What a way to cap off the 3 day minor-league odyssey- a little piece of history as Nick Fanti (who you probably recall threw 8 2/3 innings of no-hit ball in May) completed a full 9 inning no-hitter.  Only one batter reached base which was a walk in the 2nd inning.  He threw 118 pitches, 79 of which were strikes.  He hit 93 once (based on the stadium gun), and had a bunch of pitches in the 88-91 range.  He had one off-speed pitch of 79 and a bunch in the 80-81 range.  Obviously he worked ahead all day though he did go 3-0 twice.  Charleston fouled off a bunch of pitches as they had trouble squaring anything up, but Nick still managed to get 12 K’s (7 Looking, 5 Swinging).  Like any no-hitter, there were a few near misses.  In the second inning Esteven Florial hit a liner right down the LF line that went into the corner.  It was so close that he ran all the way to second thinking it might be fair, but the 3rd base ump ruled it was foul.  For the last out of the 5th inning, Mandy Alvarez smoked a grounder between SS and 3B but Luke Williams made a great diving stop, jumped up and threw the runner out (wasn’t even that close which gives you an idea of how hard it was hit).  In the 7th inning, Yankees 2016 #1 pick- Blake Rutherford roped a liner the other way (down the RF line) but it was foul.   There were 1 or 2 hard liners right at outfielders, but that was about it-  everything else was pretty routine.   The last two innings went:

8:  91 mph looking K /91 mph looking K /Fly Out to RF

9:  84 mph Popout to SS (behind third base)/79 mph swinging K/ Routine flyout to Moniak in RC–  GAME OVER.

The Blue Claws only had two hits- both by Henri Lartigue: Solo HR (games only run), and a single in the 8th that was down the RF line.  He tried to stretch it into a 2B but was thrown out. So in the entire game there were 3 base runners (Lartigue twice – HR and was thrown out stretching), so in reality only 1 player actually stood on base while a pitch was thrown all day.

Mickey Moniak had a rough day:  1) 1st pitch weak 6-3 grounder (hit to the right side of second base but the SS was shifted over), 2) Swinging K (Change Up) 3) Swinging K which was one of the worst calls I’ve seen.  Mickey literally barely even moved the bat at all and somehow the ump, said he swung.  Mickey was in shock and let the umpire know it (which is very rare for him).  He asked for an appeal to the 1st base ump but the home plate ump refused to grant it.  Moniak was still staring at the plate ump as he ran out onto the field.

Pics from today:

PITCHING:

Brandon Liebrandt started the game and retired the first 8 (5 in the infield, 3 line drives to the OF, one that Cozens reached up and caught over his head in RF).  In the 4^th inning he did a great job of working out of a jam.  After a walk and a botched FC on an error by Kingery, he K’d three straight.  In the 5^th, he gave up 2 walks and really seemed to tire.  Rochester got a run on an RBI single and the inning ended on a very hard lineout to deep LF.

Yacksel Rios came on for innings 6-7 and dominated except for a solo HR by John Ryan Murphy.  The other 6 batters he faced were:  4 K’s a 6-3 groundout, and a foul out to first.    Rios topped out at 97 and was consistently 94-96.  His off speed stuff was 86-87.

Edubray Ramos had a rough inning (only gave up an unearned run)  though he was bailed out by a DP with the bases loaded and one out.  He was consistently behind the hitters.  His pitch speed varied between 81 and 95.

Closer Pedro Beato finished though it wasn’t an easy inning:  Hard lineout to Kingery, Walk, Smoked line drive to Aguila in CF, and a groundout to Kingery.

HITTING:

Kingery:  1) Pop out to pitcher, 2) Line Double- hit off the top of the third baseman’s glove and down the LF line, 3) swinging K, 4)  swinging K on a pitch in the dirt

Crawford:  VERY impressive AB’s today.  In 4 AB’s he saw about at least 24 pitches.  1) Flew out to RF after fouling off MANY 2 strike pitches, 2) RBI triple on a full count- pulled right over the first based bag.  He slide was way to the right of the third base bag but luckily the throw was off line.  3) Flyout to RF (first pitch) 4) On a full count, lined a double the other way into the LC gap.

Hoskins: 1) HBP, he actually stole 2^nd and advanced to third when the throw sailed into CF (one would assume the catcher was too stunned to see Hoskins attempting to steal), 2) Line single to LF after fouling off 4-5 two strike pitches, 3) Lined a 1-2 pitch for a single to the SS’s right, 4) K’d looking on a 96 mph fastball

Cozens:  1) Battled from 0-2 to 3-2 but K’d swinging, 2) Popped up to the catcher, 3) Homered over the wall in RC (#22), 4) Looking K

Pullin:  Weak grounder to first base, reached on an error when the pitcher didn’t catch the flip, 2) Nice line single to CF, 3) and 4) Looking K (pitcher in the 7^th K’d all 3 of them looking- Hoskins/Cozens/Pullin)

Alfaro had the day off.

