Game 40 Preview: Power at RiverDogs
Game #40 — Road Game #20
West Virginia Power (20–18) at Charleston RiverDogs (22–17)
Thursday, May 16–7:05 p.m.
Jospeh P. Riley Jr. Park (Charleston, S.C.)
RIVERDOGS WALK IT OFF IN EXTRAS: West Virginia rallied from five runs down to tie it in the ninth, but the RiverDogs were able to scratch across the winning run on a Josh Stowers RBI single in the 11th to win it, 7–6, Wednesday evening at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park. The Power got the scoring going in the opening frame, with Jarred Kelenic smoking an RBI single for a 1–0 lead. Charleston responded right back in the second, tagging Ryne Inman for a pair of runs to take a 2–1 lead. The RiverDogs built up a five-run advantage with one in the third and fifth before plating two in the sixth to go up 6–1. However, West Virginia clawed back into it with two runs in the seventh on an RBI groundout from Cesar Izturis Jr. and a run-scoring single from Charlie McConnell, shrinking the deficit to 6–3. In the ninth, the Power capped their comeback effort with a three-run frame against Anderson Munoz, as Nick Rodriguez brought in Onil Pena with a groundout, Dean Nevarez scored on a wild pitch and J.R. Davis blooped a single to center that tied the game at six. Meanwhile, Devin Sweet contained the RiverDogs for the seventh and eighth, allowing just one hit, whileDayesion Arias stranded Stowers at third in the bottom of the ninth by striking out the side to send us to extras. Neither team was able to scratch a run across in the 10th, and Aaron McGarity held West Virginia scoreless in the top of the 11th, while Charleston immediately moved their placed on runner to third on a sacrifice bunt for the second straight inning, and Stowers stroked his two-out game-winning knock to center field.
PITCHING MATCH-UP:
RHP Damon Casetta-Stubbs (2–1, 6.75 ERA) makes his third start for West Virginia, while Charleston goes with RHP Luis Gil (1–2, 1.00 ERA).
Casetta-Stubbs makes his fifth appearance of the season for West Virginia after starting the season with back-to-back shutout wins. However, in his last two appearances, the righty has surrendered at least six runs and has not escaped the fifth. In his last outing, Casetta-Stubbs conceded seven runs on eight hits in 4.1 innings of work against the Kannapolis Intimidators.
Gil has only granted three earned runs to cross the plate over the course of his first six starts with Charleston. The 20-year-old is coming off a loss in his last outing against Columbia, where he lasted five innings and gave up just two unearned runs. Gil has struck out at least eight hitters in each of his last four starts, tallying nine strikeouts in three of those outings.
POWER LINEUP:
Johnny Slater— RF
Jarred Kelenic — CF
J.R. Davis — DH
Ryan Ramiz — LF
Bobby Honeyman — 3B
Onil Pena — 1B
Jake Anchia — C
Joesph Rosa— 2B
Cesar Izturis Jr. — SS
Damon Casetta-Stubbs— RHP
GAME NOTES:
OH MY ONIL: Pena has thrived in his first two games against the RiverDogs, going 3-for-6 with a home run, an RBI and three runs scored. The first baseman became the second Power batter to homer in consecutive games this season with his fourth-inning blast in the series opener Tuesday (Kelenic, April 26 and 27 against Asheville). The Dominican Republic native is also riding a season-long 11-game on-base streak, during which he is averaging .237 (9-for-38) with three homers, four RBI, two doubles, seven runs scored and eight walks.
ALMIGHTY ANCHIA: Jake Anchia had been on quite the tear recently, averaging .391 (9-for-23) in his last six games with four homers and nine RBI. The backstop recorded his first career multi-home run game in Thursday’s twin bill opener, becoming the third Power batter to do so this season (Nevarez, April 26 vs. Asheville and Kelenic, April 27 vs. Asheville). Anchia is the first batter to homer in back-to-back at-bats since Trae Arbet on April 12, 2017, vs. Asheville. The Nova Southeastern product collected a career-best five RBI Thursday, the first West Virginia slugger to accomplish the feat since Deon Stafford’s six-RBI effort August 11, 2018, at Rome.
PILING UP THE STRIKEOUTS: West Virginia’s pitching staff compiled 13 strikeouts Wednesday evening, fanning double-digit batters for the 22nd time. Their season-high in strikeouts is 19, which they have accomplished twice (April 6 at Greenville and April 15 vs. Lakewood). The Power’s 393 total strikeouts are third-most in the South Atlantic League, but sit just three behind the leaders, Charleston and Kannapolis.
BY THE SLIMMEST OF MARGINS: West Virginia dropped its seventh game by one run this season, moving their record to 7–7 in one-run contests in 2019. The Power has played the sixth-most one-run games in the South Atlantic League (Greenville, 20, 9–11). However, West Virginia is tied for the fourth-best winning percentage in one-run affairs at .500.
DOMINANT DAYEISON: Though Arias was saddled with the loss last night, he tossed 2.2 solid innings, giving up just one hit and striking out four. Arias spun 2.2 innings for the second time in his career, while his four punchouts set a new season-high. The reliever has not allowed an earned run in his last eight appearances, spanning 12.2 innings. During that stretch, he has struck out 17 batters compared to just three walks. Arias has only ceded an earned run in three of his team-high 15 appearances.
RODRIGUEZ STARTING TO ROLL: Rodriguez has reached base safely in eight of his last nine games, dating back to May 5. In that span, the infielder has posted a .310 (9-for-29) clip with three RBI, two runs scored and two doubles.
ROAD WOES: West Virginia has dropped its last seven road games, dating back to May 2 in Lakewood, when the BlueClaws thumped the Power, 10–0. West Virginia holds a 6–12 road mark, the fourth-worst winning percentage away from their friendly confines. The Power has not lost more than seven road games since an eight-game stretch 7/13–7/26/18.
POWER POINTS: West Virginia is 1–14 when allowing six or more runs in a game… The Power dropped their fourth game of the year when outhitting their opponent (14–4)… West Virginia dropped to 16–6 when scoring first in a game.
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. Thursday’s pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
