Wilmington Blue Rocks Game Notes

July 8, 2014 - Carolina League (CarL) Wilmington Blue Rocks FIVE OUT OF SIX: Luis Santos turned in his second straight strong outing and the Wilmington offense overcame a slow start as the Blue Rocks beat the Potomac Nationals, 5-1, on Monday at Pfitzner Stadium. Santos (2-1) allowed just one run on three hits in six innings to earn a second consecutive victory over the P-Nats. At the plate, the Rocks scored all of their runs over the final five frames as they moved their record back to .500 in the season's second half (9-9) and improved to 42-44 overall in 2014. It was the Blue Crew's fifth win in their last six games.

A LITTLE MOMENTUM FOR LUIS: Santos retired the first five batters he faced before running into a little two-strike, two-out trouble in the second. He plunked Mike McQuillan with an 0-2 pitch in the shoulder and then yielded an 0-2 double off the bat of Justin Miller. Miller's grounder snuck just inside the third-base line and plated McQuillan to put Potomac on top, 1-0. Santos would then retire 13 of the last 16 batters he faced, never allowing a runner to advance further than second base. He fanned five and walked only one, needing just 79 pitches to make it through six frames and earn the win. He has now strung two of the best starts of his Advanced-A career together over his last two outings. Coincidentally, both have come against the first-half champion Potomac Nationals. Santos allowed just one run on three hits in 5.2 innings on July 1 to earn his first win since joining the Blue Rocks in late-May. He followed that up with his excellent start on Monday. Thanks to his last 11.2 frames, Santos has lowered his ERA from 8.37 to 6.11. Santos began the campaign with Low-A Lexington and put up stellar numbers for the Legends prior to his promotion to the Blue Rocks. With Lexington, he was 4-1 with a 1.76 ERA in nine appearances (six starts). He struck out 34 and walked just five while yielding only 33 hits in 46 innings pitched. Santos was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 18, 2011. He spent 2011 with the Dominican Pirates and had a 2-1 record and 2.70 ERA. In 2012, Santos split time between the Dominican Pirates 1 and the Dominican Pirates 2. The six-foot hurler was traded from the Pirates organization to the Kansas City Royals organization on November 28, 2012. He was sent to the Royals along with lefty Luis Rico in exchange for right-hander Vin Mazzaro and first-baseman Clint Robinson.

RAUL HOPING TO GET ON A ROLL: Raul Mondesi busted his way out of a 5-for-51 slump on Monday by going 2-for-4 with a pair of extra-base hits. The switch hitter tripled from the left side of the batter's box in sixth inning and then roped a double batting from the right side just two frames later. Mondesi also drove in a run and scored twice in Monday's victory. It was a good day all around for the 18-year-old, who was named the 22nd-ranked prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America, which released its midseason top 50 prospects list on Monday afternoon. Mondesi is batting just .220 on the season, but is the youngest player in the Carolina League, and is widely viewed by many scouts as the best defensive infielder in all of Advanced-A.

NEWCOMERS KNOW HOW TO MAKE A DEBUT: Mark Threlkeld and Ramon Torres have continued to impress during their brief tenures in Wilmington. On Monday, Threlkeld went 1-for-4 while Torres went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Since joining the Blue Crew from Double-A Northwest Arkansas, Threlkeld is 6-for-15 with two runs and a walk. Torres is 6-for-18 with three runs, a double, a triple, three RBIs and a walk since his promotion from Low-A Lexington. While playing for the Naturals, Threlkeld hit .253 with seven homers, 10 doubles, a triple and 26 RBIs. With the Legends, Torres batted .304 with five homers, 15 doubles, two triples and 25 RBIs in 73 games.

THEY SAID IT, MANAGER DARRYL KENNEDY: "[Luis] Santos was able to get away with some pitches up early in the game, but did a good job getting the ball down when he had to at that point in the game. Then he really seemed to settle in and pitched a very good ballgame. With him, he's got that herky-jerky delivery and he throws enough pitches up and in that he gets the hitters a little defensive. That pays off for him. He gets them off balance and when he comes back and locates he's tough to deal with. He pitched a heck of a game and put us in position to win...At least when were making mistakes on the base paths it was mistakes being aggressive, and we haven't always been aggressive enough on the bases, especially with balls in the dirt...It looked like we were swinging the bats pretty well, we just weren't getting anything out of it, but then Jared [Schlehuber] comes up and gets that home run, which catapulted us to some success. That was a big spot for us there...It was good to see [Raul] Mondesi get some hits for us [Monday] and see that smile back on his face. We hadn't seen that smile in a while. I know he's been struggling, but we tend to forget he's only 18-years-old. He's been going through some growing pains, but hopefully this is a sign that he's starting to come out of it. We definitely need his presence in our lineup. Then Bubba [Starling]swung it well again. He's really been hitting the ball well for a couple weeks now, it just goes a little unnoticed at times. We really need both of those guys to get going. Hopefully with the additions of Ramon Torres and Mark Threlkeld it takes some of the pressure off those guys and allows them to relax a little bit...Mondesi is a guy who you've always watched in the past play stellar defense, but his bat has been right there with him. I think he has really shown this year what he is, simply because his bat hasn't always been there, but his defense never stopped. For an 18-year-old kid to not let his offense carry over into his defense is very impressive and pretty rare. That's why he is who he is...We are definitely a little more balanced now. We were very right-hand dominant most of the first half. With two switch hitters now [Mondesi and Torres] it helps us out. And then it also gives us a lot of flexibility with really three shortstops available in the infield between Jack Lopez, Mondesi and Torres. That's only going to improve our defense which has been a strength of ours all year long...[Mark] Peterson has really gone unnoticed in terms of his importance to our team this year. I remember earlier in the season he worked four innings to get a save. It seems like whatever we need him to do for us, he just gets it done. I have a lot of confidence in that man."

Today's Starters

WIL: LHP Sean Manaea (2-7, 4.75)

vs.

POT: RHP Brian Rauh (1-1, 5.08)

After the summer of 2012, many thought Sean Manaea would be the No. 1 overall pick in last June's draft. While pitching in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks in 2012, Manaea put together one of the most dominant pitching seasons the league had ever seen. He went 5-1 with a 1.21 ERA that summer, while throwing his fastball between 94 and 96 m.p.h. Manaea's 85 strikeouts set a modern-day Cape League record, eclipsing Josh Bard's 82 in 2005. Last spring at Indiana State, however, a series of unfortunate injuries led to a drop in velocity and, in turn, Manaea's draft stock falling. Manaea hurt his ankle and then his hip and his shoulder. Kansas City still drafted him 34th overall last June and signed him to a $3.55 million bonus. He had surgery after the draft to repair a torn hip labrum and did not pitch professionally in 2013. Manaea will make his 16th start of the season Tuesday against the Potomac Nationals. In his last outing on July 2 against the same P-Nats, the southpaw tossed one shutout frame before rain and light- ning forced Manaea out of the game after a two hour and 11 minute rain delay. The 6-foot-5 hurler failed to get past the fourth inning in eight of his 15 starts, His longest outing of the year came on June 26, a 6.1-inning outing against the Lynchburg Hillcats. He gave up three runs on four hits that night. The talented southpaw's 79 punchouts tie him for fourth in the Carolina League.

More:
Wilmington Blue Rocks Game Notes