Strong Sea Dogs starting pitching leads the way
It’s been a collection of starting pitching that has performed extremely well for the Portland Sea Dogs to open the second half of the season. Finishing the second series at the top of the Eastern League with a 10-2 record, it’s largely been due to the rotation. After a loss on Wednesday night in the second game of the series, the Sea Dogs went on to win the finals four games vs the Binghampton Rumble Ponies.
Starting out with 10 strikeouts from Hunter Dobbins in 5.2 innings pitched, CJ Liu followed it up the next day. Making his return from the developmental list, Liu threw just 88 pitches in 7 innings, allowing just 5 batters to reach base and 1 to score. He also matched Dobbins punchout total, racking up 10 of his own. If this wasn’t his first start in almost two weeks, he might’ve gone out there for the 8th inning.
Speaking of the 8th inning, Grant Gambrell decided to show the Portland crowd what an 8-inning pitching performance looks like. While it certainly wasn’t the prettiest performance that you may come across, Gambrell was able to offer excellent length. Maybe the most impressive part of this performance was the right-hander working so deep into the start despite a 30-pitch first inning.
Following up the bunch was Isaac Coffey on Sunday, who put up a similar performance to Dobbins. Pitching 5.2 innings, allowing just 1 run with 6 base runners total and 9 strikeouts. It was arguably the recently promoted starter’s best outing since joining the team. A softer throwing right-hander with a deceptive arm angle, he creates massive amounts of swing and miss.
Here’s a quick highlight reel of some of Dobbins, Gambrell, and Coffey’s strikeouts.
The promotion of Brian Van Belle to AAA Worcester left a hole in the starting staff. One of the best starters for Portland, there’s plenty of opportunity for these young arms to step up and be the ace of the AA rotation. On Friday, the Sea Dogs staff will look to continue its hot stretch following the midseason break.
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