PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Frank De Los Santos may be wondering if Mother Nature has it in for him. For the second straight start, the Charlotte left-hander was sent to the mound only to have rain shorten his outing.
This time around, De Los Santos picked up his first win of the season with an abbreviated five-inning shut-out of the Jupiter Hammerheads in the Stone Crabs 1-0 win on Saturday.
De Los Santos (1-0) was commanding the strike-zone over his five innings of work. He needed just 50 pitches, 37 of which went for strikes, to dispatch with the Hammerheads offense. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.
Charlotte scored their lone run in the fourth inning. Kyeong Kang and Henry Wrigley recorded back-to-back hits to put runners on the corners. Matt Sweeney stroked a liner to centerfield that was caught by a diving Kevin Mattison, but Kang was able to tag and score to give the Stone Crabs a 1-0 advantage.
The base hit gives Wrigley an eight-game hitting streak to open the season. Over that stretch he is hitting a robust .379 with a league-leading four doubles.
Graham Johnson (0-1) pitched well but will be stuck with the loss. He lasted 4 2/3 innings and allowed a run on two hits to Charlotte.
Stone Crabs centerfielder Isaias Velasquez saw his seven-game hit-streak snapped in the rain-shortened contest. He finished the night 0-for-3.
This three-game series will conclude on Sunday when the Stone Crabs send Chris Andujar (0-1) to the mound in search his first win of the season. Jupiter will counter with Kyle Kaminska (0-1). First pitch is scheduled for 5:35 p.m.
Is it still to early to give up on Beckham? I know its only a few games coming off an injury but he is still striking out and not taking walks. He also isnt showing me any signs of hitting so far. How much longer do we have until we should consider him a bust?
ReplyDeleteYes, too early. I was never a fan of the pick, but what's done is done. He wasn't awful at the plate last year, and was really young for the Sally. He's got wrist injury and has only played in 3 games this year, obviously the wrist affects him at the plate, plus rust.
ReplyDeleteYou really have to give him this year and next before you decide to me. What good does it do to label him a bust or anything else at this point? Not gonna cut him and eat $6m. So give him time and see what happens, not everyone succeeds as quickly as Longoria and Price.
I'm more worried about his defense than the bat really. If he moves off SS, unless he can handle 2B (and it's not a given that every SS can be a 2B, different skills), where will his bat play? Not enough power yet for corner IF or OF, not a CF with BJ and DJ around, so where?
But lets give him time and see how it goes. Even though I'm no fanboy I sure don't want to give up on the kid too soon. To me, after the 2011 season is a fair time to evaluate the 'bust' label. But I doubt he'll get that much rope from others in Prospectville (meaning all the different prospect sites out there, they'd love to pounce on a Rays hiccup).