I'm trying to figure this out about Dewon Day -- he pitched two
scoreless innings, striking out two, but he gave up three hits. In 11
2/3 innings, he's struck out 24 and given up 14 hits. He's allowing
a .588 batting average on balls in play. Having only seen him once, I'm not sure what's up with this aside from a month-long stretch of bad luck.
. He
finished with a .481 BABIP before his promotion, which seemed downright absurd.
Unfortunately, his performance
tonight made that a little more clear.
Whether he was throwing fastballs or sliders, Orioles hitters had no problem squaring them up, thanks to their location of up and over the plate. He threw six pitches to four batters, resulting in four hits. Three of them came on the first pitch, and yet that wasn't as bad as Corey Patterson's at-bat.
Patterson had the only swing and miss on a Day pitch, a slider in the dirt that bounced away and let the runners advance a base, but at least got Patterson down in the count 0-2. Considering
Patterson walks less than
Juan Uribe, there was no reason to throw Patterson anything in the strike zone for the next three pitches.
So what does Day do? Hangs a slider over the outer half of the plate, which Patterson rips to right for a run-scoring single.
Dewon only threw one quality pitch: his very first to Ramon Hernandez, an inside fastball on the black that the Orioles catcher inside-outed to right for a single. I thought it was curious that Hernandez had that approach on the first pitch he saw from a reliever. Either they had some very good advance scouting on Day, or he came up to the plate with the plan to dink one.
That kind of approach might explain why
the Orioles rank near the bottom in slugging percentage. Of course, the Sox don't have any room to gloat -- they're dead last, even with
19 homers over their last 10 games.
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Now that Charlie Haeger is on the 25-man roster, replacing the optioned Gavin Floyd, it makes Nick Masset expendable.
Masset's lone unique quality was his ability to last (or get knocked around for) three or four innings at a time in mop-up duty. Now Haeger can fill that role, with the added ability of pitching two days in a row. Oh, and also he has
some semblance of a track record, both in the minors and in his brief stint last year.
I'm guessing Masset's on this team no matter what, but
it's fun to pretend.
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Let's update Rob Mackowiak's line in July:
.480/.567/.920, 12/25, 3 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 5 BB
Awoooooga! Now, if Jermaine Dye is truly out of his 1-for-24 slump that started his July, the Sox could have some trading chits. We're waiting for you, Jose Contreras.
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Minor league round-up:- Columbus 11, Charlotte 3
- Wow, Andrew Sisco. Just... wow. He gave up the cycle on four of the first five hitters he faced, then gave up five more hits after that. The damage: 1/3 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 HR.
- David Aardsma struck out the side in an inning of work, although he did allow a walk and a hit.
- Ernie Young provided all the runs with a three-run homer; Ryan Sweeney went 1-for-3 with two walks.
- Jacksonville 9, Birmingham 4
- Wes Whisler was hit hard for the fifth straight start, giving up six runs on nine hits over five innings.
- Oneli Perez pitched his eighth consecutive scoreless outings, striking out a batter.
- Kenny Perez hit a solo homer; the Barons' six hits were spread amongst six different batters.
- Myrtle Beach 6, Winston-Salem 4
- Brian Omogrosso struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings, but took the loss thanks to two of his four runs going unearned.
- Cole Armstrong, David Cook and Daron Roberts went 2-for-4 apiece; Armstrong hit a solo homer, and Roberts a two-run shot.
- Kannapolis 10, Greenville 8
- Sergio Miranda hit his first professional homer, a solo shot.
- Brandon Allen went 4-for-5 with four RBI, with one of his hits a three-run homer.
- Chris Carter, Lee Cruz, Archie Gilbert and Mike Grace joined Allen with multi-hit games.