Jorgan Cavaneri-Oh, Yes: Cavanerio leads the Dash to a 3-2 victory

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The Dash played a quick, tight game on Monday to beat the Frederick Keys 3-2 in a little bit over two hours for their second straight victory. Jorgan Cavanerio mowed his way through the first six innings and trimmed his way through the seventh, and Andrew Perez, Will Kincanon, and Tate Blackman had the rest.

Cavanerio was released from the Seattle Mariners system in early May after eight years in the Marlins organization, and it wasn’t long before the White Sox signed him as an undrafted free agent. The right-hander from Venezuela, still only 24, had been pitching in relief with the Mariners after transitioning from starting into the role. With the Dash, Cavanerio’s first appearance was out of the pen, but that was the last one. He’s started from there on out, and it didn’t take him long to readjust to the longer outings. 

Since that bullpen appearance — May 10 — Cavanerio has been one of the Dash’s most reliable starting pitchers. He’s given up more than three runs just once in his Winston tenure, and indeed, today’s outing lowered his ERA to 2.93. Of his seven innings, four were of the 1-2-3 variety. In the second, he pitched around a two-out single, and in the third, a one-out double advanced to third but no farther.

The last out of the sixth inning was a hard one, loud contact on a ball to deep right field that Craig Dedelow was able to catch at the wall. This made J.C. Escarra’s nuclear blast practically out of the entire ballpark to lead off the seventh a little less surprising, if no less painful. Cavanerio also gave up a double immediately following that itself almost left the park, and the runner advanced to third with just one out, but a strikeout and ground ball got him through seven. His final line: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. Win-loss records don’t mean much, but glean whatever meaning you can from his 5-0 mark.

The Dash didn’t do a ton at the plate, but they didn’t need to. Their first run came in the second inning; Zach Remillard (who else?) singled with one out, stole second base, then scored on a Carlos Perez single. Their second came in the seventh, breaking the tie that Escarra’s bomb created in the top of that inning. Jameson Fisher led off with a single and was then swapped with Remillard, who grounded into a force out. Then, Dedelow did what Dedelow does, which in this situation is hit a hard triple to right field to score the runner. Deeds is a big, tall power guy, and also, his six triples are tied for the Carolina League lead with a guy who has 30 stolen bases (Dedelow has three).

Sometimes, it feels like all Craig Dedelow does is hit triples. His sixth of the year and second in his last three games puts the Dash back on top 2-1 in the seventh, scoring Fisher @FutureSox pic.twitter.com/7vNnUOUxtN

— Julie Brady (@DestroyBaseball) July 9, 2019

Tate Blackman was the final piece of the offensive puzzle for the Dash. Blackman spent just under a month on the IL and hasn’t really been able to get things going since then. Leading off the eighth, though, he put something together on a swing that resulted in a baseball gently bouncing down the steps of the beer porch in left field, giving the Dash the lead for good. It was Blackman’s first home run of the season, after hitting 17 last year.

Andrew Perez came on in the eighth to relieve Cavanerio. Between Kannapolis and Winston, Perez is 0-4 on the season, despite accumulating 61 strikeouts over 46 innings and bearing a 2.35 ERA (win-loss record: it’s meaningless!).

Here, he pitched one quick scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.  The ninth was Will Kincanon’s, and it was a little dicier. Three straight batters reached with one out, a walk, a single, and a run-scoring single, cutting the lead to 3-2 and making Blackman’s homer loom that much larger in the box score. He came back with a fly ball and a groundout, though, and earned his third save.

The Dash wrap up this six-game homestand with a Jonathan Stiever start at 7 pm on Tuesday.

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