Garvin Alston solid in Kannapolis return amidst blowout loss

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – Southpaw Garvin Alston returned to the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers roster on Thursday night and looked solid in Kannapolis’ 10-2 loss to the Charleston RiverDogs.

Alston started off the 2021 campaign in Kannapolis and struggled. In his seven appearances before his demotion to the Arizona Complex League (ACL), Alston held a 0-2 record with an 11.88 ERA and 14 BB/9 clip in his 8.1 IP. He returned to the mound in K-Town Thursday and came out slinging.

Despite allowing a run prior to a rain delay that took him out of the contest, the southpaw struck out five RiverDogs. The White Sox 2019 Amateur draftee had much better command and looked poised with his off-speed pitches. His curveball was sitting in the mid-70MPH range and the fastball was confidently in the low 90MPHs. The speed differentials did well to disrupt the timing of hitters and tunneling in similar locations. Even though it was a single start for Alston in the ACL, the time away from Kannapolis seems to have helped the young lefty early in his return. 

Alston got a chance to enter the game because of the RiverDogs’ offensive explosion in the opening three frames. RHP Angel Acevedo got the start off the heels of his five inning, two-hit performance last time out against the Fayetteville Woodpeckers. Tonight didn’t have the same results as Acevedo didn’t make it out of the second inning. Acevedo looked off throughout his outing. He was a couple MPH off his normal fastball speed in the low-90MPH range and the command was all over the place with pitches being spiked or center-cut for the River Dogs.

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Acevedo allowed seven runs across his 1.2 innings tonight on six hits. Two of the hits allowed were home runs to the RiverDogs’ Brett Wisely and Curtis Mead. The aforementioned Mead crushed Kannapolis tonight, going 4-for-5 with two home runs, a double and collecting four RBIs. 

Each arm tonight for Kannapolis (Acevedo, Sammy Peralta, Alston, and Brandon Jenkins) all surrendered a run, getting the RiverDogs run total to 10 on the night. Charleston has crushed Kannapolis pitching to start the series. They have collected eleven or more hits and scored eight or more runs in each of the three contests to start the series. 

Not only did the Kannapolis arms struggle, the bats were quiet themselves as they were no-hit through four innings and tallied only five base hits on the night. Harvin Mendoza broke up the no-hit bid with a single, but singles were all they mustered until Chase Krogman lined a double late in the game. Krogman, who had been struggling recently at the plate, has started to turn things around in this series as he collected a home run in each of the two games prior to Thursday’s contest. Bryan Ramos had another multi-hit game with two singles, scoring in the ninth inning on a bases-loaded walk by Krogman. Kannapolis scored both of their runs on bases-loaded walks in the 9th. 

It was a valiant effort for Kannapolis in the ninth inning, but they couldn’t claw back and end up at the 10-2 final score. The Cannon Ballers are back after it on Friday evening as RHP Kevin Folman, who had been on the 60-day IL to start the week in an odd situation, gets the start. With Folman starting, that guarantees a skipped start for Chase Solesky. Solesky missing his start will be something to keep an eye on as he hasn’t gone to the IL yet.  

Photo credit: Michael Guariglia/FutureSox

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