Game 120 Preview: Power at Shorebirds
Game #120 — Road Game #61
West Virginia Power (24–25, 61–58) at Delmarva Shorebirds (31–17, 79–38)
Monday, August 12–7:05 p.m.
Arthur W. Perdue Stadium (Salisbury, Md.)
DE LOS SANTOS’ QUALITY START LEADS TO SERIES WIN: Josias De Los Santos spun his fourth quality start of the season and Julio Rodriguez went 4-for-5 in the Power’s 6–1 win over the Lakewood BlueClaws Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Park. Rodriguez got his first hit in the opening frame, lacing a double off Francisco Morales and eventually coming around to score on Bobby Honeyman’s RBI single for a 1–0 lead. Lakewood answered in the second, as Juan Aparicio stroked an RBI double to tie the game at one. However, that was the last run De Los Santos would allow, as he set down 10 of 11 batters from the end of the second inning through the fifth and ultimately lasted through six frames. Meanwhile, West Virginia added three runs in the fourth, with Mike Salvatore lofting a sacrifice fly to right and Manny Pazos scalding a two-run double to right that plated Honeyman and Onil Pena. The Power tacked on two more insurance runs in the seventh, as Matt Sanders and Pena notched a pair of RBI singles to push their lead to 6–1. Benjamin Onyshko fired a scoreless seventh inning with two strikeouts, while Elias Espino tossed the final two innings and gave up just one hit.
PITCHING MATCH-UP:
LHP Nate Fisher (0–1, 5.75 ERA) gets the ball for West Virginia, while RHP Hector Guance (8–5, 4.47 ERA) heads to the hill for Delmarva.
Fisher looks to carry his momentum from his last start August 6, when he hurled his first career quality start against the Rome Braves with six strong innings. The southpaw allowed just two runs on eight hits and struck out six while not walking a batter for the second time with the Power. His first Low-A start came against the Shorebirds, when he ceded six runs over 4.1 innings July 20 at Appalachian Power Park.
Guance has been roughed up a bit in his last two outings, giving up five runs on nine hits over five innings against the Charleston RiverDogs at home before the ‘Dogs battered him around in South Carolina to the tune of seven runs in just three innings last time out August 5. Guance has faced the Power once back on July 10, during which he spun a quality start and fanned a season-best nine batters over six innings while conceding two runs on four hits in six innings of work.
POWER LINEUP:
Ryan Ramiz — DH
Matt Sanders — 3B
Julio Rodriguez — RF
Austin Shenton — 2B
Dean Nevarez — C
DeAries Moses — LF
Onil Pena — 1B
Mike Salvatore — SS
Charlie McConnell — CF
Nate Fisher — LHP
GAME NOTES:
DOMINANT DE LOS SANTOS: De Los Santos continued his string of very strong starts Sunday afternoon, recording his third quality start in his last four outings. In this stretch that dates back to July 25, the right-hander is 3–0 with a 2.66 ERA, the ninth-best ERA in the South Atlantic League, along with 20 strikeouts compared to four walks over 23.2 innings. De Los Santos worked through the sixth inning for the fourth time this season, and tossed at least five frames for the eighth consecutive start.
JULIOOOOOOOO: Julio posted his first four-hit game of the season Sunday afternoon, notching three singles and a double along with two runs scored. J-Rod recorded the second four-hit game of his career (August 1, 2018, in the DSL), as well as the Power’s sixth four-hit contest of the year (Honeyman, Jarred Kelenic, Dean Nevarez, David Sheaffer and Cesar Trejo). Over his last 14 games (going back to July 27), Julio is averaging .368 (21-for-57), the third-highest mark in the SAL (Honeyman is second, .415) with three homers and nine RBI, and has a hit in 12 of those 14 games, including seven straight from August 1–8. The Mariners’ second-best prospect per MLB.com has seven multi-hit games during this run, as well as 24 overall with West Virginia, third-most on the team.
HONEY BUNCHES OF HITS: Honeyman went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored Sunday, collecting his 30th multi-hit game of the season, which leads all Power sluggers. Over his last 33 games, Honeyman is boasting a .366 (48-for-131) clip, the third-best average in the league, with two homers and 21 RBI. He also has notched a hit in 29 of those 33 contests.
BRILLIANT BULLPEN: West Virginia’s bullpen was marvelous over their four-game series in Lakewood, recording a 1.35 ERA over 13.1 innings of work, during which they ceded just two earned runs while scattering 13 hits and striking out nine batters while not issuing a walk. The Power’s second-half bullpen ERA has dropped 27 points during this road trip.
FINALLY BACK ON THE SHORE: For this first time in nearly two years, West Virginia has made the trip to Salisbury, Maryland, to face the Delmarva Shorebirds at their home ballpark of Arthur W. Perdue Stadium. The last time the Power was in Salisbury, they took three of four from September 1–4, 2017, to close out the 2017 campaign, yet barely missed out on the playoffs. West Virginia has posted a winning record in Delmarva in every year they have played a series there since 2014. The Power will need to sweep the Shorebirds this week to secure their third consecutive overall winning record against Delmarva.
DOWN THE DIVISION-HEAVY STRETCH: West Virginia is in the midst of a division-heavy run to start the month of August, playing 14 of 18 games against the Northern Division. Following this stretch, which concludes after a three-game set in Delmarva and four games against the Hagerstown Suns next weekend at Appalachian Power Park, the Power will play seven of their final 14 games against divisional foes. West Virginia is 4–3 during this division gauntlet, but 28–33 overall and 15–19 in the second half in inter-divisional bouts.
POWER POINTS: Charlie McConnell has not committed an error in 63 consecutive games (May 15 at Charleston)… The Power went 4-for-16 with RISP, stranding 10 men… Espino has tossed nine consecutive scoreless innings (July 27-current)… Sanders posted his seventh multi-hit game with West Virginia… Onyshko has not given up an earned run over his last six innings… DeAires Moses smoked the Power’s 19th triple of the year in his first at-bat with West Virginia.
ON THE AIR: West Virginia Power games can be heard on The Jock 1300 and 1340 AM in the Kanawha Valley, online at wvpower.com and on the TuneIn Radio App. David Kahn and Kyle Youmans will handle play-by-play duties in 2019. Monday’s pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
