The Visalia Rawhide got three home runs from the offense and 15 strikeouts from four pitchers to post a 6-4 victory over the Inland Empire 66ers on Friday night at Valley Strong Ballpark. Back-to-back wins for Visalia evened the series at two apiece heading into the weekend.
The two teams traded blows for four innings as Inland Empire went up 4-3, but the Rawhide got a two-run homer from RF Neyfy Castillo in the fifth inning and a solo shot from 3B A.J. Vukovich in the seventh to finish the scoring while the bullpen kept the 66ers quiet. Castillo’s 8th homer of the season gave him the Low-A West lead.
Rawhide starter Brandon Pfaadt went 6 innings and earned the win (2-2) after allowing 7 hits, 4 ER and a walk while striking out 12. The 2020 5th round draft pick threw 87 pitches, 65 for strikes. He gave up back-to-back homers in the 4th inning to squander a 3-1 lead but otherwise had a very strong outing, recording three Ks in three separate innings.
RAWHIDE WORK THE PITCH COUNT
66ers starter Jack Kochanowicz didn’t fare as well, leaving after 2 1/3 innings and 66 pitches, 39 strikes. The Angels’ #7 prospect allowed 3ER on 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.
A key sequence in the game came when the Rawhide saw 26 pitches from Kochanowicz in the bottom of the 2nd inning while tying the game up at 1 apiece on a home run from 1B Elian Miranda. Castillo led off the inning with an 8-pitch AB that ended in a strikeout, but Kochanowicz’ pitch count mounted as the half-inning dragged on before the side was finally retired.
Pfaadt promptly retired the 66ers on just six pitches in the top of the third and Kochanowicz was right back out there after just a brief respite. Rawhide C Lyle Lin led off the bottom of the third with a four-pitch walk and then 2B S.P. Chen saw 11 pitches in an epic AB that ended with a single to put two on with no outs.
CF Jorge Barrosa doubled in Lin to put Visalia up 2-1. After Kochanowicz struck out Vukovich, he walked Castillo to load the bases and was relieved by RHP Taylor Ahearn. Lin scored on a groundout and Visalia led at that point 3-1.
Pfaadt then surrendered a two-run homer to RF Caleb Scires followed by a solo shot by 2B Jose Guzman to give back the lead before recording six strikeouts over the next 2 1/3 innings to end his night after 6 IP. Visalia was leading 5-4 at that point on the strength of Castillo’s homer and Pfaadt was in line for the win with three innings to go and the Rawhide bullpen taking over.
BULLPEN SEALS IT
Hardly automatic so far this season, the relief corp got the job done tonight. Harrison Francis, Emmanuel Acosta and Liu Fuenmayor (S, 1) each threw a scoreless inning without allowing any hits to nail it down.
Visalia’s record improves to 8-26 and the back-to-back wins have to feel good after the rough start to the season. Inland Empire falls to 15-18 and they are now 4 games behind Rancho Cucamonga in the South division.
ANOTHER STRONG OUTING FOR PFAADT
Brandon Pfaadt went at least six innings for the third straight start and struck out 12 for the second outing in a row. Baseball America noted that Pfaadt’s velocity would dip in the middle innings in college but he threw some of his hardest pitches in the 5th inning according to the stadium scoreboard. He topped out at 93 but I heard earlier in the season that Visalia’s official gun is a bit slow. I have no inside knowledge on that, just something I heard on a broadcast. Regardless, his first pitch of the game was shown as 93 and he hit that mark three times in the fifth before the pitch speeds stopped being displayed.
The seven hits and two homers were season highs, but so were the 12 strikeouts. Pfaadt never appeared to labor in this game and 10 of his 12 strikeouts were swinging. After the back-to-back homers in the fourth he struck out DH Spencer Brown on three pitches clocked at 91, 79 and 92 mph, then threw two more strikes to CF D’Shawn Knowles to induce a groundout to end the inning. Strong comeback from the adversity.
For the season, Pfaadt has walked 6 and struck out 52 over 33 1/3 innings. His WHIP is 0.93 and opponents have batted .195 against him.
CASTILLO, VUKOVICH HEATING UP
Neyfy Castillo touches home plate after his Low-A West leading 8th homer of the season
The two big bats in the middle of Visalia’s batting order are having more success of late. Neyfy Castillo has homered in back-to-back games and has hit safely in nine of his last 11 games to raise his batting average over 30 points. His slugging pct. is up to .454, its highest since May 12th.
A.J. Vukovich is 9 for his last 26 and has a slash line of .300/.382/.467 for the month of June. Friday night’s homer was his first since May 29th and he’s hit safely in four straight games.
SOUNDED LIKE A NIGHT AT THE BALLPARK
Valley Strong Ballpark still isn’t filling up to capacity but on this Friday night it sounded like a minor league ballpark is supposed to sound. Lots of energy in the park with constant chatter throughout. The fans made noise for the back-and-forth action and the kids could be heard playing all night. It won’t be up to full capacity until June 22nd but on this Friday night it felt and sounded like they’re almost there.
The Stockton Ports got a second-inning grand slam from CF Brayan Buelvas and went on to score 11 runs on 12 hits as they knocked the Fresno Grizzlies out of first place with an 11-6 win Wednesday night. Buelvas added a solo shot later and went 2-for-5 on the night with five RBIs.
