Game Notes 8/31/15: Intimidators at Suns
Kannapolis Intimidators at Hagerstown Suns
Monday, August 31, 2015–7:05 p.m.
Municipal Stadium (open 1930) — Hagerstown, Md.
Game #132 of 139
RHP Jose Brito (1–2, 4.32) vs. LHP Connor Bach (6–4, 3.67)
Intimidators: 27–34–1 Second Half, 62–68–1 (Chicago White Sox)
Suns: 29–33 Second Half, 64–66 (Washington Nationals)
Today’s Preview: The Intimidators (A, White Sox) can secure a series win today against the Suns (A, Nationals) with a win in Game 3 of this 5-game series. Kannapolis has won the first two games of the series with a 9–4 victory on Saturday followed by Sunday’s 5–4 win. Today Jose Brito takes the mound for his third start of the season after spending most of the year in the Intimidators’ bullpen. With just eight games left in the 2015 regular season, Kannapolis needs to win seven games to finish at .500 on the season. Kannapolis leads the season-series over Hagerstown, 9–7.
Intimidating Starter: Jose Brito, 24, makes his third start and 16th appearance with the Intimidators this season. In two starts, the right-hander is 0–1 with a 7.71 ERA (6 ER/7.0 IP) and seven strikeouts compared to 1–1 with a 3.63 ERA (14 ER/34.2 IP) and 21 strikeouts in 13 relief appearances. Brito is coming off a no decision in an August 26 start against the Shorebirds, allowing six runs (three earned) on six hits over 3.2 innings. His longest outing of the season came in relief on June 27 in which he spun 5.1 innings, allowing a run on four hits against Asheville in the longest appearance by an Intimidators reliever this season. He opened the season with 16 games with Class A-Advanced Winston-Salem, going 2–3 with a 4.66 ERA before joining Kannapolis on June 15. Overall, Brito is 3–5 with a 4.46 ERA in 31 games between the two classifications.
Suns Starter: Connor Bach, 23, makes his 19th start and 25th appearance of the season. He is 6–4 with a 3.51 ERA in 18 starts compared to 0–0 with a 4.34 ERA in six relief appearances. Bach has faced Kannapolis three times this season with two starts, going 1–1 with a 2.08 ERA (3 ER/13.0 IP) and 12 strikeouts. The Intimidators are batting .200 (10–50) against the left-hander. Bach leads the South Atlantic League with 65 walks and has walked at least one batter in all 24 games in which he has appeared this season. He is coming off a no decision August 26 at Lakewood, allowing six runs on five hits in 2.0 innings. His last win came in Kannapolis on August 16 in the first game of a doubleheader, limiting the Intimidators to two runs (one earned) on two hits over 5.0 innings. Bach is in his first season in Class A ball after making his professional debut last season between the GCL Nationals and Short-Season Auburn, going 1–0 with a 3.31 ERA (12 ER/32.2 IP) with 27 strikeouts but 29 walks in 15 games (one start). The Nationals selected him out of Virginia Military Institute in the 21st round of the June 2014 First-Year Player Draft.
About Last Night: The Intimidators broke a tie in the top of the eighth to beat the Suns, 5–4, on Sunday at Hagerstown’s Municipal Stadium. With the game tied 4–4 in the eighth inning, Cody Daily doubled with two outs off reliever David Napoli and used a pair of wild pitches to score the go-ahead run for a 5–4 Intimidators advantage. Daily finished 2–3 with a walk and two runs scored. Lechich went 2–5 with a career-high-tying three RBI and a run scored. Reliever Connor Walsh struck out all four batters he faced in the seventh but got into trouble in the eighth. Johnathan Frebis took over with two on and one out in the eighth inning. He walked the first batter he faced, loading the bases, before retiring the next five batters he faced to finish the game. Frebis earn his first professional save (1), and Walsh notched the win (1–3).
