Minor League Games - Wednesday, May 9, 2018

[kikutaro]

Pawtucket Red Sox (15-15) @ Lehigh Valley IronPigs (17-14) 10:35 am | Gameday
Jalen Beeks (2-2, 1.72) vs. Enyel De Los Santos (4-0, 0.84)

Notable

Danny Ortiz 0-4, 2 K
Dylan Cozens 0-3, BB, 2 K
Nick Rickles 3-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR, BB
Andrew Pullin 1-3, RBI, 2B, BB, 2 K

Enyel De Los Santos (W, 4-0), 7.0 IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 6K, game score: 82
Hoby Milner (H, 2), 1.0 IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
Pedro Beato (S, 10), 1.0 IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K

Reading Fightin Phils (11-18) @ Trenton Thunder (20-11) 10:30 am | Gameday
JoJo Romero (0-4, 6.68) vs. Jonathan Loaisiga (1-0, 1.80)

Notable

Malquin Canelo 0-4, 3 K
Zach Green 1-4, R, RBI, HR, 2 K
Kyle Martin 0-4, 2 K
Jan Hernandez 2-2, 2B, BB, CS
Austin Bossart 0-3, 2 K

JoJo Romero (L, 0-4), 6.0 IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 4BB, 7K, game score: 58
Luke Leftwich 2.0 IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 1K

Clearwater Threshers (13-20) @ Lakeland Flying Tigers (14-18) 6:30 pm | Gameday
McKenzie Mills (0-2, 5.00) vs. Tom de Blok (2-3, 6.11)

Notable

Arquimedes Gamboa 3-5, R, RBI, K
Austin Listi 3-5, 2B
Darick Hall 1-3, RBI, 2B, 2 BB
Edgar Cabral 1-5, R, 2 RBI, 2B, K
Jose Pujols 2-4, R, RBI, 2 K
Jose Antequera 0-4, 2 K

McKenzie Mills (L, 0-2), 1.0 IP, 6H, 6R, 6ER, 4BB, 1K, game score: 3
Felix Paulino 3.0 IP, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 0K

Charleston RiverDogs (16-16) @ Lakewood BlueClaws (17-15) 6:35 pm | Gameday
Dalton Lehnen (2-2, 2.14) vs. Will Stewart (4-0, 1.46)

Notable

Jake Scheiner 1-4, 2B
Quincy Nieporte 2-4, R, RBI, HR, K
Colby Fitch 1-3, R, 3B
Kevin Markham 0-1, RBI, SB

Will Stewart (W, 4-0), 8.0 IP, 6H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 6K, game score: 80
Addison Russ (S, 4), 1.0 IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 1K

(click on the start time for box scores)

[Squire]

For one brief shining moment there, JoJo Romero got his season ERA under 7 and then it was gone....Seriously, what is wrong with that dude.

[bigegypt0417]

For one brief shining moment there, JoJo Romero got his season ERA under 7 and then it was gone....Seriously, what is wrong with that dude.

on a positive note...Enyel Del Los Santos has his ERA under 1.

22 at AAA. I'm not going to complain.

[andyb]

Pretty dominant De Los Santos start. 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K and 108 pitches. That last number makes me think the Phillies would not be shy about promoting him though he is probably the next in line after Eickhoff (and Eflin) for the rotation.

Romero finished strong as well. Got that ERA under 7!. He is young and as long as he is healthy I am not worrying too much about some struggles in a tough pitching environment.

[julio]

Pretty dominant De Los Santos start. 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K and 108 pitches. That last number makes me think the Phillies would not be shy about promoting him though he is probably the next in line after Eickhoff (and Eflin) for the rotation.

Based on the current media discussion about Eickhoff's possibly not having a "guaranteed" roster spot when he returns, it may be that Zach Eflin has passed Eickhoff on the organization's internal rankings. Eflin has certainly pitched well. It may be nothing more than SSS, but I'd hate to take him out of the rotation at this point.

De Los Santos is certainly opening some eyes, though.

[phillychuck]

For one brief shining moment there, JoJo Romero got his season ERA under 7 and then it was gone....Seriously, what is wrong with that dude.

Back under 7 with a fairly solid 6 IP yielding 3 ER. 6.68 now.

We lost .

[zambonir]

These things tend to work themselves out (unfortunately). Someone else is bound to get hurt or struggle. But hopefully not, and they can just slow-play Eickhoff's rehab - given he was awful in spring training (perhaps due to the injury) and hasn't thrown a single meaningful pitch this year it wouldn't be hard to justify the longest possible rehab stint, as well as an actual stint in AAA if he has options.

