With the way they started their seasons in Winston-Salem, Bryan Ramos and Oscar Colás looked like they might be in Birmingham by now.
Instead, Ramos has cooled off in May, and Colás spent some time on the injured list with a wrist issue. James Fegan talked to Dash manager Lorenzo Bundy and provided some additional input from scouting sources as he brought his readers up to speed on their stocks:
Regarding Ramos:
Bundy and hitting coach Nicky Delmonico are in the process of getting Ramos to settle back in after a cold stretch to start May has muted consideration of promoting him to Double A for now. Brought on by what Bundy feels was a combination of bad weather getting Ramos out of his batting cage routine and overly aggressive, pull-happy swings, he finished this weekend hitting .167/.261/.200 for the month. But Thursday saw Ramos collect his first extra-base hit and first multi-hit game since May 3 as part of a small five-game hitting streak that suggests he’s pulling out of it. Bundy is quick to note that Ramos’ strike zone judgment (10.1 percent walk rate, 17.4 percent strikeout rate in May) has not fallen apart during his slump.
And as for Colás:
“It’s kind of like you’re digging in the mine, and you haven’t found the gold yet, but you know it’s there,” Bundy said of Colás’ power. “Oscar was one of our last guys to hit a home run, and you could see where he was really trying to hit a home run. After he hit the first … (Oscar’s) got really good power to the opposite field, especially left-center field. We were harping on that for two or three days, ‘Stay over there, stay over there, hit that ball the other way, you can do it.’ And finally, his first home run happened to be the left-center field. And then I think he hit two, two more in the next two or three days. And he kind of found his power stroke.”
Durham 9, Charlotte 2
- Yolbert Sánchez was 0-for-4.
- Carlos Pérez, 1-for-4 with a K.
- Adam Haseley went 1-for-4.
- Micker Adolfo is now hitting .300 after going 2-for-4.
- Kade McClure in relief: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
Birmingham 7, Chattanooga 2 (6½ innings, rain)
- José Rodríguez went 0-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Lenyn Sosa started a new hitting streak, going 1-for-5 with a K.
Hickory 2, Winston-Salem 1 (Game 1, 7 innings)
- Oscar Colás was 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Bryan Ramos went 0-for-2 with an HBP.
- Luis Mieses and Harvin Mendoza both were 0-for-3.
Hickory 5, Winston-Salem 0 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Oscar Colás, 0-for-3.
- Bryan Ramos went 0-for-2 and reached on catcher interference.
- Luis Mieses went 1-for-3.
Carolina 11, Kannapolis 8
- Wes Kath went 1-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout.
- Colson Montgomery was 3-for-4 with a double and a walk.
- Wilfred Veras went 0-for-4 with a sac fly and two strikeouts.
- DJ Gladney, 0-for-5 with a K.
- James Beard, 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Cristian Mena: 4.1 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 3 K
