Game 31 Preview: GreenJackets at Power
Game #31 — Home Game #14
Augusta GreenJackets (15–14) at West Virginia Power (17–12)
Wednesday, May 8–7:05 p.m.
Appalachian Power Park (Charleston, W.Va.)
POWER DROPS FINALE 6–3: Onil Pena drilled his second home run of the season as part of a three-run second inning, but the Power fell in Monday’s series finale to the Greensboro Grasshoppers, 6–3, at First National Bank Field. Greensboro scratched a run across in the first on Michael Gretler’s RBI double for a 1–0 lead, but West Virginia responded in the second with Pena’s leadoff jack to tie the game. Cesar Trejo followed that with a base hit to left, moved to second on a wild pitch and stole third before Nick Rodriguez doubled him in to give the Power a 2–1 lead. After Rodriguez was pushed to third on a balk by Nicholas Economos, Cesar Izturis Jr. singled to right, plating Rodriguez and increasing West Virginia’s lead to 3–1. However, the Grasshoppers tagged Steven Moyers for a run in the fourth on Rodolfo Castro’s third home run of the series and two more in the fifth and seventh to vault themselves back in front, 6–3. Moyers ended up tossing the second-most innings he has in a start this season, lasting 6.2 innings, but allowed a career-high 10 hits and season-high tying six runs while striking out seven and not walking a batter. Sal Biasi and Greensboro native Devin Sweet spun the final 1.1 innings and ceded just one hit while Sweet picked up a strikeout.
PITCHING MATCH-UP:
RHP Josias De Los Santos (0–1, 6.75 ERA) makes his second start for West Virginia, while Augusta goes with RHP Sean Hjelle (0–2, 3.04 ERA).
De Los Santos makes his home debut for the Power after appearing in the series finale at Lakewood last week. In the outing, the righty was tabbed with the loss after four innings pitched, three runs allowed and two strikeouts.
Hjelle, on the other hand, will make his team-high seventh start of the season for Augusta and his first against West Virginia. The Minnesota native was originally slated to start game four of the GreenJackets first road trip to Appalachian Power Park, but was pushed back a start due to the postponed game. The former second-round pick is coming off a start against Lexington where he lasted four innings and allowed one unearned run in a no-decision in Augusta.
POWER LINEUP:
J.R. Davis — 2B
Jarred Kelenic — CF
Joseph Rosa — SS
Onil Pena — 1B
Ryan Ramiz — LF
Bobby Honeyman — 3B
Jake Anchia — C
Cesar Trejo — DH
Charlie McConnell — RF
Josias De La Santos — RHP
GAME NOTES:
THE LONG BALL: Pena’s long ball was West Virginia’s fourth home run of the road trip, and third of the series against Greensboro (Jarred Kelenic, May 4; and Dean Nevarez, May 5). The Power has now homered in three straight games. Overall, West Virginia has 23 home runs as a team on the season, third-most in the South Atlantic League behind Greensboro (40) and the Hickory Crawdads (37). Conversely, the Power’s pitching staff has given up the third-fewest homers in the SAL (15), sitting behind just Delmarva (12) and Charleston (13). Pena hit his first home run since April 17. West Virginia is 10–6 when hitting a home run in a game this season.
HE’S ALL ABOUT THAT BASE: Despite an 0-for-3 day, Kelenic worked a walk in his first at-bat to extend his on-base streak to 23 games (dating back to April 10). During this span, the outfielder is averaging .402 (35-for-87) with seven homers, 11 doubles and 19 RBI. Kelenic’s on-base streak is tied for the second-longest in Class A ball this season (Grant Lavigne, Asheville, 24 games), and the longest active with Rome’s Trey Harris (Rome). The Mariners’ number two prospect has reached base safely in 26 of his 28 games (April 8 and 9 are the games he hasn’t reached base).
GLAD TO BE HOME: West Virginia is very happy to be back inside their friendly confines of Appalachian Power Park, where they are 11–2 on the season, the second-best home record in the South Atlantic League (Delmarva, 12–2). The Power is coming off a rather poor road swing, during which they went 2–5 and lost their last five games, dropping their road mark to 6–10. They are one of five teams in the league to have double digit losses on the road in 2019. West Virginia scored the lowest runs they have on a road trip all season (14), as well as struck out the most times (73) and gave up the most runs (34) and home runs (5) they have on a road swing.
THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BROOM: The Power were swept for the first time this season in their four-game series against the Greensboro Grasshoppers. West Virginia had not been swept in a four-game series since dropping all four games at Intimidators Stadium from July 25–26 against Kannapolis in back-to-back doubleheaders. The Grasshoppers outscored the Power by 13 runs in the four-game set, the same run differential West Virginia has posted in each of their two sweeps this season (April 15–17 vs. Lakewood and April 22–24 vs. Columbia).
LAST TIME AGAINST THE GREENJACKETS: West Virginia enjoyed their first series against the Augusta GreenJackets from April 11–13, kicking off their home schedule with their third shutout win of the year that saw Ryne Inman dominate over six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. The GreenJackets battled back to hand the Power their largest margin of defeat of the season (which still stands) Friday night, but West Virginia edged Augusta Saturday on a sacrifice fly from Trejo, while Moyers hurled seven scoreless frames and fanned a career-high nine batters. Sunday’s series finale was rained out and will be made up as part of a doubleheader this Thursday, May 9.
NEW-LOOK POWER: Since Monday’s game, the Seattle Mariners have announced a slew of roster moves affecting the Power’s roster. Here’s all of the transactions that have gone through:
- RHP Nolan Hoffman placed on the injured list (5/6); INF Connor Hoover transferred to Extended Spring Training (5/7)
- RHP Deivy Florido transferred to the Power from Extended Spring Training (5/6); OF J.R. Davis transferred to the Power from Triple-A Tacoma (5/7)
POWER POINT: Kelenic stole his sixth base of the season, tied for the 15th-most swipes in the South Atlantic League.
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. Wednesday’s pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
