Cingrani Fans 15

Not long after teammate Daniel Corcino threw eight innings of a no-hitter Tony Cingrani tossed a gem of his own. He established dominance early last night by striking out ten of hte first eleven batters faced. The left-hander finished the night with a franchise-record fifteen K's while pitching eight shutout allowing only three hits and walking one.

Pensacola took a 2-0 in the first inning against Jackson and that would be all the Fish needed as they cruised to a 5-0 win at Blue Wahoo Field last night. Josh Fellhauer had two hits and drove in two for a balanced offensive attack. Ryan LaMarre added two hits with a triple and an RBI. On the mound Tony Cingrani had the best outing of his still-brief AA career when he shut out the Generals on three hits in eight innings. The most impressive stat in his line for the night was a franchise-record fifteen strikeouts with only one walk.

Cingrani was coming off the shortest outing of the season when he was lifted in the fourth at Chattanooga after throwing 90 pitches. He established dominance early Wednesday by striking out ten of the first eleven batters faced. After converting the reliever out of the Rice bullpen into a starter the Reds have been careful to limit the southpaw’s pitches since coming into the organization. Of course the only way he could strike out that many and last eight innings is to really attack the plate. Attack it he did by throwing 73 of 100 pitches for strikes.

Cingrani started off the season dominating batters in the hitter-friendly California League while posting a 1.11 ERA. He now has a 2-1 record and a 2.15 ERA/sub-1 WHIP at the AA level and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his five starts. His command has allowed him to maintain his impressive K/BB ratio against more advanced hitters and right now he’s at 38/8 over 29+ innings.

This isn’t the only time a Blue Wahoo pitcher has turned in an eye-popping performance recently. In his last outing before the all-star break Daniel Corcino tossed eight innings of a no-hitter. Pensacola currently has the second lowest team ERA in the Southern League.

The Reds have been fortunate thus far in 2012 to have all their starts provided by the opening day rotation. It seems overly-optimistic to expect them to get 162 starts from only five pitchers. Should they look to reach down to the AAA level they will find a rotation dominated by veterans on a staff with the second highest ERA in the International League. Starting pitching depth within the organization will be upgraded in the not-so-distant future when the current Pensacola rotation advances.

Pensacola’s 4-3 record ties them for first place in the Southern League South Division’s second half. It often seems that good pitching is contagious. If that be the case, then Pensacola is a good candidate for it. The next turn goes to Kyle Lotzkar as they resume their five game set against Jackson Thursday.

Louisville ended a nine game win streak last night by losing 9-4 at Buffalo. Joey Gathright had three hits and drove in two for the Bats. Dioner Navarro leads the team in hitting and last night he went 2-3 with a walk and an RBI. Pedro Villarreal took the loss after he was roughed up for six runs before his removal in the fifth.

Bakersfield blew a 6-2 lead before winning 8-6 at Visalia. Travis Mattair continued swinging a hot bat with four hits and two doubles with an RBI. Theo Bowe and Dominic D’Anna both had two hits and two RBI. Jamie Walczak got the start and allowed three runs (two earned) in five innings while striking out seven. Chris Joyce picked up the win in relief and Kyle McMyne threw a scoreless ninth for the save. Donald Lutz went 0-4 with a walk in his first appearance with the Blaze since fouling a pitch off his foot on May 24.

Billy Hamilton Theft Watch:

Hamilton led off the game with a single and promptly stole second before scoring. He reached second in the fourth on a double-error and swiped third before scoring again. He now has 94 SB in 73 games.

Dayton won for the first time in the second half by prevailing over Lake County 10-3 at Fifth Third Field. They broke the game open with a nine-run third inning that included home runs by Joe Terry and Yovan Gonzalez. Terry and Juan Silva both had two hits for the Dragons while Gonzalez drove in four. Carlos Gonzalez got the start and allowed one run on one hit in three innings before reaching his pitch limit. James Allen threw five innings of scoreless relief for his fifth win.

Billings gave up five in the fourth en route to a 12-6 loss to visiting Great Falls. Spencer Dickinson went 3-5 and drove in one while raising his average to .382. Jesse Winker went 2-4 with a walk and two RBI and is now hitting .375. Andrew Cisco allowed four runs on seven hits in three innings in his second start of the season. Jose Amezcua came in for the fourth and took the loss. Five of the seven runs he allowed were unearned.

The AZL Reds had an off-day and will resume play Thursday at the AZL Brewers.

The DSL Reds won a slugfest at the DSL Twins by a final score of 17-12. Ariel Baez went 4-6 with six RBI. He has eight hits in the last two games and raised his average to .342. Jonathan Suero and Jose Fernandez added two hits each. Eury Cantalizo threw 2+ scoreless innings of relief for the win.