Dash Split Doubleheader Due to Dedelow’s Dong

By / / Affiliate Visits

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Jordan Stephens made his return both to the pitcher’s mound and to Winston-Salem Saturday night.

Stephens, who was pegged before the season started as a potential mid-late 2019 rotation option for the big league club, struggled in his second go-round with the Charlotte Knights. Then, as if things weren’t going well enough, he fractured his left hand (luckily, he’s a righty). 

Stephens was reactivated before the game and assigned to Winston from Charlotte; I don’t have any insider info here, but it would make sense for this to be a rehab-esque type assignment, which would also explain the quick hook. The 2015 5th-round draft pick struck out the side swinging in the first but did give up a solo home run. In the second, he struck out one swinging for four total and allowed no more baserunners. Stephens, for some background info, led the Carolina League in strikeouts the last time he was wearing a Dash uniform, back in 2016.

Then it was Zach Lewis on the mound, and he did a good job of walking a precarious tightrope for most of his time. He gave up an unearned run on a Yeyson Yrizarri error — his 15th of the year — and no runs in his second inning of work, despite allowing two walks and a single. He was helped by the double-play combo of Muno and Remillard at second and short, respectively; they turned two good double plays, and Muno added a great play on a bizarre hop for good measure.  Lewis occasionally starts games, sharing spot-start duties with several other pitchers, so his 3+ inning outing today wasn’t a huge surprise. He ran into trouble during his fourth inning of work; he got the first out of the sixth, then gave up a single, hit one of the Mudcats’ two Henrys with a pitch, hit the NEXT guy (not a Henry) with a pitch, and was removed.

Luis Ledo took over and immediately gave up a grand slam. This was his second blown save of the year; the righty is tall, and he throws very hard, but the control is still an issue and so are occasional hittable pitches. This was the only hit Ledo gave up, but it was enough to put the Dash behind for good. Lewis is assigned the loss.

Despite scoring just three runs, Dash bats weren’t entirely dead. JJ Muno was the team’s first baserunner in the bottom of the third, drawing a walk, advancing to second on an Evan Skoug ground out, then stealing third. Muno scored on an Yrizarri groundout. Tyler Frost followed it up with a double, only to languish at second. Frost’s home run streak was broken at three games, but his multi-hit streak stretched to four, and his hit-in-general streak rose to six.

The Dash had a nice little two-out rally in the fourth when they were able to tie the game at two: Remillard singled, Dedelow walked, and Muno singled in Remillard, all consecutively. They tacked on another in the fifth, their last run of the game. Yrizarri, Frost, and Nick Madrigal all singled to lead off the inning, bases loaded with nobody out. Steele Walker then netted the most painful kind of RBI, the double play groundout. This put a damper on things, and Jameson Fisher flew out to end the inning and the Dash scoring.

Game two was much quieter for both teams, until the last couple of innings, when it very much was not. Carlos Perez muscled his first home run of the season deep to left field in the third, and accounted for another run in the fourth with an RBI groundout. Remillard had singled with one out, followed by a Dedelow double to get him to third; Perez’s grounder scored Remillard from there. 

Jorgan Cavanerio’s first five innings were runless, marred by four singles and two walks. He helped himself out with one of those blink-and-you-miss-it, or even don’t-blink-and-you-miss-it plays: batter hits baseball, baseball screams towards pitcher, pitcher sticks up his glove half on purpose and half instinctually and makes the catch. He ran into trouble in the sixth inning, giving up three singles to the first four batters, one of those scoring. He was relieved by Jose Nin, who gave up a run-scoring single to his first batter faced, knotting the game at two. Nin hit the next batter with a pitch before retiring the side. Cavanerio’s final line was 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, one of his strongest outings of the five appearances he’s made for the Dash.

The Dash went to the bottom of the sixth tied at two. Fisher led off with a single, followed by a Remillard single. Craig Dedelow decided that he had had enough, and put a ball into the right field seats for a three-run home run, his eighth of the season. The team went 1-2-3 after that, but it was just enough to secure the win.

The seventh came with a fair amount of drama, as Nin easily retired the first two, then gave up a single, then a double that was very close to leaving the park and scored the runner (5-3). This was followed by a wild pitch (runner advances to third), infield single (runner scores), an infield single, and… infield single. Finally, Julio Garcia was called out on strikes, and the Dash sealed it up, 5-4.

Zach Remillard and Craig Dedelow both had two hits in game two. Remillard now has a 31-game on-base streak and has reached base in every game he’s played since April 24. Frost’s hit streak extends to seven. The Dash took three of four from the Mudcats; they are now 30-24 and are 12-4 in their last 16 games. They return to Winston on Thursday, June 6.

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