On to Lakewood tomorrow…

PITCHING: 

Spencer Howard started the game.  He labored through a long first inning with numerous foul balls.  The lead-off batter (a righty) had a lucky double with an excuse me swing that snuck by Pickett over the first base bag.  He followed that with a walk on a full count (after falling behind 3-0), but then he K’d the next 2 batters (on off-speed pitches I would guess were curveballs).  A wild pitch moved the runners over to 2^nd and 3^rd though Rodolfo Duran almost nailed the runner going to 3^rd.  A soft liner to CF dropped for a single which plated 2 runs.  The third out was recorded on an excellent diving catch by Jhailyn Ortiz in RF.

Howard’s 2^nd inning went smoothly: soft lineout to RF followed by 2 swinging K’s.

His 3rd inning started with 2 routine groundouts, then he was removed after walking the next batter on a 3-2 pitch.

He threw 62 pitches overall (42 for strikes), and threw first pitch strikes to 10 of the 12 batters he faced.  There was no stadium gun, so I have no idea how hard (or soft) he was throwing.

Connor Seabold pitched the 4^th and 5^th and was very impressive.  In the 4^th, he started with a swinging K.  After giving up a hard line single to LF, he got the last two outs on a lazy fly to LF and a 6-4 fielder’s choice.

In the 5^th inning, Seabold struck out the side in order (swinging/looking/swinging).  The first batter may have actually seen 4 strikes since he took the 1-2 pitch that appeared to be in the strike zone.

He threw 27 pitches (21 for strikes) and threw a first pitch strike to 6 of the 7 hitters he faced.

I did not track the rest of the pitchers, but after Gustavo Armas gave up a run in the 6^th, he settled down and gave up no runs for the rest of his outing which went through the 9^th.

Randy Alcantara pitched out of jams in the 10^th and 11^th before pitching a clean 12^th and getting the win.

HITTING:

It was the Jake Scheiner show as the 2017 4^th round pick hit doubles in his 2^nd and 3^rd AB (one on a liner right over the third base bag, and one that one-hopped off the RF fence), then Homered to LF in his 4^th AB.  Jake scored all 3 Cutter runs up to that point.  He was intentionally walked after a sac bunt in the 9^th, and flew out to medium CF in the 11^th.

Brian Mims went 1-5.  After 2 swinging K’s,  he was HBP in his third AB.    Next, he scalded a liner to center but it was caught in front of the track.  In the bottom of the 9^th, he had the winning run on 2^nd after Scheiner was intentionally walked, but he grounded into a 4-6-3 DP.  He smoked the ball up the middle but the 2B made a nice play.  He led off the 12^th with a hard ground single in the hole between the the first baseman and 2^nd baseman.  Malvin Matos pinch ran for him and scored the winning run.

Adam Hasely’s AB’s:  1) Reached on an error by 1B (not hit overly hard, the ball hopped up and hit the 1B in the chest).  2) Rolled over on a ball in the hole between 1B and 2B.  The second baseman made a nice diving play and came up firing and threw him out (at least according to the ump- he looked safe to me).  3)  Roped a double deep into the RC gap, CF dove but couldn’t make the catch.  4) Pop up to 2B. 5) Very hard linout to LF.  6) Weak 4-3 groundout

Greg Pickett went 1-6 out of the clean-up spot.  He had 3 infield outs, a hard flyout to CF, a swinging K (fastball right by him), and a hard line RBI single to right center.

Jhailyn Ortiz’s AB’s:  1) Broken Bat 5-3 ground out- he ran hard and almost beat it out.  2) Got jammed and hit a foul popout out to the SS behind the third base bag.  3) HBP (it may have hit one of the buttons on his uniform).  4) Weak 5-3 groundout.  5) Long flyout to RC- looked like it might get out for a walk-off HR in the 10^th but was caught right in front of the wall.  6) Worked a walk in the 12^th (good AB)

Josh Stephen stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 12^th having not hit a ball out of the infield all night (3 groundouts to short, a K , and a comebacker to the pitcher).  So of course, he lines a clean single into shallow CF to walk-off the Cutters, and get me back to the hotel room by 11:15.

Luis Encarnacion had a rough day at the plate going 0-4 with a HBP.  He did not make solid contact on any of his BA’s.

Rodolfo Duran went 3-5 with 3 singles.  The first one was a dribbler up the third base line, and the other two were hit hard.

On to Allentown tomorrow afternoon…