CarL1 Winston-Salem Dash

Winston-Salem Dash Game Notes

Published on August 31, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Winston-Salem Dash News Release


WINSTON-SALEM DASH (32-28, 75-55) vs. LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (30-31, 59-72)

Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 7:00 p.m. ⌂ BB&T Ballpark ⌂ Winston-Salem, NC

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

Game No. 132 ⌂ Home Game No. 65 ⌂ Home Record 43-21 ⌂ Road Record 32-34

RHP Nate Jones (10-5, 4.26) vs. RHP Pedro Villarreal (0-1, 2.63)

Broom Broom Pow: The Dash swept away the Pelicans on Sunday afternoon 5-4 in 13 innings. Drew Garcia bounced a single through the right side of the infield and Seth Loman scored the winning run from second base. Winston took a 4-3 lead into the ninth inning, but Gerry Rodriguez led off with a solo home run to push the game into extras. The win gave the Dash a sweep of Myrtle Beach, the team's first since it swept Lynchburg July 3-5. Winston-Salem has won eight of its last 11 games and owns a four-game winning streak for the first time since early July. Sunday's win put Winston a season-high-tying 20 games over .500 on the season.

Winston-Salem Walk-offs: Sunday's walk-off win was the Dash's 11th of the season, meaning a remarkable 17% of the team's home games have ended with a walk-off victory. Winston has won 15 games this season in its final team at bat and Drew Garcia is responsible for a significant number of them. The switch-hitting second baseman has five game-winning hits this season, including Sunday's. Garcia had the first walk-off hit in BB&T Ballpark history, an RBI single in the tenth inning on April 15 against Potomac.

Happy Gilmore: Jon Gilmore may have busted out of his prolonged slump in the last two games. He hit a go-ahead two-run home run on Sunday and went 3 for 5 with two doubles, two RBI, and two runs scored the night before. His home run was his first since June 25 against Frederick. He went 222 at bats and over two months between home run numbers four and five. Gilmore had been hitting .180 (11 for 61) since August 7 but now owns a six-game hitting streak, over which he is batting .320 (8 for 25). He is back up to second in the league in batting (.317) and leads the CL in hits (167).

Pitchers Powering Up: Stephen Sauer's quality start (7 IP, 3 ER) on Sunday continued a terrific stretch for Winston's pitching over the last six games. The combination of Dylan Axelrod, Hector Santiago, Nate Jones, Joe Serafin, Terry Doyle, and Sauer has given up nine runs over a combined 39 innings, a 2.07 ERA. Since Sunday, August 22, the team's starters have posted a 2.70 ERA (15 ER, 50 IP) and the team as a whole has an ERA of 1.94 (11 ER, 51 IP) since Wednesday.

Bat Offensive: 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 third in the CL. The team has had ten or more hits in four straight games and eight of its last 11. The Dash is batting .331 (50 for 151) in its last four games and .289 (113 for 391) since August 17.

Get Lo: While they might not be considered his strongest assets, Seth Loman's wheels allowed him to score the game-winning run on Sunday. It has been his bat, however, which has carried the offense over the last two weeks. He has hit in 13 of his last 14 games, batting .358 (19 for 53). 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 (.290), second in homers (23), second in RBI (83), fourth in hits (141), third in slugging percentage (.508), third in extra-base hits (57), first in runs (83), and second in total bases (247).

Coming out of his Shelton : Kyle Shelton continued his superb offensive stretch on Sunday, going 2 for 5 with an RBI. Shelton extended his hitting streak to a season-high ten games. During the streak, which started on August 4, he is hitting a blistering .486 (17 for 35) with seven doubles, a home run, eight 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 .303 from .267 at the start of the streak. Shelton's average is at its highest point since May 8.

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. 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 fifth-best of any team in full-season minor league baseball. The AAA Albuquerque Isotopes (.302), Advanced-A High Desert Mavericks (.298), AAA Las Vegas 51s (.295), and AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (.289), 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 Game Two Opposing Starter: RHP Pedro Villarreal (0-1, 2.63) makes his fourth start (fifth appearance) for Lynchburg and his second straight start against the Dash. He scattered five hits over five shutout innings against Winston-Salem last week. In his CL debut on August 10 he gave up three runs (2 ER) in 1.2 innings in a relief outing. In his three starts he has given up a combined two runs on 13 hits in 12 innings. Villarreal spent the entirety of his season with low-A Dayton before earning a promotion to the Hillcats. In 26 games (14 starts), the Dallas native posted a 4-7 record with a 3.87 ERA. His first 14 appearances were starts and he went 3-4 with a 3.34 ERA as a starter. He did not pitch as well out of the bullpen, putting together a 5.40 ERA in 23.1 innings. After being drafted in the seventh round in 2008, Villarreal was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery after throwing just 2.1 innings of professional ball for the GCL Reds. He threw 49.2 innings between the GCL and Advanced-A Sarasota Reds last season, going 1-5 with a 3.99 ERA. Villarreal's velocity has returned to his fastball, which was sitting in the mid-80s last year; he has touched 94 mph with the pitch earlier this season in Dayton. Before signing with Cincinnati, Villarreal was a two-year graduate from Howard College (Big Springs, TX). He spurned a scholarship offer with the University of Texas-Pan American to play professionally.

Check out the Winston-Salem Dash Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Carolina League Stories from August 31, 2010


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.

OurSports Central