A Great Start
Jorge Perez's 10-strikeout effort in his 7 2/3-inning victorious start for the Yuma Scorpions against the Outlaws tonight was the most commanding performance I've seen from a starting pitcher in the GBL this season. It literally seemed like every time I looked up while doing some research for another story on my laptop during the early innings an Outlaws batter was walking back to the dugout after a strikeout.
Another gauge for how effectively a pitcher frustrates hitters is how the batter reacts to striking out. In two cases of Perez strikeouts tonight, Bryan Silverman tossed his bat up in disgust and later Lino Garcia swung his at the ground. That shows how Perez mostly was imposing his pitches on hitters and not merely getting lucky that guys were taking bad swings.
"He was keeping the ball down and had a good split he was throwing at the end of counts," said Silverman, who accounted for three of Perez's 10 strikeouts. "That split was his out pitch, definitely. He was getting it past us early but we adjusted a lot better later on."
The GBL could absolutely use more performances similar to Perez's, as pointed out frequently here on the blog throughout this summer of big hitting. Perez, a right-hander listed as 6-foot-4, 220 pounds who doesn't come off as that daunting on the mound, has now gone at least six innings and struck out at least six hitters in his last five starts for Yuma. Perez went 10-4 for Yuma in 2005 (he is now 4-2 this season with today's win) and initially was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1997.