AUBURN - Auburn Doubledays manager Dennis Holmberg dialed up the bullpen Monday to find a stopgap for his club's five-game losing streak. Zach Dials, who has pitched four scoreless innings in relief this season, got the start against the Lowell Spinners and gave the Doubledays the start they needed.
Glenn Gaston / The Citizen
Doubledays starting picture Zach Dials watches a pitch drop in for a strike during the second inning of Monday's game against the Lowell Spinners.
Doubledays starting picture Zach Dials watches a pitch drop in for a strike during the second inning of Monday's game against the Lowell Spinners.
The Spinners hit only two balls out of the infield against Dials in five innings and Auburn broke its slump, cruising past Lowell 5-1 at Falcon Park.
Dials picked up his first win of the season while allowing no runs and three hits in five innings of work. He also put the Doubledays' infield to work, as 12 of the 15 outs he recorded were on ground balls.
“I was just trying to keep the ball down,” Dials said. “I was comfortable hitting my spots, that's what I knew I had to do. I made them swing at my pitches.
“My fastball had a lot of movement and a lot of sink. I had a little trouble locating my slider early, but my changeup came through for me.”
Auburn also ended another alarming trend by jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Before Sunday, the Doubledays had trailed in the first or second inning in 10 straight games. After Luke Hopkins and Matt Lane tacked on two more runs in the third, Dials settled in and retired six of his final seven batters. The right-hander also didn't allow a baserunner past second.
“Dials is certainly the talk of the game,” Holmberg said. “He threw strikes and got the ball down. Basically he did what was advertised.”
With Dials out of the game, Holmberg used two relievers who haven't seen action in a while.
Lefty Wilfreddy Aguirre has been on the inactive list after returning home to Venezuela following the death of his father, and right-hander John Tritz has been serving a five-game suspension after hitting a batter in Jamestown on July 1.
Aguirre allowed one run in two innings, and Tritz tossed a perfect eighth. Scott Byrnes also came in to pitch a scoreless ninth.
The relief innings were important since the Doubledays bullpen had given up nine runs in the first two games of the series.
“Our bullpen came up big,” Holmberg said. “We stayed away from that bad inning that's been killing us. If we give up four, five, six runs in an inning we're dead. We needed that performance out of these guys with a day off tomorrow and a six-day road trip ahead of us.”
Leadoff hitter and second baseman Scott Campbell was the tone-setter of the game for the offense. The speedy Campbell reached base four times on three walks and a single. He also scored three times and made a tremendous glove flip to first to nail a baserunner in the first inning.
“I think we just couldn't put it together for a couple of games,” Dials said. “It took a while for us to get in a groove and play like we know we're capable of.”
Hopkins continued his hitting barrage out of the cleanup spot. The bulky first baseman had his team-leading eighth multi-hit game of the season and also had his third multiple extra-base hit game. Hopkins smoked an RBI double off the left-field wall in the third and pummeled the first pitch he saw in the eighth off the wall in dead center field.
Hopkins, who added a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, ranks third in the New York-Penn League with 18 RBIs.
“No question he's an offensive threat,” Holmberg said of Hopkins. “I think he's one of the most consistently solid players in the league. He's one of those streaky hitters that's going to carry the team for two or three games at a time.”
Auburn (9-11) finds itself still in fifth place in the Pinckney Division but makes up a game with a rainout in Batavia. The Doubledays are 2.5 games out of first place.
Notes: Former Doubleday Vito Chiaravalloti was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays organization to the Baltimore Orioles on Monday. Chiaravalloti, the NY-P League triple crown winner in 2003, was hitting .190 with six home runs and 18 RBIs in 42 games for the Class-AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Dials picked up his first win of the season while allowing no runs and three hits in five innings of work. He also put the Doubledays' infield to work, as 12 of the 15 outs he recorded were on ground balls.
“I was just trying to keep the ball down,” Dials said. “I was comfortable hitting my spots, that's what I knew I had to do. I made them swing at my pitches.
“My fastball had a lot of movement and a lot of sink. I had a little trouble locating my slider early, but my changeup came through for me.”
Auburn also ended another alarming trend by jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Before Sunday, the Doubledays had trailed in the first or second inning in 10 straight games. After Luke Hopkins and Matt Lane tacked on two more runs in the third, Dials settled in and retired six of his final seven batters. The right-hander also didn't allow a baserunner past second.
“Dials is certainly the talk of the game,” Holmberg said. “He threw strikes and got the ball down. Basically he did what was advertised.”
With Dials out of the game, Holmberg used two relievers who haven't seen action in a while.
Lefty Wilfreddy Aguirre has been on the inactive list after returning home to Venezuela following the death of his father, and right-hander John Tritz has been serving a five-game suspension after hitting a batter in Jamestown on July 1.
Aguirre allowed one run in two innings, and Tritz tossed a perfect eighth. Scott Byrnes also came in to pitch a scoreless ninth.
The relief innings were important since the Doubledays bullpen had given up nine runs in the first two games of the series.
“Our bullpen came up big,” Holmberg said. “We stayed away from that bad inning that's been killing us. If we give up four, five, six runs in an inning we're dead. We needed that performance out of these guys with a day off tomorrow and a six-day road trip ahead of us.”
Leadoff hitter and second baseman Scott Campbell was the tone-setter of the game for the offense. The speedy Campbell reached base four times on three walks and a single. He also scored three times and made a tremendous glove flip to first to nail a baserunner in the first inning.
“I think we just couldn't put it together for a couple of games,” Dials said. “It took a while for us to get in a groove and play like we know we're capable of.”
Hopkins continued his hitting barrage out of the cleanup spot. The bulky first baseman had his team-leading eighth multi-hit game of the season and also had his third multiple extra-base hit game. Hopkins smoked an RBI double off the left-field wall in the third and pummeled the first pitch he saw in the eighth off the wall in dead center field.
Hopkins, who added a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, ranks third in the New York-Penn League with 18 RBIs.
“No question he's an offensive threat,” Holmberg said of Hopkins. “I think he's one of the most consistently solid players in the league. He's one of those streaky hitters that's going to carry the team for two or three games at a time.”
Auburn (9-11) finds itself still in fifth place in the Pinckney Division but makes up a game with a rainout in Batavia. The Doubledays are 2.5 games out of first place.
Notes: Former Doubleday Vito Chiaravalloti was traded from the Toronto Blue Jays organization to the Baltimore Orioles on Monday. Chiaravalloti, the NY-P League triple crown winner in 2003, was hitting .190 with six home runs and 18 RBIs in 42 games for the Class-AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
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