MuchO GustO (sort of) Live: Keys 8, Pelicans 2

I traveled to Frederick's Harry Grove Stadium last night to witness the Keys destroy the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. UVA grad and 2011 O's draftee Tyler Wilson started for the Keys while old friend Randy Henry took the mound for the Pelicans.

As you may recall, Henry was sent from the O's to Texas in the deal that netted Taylor Teagarden. The 2009 draft pick never went further in the O's system than Frederick and maybe the Keys still had some film on Henry, because they went to work taking him apart fairly quickly. Johnny Ruettiger led off the game with a walk and advanced to third on a single from Jerome Pena. Both Pena and Ruettiger then scored on a double smoked to center by Jeremy Nowak. Nowak would eventually score after groundouts from Mike Flacco and Brenden Webb.

The Keys would continue to hit Henry hard. Both Garabez Rosa and Brenden Webb would hit home runs off of Henry that hit above the 400 foot marker in dead center field. Nowak would end up with another double, a single and a walk. Henry's velocity hovered in the 80s, touching no higher than 91 that I noticed. Henry's counterpart Tyler Wilson was masterful. Wilson pitched his fourth consecutive start without allowing a walk. Wilson struck out 7 in 7.1 innings by effectively changing speeds. He has struck out 24 in his last 27 innings. As far as I could tell, his velocity ranged from the mid 70s to 91. By the later innings, Pelicans hitters were so off balance, some of Wilson's strikeouts looked like a Looney Toons short. Wilson had a two hitter going in to the 8th, when the BABIP gods struck. A series of seeing eye singles put the Pelicans on the board and ended up chasing Wilson. After allowing an inherited runner to score, David Walters closed out the game without incident.

Additional Notes/Thoughts:

-Michael Mosby has never been on my radar, but the 2010 draftee looked pretty fluid at 3rd with a very strong arm. He mashes lefties and hit a bomb off of Pelicans lefty reliever Jimmy Reyes.

-Steve Bumbry continues to exhibit a pretty good eye. He added two walks to his season total of 22 in around 170 PAs in the Carolina League.

-Johnny Ruettiger has a hell of a motor. He may have been positioned in center, but he was all over the place and made a pretty spectacular diving grab on a shallow pop up that's probably a hit in most instances.

-Garabez Rosa is an enigma. He's still only 22 and definitely looks the part of a ballplayer. He has good pop for a middle infielder, but his career walk totals are brutal. Maybe he should hang out with Steve Bumbry.