Game 90 Preview: Power vs. Shorebirds
Game #90 — Home Game #44
Delmarva Shorebirds (14–5, 62–26) at West Virginia Power (9–10, 46–43)
Wednesday, July 10–7:05 p.m.
Appalachian Power Park (Charleston, W. Va.)
DE LOS SANTOS FANS NINE IN 9–0 LOSS: Josias De Los Santos struck out a career-best nine batters, but West Virginia’s offense could not get anything going against Ryan Wilson and Felix Bautista, mustering just two hits in a 9–0 loss to the Delmarva Shorebirds Tuesday evening at Appalachian Power Park. De Los Santos buzzed his way through the first inning, notching a 1–2–3 frame on just nine pitches. Wilson scurried his way through the first two batters, but served up a two-out double to Julio Rodriguezbefore battling back to strike out Jake Anchia and end the threat. Both starters traded zeroes until the fifth, when De Los Santos ran into trouble. Ben Breazeale doubled to start the frame before moving to third on a flyout by Alexis Torres. Nick Horvath brought him in with an RBI single before stealing second and promptly scoring on Adam Hall’s one-out two-bagger. A wild pitch and a passed ball plated Hall to give Delmarva a 3–0 edge. De Los Santos recovered to toss a perfect sixth and fan his ninth batter of the evening in Seamus Curran, but Wilson outdueled him, hurling a career-best seven innings and striking out a career-high 11 men. The Power only managed one other hit against the lefty, a fourth-inning single by Bobby Honeyman. The Shorebirds tacked on six more runs late against Sal Biasi and Elias Espino, while Bautista shut down West Virginia over the final two innings, not allowing a hit and striking out three.
PITCHING MATCH-UP:
RHP Clay Chandler (7–4, 3.87 ERA) toes the slab for West Virginia, while Delmarva opposes with RHP Hector Guance (6–3, 3.74 ERA).
Chandler is coming off his strongest outing of the second half so far, tossing six innings, surrendering just one run and striking out eight against Lexington in a no-decision July 4. He enters his first career start against the Shorebirds among the league leaders in innings (100.0, 2nd), wins (7, T-2nd) and strikeouts (92, T-8th).
Guance makes his 14th start for the Shorebirds this season and has earned a winning decision in four of his last five starts. The right-hander has not allowed more than three earned runs in an outing this season and has only suffered one loss since the end of May. The 23-year-old will make his first career start against the Power and is coming off an outing where he conceded just two hits and one run in a win over Hagerstown.
POWER LINEUP:
Ryan Ramiz — LF
Mike Salvatore — SS
Julio Rodriguez — RF
Bobby Honeyman — 3B
David Sheaffer — DH
Jake Anchia — C
Onil Pena — 1B
Joseph Rosa — 2B
Charlie McConnell — CF
Clay Chandler — RHP
GAME NOTES:
DOMINANT DE LOS SANTOS: De Los Santos was on cruise control much of the night for the Power, notching his second career quality start (August 3, 2018, in the Dominican Summer League), as well as his first six-inning outing of the season. He blew past his previous career-high in strikeouts (5, two times), reaching that plateau after just three innings. In his last three starts, De Los Santos is boasting a 3.38 ERA (6 ER/16 IP) with 16 strikeouts.
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: After notching his fourth-inning single, Honeyman extended his hitting streak to five games, the longest active streak on the team. In this span, the infielder is averaging .238 (5-for-21) with two RBI and two runs scored, and has only struck out three times. In fact, Honeyman has only fanned three times over his last 10 games, stretching across 40 at-bats.
ROSA TABBED AS SAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Amidst an incredible stretch of six consecutive multi-hit games, Joseph 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 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, the best average in Minor League Baseball, with five extra-base hits, seven RBI and seven runs scored, along with a .947 OPS.
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 total to 47, tied with Asheville’s Terrin Vavra and Delmarva’s Cadyn Grenier for third-most in the SAL.
BULLPEN BULLY BRYAN: 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-STAR REWIND: The American League defeated the National League, 4–3, to claim their seventh straight All-Star Game at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. Three former Power players participated in the All-Star Game, with Josh Bell tabbed as the starting designated hitter for the NL and Michael Brantley claiming the same token in left field for the AL. Bell went 1-for-2, while Brantley stroked a double and worked a walk before being lifted for another former Power player in Austin Meadows. The 2014 West Virginia outfielder was hitless in his only at-bat.
POWER POINTS: Rosa saw his six-game hitting streak snapped yesterday after an 0-for-3 performance. The infielder held a .583 (14-for-24) average during this stretch… Anchia’s season-best 15-game on-base streak fell by the wayside as he went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, tied for the most he has had in a game this year (seven times)… The Power’s two hits Tuesday night are tied for the lowest they have had in game, equaling their output June 21 in Lakewood… Chandler enters Wednesday’s outing against Delmarva with the second-most innings (100.0) and wins (7) in the 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.
