed traffic. On Sunday, Richmond continued the revolving door that is the starting rotation. Joan Gregorio made his fourth spot-start of the season and was used to the extreme. A typical bullpen arm this year, Gregorio unleashed a season high 81 pitches (4.2 IP). His previous season high was 62 pitches in a start on July 27. The bullpen went the rest of the way with 4.1 innings, two hits, and zero runs.The shortest outing amongst the hurlers over the weekend was RHP Joe Biagini. He lasted only 21 pitches (1.0 IP) due to some precautionary back pain on July 31. The bullpen did not allow a run in eight innings during that day. The Squirrels' relief pitchers have not allowed a run in their last 18 innings of work (7/31-Current, since the 10 run epidemic). The longest scoreless streak documented by the bullpen this season is 25 innings (5/23-5/29).

OUT OF THE GATES SPRINTING: The offense has not wasted any time in an effort to help out their starting pitchers. In the last four games, the Squirrels have posted 11 of their 16 runs during the first three innings. Six of these runs occured in the first inning. Mitch Delfino has been the bulk of the reason for this surge. He has driven in four of these early runs. The Squirrels have utilized the long ball as well with three home runs during this four-day stretch (Hunter Cole, Devin Harris, Engel Beltre). The team has outscored their opponents by 40 runs in the first two innings this year.

HIDDEN BULLPEN TREASURES: Kyle Crick showed recent signs of dramatic improvement over the course of the last week or so. He has not allowed a run in his previous six outings (one inning each). In addition, Crick has only issued three walks compared to 11 strikeouts in these six innings. This is a right-hander who transitioned to the bullpen at the start of July and leads the Eastern League with 55 walks. If you want a groundball out, just go find Squirrels relief pitcher Tyler Mizenko. On Saturday, the right-hander tossed two innings out of the bullpen and every out was from a groundball. The remarkable consistency does not stop there. In his last three outings (4.0 IP total), all of Mizenko's outs have been from the groundball. The last time Mizenko recorded a fly ball out was on July 25 against Erie in the bottom of the eighth inning. Recently, he has been a lock down reliever as a whole with just one earned run allowed in his last 11.1 IP.

UPCOMING HOMESTAND PROMOTIONS: (8/5) Tri-Cities Community Night, Tribute to Peanuts. (8/6) Thursday Night In Your Face Fireworks and Faith Night #2. (8/14) Free Shirt Fridays, Happy Hour & Ladies Night and Grateful Dead Tribute. (8/15) Superblast Saturday and 2nd Annual Guns & Hoses. (8/16) Tribute to the Toy Hall of Fame and Nutzy Bubbles Giveaway.

NEW HAMPSHIRE STARTING PITCHER: RHP Austin Bibens-Dirkx (4-5, 4.58)

Bibens-Dirkx will make his 12th start with the Fisher Cats and third career start against the Squirrels. His best start of the year was arguably his last one on July 30 (6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K). The 30-year-old was originally drafted back in 2006 by the Seattle Mariners in the 16th round. He has been signed out of Minor League free agency four times in his career (Cubs-2009, Nationals-January 2012, Rockies-August 2012, Blue Jays-2013). He has spent the majority of the last three seasons (including 2015) with Double-A New Hampshire (33 starts). Since 2010, Bibens-Dirkx has been back and forth between the Double-A and Triple-A level with these respective organizations. The one exception was in 2013 where he had one of his strongest years of his career. He made 13 starts at Dunedin (A+) and produced a 2.85 ERA. In his time with the Fisher Cats in 2013, he posted a 1.92 ERA in 10 starts.

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Eastern League Stories from August 5, 2015


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