A 2-4 record for the week leaves the Winston-Salem Dash at 23-27 on the season, currently good for fifth in their seven-team division. The Bowling Green Hot Rods (Rays) lead at 33-15 and the Hickory Crawdads (Rangers) bring up the rear at 18-31.
The Dash are part of a pack of about three teams hovering around .500, sharing the pain with the Greenville Drive (Red Sox) and the Asheville Tourists (Astros). Normally at this time of year, we’d be a couple weeks out from the All-Star Break, but we’re still a week or two too soon for mid-season doldrums here, given that the season started a month late.
At the plate:
Those doldrums do not appear to be even beginning to threaten Lenyn Sosa, who saw his batting average rise from .275 on June 24 to .289 by June 30. He is currently riding a 14-game hit streak, batting .431/.459/.586 with one home run and six doubles over that time, walking twice and striking out 12 times. Eight of those games have been multi-hit efforts, capped by a 4-for-6 performance on June 26 that produced two doubles. Overall, Sosa entered the last game of June batting .354/.396/.531 on the month with six doubles, a triple, and three home runs.
Yolbert Sánchez is also on a hit streak—currently at 10 games—and although his numbers within aren’t at quite the same level as Sosa’s (lots of 1-fers), Sánchez has hit two home runs in that span and has struck out only six times, walking twice. He has been playing both shortstop and second base pretty evenly lately, with more time overall at second.
Four of his five errors are from the shortstop position. Going into Wednesday’s game, Sánchez was hitting .341/.389/.466 in June with five extra-base hits (two doubles, three dongs) among 30 hits overall.
Any talk of hitting streaks would be remiss not to mention Ian Dawkins, the 2019 king of hitting streaks—with Kannapolis, he had two separate stretches of nine straight games with a hit, one 10-game streak, and one 20-game streak. Dawkins was moved from the Barons down to the Dash at the end of May, and in 15 games since then, he’s only failed to get a hit in one of them. Currently, he’s hit in 11 straight, and despite doing that while batting leadoff in every game he’s played, he did not score a single run this week.
Gunnar Troutwine is a guy with an absolute 80-grade name who has been bounced around a little this season, shuttling back and forth between the Barons and the “Development List” (apparently what we’re calling non-roster alternative site players) before finding his way into what could end up being much more regular playing time, now that the usual Dash catcher, Evan Skoug, has been placed on the Injured List.
The ninth-round pick in 2018, Troutwine has a .316/.409/.737 slash line in his first five games with the Dash (6-for-19, two doubles, two home runs, three walks, six strikeouts). While he was charged with 23 passed balls in 58 games (503.1 innings) with Kannapolis in 2019, he has not been responsible for one in 84 combined innings behind the plate so far this season.
Meanwhile, Luis Curbelo has recently shown signs of shaking off his monthlong slump (.184/.250/.356 entering June 30): in five games to close the month, he went 7-for-22 with two home runs and four doubles. Alex Destino’s slump hasn’t been as bad as Curbelo’s, but with fewer peaks as well, leaving him batting .222/.323/.432 on the month (four homers, three doubles, one triple).
Of course, there’s the newest top prospect on the Dash, Yoelqui Céspedes, already named to the All-Star Futures Game. He’s been adjusting to affiliate play, going 0-for his first-9 (but with two walks and four HBPs), and finally really breaking out on June 29 with a 4-for-6, three-double day. In 10 games so far with the team, he’s batting .250/.375/.475 and is 8-for-27 in the last week (and, if you’d like to get very specific, is 6-for-9 with three doubles, a homer, and a walk in his last two games).
Travis Moniot, part-time infielder, part-time outfielder, went 3-for-12 in the five games he got into this week, one of those three hits a home run. He also walked an eye-popping NINE times, giving him the wacky 18-PA line of .250/.545/.500. Duke Ellis was only able to steal one base this week after only reaching five times total, going 3-for-21 with two walks (he does still lead the league with 19 grabbed bags). Johan Cruz went 3-for-12 while playing third base, second base, and left field. Tyler Osik went 3-for-17, walking once and striking out six times. Lázaro Leal returned from injury to go 2-for-4.
