The Winston-Salem Dash finished their season on Sunday, September 19, with a 3-4 loss to Asheville. A full season recap is en route, but first, a quick look at the last four games of the year, over which the Dash went 2-2.
Karan Patel was the starting pitcher for one of the best-pitched games of the year for the team, the 2019 seventh-rounder going four one-hit innings against the Asheville Tourists on September 16. He walked two and struck out three, allowing no runs in his final appearance of the season. Wilber Perez vulture’d the win from him with two scoreless innings over which he struck out four; Yoelvin Silven also added two scoreless innings before Trey Jeans allowed two runs in the ninth to spoil the shutout. Still, all things considered, an overall game line of 9 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 3 BB, and 11 K ain’t bad.
This one was a shutout until the sixth, when Alex Destino muscled his 21st home run of the year, a two-run shot that scored Luis Mieses (who had himself reached when a force out erased Jeremiah Burks’ single). Samir Dueñez came through with a big double later that inning as well, scoring both Harvin Mendoza (single) and Gunnar Troutwine (HBP) for a 4-0 lead. Destino added the Dash’s fifth and final run of the game in the seventh, Terrell Tatum singling and stealing second, then scoring when Destino singled.
Cooper Bradford does not get the mercy of going into the offseason on a high note. Entering his spot star/opener slot on September 17, his season high in runs allowed in an outing was five, done just once. Here, though, while he went into the second inning, he allowed six total runs. Three of those were inherited by Kevin Folman, who gave up a bases-loaded single to the first batter he faced and a two-men-on single that scored another run to the second batter.
Folman went on to give up three runs of his own on a less than memorable night for Dash pitching. Ty Madrigal also struggled, throwing 2.1 innings of four-run (three-earned-run) ball, and Jordan Mikel gave up a grand slam that mostly counted towards Madrigal’s run total; Mikel ended up with the best looking line of the night, one run technically allowed in 1.2 innings, striking out four. While this was a messy game—13 earned runs allowed—the pitching staff did strike out 14 Tourists against only one walk.
The offense only contributed four hits, but two were doubles and two were home runs, so they were able to turn those plus two walks into four runs. Dueñez built on his productive double from the day before by clobbering a dong over the fence to score Mendoza, who also had technically hit one over the fence, just as a ground-rule double instead of a dinger. Luis Curbelo provided the other fireworks, hitting his 22nd home run of the season to both clinch his team lead over Destino and to score Destino from second after he had doubled.
It was a wild one on September 18, Dan Metzdorf pitching three beautiful scoreless innings before giving up six runs in the fourth (two walks, four singles, one home run). Two of those runs were inherited and then allowed on a two-RBI single off of Sammy Peralta, who—spoilers—earned the win with 2.1 innings of otherwise one-run ball. Edgar Navarro and Ryan Williamson both earned holds, Navarro allowing two runs over 0.2 innings (a balk was involved) and Williamson giving up none with 1.1 perfect innings. McKinley Moore struck out one in a scoreless ninth for the save, preserving a razor-thin 10-9 Dash victory.
The Dash used two big innings to claw their way into and in front of this one after scoring a couple of quick runs in the second and third (Brandon Bossard sac fly scoring a Mendoza walk, Lázaro Leal single scoring a Destino walk). They retaliated against the six-run Asheville fourth with a five-run bottom of the inning. Troutwine singled and Travis Moniot walked to open the frame, Tatum walked to load the bases with one out, and then—with two outs—Mieses hit a bases-clearing double, Destino walked again (three times on the day), Leal walked, Mendoza walked (scoring a run), then Troutwine walked to force in another run in his second plate appearance of the inning.
Well, it’s a double in the box score.
Three more crucial runs crossed the plate in the sixth, the product of a Tatum RBI single (Mendoza scores after an HBP) and Burks two-RBI single (Troutwine scores after his single, Bossard scores after reaching on an error). Luis Curbelo had only one chance to open up his home run lead over Alex Destino, as he exited after his first at-bat after slipping on first base and being removed via ambulance for a concussion (he is fine, but that was his last baseball activity for the season).
Finally, September 19 arrived, and with it, another decent Jesus Valles start (only his fourth overall with the Dash as he wasn’t promoted from the Ballers until September); he allowed two runs over four innings, both of those coming on a fourth-inning home run. Taylor Broadway ended his season with a scoreless inning, one strikeout, and Wilber Perez was reverse vulture’d, earning the loss despite giving up just one run over two innings. Yoelvin Silven also gave up a run, although he struck out three over his one inning of work, and Trey Jeans walked a fine line but walking one and allowing two hits in the ninth, but no runs.
The Dash scored just three times on five hits, first in the third inning when Terrell Tatum got himself into scoring position by stealing both second and third base after drawing a leadoff walk; Luis Mieses singled him in. Tatum was involved in a fifth-inning run as well, his sacrifice fly bringing in Brandon Bossard from his first triple of the season. Tatum was also involved in their last run in a ninth inning that came very close to being much cooler. After two strikeouts to start things off, Tatum and Moniot both walked, Dash trailing 4-2. Jeremiah Burks then hit a single, and while Tatum’s attempt to score was successful, Moniot’s on the throw was not, and he was thrown out at the plate to end the season.
And that’s it for the team, who finish 43-76 and in last place in their division. There were more lows than highs, but the highs were still there. Keep an eye out for the season recap.
Photo credit: archive
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