Notes from El Paso: Dinelson Lamet rehabs

The bats were alive for both teams as the El Paso Chihuahuas beat the Oklahoma City Dodgers by a score of 10-7.

Dinelson Lamet’s rehab start is the story of the game...at least the one I am focusing on...but the offensive explosion certainly makes a great case. The quick reaction is that these Chihuahuas can hit.

The star with the bat was Jose Pirela, who collected two hits and three RBIs. One of those was a homerun. Luis Urias also went deep in his first at bat. With 12 team hits, this could go on awhile.

Quick Notes

The Dodger pitching hit a total of three batters in the game. Ty France was plunked twice and Urias once. Justin Grimm hit Urias in the upper shoulder with a 90 MPH fastball. The Padres hitting prospect stayed in the game and walked to first, but he took a second to get moving. That could be something to be monitored.

Paco Rodriguez looked good, tossing three scoreless innings and collecting the win. Robert Stock did not fare as well. He threw only a single inning and gave up three runs on four hits. He looked very hittable.

There appeared to be some miscommunication going on between the pitchers and catcher Webster Rivas. Lamet had two wild pitches, and Stock had one.

Almost every batter, including Lamet, had a hit in this game. This was the definition of an offensive onslaught. Michael Gettys, Urias, Pirela, and Esteban Quiroz all had multi-hit games.

I am always excited to see France, but he was hit twice in the game so I feel cheated. That being said, he and Urias are prospects to be excited about. Try to pull your shocked jaws off the floor after that obvious statement.

Dinelson Lamet’s Day

Rehab starts are tricky things because the actual outcome is not the important thing. What the team cares most is how the pitcher feels. However, for our purposes, here is Lamet’s line:

5.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

It was overall a solid day for Lamet. He did give up two homers, and some other hard contact, but there was a lot to like. In the fifth inning he got two outs on two pitches, but things went south after surrendering a single to the Dodger pitcher, Rob Zastryzny.

His fastball was in the mid 90’s and his slider was sharp. Like, really sharp. Lamet was able to create several whiffs out of the zone with that breaking ball. The most impressive was a on a strikeout on a ball in the dirt.

If this rehab start is looked at from the standpoint of the team, it was really good. Outside of a few pitches that were way out of the zone, Lamet had really nice command of the strike zone with all of his pitches. There were no obvious sign of discomfort.

There was one shot of him icing his elbow after his start, which is to be expected after Tommy John surgery. If he was not icing it, that would be bad. He actually came out before reaching his pitch count too, so he threw the rest in the bullpen.

Lamet is on the way back, and unless he has issues that can’t be seen on MiLB TV, his target of late June seems very attainable. And guys, he looked REALLY good.