One thing we can probably be sure of is that Ben Lively isn't going to get his spot back. Ideally de Los Santos won't even be needed, but if anyone had placed a bet on Eshelman being the first pitcher added to the 40 this year, they may lose.

[andyb]

I think we can also assume that they will use the 10-day DL all season to get an extra starter in the mix as well as a reliever or two (i.e. I don't think Morgan is really hurt now, just tweaked something but gave us a chance to look at a fresh arm for 10 days).

All this shuffling will be with players on the 40-man who are using options, so De Los Santos will need to wait a bit. No harm in that as there is no obvious need yet even with Velasquez being good only half the time.

[zambonir]

I tend to think Morgan is really hurt myself, and they called up Dominguez out of need. With three relievers already on the 10-day DL besides Morgan he was obviously the best choice (Milner and Thompson being the others) but I'm not sure they wanted it to happen. Of course it is semantics between "tweaked" and hurt, but that's why the 10-day DL exists, even if you don't want to game the system there is just no reason to keep a guy on the roster if he can't go for even two days.

Do they really need to use the 10-day DL to game the system for a starter? I guess if the idea is to lower the pitch count, may as well do it that way instead of sending them to AAA, but even if they do end up taking that approach, that doesn't change the fact that last year's Opening Day starter is now either #6 or #5. A good development, for everyone but him!

[Philsmania]

Morgan was quoted in The Inquirer this morning that he feels good.

[schooldoc]

I'd love to hear (read) an eyewitness report on De Los Santos.

[phillychuck]

I'd love to hear (read) an eyewitness report on De Los Santos.

Yeah--he's really dominating AAA hitters. I remember hearing his FB sits 93-95 and tops at 98, so he's certainly got enough velocity to pitch off of the fastball.

[andyb]

Do they really need to use the 10-day DL to game the system for a starter? I guess if the idea is to lower the pitch count, may as well do it that way instead of sending them to AAA, but even if they do end up taking that approach, that doesn't change the fact that last year's Opening Day starter is now either #6 or #5. A good development, for everyone but him!

I just look at what the Dodgers did last year. 6 guys with at least 16 starts not including Darvish or Julio Urias. Lots of small injuries that put pitchers on the DL that in previous years would not have. If you think about it, the 10-day DL for a starter means a starter misses 1 start. Lots of days off in the schedule too. So if your goal is optimum performance in key games (i.e. the playoffs), you don't want anybody pitching 200 regular season innings. Everybody gets a DL stint. The very act of pitching means you are hurting after every start so nobody can police this.

Everybody should get a break at some point. It is really the new baseball until they start to expand the rosters. 175 innings for Nola is better than 200.

[tom81]

Does anyone know why Roman Quinn has not played lately?

[Jeff05]

I believe a soft tissue injury to his right hand. Newspaper report cited at phuturephillies - apparently not too bad, taking no chances.

[Jeff05]

From phuturephillies.com . . .

Injury update (from Tom Housenick of The Morning Call):

Roman Quinn didn’t start for a third consecutive game because of a ligament injury on his right (throwing) hand. The outfielder, who turns 25 on Monday, is day to day, according to manager Gary Jones.

“We could have played him, but we’re trying to get it right so he doesn’t end up missing lengthy time,” Jones said. “Bottom line: He could go, but we don’t want him to miss couple of weeks.

“It’s getting better. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

[fish]

I'd love to hear (read) an eyewitness report on De Los Santos.

He has a bit of a short-arm action so between his velo, movement, and deception he looks really tough to hit. The breaking ball has been much better than advertised, and the change is as good as advertised. All his pitches are there, it's just sharpening his command. He doesn't have a problem throwing strikes but it does look like the ball doesn't hit the target with great frequency. You couldn't create a better body for a pitcher in a laboratory.

[phillychuck]

Here are some highlights. All fastballs and change-ups from what I could see. Change-up looked really hard for the Durham batters to pick up. Fish is right about the short-arm delivery.

[EDmuch]

Boy he does seem to have the perfect body for a pitcher. Rather effortless throwing. Is he the guy we got from San Diego for Galvis?

[phillychuck]

Yes. I guess he's working on a breaking pitch. Change looks dominating. Didn't see a curve or a slider in that clip.--watching again, I thought he was throwing 2 fastballs, a straight one and a cutter, but what I thought was a cutter might have been a slider. FB, Slider, change is enough to win with in the big leagues if the change is good, which it seems to be.