CarL1 Winston-Salem Dash

Winston-Salem Dash Game Notes

Published on August 29, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Winston-Salem Dash News Release


WINSTON-SALEM DASH (31-28, 74-55) vs. MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS (29-33, 55-77)

Sunday, August 29, 2010, 2:00 p.m. ⌂ BB&T Ballpark ⌂ Winston-Salem, NC

Webcast available on www.wsdash.com 15 minutes before first pitch

Game No. 131 ⌂ Home Game No. 64 ⌂ Home Record 42-21 ⌂ Road Record 32-34

RHP Stephen Sauer (7-10, 5.09) vs. RHP Paul Clemens (0-3, 3.30)

Feathers Trimmed: Winston-Salem pounded out 13 hits and overcame an early 2-0 deficit to beat up the Pelicans 8-3 on Saturday night. Jon Gilmore led the offense with three hits and Luis Sierra drove in three runs to help the Dash win the first two games of the series. Winston has won three in a row for the first time since winning four straight July 2-5 and goes for the sweep this afternoon. The Dash can also win the season series with Myrtle Beach and seriously damage the Pelicans' postseason chances with a victory today.

Happy Gilmore: Jon Gilmore may have busted out of his prolonged slump last night, going 3 for 5 with two doubles, two RBI, and two runs scored. It was his first multi-hit game since August 11, a span of 12 games without one. Gilmore had been hitting .180 (11 for 61) since August 7 but now owns a five game hitting streak, over which he is batting .350 (7 for 20). He is back up to second in the league in batting (.318) and leads the CL in hits (166).

Pitchers Powering Up: Terry Doyle's quality start (7 IP, 3 ER) last night continued a terrific stretch for Winston's pitching over the last five games. The combination of Dylan Axelrod, Hector Santiago, Nate Jones, Joe Serafin, and Doyle has given up six runs over a combined 32 innings, a 1.69 ERA. Since Sunday, the team's starters have posted a 2.51 ERA (12 ER, 43 IP) and the team as a whole has an ERA of 1.66 (7 ER, 38 IP) since Wednesday.

Bat Offensive: Less than two weeks ago, the Dash ranked seventh in the eight-team Carolina League in batting average for the month of August. Winston-Salem has raised its August average 17 point to .269, now good for second in the CL. The team has had ten or more hits in three straight games and seven of its last ten. The Dash is batting .356 (37 for 104) in its last three games and .291 (100 for 344) since August 17.

House of Paiml: Greg Paiml continued his hot stretch last night, going 2 for 2 and reaching base four times. He has picked up two hits in each of his last three games, rocketing his batting average from .154 to 233 (a 79 point jump). Since the beginning of the recent road trip, Paiml is hitting .379 (11 for 29) with four doubles, a triple, four RBI, and four runs scored. He is batting .298 for the Dash since going 0 for 13 upon his return from AA Birmingham.

Loman the Showman: Seth Loman's bat is helping carry the offense lately. He has hit in 12 of his last 13 games, batting .383 (18 for 47). Other than a .259 month of May, Loman has hit .295 or better in every month this season. He ranks 7th in the Carolina League batting average (.292), second in homers (23), second in RBI (83), fourth in hits (140), third in slugging percentage (.513), third in extra-base hits (57), first in runs (82), and second in total bases (246).

Take Two : Doubles-machine Kyle Shelton continued his superb offensive stretch Friday night, with a two-run double and a run scored. Shelton extended his hitting streak to a season-high nine games. During the streak, which started on August 4, he is hitting a blistering .500 (15 for 30) with seven doubles, a home run, seven RBI, and five runs scored. He has more doubles during this streak than he had in his first 52 games this season. He raised his batting average to .301 from .267 at the start of the streak. Shelton's average is at its highest point since May 10.

Hurts So Good: Seth Loman extended his own Carolina League record when he was hit by a pitch for the 29th time this season on Thursday. He was hit by three pitches on the road trip. On August 4, Loman was drilled for the 25th time, ending the 21-year "reign" of former Winston-Salem Spirit Rusty Crockett, who was hit 24 times in 1989. Loman leads all of minor league baseball in the category. Last year he was tied for third in the minors when he was hit 23 times between Winston-Salem and Kannapolis.

Slick Sticks: The Dash's season batting average of .288 is the sixth-best of any team in full-season minor league baseball. The AAA Albuquerque Isotopes (.301), Advanced-A High Desert Mavericks (.297), AAA Las Vegas 51s (.295), AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (.290), and Advanced-A San Jose Giants (.288) are the only teams with higher averages. Winston's average is the best in the Carolina League by 23 points (Frederick is the closest with a .265 average). The Dash has four players in the top ten in the league in batting average: Jon Gilmore (2nd, .318), Brandon Short (3rd, .316), Ozzie Lewis (5th, .300), and Seth Loman (7th, .292).

Today's Opposing Starter: RHP Paul Clemens (0-3, 3.30) makes his seventh start of the season and his first against Winston-Salem. Clemens started the season with low-A Rome as a reliever, going 2-0 with one save and a 1.42 ERA in eight games. He joined the Pelicans in mid-May and had been primarily pitching out of the bullpen prior to August. He has faced the Dash three times as a reliever, scattering four hits over seven shutout innings. Clemens posted a 4.64 ERA in 19 appearances out of the bullpen and has been dramatically better in the rotation, putting together an ERA of 1.82. A native of Burke, Virginia, Clemens spent all of 2009 in Rome, starting 11 of 26 games and going 6-5 with a 5.91 ERA. He split 2009 between the GCL Braves, Danville, and Rome, going 4-4 with a 3.58 ERA in 14 games (nine starts). Clemens was drafted in the seventh round by Atlanta in 2008 out of Louisburg (NC) College, the same alma mater as former major league outfielder Otis Nixon. He was drafted by San Francisco in the 36th round the previous year but elected not to sign. Clemens elected to sign with the Braves in 2008 rather than accept a scholarship to play for East Carolina University. He has an electric fastball that he can throw in the high-90s and also throws a curveball and changeup.

Check out the Winston-Salem Dash Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from August 29, 2010


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