WINSTON-SALEM — The Down East Wood Ducks got in a few revenge licks against the Dash on Sunday, scoring more runs than in three previous games during their 3-1 series in Winston-Salem.
When the Winston-Salem Dash clinched a first-half title last week, triumph over their Carolina League South competitors marked a graduation of sorts for several outstanding first-half players.
Shipped up the ladder to Double-A Birmingham are startering pitchers Dylan Cease and Bernardo Flores, outfielders Luis Basabe, Joel Booker, and Alex Call, and relievers Matt Foster and Zach Thompson.
The Dash will certainly miss Booker’s on-base table-setting of the offensive production of Basabe, the steadiness of Cease and Flores and the lockdown ability of their firemen Foster and Thompson.
Fortunately for Winston-Salem, its feeder club, the Low-A Kannapolis Intimidators, also had a great deal of success in the South Atlantic League’s first-half and will contribute a gaggle of talented players to High-A Winston’s second-half efforts.
Headed north are starters Blake Battenfield and Lincoln Henzman, reliever Tyler Johnson, infielder Laz Rivera and outfielders Luis González and Luis Robert. Both Luises are making waves, Gonzalez a third-round pick of the White Sox in 2017 and Robert a high-profile Cuban signee of the South Siders.
There will be playoff games in the Foothills, but can Omar’s boys run the regular season table? The slate begins with four game set against Kinston’s Down East Wood Ducks, an affiliate of the Texas Rangers.
THURSDAY WOOD DUCKS 2, DASH 4
Luis Robert got off to a flying start with a single, a stolen base, and a score in his first Carolina League inning. The centerfielder scored on an RBI double by Micker Adolfo, who came up lame turning second but sufficiently recovered to homer in the fourth. Adolfo’s shot was immediately preceded by Blake Rutherford’s liner into the same right-field bleachers, the back-to-back jacks giving the home team a 3-1 lead they would not relinquish. The Dash added another in the fifth on a sac fly by Robert, making it four runs (three earned) allowed in the five frames of Woodies starter Steven Bruce.
The lefty Tanner Banks punched in a characteristically strong outing for Winston-Salem, going seven and allowing just two runs. Banks allowed a run in the second on back-to-back doubles by Andretty Cordero and Brendon Davis and another in the fifth on a single by Anderson Tejeda, a double by Alex Kowalczyk, and a groundout by Chuck Leblanc. The only other hits Banks allowed were a single by Leody Taveras and another double by Cordero. Mitch Roman and Zach Remillard had singles for the Dash, Gavin Sheets a double.
Down East got two shutout innings (and five strikeouts) from Kaleb Fontenot and one from Jacob Shortslef, Winton-Salem getting one from Danny Dopico and another from Mike Morrison, who got the save following a brief rain delay. Banks now has seven wins on the year, Bruce falling to 1-4 and his Wood Ducks falling below .500 on the season at 35-36
FRIDAY WOOD DUCKS 2, DASH 8
The Dash won again Friday, an offensive explosion backing one of the finest starts Luis Martínez has had in the Carolina League.
The Venezuelan tossed six innings and allowed just an unearned run, riding a fastball touching 97 with tailing action and a mid-eighties slider with lateral movement to push his ERA into the threes.
The Woodies took advantage of an inning-opening error with a hit by Eric Jenkins and an RBI single by Leody Taveras. The second run for the visitors came in the seventh off reliever Connor Walsh, a sac fly by Jenkins following up a double by Brendon Davis. Kyle Kubat threw a pair of easy innings to wrap it up for Winston-Salem.
Down East’s Walker Weickel struggled despite throwing quality stuff, popping a mid-nineties fastball with movement paired with a mid-eighties curve with 12-to-6 movement, yet surrendered five runs in just three-and-two-thirds innings of work.
Laz Rivera smacked an early double for his first Dash hit, quickly scoring on a two-run homer by Blake Rutherford. Mitch Roman and Luis Robert singled and scored on Rutherford’s double sprayed down the left-field line, and Rutherford came around on Micker Adolfo’s hit as the home team plated three in the third.
Winston-Salem scored another in the sixth when Ti’Quan Forbes homered off Samir Vivas and two more in the seventh off Cole Wiper as Rutherford and Adolfo singled and scored on a double by Yermín Mercedes and a groundout by Forbes. Duke alum Michael Matuella struck out the side 1-2-3 in the eighth.
THURSDAY WOOD DUCKS 3, DASH 5
The Dash won yet again Saturday afternoon as Jimmy Lambert settled in for ten strikeouts over eight outstanding innings despite some early thunder from the visiting bats.
This was the second straight start in which Lambert completed eight and exhibited a legitimate four-pitch mix. The Woodies plated one in the third and two in the fourth, the first on a solo homer by Eric Jenkins and the others on a two-run shot by Brendon Davis. Tyler Johnson pitched the ninth and earned the save in his Carolina League debut.
Wood Ducks starter Emerson Martínez had the measure of the Dash lineup early on, striking out three in the first and managing to compile ten before he was knocked out with two outs in the fifth. Martínez allowed just one unearned run prior to the fifth (on a first-inning single by Gavin Sheets), dealing primarily a fastball in the mid-nineties, a sinker/cutter in the upper-eighties and the occasional changeup thrown in the mix.
The game was meandering lazily in the fifth when Micker Adolfo produced a bolt from the blue, crushing a three-run home run to straightaway center with two away and runners on the corners following a single by Mitch Roman and a walk by Luis González.
SUNDAY WOOD DUCKS 11, DASH 1
The Dash finally lost Thursday as Blake Hickman and the bullpen were beat up, the offense shut down by Sal Mendez, Jacob Shortslef, and Kaleb Fontenot. Josh Altmann homered twice for Down East, while Andretty Cordero and Eric Jenkins each had two hits and Leody Taveras tallied three plus two RBI. Altmann doubled in addition to his dingers, and Jenkins tripled for one of his. Even light-hitting catcher Melvin Novoa notched two knocks, one of which was a two-bagger. Laz Rivera knocked in Winston-Salem’s only run, Luis González managing the team’s only extra-base hit
NOTES
Brendon Davis, acquired from the Dodgers by the Rangers in last year’s Yu Darvish trade, was a revelation over the weekend, doubling Thursday and Friday and stealing the show in the early innings Saturday. The shortstop nearly homered his first time up, did homer his second, and made a nice pick moving to his left on a short-hop.
Andretty Cordero, not a hyped prospect by any means, was impressive this series. The first baseman had a hit in each of the four games and two apiece Thursday and Sunday. They weren’t all singles either.
Leody Taveras and Anderson Tejeda come with their share of hype, not without merit. Taveras is rangy in center, fast on the bases, and convincing from each side of the plate. Taveras, from Dominican Republic, played last season in the Sally League at age 18 and held his own even if the numbers were underwhelming. He is doing the same this year as a 19-year old in High-A.
Tejeda, who mostly played at second over the weekend, had the most professional at-bats of anyone in the Down East lineup, showing great bat-to-ball skills and spraying liners around the park. Not surprising he led the league in first-half RBIs.
Last but not least is the outfielder from Chadbourn in Columbus County NC, Eric Jenkins. Jenkins got the call up from Hickory to Kinston earlier this season and had been struggling against High-A pitching coming into the weekend. Jenkins turned it around against Dash pitching, hitting his first Carolina League homer and taking a few hits and RBI with him.
