Game #34 - Road Game #17 - Friday – 7:00
RHP Erik Goeddel (1-2, 3.60) vs. LHP Ronan Pacheco (1-2, 3.45)
State Mutual Stadium, Rome, GA
Radio: News/Talk 630 and sandgnats.com
Tonight: The Gnats, SAL affiliate of the New York Mets, head to Rome to begin a seven-game road trip against the Rome Braves, SAL affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Gnats finished their recent home stand against Rome and Hickory at 5-3.
Last Night: The Hickory Crawdads snapped the Gnats’ three-game winning streak with a 1-0 win in 13 innings. The winning run scored on a wild pitch from Savannah reliever Luis Rojas on an intentional ball four to Hickory’s DH, Andrew Clark. RF Cory Vaughn was 3-4 with a pair of walks.
Now Pitching: RHP Erik Goeddel is scheduled to make his seventh start of the year for Savannah tonight. In his last three starts, Goeddel has allowed just 12 hits, three walks and four runs in 18 innings with 18 strikeouts for a K/BB of 6 and an ERA of 2.25. The Mets drafted Goeddel in the 24th round of the 2010 draft out of UCLA. He made only one appearance for the GCL Mets on August 14, 2010 throwing one inning with one hit and one strikeout. Goeddel underwent Tommy John surgery during his senior year of high school at San Jose’s Bellarmine Prep in 2007 and missed most of the next two years at UCLA. In 2010 he was excellent for the Bruins out of the bullpen, striking out 59 and walking 23 while giving up 44 hits in 50 innings. In decimal form he had a 10.6 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and 7.9 H/9 at UCLA in 2010. Coming into the 2011 season, Goeddel was ranked as the Mets’ 17th best prospect by Baseball America, and the team’s 16th best by Baseball Prospectus. The Gnats are 3-3 when Goeddel starts and have supported him with 3.0 runs per game.
Vicious Vaughn: Cory Vaughn is up to third in the SAL in on-base percentage (.460) and is 12th in batting average (.333) and 15th OPS (.902).
Pitching to the Top of the Charts: The Gnats lead the SAL in ERA (3.46) and WHIP (1.28). The Gnats’ 271 strikeouts are fourth most, and their 101 walks are fifth fewest in the League. The run in the top of the 13th inning Thursday halted Savannah’s string of 28 scoreless innings.
Hitting the Bottom of the Barrel: The Gnats are last in the SAL in batting average (.230), on-base percentage (.305) and runs scored (110). Savannah is 13th in slugging (.348) while Rome is last in the category at .337. The Gnats average 3.33 runs per game (110 runs/33 games) while Rome is second-to-last at 3.82 (130 runs/34 games).
Road Data: The Gnats are 10-7 at home, but just 5-11 on the road. At home, Savannah pitching has a 2.17 ERA with a K/BB ratio of 2.5 (150/60), an opponents’ batting average of .229 and 0.33 HR/9 IP (6 HR/162 IP). On the road, Gnats pitching has a 4.77 ERA, a K/BB ratio of 2.95, an opponents’ batting average of .277 and a 1.02 HR/9 IP (15 HR/132 IP.
Strong Starting: In the eight games of the Gnats’ home stand, starters Taylor Whitenton, Greg Peavey, Ryan Fraser, Erik Goeddel and Gonzalez Germen combined on 50 innings yielding just four runs, three earned, on 29 hits. In their last 13 games, Savannah starters are 6-1 with a 0.99 ERA (8 ER/73 IP) with 58 strikeouts, 19 walks and 52 hits allowed. In those 13 games, Gnats starters have a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.05 and have given up as many as two runs just twice. Six times Gnats starters have held their opponent without a run and five times they have held their opponent to one run.
Vs. Rome: The Gnats are 2-2 against the Rome Braves in 2011, all at home. The two teams combined to score 11 runs in their four-game set in Savannah last Friday to Monday.
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