Just one game in the Dominican on Thursday night, but it produced one of the strangest stats of the off-season. Mel Rojas Jr. hit his sixth homer(shown below), which leads the Dominican winter league. He has done that while playing 21 of his team’s 28 games, with a few of them coming off the bench. In his six seasons of pro ball, Rojas has hit 28 homers in 2709 plate appearances. He hit just two during the 2015 regular season. He also played two seasons of winter ball prior to this year and had no homer in 54 games. Basically, he isn’t the player you would expect to lead the league in homers at this point.
In Venezuela, Jose Osuna connected on his third home run of the season in his team’s 3-2 win in 11 innings. He went 1-for-4 with a walk, a run scored and he drove in two runs. Just like in Wednesday’s game, Osuna started in left field and finished on defense at first base. He was again replaced by Junior Sosa in left field. Sosa came in as a pinch-runner in the 11th inning and played the bottom of the inning on defense without getting a chance to bat.
Elias Diaz went 1-for-4 with a single. He is 6-for-24 in seven games, posting a .696 OPS.
Elvis Escobar had two hits off the bench on Wednesday and that could open up more playing time for him. He got to pinch-hit on Thursday and doubled in his only at-bat. Escobar stayed in the game in left field for the last two innings. He is 4-for-10 in 14 games this winter.
Wilfredo Boscan got hit around in his third start. He allowed six runs(five earned) on ten hits and a walk in four innings. In his first two starts combined, he allowed one run over seven innings.
Gorkys Hernandez drove in two runs, going 1-for-5 with a run scored. He has a .735 OPS in 35 games.
In Mexico, Luis Heredia got the quick hook after walking two of the three batters he faced. He retired the other one on a ground ball. Neither runner scored. Heredia threw 16 pitches, six for strikes. He was coming off his best appearance of the winter, one in which he threw three shutout innings.
Carlos Munoz went 0-for-3 in his team’s 2-0 loss. Mazatlan had three singles and a hit batter in the game, never advancing a runner to third base.
Felipe Gonzalez threw a shutout inning, retiring the side in order.
In Australia, Sam Kennelly started at shortstop and went 1-for-4 with a single. It’s the third different position he has started at, seeing time at second base and third base. During the regular season in the GCL, Kennelly spent most of his time at first base. Kennelly is 5-for-23 through seven games.
