Gwinnett Stripers (2-3) 6, Round Rock Express (1-4) 3
- JR Ritchie, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K
- Aaron Schunk, 2B: 3-5, 2B, R
- Jose Azocar, CF: 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI
Gwinnett picked up their second win of the season on Wednesday as JR Ritchie rebounded from what was a shaky start to his season in the process.
in his first start of the season last Friday, Ritchie struggled with his command, which led to the Memphis Redbirds tagging him for a few hits and working several walks. While he did issue three walks in this outing, his breaking balls — which were the main source of frustration previously — were much sharper.
Across his 92 pitches on the night, Ritchie
threw 57 strikes and got nine swings and misses over the course of his five frames as well. Ritchie’s velocity was also up in this game as he topped out at 97 miles per hour, while his fastball averaged 93.9 miles per hour.
Another encouraging sign for Ritchie is that the Round Rock hitters only made solid contact on four pitches that were hit into fair territory.
Ritchie was hit hard in the first inning — including a 96.3 MPH single and a 99.3 MPH groundout — but he eventually settled in and tallied five strikeouts while issuing just three walks on the night.
Overall, Ritchie was able to keep his curveball and his changeup down in the zone, which is where he got most of his swings and misses — unlike his previous start when none of those pitches even registered in the middle-lower half of the strike zone.
Hunter Stratton and James Karinchak also proved solid in relief, with Stratton getting six swings and misses, with Karinchak producing three.
It was a solid night at the plate for Gwinnett as well, especially for Jose Azocar who drove in a third of the Stripers’ runs on the night.
Altogether, the Stripers produced eight at-bats in which they made contact with exit velocities exceeding 100 miles per hour. Among those included doubles from Azocar (100.7 MPH), Ben Gamel (102.5 MPH), Rowdy Tellez (102.6 MPH) and Luke Williams (104.7 MPH).
While his stat line may not have stood out Wednesday, Jim Jarvis continues to be a bright spot at the plate for Gwinnett. Going 1-5 with a run scored and a stolen base to his credit, Jarvis has so far posted a team-leading OPS of 1.029 in addition to carrying an average .381, which also leads the team among qualified hitters.