On the mound:
As has become traditional, Taylor Varnell threw the best start by a Dash pitcher this week, with five scoreless innings of one-hit ball on June 26. He walked two and struck out nine. On the season, he’s up to 40 IP and a 2.03 ERA, with 13 walks and 43 strikeouts. At age 26, almost three years older than league average, it would be nice to see Varnell promoted soon to a level presenting more of a challenge.
Johan Dominguez is trying to work back to where he was statistically before a two-inning, nine-run outing on June 22, contributing two runs over four innings this week to the cause. Kaleb Roper has also been doing better the more appearances he has, results coming in increments, most recently matching Dominguez’ two runs over four. Davis Martin started twice this week, trying to shake off the specter of a 0.2-inning, four-run performance on June 18. He didn’t quite do it his first time out, giving up four runs over four innings this time, and he also didn’t quite do it the second time, although he spread the four runs out over five innings.
It’s hard to provide weekly updates for bullpen pitchers who might only get an inning or two per week, so the next several paragraphs will sum up how it’s going for them in general in no particular order, with a warning to you, the reader, that relief pitching has not been the team’s strong suit so far: Declan Cronin, the 2019 36th round pick, has a 5.21 ERA over 19 innings and a 1.316 WHIP, eight walks to 19 strikeouts.
Edgar Navarro, a 2018 international free agent signing who played in the DSL in both 2018 and 2019, has a clean 6.00 ERA over 15 innings, 12 walks and 11 strikeouts (7.2 BB/9). Ryan Williamson probably had the best week in relief with 3.2 innings overall, allowing one run on three hits and two walks, striking out six. This brought his overall numbers to a 6.55 ERA in 11 innings, nine walks and 12 strikeouts (2.091 WHIP).
Wilber Perez, who pitched 70 decent innings for the Cannon Ballers last season (2.83 ERA, 45 BB, 74 K), has not been as good for the Dash: in 27 innings this season, he’s allowed 15 earned runs (5.00 ERA) and six home runs, walking 15 while striking out 29. Caleb Freeman, the #29 prospect in the system according to FutureSox, is also battling walks and has had an up and down year, currently sporting a 3.63 ERA over 17.1 innings (12 walks, 19 strikeouts).
Sal Biasi has had a tumultuous season including a sticky-stuff suspension and a brief demotion to the Cannon Ballers, but he’s back with the Dash now, his ERA 6.19 over 16 total innings between the two teams (12 walks, 21 strikeouts). 2019 13th-rounder Cooper Bradford has allowed 13 earned runs in 15.1 innings for a 7.63 ERA, and Dan Metzdorf, the fifth-round pick from that draft, has given up 19 earned runs in 30 innings between the Dash and the Ballers, walking 14 and striking out 30.
Trey Jeans had been struggling with Kannapolis and continues to struggle in Winston-Salem, 19 earned runs between the two in 23.1 innings (13 walks but 33 strikeouts, a 12.7 K/9 ratio). Brian Glowicki threw eight consecutive scoreless, one-hit innings in which he struck out 14, but that stretch is bookended by a three-inning, two-run outing and a two-inning, four-run one, giving him a 4.15 ERA through 13 innings. His control, however, stands out: two walks against 22 strikeouts, equating to a 1.4 BB/9 and 15.2 K/9. Isaiah Carranza has been at least temporarily relegated to the bullpen, where he’s done much better than he was doing as a starter: 11 innings of two-earned-run ball (two walks, eight strikeouts), as opposed to 23 innings with a 7.83 ERA (17 walks, 19 strikeouts).
Luke Shilling, who’s been a revelation this year, allowed one run on a solo shot in 0.1 innings on June 29 and then was placed on the Injured List. Shilling, who spent 2019 recovering from surgery to repair a torn latissimus dorsi, was up to 18.1 innings on the year, allowing six runs, walking eight and striking out 27. Joining him in unspecified injury is Jerry Burke, who had also been proving himself both in relief and as a starter (3.03 ERA over 38.2 innings, 10 walks, 36 strikeouts).
The Dash finish up their six-game set in Greenville through this weekend and then return home for six against the Crawdads.
Photo Credit: Anders Johanson (@acjohanson)/FutureSox
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