Is Javy Guerra‘s bat for real in the second half? (Photo: Grant Wickes)
El PASO, Texas — There is a saying in baseball; “hot streaks are only as good as the next day starting pitcher” and luckily for the Chihuahuas, they have received excellent starting pitching for the past two weeks. While this was not the type of start that we are used to out of Logan Allen, making his second start in Triple-A, but it was still enough to give the Chihuahuas an 8-2 victory on Friday night.
Part of Allen’s problems was a seemingly small strike zone and combined with a warm night where balls can fly, it was more of a surprise that he only gave up two runs in five innings.
Long night for Allen ends with a strikeout pic.twitter.com/BGwQNzTnlF
— madfriars (@madfriars) August 18, 2018
Allen needed exactly 100 pitches to get through five innings (60 strikes). He sat mostly 90-92 on the day reaching 93 twice and his curve looked sharp, along with his plus changeup in the mid-80s. He was hitting corners with all of them, but simply not getting called strikes. His refusal to lay pitches in over the middle of the plate was one of the reasons for the four walks that he allowed.
While Allen struggled with a small zone, the Chihuahuas hitters capitalized. The four infielders combined for nine hits, and five of the eight runs. The stars of the game were the left side of the infield. Luis Urias, making his second straight start at third base, with three hits on the day and shortstop Javy Guerra.
Guerra hit his eleventh home run of the year to right field in the second inning and would later walk and hit a double. August has been by far his best month of the year, and maybe his best month since the Panama native joined the Padres’ system in 2016. He has a .302/.362/.566 slash line and overall in the second half is hitting .286/.348/.486 in 115 plate appearances.
Urias has been swinging wildly all night. He is at his best when he slaps the ball around the field. pic.twitter.com/PJev1zxRbG
— madfriars (@madfriars) August 18, 2018
Both Urias and Guerra extended their hitting streaks to seven and six games respectively.
Two batters after the Guerra home run, second baseman Carlos Asuaje, who is hitting .331/.397/.496 in 37 games with the Chihuahuas, would also homer to right, to extend the Chihuahuas lead to 4-0.
“I didn’t come up to the plate looking for a home run,” said Asuaje. “I was really just looking for a fastball in the zone, and when I got it, I put a good swing on it and it went out. It was a good feeling.”
El Paso would tack on more runs in the fourth, fifth, and seventh innings, but it wasn’t needed as the bullpen of Kyle McGrath, Travis Radke, and TJ Weir allowed just three baserunners over the final four innings. For Radke, his one walk in a scoreless eighth was the first baserunner he has allowed in 3.2 innings since joining the Chihuahuas.
