Gnats Game Notes: Thursday, July 7 Vs. Greensboro

Published on July 7, 2011 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Savannah Sand Gnats News Release


Savannah Sand Gnats (12-2/51-32, 1st, Southern) vs. Greensboro Grasshoppers (6-8/46-38, t-5th, Northern)

Game #84 - Home Game #43 - Thursday - 7:05

RHP Gonzalez Germen (6-3, 3.95) vs. RHP Robert Morey (3-6, 6.89)

Historic Grayson Stadium, Savannah, GA

Radio: News/Talk 630 and sandgnats.com

Tonight: The first-half champion Gnats begin a four-game series with the Greensboro Grasshoppers, SAL affiliate of the Florida Marlins. The Gnats had their 11-game winning streak, tied for the franchise's longest in the last 18 years, snapped last night.

Last Night: Rome 1B Chris Garcia laced a long home run to center field in the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie, helping to send the Braves to a 5-3 win.

Now Pitching: RHP Gonzalez Germen is scheduled to make his 17thappearance and his 15 th start tonight. He is tied for 14th in the South Atlantic League with 74 strikeouts. Germen is coming off his second scoreless start of the year, when he shutout Augusta for five innings last Saturday on six hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Germen's 79.2 innings pitched are second on the Gnats behind Ryan Fraser (90). Germen spent most of the 2010 season with Kingsport in the Appalachian League where he was 2-5 with a 3.69 ERA in 61 innings over 10 starts with 54 strikeouts and 11 walks. He made two starts with Savannah to finish out the year. On August 27th, in his Savannah debut, in game two of a double-header against Charleston, he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and a shutout into the seventh. The Gnats are 8-6 when Germen starts and have supported him with 4.9 runs per game (68 runs/14 starts), the second-best run support of any Savannah starter.

Top Gnats: The Gnats' 51-32 overall record is the best in the SAL. The Gnats are tied with the Burlington Bees, the A's Midwest League affiliate, for the fifth-best winning percentage (.614) among all full-season minor league teams. San Antonio (AA-Padres) has the best record among the 120 full-season affiliates at .707 (58-24) and is the only team playing better than .700 baseball.... The Gnats are one of only eight full-season teams with a winning percentage above .600.

Pen Slip: Despite giving up four runs in three innings last night, the Gnats' bullpen has a 2.93 ERA in 307.2 innings, a little better than the starters' 3.24 ERA in 433 IP. Savannah relievers have a better strikeout rate (9.1 K/9 IP) than the starters (7.4 K/9) but the starters have walked few batters (2.5 BB/9 IP) than the relievers (3.9 BB/9).

Honeck's U-turn: Sam Honeck has hit .368 (14-for-38) in his last 11 games. He hit .500 (21-for-42) in his first 11 games of the season and in the intervening 51 games hit .137 (25-for-183).

Forsythe Feeling It: In his last five games, C Blake Forsythe is 6-for-15 (.400) with three doubles, a triple and six walks against three strikeouts.

Strong Arms: The Gnats have the SAL's best ERA (3.11), nearly half a run (48 hundredths) better than second-place Lakewood. The Gnats have allowed the fewest hits (639), 14 fewer than Hickory and 219 fewer than Asheville, which has allowed the most.

Tough Tovar: Wilfredo Tovar is the second-toughest batter in the South Atlantic League to strikeout with one strikeout every 10.52 plate appearances. Tovar struck out five times in June when he hit .319/.376/.385. He's fanned twice in six games in July. Seventeen of his 31 whiffs came in 27 games in May when he hit .115/.170/.144.

Vs. Greensboro: This is the first of two series between the Gnats and Grasshoppers in 2011. The Gnats return the visit to Greensboro July 28-31. This is Greensboro's first visit to Savannah since the Hoppers took three of four games from the Gnats July 30-August 2, 2007. The Gnats were 5-2 in Greensboro last year, and 2-2 in both 2008 and 2009.

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South Atlantic League Stories from July 7, 2011


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