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We’re Going Streaking: Kannapolis won its third straight game, the first 3-game winning streak for the Intimidators since July 31-August 2 when the team took three in a row against Greensboro. The Intimidators will play for their first 4-game winning streak since June 18–25 when Kannapolis finished the First Half with three wins and opened the Second Half with a walk-off victory over Asheville. A 4-game winning streak would match the longest by the team this season.
Whiffed By Walsh: Connor Walsh fanned the first four batters he faced, striking out the side in the seventh inning, including a strikeout-wild pitch that allowed Osvaldo Abreu to reach base. It’s the second straight appearance for Walsh to fan four batters in a single inning. He struck out seven batters in 2.0 innings on August 26 against Delmarva. He ranks 40th in the league with 75 strikeouts in only 48.1 innings, which is tied for 134th in innings pitched. Since making his season debut May 6, Walsh ranks tied for 18th in the league in strikeouts, and since July 12, his 40 strikeouts are tied for sixth in the league in more than 10 fewer innings than anyone else ahead of him.
Lechich’s Long Ball: Louie Lechich blasted his team-leading sixth home run on Sunday, a three-run laser beam to right-center field that gave Kannapolis a 4–3 lead in the fifth inning. Lechich has hit the last two Intimidators home runs, with his most recent coming August 17 at Asheville. Lechich now ranks fourth in the league with 68 RBI. He is also second in the league with 122 games played and third with 460 at-bats.
Thomas on a Tear: Infielder Toby Thomas went 2–3 on Sunday to extend his hitting streak to a season-long 10 games since August 19, tying for the second-longest hitting streak of his career. He is batting .368 (14–38) with four doubles, a triple, and eight RBI on this streak. Thomas has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games, batting .346 (18–52) since August 14. He is batting .297 (27–91) in 25 games in August. Thomas opened his career with a hot bat by beginning a 16-game hitting streak in only his fifth professional game, hitting safely from June 27-July 18, 2013, with Advanced Rookie Bristol, batting .420 (29–69) in that span. He ended 2013 on a 10-game hitting for the Bristol White Sox from August 17–29, 2013, batting .366 (15–41) to wrap his professional debut season.
Daniel’s Dandy Debut: Catcher Daniel Gonzalez went 2–3 with a walk on Sunday, improving his average to .500 (3–6) in two games with Class A Kannapolis. He made his debut Saturday, going 1–3 with two RBI, a run scored, and a walk. Gonzalez threw out a base runner on Sunday for the second straight game. He is now 2–2 in throwing out attempting base stealers with the Intimidators after throwing out nine of 24 (.375) with the Arizona League White Sox.
Pitcher of the Week: Reliever David Trexler has been named South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week for the week of August 24–30. He turned in the best outing of his career on Saturday, retiring 12 of 13 batters faced to close the game against Hagerstown for his seventh save. He spun a career-long 4.0 innings and fanned a career-high nine batters. He is the fourth Intimidators arm to earn the award this season, following two-time winner Jordan Guerrero (April 9–19 and May 11–17) and Yency Almonte (June 29-July 4). Trexler is the first reliever to win the award this season.
Don’t Mess With Trex: Reliever David Trexler spun a perfect sixth inning and struck out the side in the seventh, eighth, and ninth inning on Saturday in Hagerstown — including eight straight strikeouts from the seventh into the ninth inning. Trexler’s eight straight strikeouts are the most by an Intimidators arm this season, surpassing the seven consecutive strikeouts by Connor Walsh on Tuesday, August 26 against Delmarva. The nine strikeouts by Trexler are the most by a Kannapolis pitcher since May 11 when Jordan Guerrero struck out 10 at Lexington.
Broadcast Information: All games will be broadcast live on the Kannapolis Intimidators Baseball Network at online at IntimidatorsBaseball.com and via TuneIn Radio App with the Josh Feldman, in his fifth season as the “Voice of the Intimidators.” Nick Nollenberger, in his first year with the team, will assist with play-by-play during weekend home games.
