This one was a good ole fashioned pitchers duel, all the way into the 9th. Mikolas and Alcantara weren’t budging at all, and Sandy really dominated. It really reminded me of the loss he took last year to the Cardinals in St. Louis.
Sandy would breeze thru 8IP scoreless, striking out 6 along the way (3 against Arenado), throwing 98 pitches (62 strikes). Mik would match him thru his first 5 innings, scattering 4 singles thru his evening, striking out 5 of his own on four different pitches.
Tommy Edman got the leadoff duties tonight and he was the only one to get a hit off Alcantara thru 4.2 innings, both infield singles.
Pallante, Cabrera, and Gio would work the final 4 innings in relief of Mik. Pallante would come in flashing some junk, striking out three in his 2 innings, two coming on a sneaky good slider.
Cabrera worked a 21-pitch 8th, striking out Sánchez to end the inning on his, overpowering, 98mph sinker.
Bender would get the 9th for Don Mattingly, and after a strikeout of Goldy to open the inning, things flipped in an instant. Prince would work a walk to put himself on base for Arenado. Nolan would unload on the second pitch he saw, a high and inside sinker, on a line to LF, deflecting off Soler’s glove at the wall and bouncing over for a 2run HR for the 2-0 lead. Poor Sandy, he can’t catch a break.
Gio would notch his 3rd save, working his way out of two runners on and only one out by striking out Stallings on three pitches and getting Rojas to groundout to Arenado to close out the 2-0 winner.
Jordan Hicks (1-0, 0.00) makes his first career major league start tomorrow evening, facing off against a very underrated, Pablo López (1-0, 0.87). First pitch is scheduled for 5:40pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew