Sports stats



CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Myrtle Beach Pelicans Game Notes: August 26 at Potomac

August 26, 2019 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


Today, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans continue their final road trip of the season and start a four-game set against the Potomac Nationals (a Washington Nationals affiliate) with the first game of the series beginning at 7:05 p.m. This evening, LHP Brailyn Marquez (3-0, 0.59 ERA) starts for Myrtle Beach against LHP Tim Cate (5-4, 3.54 ERA). Coverage begins at 6:50 p.m. on MyrtleBeachPelicans.com/Broadcast, TuneIn and the MiLB First Pitch app.

--

SALEM WALKS OFF ON BIRDS, SWEEPS SERIES

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans fell to the Salem Red Sox 3-2 on a walk-off double from Kole Cottam in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday from Haley Toyota Field. Tied at 1-1 into the ninth, Grant Fennell delivered for the Birds with a go-ahead, RBI double down the right field line, but the Red Sox came back. They tied it in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double from Devlin Granberg and won it on the Cottam walk-off double. In a no-decision, Alexander Vargas fired a quality start with six innings, allowing just one run. In the bullpen, Scott Effross threw two perfect innings for the Birds. Luke Reynolds also chipped in with a two-hit game, but it was not enough as the Birds were swept in a series for the 10th time on the season. Last year, the Pelicans were swept eight times.

MY OH AMAYA

Miguel Amaya has been a hot hitter for the Pelicans over the last couple months. After hitting just .217/.353/.361 with five homers in the first half of the season (49 games), he is hitting a strong .258/.363/.448 with six home runs in the second half of the season (47 games). His second half OPS (.811) is 97 points higher than his first-half OPS (.714). Since July 4, Amaya is hitting .289/.400/.496 with 10 doubles, five home runs, 24 RBIs and 20 BB compared to 19 strikeouts in a span of 35 games. The Pelicans catcher is within one long ball of his career-best 12 he hit with Low-A South Bend in 2018. In 2018, his second-half OPS (.634) was much lower than his first half mark (.865). Defensively, Amaya also has the MiLB lead with caught-stealings (45).

LEAVING THE FRIENDLY CONFINES

Inside the pitcher-friendly TicketReturn.Com Field at Pelicans Ballpark, the Birds have been an entirely different team than when they are on the road. At home, the Pelicans own the third-best ERA in the league (3.42), while they are last (10th) in road ERA (4.69) in the Carolina League. Their road slashline of .235/.322/.352 is also much better than home games: .220/.314/.323. The Birds hit 33 home runs at home and allowed 41 while they have hit 38 homers on the road in 11 fewer games and allowed a league-worst 48 road blasts.

KINGS OF THE HILL

Over their last 13 games, the Pelicans are 8-5 in large part due to their dominant pitching staff. In that span, the Pelicans pitching has stifled offenses, owning the second-best ERA in the league (2.43), allowing the second-fewest home runs (4), walking the fewest batters (23) and owning the best WHIP (1.06). Over that stretch, their overall ERA has lowered to 3.99 ERA from 4.13.

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD

Another key has been the bullpen, which has just walked 11 batters over their last 15 games. When the bullpen is on, so are the Pelicans, as they are 33-16 when the bullpen does not allow any runs. The bullpen has been dominant in general, allowing six earned runs over their last 37.1 innings (spanning their last 10 games) and over their last 14 games, the 'pen has a 1.41 ERA (7 ER over 44.2 IP). Ethan Roberts had his span of 20.0 consecutive-scoreless innings out of the backend of the bullpen snapped on Sunday when he allowed two runs and the walk-off hit to Salem. On the season, the Pelicans bullpen has converted just 25 of 45 save attempts.

SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER?

The Pelicans are just 2.5 games back of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers for second place in the Southern Division as of Monday. If the season were to end today, the Woodpeckers would be in the playoffs and they also hold the head-to-head lead over the Pelicans. Winston-Salem is 1.5 games back of the Pelicans and 4.0 back of the Woodpeckers. The Pelicans have captured the season series against the Dash while Winston-Salem lost the season series with Fayetteville. Fayetteville, which was Buies Creek last season, won the Mills Cup title in 2018 in a one-game, hurricane-shortened series.

THE RETURN OF THE JEDI

Luke Reynolds has been an offensive force since returning to the Pelicans. Reynolds played the first 55 games of the season with Myrtle Beach, hitting just .190/.296/.288 before being sent down to Low-A South Bend for 22 games. Since coming back to the Grand Strand, Reynolds is hitting .309/.397/.544 with five doubles, three home runs and 15 RBIs in 19 games. He has raised his average with the Birds all the way up to .222 and his OPS from .584 to .680 in those 18 games. Additionally, he has played errorless baseball at first base.

PELICAN POINTS

The Pelicans finish the season with an 11-game road trip, featuring three games against Salem (in which the Pelicans were just swept), four at Potomac and a season-finishing series at Wilmington...This is the Birds final trip to Pfitzner Stadium. In their first meeting on the road with Potomac, the Pelicans took two-of-three. The closest game in the series was a seven-run margin, with the Pelicans taking the opener 8-0, losing the second game 7-0 and beating the Nationals 11-2 in the finale.

Check out the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Statistics



Carolina League Stories from August 26, 2019


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