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CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Myrtle Beach Pelicans: Game Notes, June 22 at Lynchburg

June 22, 2018 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


The Myrtle Beach Pelicans play at the Lynchburg Hillcats in Friday's 6:30 p.m. contest. RHP Cory Abbott (1-1, 4.50 ERA) gets the start for the Birds against Lynchburg RHP Zach Plesac (4-3, 4.98 ERA). Coverage begins at 6:15 p.m. on MyrtleBeachPelicans.com/Broadcast, the MiLB First Pitch app and TuneIn.

LANGE'S GEM NOT ENOUGH IN ONE-HIT LOSS

Alex Lange pitched six dominant innings Thursday, but the Myrtle Beach Pelicans only mustered one hit offensively in a 1-0 loss at Lynchburg. Hillcats starter Eli Morgan matched a career-high with nine strikeouts in six no-hit innings, and the Birds finally registered their first hit of the game with two outs in the eighth inning on Andruw Monasterio's triple. However, Ben Krauth stranded Monasterio on third and James Karinchak pitched a hitless ninth for his sixth save. Lange yielded only a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first to Mitch Longo. The right-hander whiffed seven against two walks in six frames, surrendering just four hits. Erick Leal and Jose Paulino each tossed a scoreless inning out of the bullpen.

MY HEART'S A MONASTERIO

Myrtle Beach infielder Andruw Monasterio has reached base multiple times in nine contests during his 13-game on-base streak. Over these last 13 contests, the Caracas, Venezuela native is 19-for-51 (.373) with a double, triple, home run, six RBIs and four walks. After slashing just .241/.313/.287 (75 wRC+) in a brief stint at the High-A level last year, Monasterio is hitting .275/.359/.353 (107 wRC+) this season. Part of his success is a better approach at the plate; after walking in 5.2 percent of his plate appearances in 2016 and 8.3 percent last season, Monasterio is posting a career-best 10.9 percent walk rate in 2018, the third-best mark on the team.

P.J.'S PANCAKE HOUSE

Myrtle Beach catcher P.J. Higgins has been the Pelicans' second-most productive hitter to this point of the season according to his 115 wRC+, a park and league-adjusted stat that attempts to quantify a player's total offensive value and measure it by runs. Higgins has reached base in 27 of his last 32 games, hitting 33-for-110 (.300/.398/.391) with seven doubles, one home run, 13 RBIs and 18 walks. On the season, the Wallingford, Conn., native has shown a discerning eye, increasing his walk rate from 10.6 percent last year to 13.3 percent in 2018. The former Old Dominion Monarch has also hit for more power (.061 ISO in 2017, .100 in 2018) by lacing more line drives this season, upping his line drive rate from 19.1 percent last year to 23.0 percent (15th-best in the Carolina League) in 2018.

START SPREADING THE NEWS

Over the last 26 games, Myrtle Beach has seen their starting pitching catch fire, with the club's rotation ceding just 40 runs, 36 earned, on 131 hits in 145.2 innings for a 2.22 ERA. Pelicans starters have whiffed 125 while walking only 31 during this stretch. Not coincidentally, Myrtle Beach has allowed more than four runs just once in these 26 games. Birds starters are averaging 5.2 innings per start over this stretch, compared to 4.2 prior to this run.

BROKEN BATS

While Myrtle Beach's pitching has been excellent of late, the Pelicans have now lost eight of their last nine games. The club has really struggled offensively during this run, scoring a grand total of 17 runs over this nine-game stretch (1.9 per game). In fact, outside of plating seven runs on June 11, the Birds have gone eight contests in a row without tallying more than two runs. As a team over the last nine games, Myrtle Beach is posting a batting line of .176/.253/.245 (261 AB, 46 H, 8 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 25 BB, 2 HBP).

WHEN THE REGRESSION MONSTER BITES

Following a 4-3 win over Salem on June 10, Myrtle Beach boasted a 10-3 record in one-run games, the best such mark in the Carolina League. However, records in one-run games are mostly correlated with luck and timing, and it is extremely rare for squads to sustain success in these narrow contests over the course of a season. Thus, in nearly every single level across the history of baseball, almost every club posts records in one-run contests at or near .500. Sure enough, the regression monster has come back to bite the Birds. In the nine games since that June 10 win, the Pelicans have played four contests decided by one run and lost all of them, dropping their record to 10-7 in one-run affairs.

PELICAN POINTS

Pelicans pitchers have walked just 199 batters this season, by far the fewest in the Carolina League. In fact, the Birds have dished out no more than three walks in 12 consecutive games, their best run of the season to this point... Myrtle Beach failed to delivier a hit until the eighth inning last night, marking the fourth occurence this season that the club has been held hitless until at least the sixth frame... Jose Paulino has now pitched 8.2 scoreless innings of relief.

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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.

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