WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The Dash led most of the game behind strong pitching, until the pitching was no longer strong. Zach Remillard continued this thing he’s doing where if someone throws him a baseball, he hits it, and his first-inning single knocked in the first Dash run of the game. The second came in the third, a truly majestic tater mashed by Steele Walker. Like I said yesterday, Walker’s recent slump is almost certainly temporary, and this dinger’s size and speed gave credence to that theory. Anyway, that was it for the Dash scoring.; they were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, a consistent problem this season.
That baseball had a family, Steele Walker. Dash lead 2-0 pic.twitter.com/7Klp19hJCr
— Julie Brady (@DestroyBaseball) May 22, 2019
Jameson Fisher had a hit and Remillard ended up with two and a walk. Remillard is still on fire; his hits generally end up singles, but does that really matter when your season OBP is verging on .400?
Zach Remillard came out of the womb with a silver bat in his hands pic.twitter.com/D2WXJKknKk
— Julie Brady (@DestroyBaseball) May 21, 2019
There was some interesting defense by both teams. It’s almost like they both discovered the shift; the Woodpeckers aggressively shifted several Dash batters to the right side of the infield, and the Dash infield spent an entire inning planted on the left side, minus Fisher. It was a little strange and ended up not mattering as Heuer got every out of that inning himself.
I would like to talk about Jameson Fisher! I never have videos of his defense because I’m not going to film him every time a pitch is thrown, but he has gone from passing the eye test at first base to acing the eye test at first base. It’s not easy to play first for a minor league team full stop, and especially not one with as many strong but wild arms as this Dash infield has. He handles it all with grace and ease. He is not afraid to do the splits. He will windmill to keep his balance. He will dive for it and take the ball himself. In short, I am very impressed by his performance there.
Jorgan Cavanerio pitched well in his third appearance for the Dash, giving up just one run over four innings. It was actually one of those games where it didn’t seem like he really was pitching that well, but he kept pitching out of trouble and left with the lead. Wyatt Burns threw two solid scoreless innings and Codi Heuer had a Heuer Classic™ inning in which he gave up two singles but struck out three, protecting the eggshell-fragile 2-1 lead.
Good 9-pitch at-bat by whoever this guy is, but Heuer got him on 97 mph. pic.twitter.com/WOz25La2SS
— Julie Brady (@DestroyBaseball) May 22, 2019
In the eighth, Jose Nin (who is normally reliable out of the ‘pen) came in and blew the game with no hesitation, giving up a ground-rule double on the first pitch, a single to the second batter, and walking the third. The fourth scored a run on a ground ball. The fifth walked. The sixth singled. Finally, Yrizarri, who had a rough defensive start but ended up making several beautiful plays at third, ended the pain by starting a double play.
For some reason, Jirschele had Nin come out for the ninth; he immediately gave up a leadoff home run (well, a foul ball that the umpire decided was a home run). THEN he gave up a double. Then he got two outs. He also threw a wild pitch in there.
Then he walked a guy! Then walked another guy. Apparently, that was when the Dash had seen enough and took him out in favor of Will Kincanon. Again, Nin is normally a strong bullpen piece; this just wasn’t his day, and he was forced to keep throwing until they took him out.
In any case, Kincanon gave up an RBI single to the first batter faced. Baseball is harsh and cruel and evil and sometimes makes us stay up late when we have work the next morning.
The final score was Woodpeckers 7, Dash 2.
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