The Dash have had better weeks. They’ve mostly been burned by ineffective pitching, although they’ve had their struggles at the plate as well. Going 1-6 has seen them descend to one spot out of the cellar, 24-32 overall.
At the Plate
Lenyn Sosa’s 17-game hit streak ended on July 3, and he batted .400/.425/.629 with seven doubles and three home runs over that stretch. He’s 1-for-12 since it ended. The middle infielder entered Wednesday up to .280/.310/.444 on the season with seven home runs total; he’s walked eight times and struck out 58. His home run on July 2 was one of just two hits the Dash had all game.
Yoelqui Céspedes also had a quieter week than the one where he hit three doubles in one game; he did hit two home runs this week, but also struck out 12 times and only went 4-for-20. He is still exclusively in the designated hitter role while dealing with a nagging shoulder injury.
It’s Yolbert Sánchez who, after a .222/.317/.250 May, has turned into the Dash’s most consistent hitter. Since then, he’s batted .342/.381/.477 with four home runs; July 7th’s game ended his 15-game hitting streak, over which he batted .349/.369/.508. This week, he went 6-for-23 over six games with a double and two home runs, important numbers for someone who hasn’t found much power at the plate this year.
Injuries have kept Ian Dawkins out of a few games recently, but he’s still one of the strongest bats they have, usually guaranteed to at least single from the leadoff spot. This week he went 4-for-15, and entered Wednesday batting .289/.353/.461 since his demotion from the Barons at the end of May. In 19 games, he has been hitless in two of them.
Gunnar Troutwine is one of the Dash’s newer players, the catcher arriving down from the Barons close to the end of June. He’s gotten fairly regular playing time with Evan Skoug on the IL and entered Wednesday batting .303/.395/.576 in his first nine games with the team. Over the last week, he went 4-for-16. Defensively, Troutwine may be benefiting from lenient minor league scoring; in 2019, he had 23 passed balls in just 58 games, but has only accrued two so far between the Dash and the Barons, both of them on July 7. Personally, I’ve seen him one time—July 7—and he picked up his first two passed balls of the year; two of his pitchers came away with two wild pitches each that were a bit off the plate but seemed wrangle-able (at least, to me, someone who has never tried to crouch for more than a minute at a time).
Alex Destino got most of the week off, playing just on July 6 and 7, but did go 3-for-6 with two walks. Luis Curbelo is still slumping but also still holding onto his power, going 3-for-14 with one home run (11 overall).
Tyler Osik is on the IL and hasn’t played since July 2. Travis Moniot went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in three straight games before hitting a big two-run double on July 7. AJ Gill got some solid time at first base and went 2-for-14 with a double. Lázaro Leal went 0-for-7 at the plate in two games played as a position player. Duke Ellis went 0-for-17 and has not been able to steal a base since June 24, only reaching base six times total since then. Johan Cruz was 1-for-8 before sending a laser onto the left-field lawn for two runs on July 7.
On the Mound
Every time Taylor Varnell starts, all he does is put up numbers begging to finally be promoted from this curs-ed level. His ERA dipped below 2.00 after his last start on July 2, six innings of one-run ball, four hits, three walks, nine strikeouts. In 11 total games (8 starts), he has given up two or fewer earned runs in nine of them. Six have been shutouts. His season high is three runs allowed, which happened in back-to-back four-inning starts at the end of May and beginning of June. Since then, in 26 innings, he has a 1.38 ERA, has allowed two home runs and two doubles (no triples), and is seeing a Carolina—is seeing a High-East League batting .156/.232/.244 against him.
Johan Dominguez pitched a scoreless first inning in his July 3 start, something the righty sorely needs more of, but was removed after failing his sticky-substance spot check, a to-do that also saw manager Ryan Newman ejected. Kaleb Roper had another rough start, four runs allowed in 3.2 innings on July 4. Davis Martin threw decently, allowing two earned runs over four innings.
Bailey Horn is the newest member of the Dash starting rotation, called up from Kannapolis at the beginning of the month; the lefty had a 2.63 ERA over 27.1 innings pitched, walking seven and striking out 32. He had a less-than-auspicious first start at the new level on July 1, getting one out in the first inning but allowing seven (yes, seven) earned runs. He was better on July 7, but not by a lot: he exited again in the first, his line 0.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 1 K. He threw 32 pitches, 19 for strikes, and his ERA lowered from 189.00 to 90.00. Picked in the fifth round in the 2020 draft, Horn is certainly—hopefully—better than these two starts indicate, and he has two months still to show that he can handle a higher level of competition.
The Dash bullpen is not good. In fact, it is quite bad, and is even worse with Luke Shilling still on the IL. To be totally fair, though, before we get to how bad it is, three relievers pitched very well in relief of Dominguez after his ejection on July 3: Dan Metzdorf pitched a heroic 4.1 innings, giving up six hits that only translated to one run; Cooper Bradford put in 2.2 scoreless with three strikeouts; and Sal Biasi capped it off with a perfect ninth. Bradford had a similarly stalwart outing after Horn’s second start, going 3.1 innings, walking two and allowing a single but giving up zero runs. Brian Glowicki also had a scoreless week, encompassing 0.1 inning and 0.2 innings, respectively. Trey Jeans allowed a run in one of his two outings, but it was unearned. Johan Cruz had one of the best weeks of anyone in the ‘pen, one scoreless inning. Unfortunately, Johan Cruz is a utility guy.
Wilber Perez, on the other hand, has not had a good year. He’s appeared 12 times and has allowed at least one earned run in 10 of them, allowing multiple in six. This week, he allowed four runs in three innings on July 1, and four runs in just 0.2 innings on July 7. Declan Cronin and Ryan Williamson let runs score in each of their outings over the week. Caleb Freeman went half-and-half, allowing an earned run in one inning-long outing, scoreless with a walk in his other. Edgar Navarro gave up six runs in 2.1 innings this week, and Isaiah Carranza allowed five in 3.2. Lázaro Leal, you know, the outfielder, appeared in July 7’s game for his second relief outing of the year and very nearly allowed four home runs in one inning (instead, just two left the park, and two were just very loud outs).
Collectively, entering Wednesday’s game, the Dash bullpen had a 5.12 ERA in 262 IP (second-most in the High-A East); they’ve allowed 31 home runs, have walked 140 and struck out 286. For comparison, starting pitching has a 4.60 ERA in 219 innings, which is pretty middle of the pack league-wise. They’ve walked 77 and have struck out 235.
Looking ahead, the team will try to salvage the rest of this homestand against Hickory, then head to division-leading Bowling Green for a series before returning to play the Jersey Shore BlueClaws. This Dash weekly recap will also be taking a mini-vacation until after the bar exam at the end of July, as the author will be busy panicking.
Photo Credit: Anders Johanson (@acjohanson)
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