Andrew Cashner Round 2

Gameday

FIRST INNING

1) Line drive single to center field
2) Line drive to second base, caught, double play
3) Groundout to third on a 2-0 pitch
10 pitches, 6 strikes

SECOND INNING

1) Ryan Roberts pops out to second base "softly"
2) Flyout to right field
3) On a 3-1 pitch, Chris Rahl lines out to right field
12 pitches, 6 strikes

THIRD INNING

1) Ground ball single up the middle
2) Force out at second base
3) Another force out at second base
4) After a wild pitch (pitch #2), a harmless fly out ends the inning
12 pitches, 9 strikes

FOURTH INNING

1) Throwing error by Chad Tracy after an 0-2 pitch
2) Doug Deeds walks on six pitches. During the at bat, Pedro Ciaraco steals second.
3) Cashner gets a 1-6-3 double play on a 1-1 pitch
4) One pitch, 6-3 groundout. Reno has stranded a RISP the last two innings.
13 pitches, 8 strikes

FIFTH INNING

1) Chris Rahl leads off the inning with a ground ball double to left
2) Cashner's first strike out of the game (swinging). Beef Castle turns it into a double play by throwing out Rahl attempting to steal at third.
3) Flyout to left field on two pitches.
9 pitches, 6 strikes

Iowa then sends nine men to the plate in the top of the sixth, so Cashner has a long delay in the dugout.

SIXTH INNING

1) Two pitches, groundout to third
2) Single to right field
3) Infield single on a ball hit to Darwin Barney, who then gets charged with a throwing error allowing Drew Macias to advance to third
4) On the first pitch, Doug Deeds lines a single to right field, scoring a run
5) After going 2-0, Cashner gets a popup in foul territory on the infield
6) Flyout to left, ending Cashner's night
14 pitches, 9 strikes

TOTALS
6.0 IP, 1 R, 6 H, 1 K, 1 BB
70 pitches, 44 strikes

In terms of efficiency, this start was almost identical to his last start, just quicker. That happens when you get timely double plays and batters out without lengthy strikeouts.

In his last start, Cashner threw 56 of 89 pitches for strikes (63%). Last night, Cashner threw 44 of 70 pitches for strikes (63%).

Last week, Cashner threw first pitch strikes to 11 of 23 batters. Last night, Cashner threw first pitch strikes to 11 of 23 batters.

So while Cashner still seems to have slight difficulty getting ahead of hitters on the first pitch, he improved greatly on the second pitch. I noted last week that Cashner went 2-0 to seven different hitters in his AAA debut. He dropped that number to three this time around. In fact, Cashner only reached three balls in the count three times in the whole game.

The strikeout numbers obviously went down, but Cashner's outing was probably even better than the last. Reno was aggressive last night, swinging at over half of Cashner's pitches (36 of 70). You get the idea they weren't going to wait around and let him compile big K numbers as he's been doing all season. Again, without pitch f/x data I have no idea what to make of his velocity or movement, but the fact of the matter is Cashner continues to pound the zone and just get hitters out.