Game 89 Preview: Power vs. Shorebirds
Game #89 — Home Game #43
Delmarva Shorebirds (13–5, 61–26) at West Virginia Power (9–9, 46–42)
Tuesday, July 9–7:05 p.m.
Appalachian Power Park (Charleston, W. Va.)
POWER ERASES FOUR-RUN DEFICIT IN LOSS: West Virginia worked its way out of an early 4–0 hole, but could not hold on to a late lead, as the Lexington Legends walked it off on a Chris Hudgins’ RBI single in the 10th inning to take the series finale, 6–5, Sunday afternoon at Whitaker Bank Ballpark. Steven Moyers suffered from one harsh frame, as the Legends tallied four runs on one swing in the second when Jeison Guzman stroked a grand slam to right field that put Lexington ahead 4–0. The Power recovered quickly, as Joseph Rosa ripped an RBI triple to right, Yohanse Morel uncorked a wild pitch and Charlie McConnell laced a two-run single, tying the game at four in the third. Nick Rodriguez blasted a solo home run to lead off the fourth, vaulting West Virginia to a 5–4 edge that they would hold until the eighth. Moyers twirled four straight three-up, three-down frames to preserve the cushion, retiring the final 11 batters he faced. Reeves Martin took over in the eighth and saw three of his first four batters climb aboard to load the bases. Martin fanned Chase Vallot for the second out of the inning, but let loose a wild pitch that brought in a run and knotted the game at five. Bryan Pall fired a scoreless ninth to push the game to extras, but the Power was unable to score their inherited runner in the top of the tenth. Meanwhile, Ben Onyshko walked the first batter he faced in the bottom of the tenth to put runners at first and second. Hudgins then delivered a walk-off single to cap the 6–5 loss.
PITCHING MATCH-UP:
RHP Josias De Los Santos (1–5, 5.36 ERA) toes the slab for West Virginia, while LHP Ryan Wilson (3–3, 3.40 ERA) takes the hill for Delmarva.
De Los Santos is coming off his first win of the 2019 season after he tossed five innings, surrendered three runs on seven hits and fanned three hitters. This outing is the first career appearance for the 19-year-old against the Shorebirds.
Wilson has emerged as a solid option in the rotation for the Shorebirds in the midst of some Midseason call-ups. Wilson is in his second season with Delmarva after spending much of last year in the bullpen (23 appearances, 2 starts). The 22-year-old’s most recent outing lasted six innings where he allowed two runs and struck out a career-high ten hitters against Lakewood. He has hurled four consecutive quality starts leading into Tuesday’s opener.
POWER LINEUP:
J.R. Davis — RF
Mike Salvatore — SS
Julio Rodriguez — CF
Jake Anchia — C
Bobby Honeyman — 3B
David Sheaffer — LF
Onil Pena — 1B
Joseph Rosa — DH
Nick Rodriguez — 2B
Josias De Los Santos — RHP
GAME NOTES:
ROSA TABBED AS SAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Amidst an incredible stretch of six consecutive multi-hit games, Rosa was named the South Atlantic League’s Player of the Week (July 1–7), the league announced Monday. This award is Rosa’s first weekly honor of his career, as well as the second weekly league honor for a Power player this season (Clay Chandler, SAL Pitcher of the Week, April 22–28). The last West Virginia slugger to claim this weekly accolade was OF Calvin Mitchell (April 16–22, 2018). Throughout his five-game stretch, Rosa boasted a .632 (12-for-19) clip with five extra-base hits, seven RBI and seven runs scored, along with a .947 OPS. Following his 2-for-3 effort with a double, a triple and an RBI Sunday, Rosa notched his 22nd multi-hit game of the year, the most multi-hit contests by any Power player in 2019. The infielder is 14-for-24 (.583) with seven RBI and eight runs scored across his six-game multi-hit streak against Hickory, Kannapolis and Lexington. Rosa had been hitless in his last 10 at-bats prior to this mini surge.
CHI, CHI, CHI, CHIA: Despite going 0-for-4 Sunday, Jake Anchia extended his season-long on-base streak to 15 games (June 20-present) by working a walk in the third. He has hit safely in all but two of those contests (June 30 and July 7). During the second half, the West Virginia backstop is boasting a .293 (17-for-58) stroke with two homers and nine RBI.
RAH, RAH, RAH RAH-MIZ: Ryan Ramiz has been a rather consistent source of production for the Power over his last nine games, dating back to June 30. The Freehold, N.J., native has recorded a hit in seven of them and holds a .333 (9-for-27) average with two homers, seven RBI and three runs scored. In that span, Ramiz has also earned seven free passes, upping his season total to 47, tied with Asheville’s Terrin Vavra for third-most in the South Atlantic League.
BULLPEN BULLY BRYAN: Pall spun a shutdown ninth inning in Sunday’s series finale loss to Lexington, his third consecutive scoreless outing. The South Atlantic League Midseason All-Star has only coughed up one earned run in his last eight appearances going back to June 6, spanning nine innings (1.00 ERA). In the second half, Pall is 1–0 with a 1.29 ERA in five appearances with 10 strikeouts compared to two walks and an opponent average of .130 against him.
ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END: Despite hurling seven innings for the sixth time this season, Moyers failed to notch his eighth consecutive quality start. Across his seven-quality start streak, the left-hander gave up 10 earned runs over 48.0 innings of work, good for a 1.88 ERA, the second-lowest ERA in the SAL during that stretch (May 28-July 2), along with 46 strikeouts. The University of Rhode Island product has now hurled at least six innings in 14 of his 17 starts this season, and has only ceded more than three runs in five of them. Moyers still leads the SAL in both innings (107.0) and strikeouts (107), and remains the lone league hurler to have more than 100 innings and strikeouts this season. West Virginia has not had a pitcher with at least 100 innings pitched and 100 strikeouts since 2017, when both Luis Escobar and Eduardo Vera crossed those thresholds, with Escobar posting a Power single-season record 168 punchouts over 131.2 frames. Vera locked up 109 hitters through 132.1 innings of work.
POWER POINTS: West Virginia went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven men on base… Rosa collected the Power’s 10th triple of the season… McConnell posted his 15th multi-hit game and sixth multi-RBI game of the season… With N-Rod’s blast, West Virginia now has 71 home runs as a team, third-most in the league (Greensboro, 87 and Hickory, 97)… Rosa’s 10 hits in the Lexington four-game set are the most by a Power batter in any series this year.
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. Tuesday’s pregame coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the West Virginia Power Baseball Network.
