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Texas Rangers lefthanded pitcher Joe Palumbo is one of the team’s top upper level pitching prospects, and he showed why tonight, striking out 10 of the 18 batters he faced tonight for Frisco. Coming in after Walker Weickel pitched the first two innings — the Rangers, I seem to recall reading, want their young starters to be familiar with coming in after an “opener” — Palumbo went 4.2 IP, allowing 1 run in a hit and 2 walks.
The only nit one can pick with Palumbo is that he wasn’t terribly efficient, needing 92 pitches to get through 18 batters, but if you’re striking out over half of those you’re facing, I think you can live with that, Reports out of Frisco were that he was getting swings and misses with a high spin rate fastball, and was using his curve and changeup effectively as well.
Emmanuel Clase, alas, had his first bad outing of the year, coming in to protect a 4-2 9th inning lead for Frisco, and instead allowing a walk, a ground out, a single, a double, a single, a single, a walk, and a single. Our man Tepid says the velocity is there and it’s just a matter of weak contact falling in, but, as he also said, “a hit is a hit.”
A pair of hard throwing relievers pitched for Down East today, with Joe Barlow striking out 4 in 2 innings, with 1 walk and an unearned run allowed, and Demarcus Evans walked 1 and struck out 3 in the 10th inning to pick up the save.
Leody Taveras has a pair of hits for Down East, as well, continuing his encouraging start to the year.
Nashville is getting squashed tonight — its 17-2 as I write this — but C.D. Pelham, who has had a real difficult start to the year, had a scoreless 1.2 IP outing, and Matt Davidson homered again, his 11th of the year.