CarL1 Winston-Salem Dash

Winston-Salem Dash Game Notes

Published on September 3, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Winston-Salem Dash News Release


WINSTON-SALEM DASH (35-28, 78-55) vs. LYNCHBURG HILLCATS (30-34, 59-75)

Friday, September 3, 2010, 7:00 p.m. ⌂ BB&T Ballpark ⌂ Winston-Salem, NC

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

Game No. 135 ⌂ Home Game No. 68 ⌂ Home Record 46-21 ⌂ Road Record 32-34

RHP Terry Doyle (7-8, 3.56) vs. RHP Josh Ravin (2-0, 0.40)

Dash Smash: Yesterday Winston-Salem won its seventh straight game, beating the Hillcats 11-0. The win clinched the series victory and was the largest margin of victory for the team all season. The Dash scored five runs before Daniel Guerrero recorded his first out to run away from Lynchburg. Joe Serafin fired six scoreless innings to keep the visitors at arm's length for his second straight win. The shutout victory was the team's third over the Hillcats in the last nine days. Winston has outscored the Hillcats 27-2 in this series and goes for the sweep tonight in the Dash's regular season home finale.

Honorable Mentions: The Carolina League's award winners and Year-End All-Star Team were announced yesterday and the Dash was well-represented. Joe McEwing won "Manager of the Year" for the second straight season. He becomes the second manager to win the award in consecutive years. Burlington's Buddy Bates won the award in 1947 & 1948. He joins Bill Slack as the only Winston-Salem managers to win the award multiple times. The Dash also placed a league-best four players on the All-Star Team: shortstop Eduardo Escobar, outfielders Justin Greene and Brandon Short, and utility infielder Jon Gilmore.

From the Twin City to the Windy City: Today Brent Morel became the fifth former Dash player to make the major leagues when the White Sox purchased his contract from AAA Charlotte and assigned him to Chicago. The infielder spent all of last season with Winston-Salem and hit .281 with 16 home runs and 79 RBI. He split this season with AA Birmingham and the Knights, hitting .322 with ten home runs, 37 doubles, and 64 RBI. Morel heads to the White Sox where he joins 2010 Dash players Chris Sale and Gregory Infante. Sergio Santos, a member of the Dash in 2009, is pitching out of the bullpen for Chicago. The fifth Dash player to make the big leagues is Daniel Hudson, who is 4-1 with a 1.85 ERA with Arizona since he was traded from the White Sox in late July.

Seventh Heaven: Winston ran its winning streak to seven games with yesterday's victory over the Hillcats. The streak is the second longest of the season for the Dash. The only streak that was longer was the team's nine-gamer that took place from April 14-22. Winston-Salem is getting some of its best pitching of the season (see fifth game note) while the offense has returned to its early season form. During the streak, which started on Thursday, August 26 in Lynchburg, the Dash has outscored its opponents 52-12. Winston is batting .336 (87 for 259) during the streak. The pitching staff owns a 1.61 ERA (12 ER, 67 IP) during the streak and has held opposing batters to a .180 (41 for 228) batting average. The win streak is only the second longest current win streak in the Carolina League, however, as the red-hot Kinston Indians have won nine straight games. It is looking more likely that the K-Tribe will be the Dash's first round playoff opponent. Kinston's magic number to clinch a postseason berth is one entering the day.

Streaking Swingers: Four Dash players currently have hit streaks of six games or longer. Kyle Shelton (11) leads the bunch (see seventh note), with Jose Martinez (10) not far behind. Martinez went 2 for 5 yesterday with a home run, his fifth with the Dash this season. He is batting .350 (14-40) during his streak. Jason Bour owns a seven game hit streak (.296, 8 for 27) and Nick Ciolli has hit in his last six games (.481, 13 for 27) going back to his final game with Kannapolis. Ciolli has been a monster offensively since joining the Dash last weekend. He is batting .478 with a home run, five RBI, four doubles, and seven runs scored in just five games. He has also been superb defensively, making two terrific catches and recording an outfield assist.

Hometown Heros: The Dash owns a 46-21 record at BB&T Ballpark. This is the second-best home record among all full-season minor league teams. Only the AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (45-20) have a better home record.

