On Wednesday, Jacob Gonzalez had his best game since the White Sox drafted him. He went 4-for-4 with a homer, a walk, a stolen base, two runs scored and four RBIs for Winston-Salem in the Dash's 9-4 victory over Asheville.
Gonzalez is now hitting .298/.402/.452 with more walks (16) than strikeouts (12) over 27 games with the Dash, and if he keeps this up, it'll be fun to see how the various evaluators square up his second year against his first, given the efforts he's made with regards to adding strength and directing it toward the pitcher.
Baseball Prospectus' Ben Spanier got his first look at Gonzalez this season, and he liked what he saw:
Charlotte 8, Gwinnett 1
- Colson Montgomery went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Zach DeLoach was 2-for-5, and while he still hasn't homered, he hit his first triple and stole a base.
- Oscar Colás went 1-for-5 with a K.
- Adam Hackenberg, 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Dominic Fletcher was 0-for-3 with a walk.
Pensacola 5, Birmingham 1
- Terrell Tatum went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Brooks Baldwin was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, and was picked off/caught stealing.
- Edgar Quero was 0-for-4.
- Wilfred Veras, 1-for-4 with a double.
- Tim Elko went 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Jacob Burke was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Jairo Iriarte was finally ineffectively wild: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 8 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP, 50 of 93 pitches for strikes.
Notes:
*If you're wondering how a guy can issue nine free bases over 5⅓ innings while throwing only 93 pitches, Iriarte issued seven of those walks and the HBP over his first three innings, but none of the walks consumed more than five pitches.
Winston-Salem 9, Asheville 4
- Samuel Zavala went 1-for-6 with a strikeout.
- Jacob Gonzalez had a perfect game at the plate: 4-for-4 with a homer and a stolen base.
- DJ Gladney was 1-for-4 with a triple, walk and strikeout.
- Wes Kath walked once and struck out four times.
- Tyler Schweitzer: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 59 of 92 pitches for strikes.
Delmarva 9, Kannapolis 2
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts and three stolen bases.
- Jake Peppers: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR, 1 WP, 43 of 67 pitches for strikes.
Highlights:
*One of Nishida's stolen bases was a swipe of home after the catcher attempted a pickoff at first base.
