JetHawks: Feliz, offense struggle as Giants get shutout win
April 10, 2015
ALONSO TACANGA/Valley Press
LANCASTER — It was all going quite smoothly on Friday night for JetHawks starting pitcher Michael Feliz, the highly touted pitching prospect of the Astros.
Then, in a flash, it all went awry.
“Small mistakes,” said Feliz, who gave up four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. “One doesn’t lose control, but one loses the game. It happens in baseball.”
But on a night where the JetHawks (1-1) couldn’t buy many hits during a 5-0 loss to the San Jose Giants (1-1), Feliz was hardly the only problem as Lancaster’s dreams of a 140-0 season came crashing down.
If you’re looking for a scapegoat for Feliz’s poor debut and the JetHawks only mustering five hits with three of their top four hitters going 0-for-12, Friday being only game No. 2 of the season is a good place to start.
“I think he was just getting tired. He’s a good pitcher,” JetHawks third baseman J.D. Davis said of Feliz, who is ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Astros organization.
Feliz impressed early on, fanning four batters, giving up just two hits without walking a batter and consistently reaching the 90s on the speed radar through 2 1/3 innings.
A single from Giants center fielder Jesus Galindo started an avalanche Feliz couldn’t stop, however.
Christian Arroyo, who finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, followed up Galindo with a single of his own. Feliz’s next pitch was wild and allowed Galindo to reach third. Galindo then opened the scoring on a sac fly from Austin Slater.
The next four Giants all hit two-out singles and San Jose opened up a 4-0 lead to end Feliz’s night.
“I think it was bad luck,” Feliz said. “I thought I threw some good pitches and they were just able to hit them.
“But it’s just a matter of the game. It was bad luck. I can’t say I wasn’t focused and I can’t say I wasn’t competing. I was competing.”
Said JetHawks manager Omar Lopez: “Poor pitch selection hurt him. He fell behind in the count. He wasn’t able to make the pitches to finish off the hitters. And when he worked ahead in the count, it was bad luck for him, infield singles, bloop singles. There’s nothing he can do about it.”
JetHawks reliever Chris Cotton got the last out of the third inning and went on to pitch 2 1/3 innings, giving up one hit and no runs with four strikeouts.
JetHawks tandem starter Zach Morton pitched the final four innings and gave up two hits, two walks and a run to go with three strikeouts.
But with Davis, Brett Phillips and A.J. Reed all going 0-for-4 and the rest of the lineup unable to pick up the offensive slack, Lancaster couldn’t even begin to rally like it did a day before when it walked off during its Opening Night game.
“It’s too early to say (the hitters) are struggling, but at some point they’re going to have to put everything together and make some adjustments,” JetHawks manager Omar Lopez said.
Giants starter Chase Johnson went four innings, gave up two hits, two walks and no runs. Reliever Nick Vander Tuig pitched two hitless innings and got the win.
JetHawks first baseman Chase McDonald, who had two doubles on Thursday, stayed hot and went 2-for-4 on Friday night.
Following a stretch from the fifth to the eighth inning in which the Giants retired 10 JetHawks in a row, Lancaster seemed on the verge of scoring its first run of the night when McDonald and Ronnie Mitchell led off the ninth with consecutive singles.
Jack Mayfield, however, grounded out into a 5-4-3 double play (allowing McDonald to reach third base, the first time a JetHawk had gone beyond second) and Jobduan Morales flied out to right to end the night.
The JetHawks are back at it tonight for game No. 3 of the young season, against the Giants at 6 p.m.
“It’s early in the season, it really is,” Davis said. “We just need to get better adjustments, that’s all.”
ALONSO TACANGA/Valley Press
LANCASTER — It was all going quite smoothly on Friday night for JetHawks starting pitcher Michael Feliz, the highly touted pitching prospect of the Astros.
Then, in a flash, it all went awry.
“Small mistakes,” said Feliz, who gave up four runs on eight hits with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. “One doesn’t lose control, but one loses the game. It happens in baseball.”
But on a night where the JetHawks (1-1) couldn’t buy many hits during a 5-0 loss to the San Jose Giants (1-1), Feliz was hardly the only problem as Lancaster’s dreams of a 140-0 season came crashing down.
If you’re looking for a scapegoat for Feliz’s poor debut and the JetHawks only mustering five hits with three of their top four hitters going 0-for-12, Friday being only game No. 2 of the season is a good place to start.
“I think he was just getting tired. He’s a good pitcher,” JetHawks third baseman J.D. Davis said of Feliz, who is ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Astros organization.
Feliz impressed early on, fanning four batters, giving up just two hits without walking a batter and consistently reaching the 90s on the speed radar through 2 1/3 innings.
A single from Giants center fielder Jesus Galindo started an avalanche Feliz couldn’t stop, however.
Christian Arroyo, who finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, followed up Galindo with a single of his own. Feliz’s next pitch was wild and allowed Galindo to reach third. Galindo then opened the scoring on a sac fly from Austin Slater.
The next four Giants all hit two-out singles and San Jose opened up a 4-0 lead to end Feliz’s night.
“I think it was bad luck,” Feliz said. “I thought I threw some good pitches and they were just able to hit them.
“But it’s just a matter of the game. It was bad luck. I can’t say I wasn’t focused and I can’t say I wasn’t competing. I was competing.”
Said JetHawks manager Omar Lopez: “Poor pitch selection hurt him. He fell behind in the count. He wasn’t able to make the pitches to finish off the hitters. And when he worked ahead in the count, it was bad luck for him, infield singles, bloop singles. There’s nothing he can do about it.”
JetHawks reliever Chris Cotton got the last out of the third inning and went on to pitch 2 1/3 innings, giving up one hit and no runs with four strikeouts.
JetHawks tandem starter Zach Morton pitched the final four innings and gave up two hits, two walks and a run to go with three strikeouts.
But with Davis, Brett Phillips and A.J. Reed all going 0-for-4 and the rest of the lineup unable to pick up the offensive slack, Lancaster couldn’t even begin to rally like it did a day before when it walked off during its Opening Night game.
“It’s too early to say (the hitters) are struggling, but at some point they’re going to have to put everything together and make some adjustments,” JetHawks manager Omar Lopez said.
Giants starter Chase Johnson went four innings, gave up two hits, two walks and no runs. Reliever Nick Vander Tuig pitched two hitless innings and got the win.
JetHawks first baseman Chase McDonald, who had two doubles on Thursday, stayed hot and went 2-for-4 on Friday night.
Following a stretch from the fifth to the eighth inning in which the Giants retired 10 JetHawks in a row, Lancaster seemed on the verge of scoring its first run of the night when McDonald and Ronnie Mitchell led off the ninth with consecutive singles.
Jack Mayfield, however, grounded out into a 5-4-3 double play (allowing McDonald to reach third base, the first time a JetHawk had gone beyond second) and Jobduan Morales flied out to right to end the night.
The JetHawks are back at it tonight for game No. 3 of the young season, against the Giants at 6 p.m.
“It’s early in the season, it really is,” Davis said. “We just need to get better adjustments, that’s all.”