Games Played on 8/1/2013
Minor League Player of the Day: Carlos Contreras allowed just one hit and two walks over 6 shutout innings.
AAA
Syracuse 5 – Louisville 0
Ryan Dennick allowed 4 runs on 5 hits and a walk over 4 innings while striking out two. Zach Duke continues to pitch well, tossing two innings of scoreless relief, striking out three. Jose Arredondo and Pedro Villarreal each added a scoreless inning.
All eight of Louisville’s hits were singles. Billy Hamilton, Henry Rodriguez and Nevin Ashley each had a pair of hits.
AA
Pensacola 2 – Mobile 0
Leadoff hitter Devin Lohman went 3-for-5 with a double and scored once. Travis Mattair hit his 13th homerun of the season.
Carlos Contreras (1-1, 2.87 ERA) was sneaky good in his six inning start against the Bears. Contreras allowed just 3 baserunners on a single and two walks over 6 innings, and one of those was erased by Tucker Barnhart on a stolen base attempt. There is a nice write-up on Contreras today on the front page of milb.com with comments from the Blue Wahoos’ pitching coach, Tom Brown.
“[Tonight] he was really sneaky, his breaking ball was extremely good, he was focused,” Brown said. “The biggest thing is he has a really live fastball. It’s got cutter-like action, he attacks the zone and doesn’t nibble around.
“He’s just so good, so easy to work with. Understands the game, makes adjustments, he’s a really perceptive person,” said Brown. “And his fastball, boy, his fastball runs 91-95 mph, touches 96, but it’s got a 6- to 10-inch cut. It’s really live, a special fastball.”
Brown added that Contreras reminded him favorably of another former star pupil from the Cincinnati system, Johnny Cueto.
“I’ve had some guys along in the past [like Cueto], and Carlos has the makeup of Cueto. He’s really calm, understands the game and has that quality fastball. Cueto threw [in the 90s] and hit 97 mph, and Carlos is gonna have a good changeup. He has two plus-pitches already,” he noted.
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