Pitchers Powering Up: Winston-Salem's pitching staff is in the midst of its best stretch of the season. Yesterday Joe Serafin continued that run with six scoreless innings followed by three shutout innings from the bullpen. Serafin's outing was the fifth consecutive quality start by a Dash pitcher. The last eight games started by a Winston pitcher have been excellent. The combination of Dylan Axelrod, Hector Santiago, Nate Jones, Serafin, Terry Doyle, and Stephen Sauer has given up 11 runs over a combined 59 innings, a 1.68 ERA. Since Sunday, August 22, the team's starters have posted a 2.19 ERA (17 ER, 70 IP) and the team as a whole has an ERA of 1.50 (13 ER, 78 IP) since Wednesday, August 25.

Slow-Mo Loman: Seth Loman's eight game hit streak ended yesterday when the slugger went 0 for 3 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch. He had been hitting .323 (10 for 31) over the streak. Loman has still hit in 15 of his last 17 games, batting .344 (22-64). He ranks 7th in the Carolina League batting average (.290), second in homers (24), second in RBI (85), fourth in hits (144), fourth in doubles (33), third in slugging percentage (.513), third in extra-base hits (60), first in runs (86), and second in total bases (255).

Coming out of his Shelton : Kyle Shelton continued his superb offensive stretch yesterday with a two-run home run in the fifth inning. Shelton extended his hitting streak to a season-high 11 games. During the streak, which started on August 4, he is hitting a blistering .450 (18 for 40) with seven doubles, two home runs, ten RBI, and six 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.

Hurts So Good: Seth Loman extended his own Carolina League record when he was hit by a pitch for the 30th 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 .289 is the fifth-best of any team in full-season minor league baseball. The AAA Albuquerque Isotopes (.304), Advanced-A High Desert Mavericks (.297), AAA Las Vegas 51s (.295), and AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (.292) are the only teams with higher averages. Winston's average is the best in the Carolina League by 25 points (Frederick is the closest with a .264 average). The Dash has five players in the top ten in the league in batting average: Jon Gilmore (2nd, .317), Brandon Short (3rd, .316), Ozzie Lewis (5th, .300), Seth Loman (7th, .290), and former shortstop Eduardo Escobar (10th, .285).

Today's Opposing Starter: RHP Josh Ravin (2-0, 0.40) makes his fifth Carolina League start and his second against the Dash. He tossed 5.2 scoreless innings against Winston on August 23. He did not allow an earned run in the CL until his fourth start, last time out against Wilmington. He gave up one run in 6.2 innings in that contest and picked up the win and has allowed just one earned run (on a solo home run) in 22.2 Carolina League innings. Ravin started the year with low-A Dayton and went 2-6 with a 4.79 ERA before a hip injury forced him to the disabled list. He made two rehab starts with the AZL Reds in early-August and was promoted directly to Lynchburg thereafter. Ravin's injury was his second in the last two seasons. The Tarzana, California native missed most of the second half of 2009 after straining a tendon in his right elbow. Although it was initially supposed to only sideline him for one start, his outing on June 25 ended up being his final start of the season. He went 3-8 for Dayton last year but had a respectable 3.67 ERA. That June he was named the Dragons' "Pitcher of the Month" after perhaps his best stretch as a professional. In five starts, he went 2-1 with a 1.80 ERA. Although his career record is just 11-29, Ravin possesses tremendous talent. He stands 6'5" 210 lbs. and throws a low - to mid-90's fastball with late life. His mechanics are outstanding but he needs to improve the consistency of his off-speed pitches (curveball, changeup). Ravin was selected by Cincinnati in the fifth round of the 2006 draft out of national power Chatsworth High School, which is the same alma mater as former major league Dwight Evans and recent first-rounders Matt Dominguez and Mike Moustakas. Chatsworth was the national champion in both 2003 & 2004 and set a state record with 54 straight wins. Ravin was the unfortunate pitcher who started the game that ended the streak, but was named All-State second team as a senior in 2006.

Check out the Winston-Salem Dash Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from September 3, 2010


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