In playoff action from the Dominican last night, Kris Johnson continued his impressive pitching this off-season, going six strong inning in his team’s 7-2 victory. He allowed two runs on six hits, with no walks and four strikeouts. The first run was unearned, coming in the first inning on a two out error. He has now made nine starts between the playoffs and DWL regular season. Johnson has pitched a total of 46.1 innings, allowing six earned runs combined. His worst start was two earned runs over 6.1 innings two outings ago.
Facing off again Johnson in that game, Felix Pie went 0-for-4, while Alex Valdez went 1-for-3, with a single before being replaced in the eighth inning on defense. Pie and Valdez during the regular season helped their team to the playoffs by providing steady offense in the top two spots of the batting order. The playoffs have been a different story though. The two have been dropped in the order, benched a few games and both are batting under .200, leaving their team with a 3-10 playoff record.
In Venezuela, Luis Sanz pitched a scoreless inning of relief during his team’s 11-10 loss. Sanz faced the minimum, retiring all three batters on groundballs. He was coming off his worst outing of the Winter, two runs in 1/3 inning.
In Australian Baseball League action from today, Stefan Welch was the only Pirates farmhand to play for Adelaide in their 7-3 loss. Welch went 0-for-3, with a walk and an RBI on a sacrifice fly. With Quincy Latimore traded this week, just Welch and Zac Fuesser remain on the Adelaide active roster. Dylan Child, Jackson Lodge, Wilson Lee, Justin Howard and Rinku Singh have all played for Adelaide during this season.
