Red Wings 3, Chiefs 4

Written by: Justin Murphy on 14th August 2009

Red Wings 3, Chiefs 4 | read this item

On a warm Friday night in Syracuse, Yohan Pino made his sixth Triple-A start for the Red Wings. In his previous five appearances, Pino was 1-1 with 13 runs allowed in 29.1 innings. He was also coming off a tremendous start against Louisville August 9, when he went eight innings and allowed just one run on three hits, striking out 10. He got a no-decision in that game.

Pino shades to the stocky side at 6’0”, 190 pounds. In his delivery, he brings the ball straight up from behind him and releases it rapidly, with little extension of the arm. Because of this, his release point is low, and he whips his arm very fast in bringing the ball up to deliver it. His delivery with a man on base has a noticeable hitch to it; actually, you wouldn’t call his stretch motion smooth, either.

His fastball sits around 89-90 MPH, and he seems more comfortable throwing it than his off-speed pitches. From this amateur scout’s seat in the upper deck, it was hard to differentiate Pino’s off-speed pitches, but he seemed to throw a changeup and a slider.

In the first inning, Pino relied mostly on fastballs, hitting 90 several times. Most of his off-speed offerings were out of the strike zone. With two outs and two men on, he challenged veteran Daryle Ward with several consecutive high fastballs before finally inducing a groundball with one.

Pino walked the leadoff batter in the second, and the runner came around to score on a groundout. He was missing with his fastball and throwing fewer breaking balls. Pino did, however, make a very nice play on a dribbler to the third base side of the mound. He wasn’t fast in getting to it, but made a barehanded pickup and a strong, accurate throw.

In the third inning, Pino began throwing his breaking ball earlier in the count. He gave up a hard hit on a slider, but otherwise escaped damage thanks to a double play.

Ward came up again in the fourth. Again Pino got him into a 0-2 count, and again he challenged with a fastball. This time, though, Ward was waiting for it, and slammed it into the right-center gap. Steve Tolleson made a superb running catch; the ball would have left the park in any other part of the outfield. Throughout the inning, Pino was pumping fastballs. He retired the side in order in both the fourth and fifth innings.

Through five innings, Pino had allowed one run on four hits. In the sixth, though, he ran into trouble, giving up four straight singles, and was pulled for Juan Morillo. His overall line was 5.2 innings, eight hits, two earned runs, a walk and four strikeouts. He threw 91 pitches, 59 of them for strikes (65%).

I personally was not very impressed with Pino. His breaking pitches were ineffective, and his fastball didn’t have enough movement to compensate. He was helped by a few nice defensive plays, especially Tolleson’s, and the double play. On the other hand, through five innings he was extremely strong. That made for a tremendous pitching duel between him and Nationals prospect Ross Detwiler.

Detwiler is a tall drink of water at 6’5”, 185 pounds. He’s spent time in Washington this year, but got knocked around in his last start before Friday. On this night, however, in front of over 12,000 fans, he was on his game. His fastball hit 93 MPH and his changeup was baffling. Compared to Pino, he looked majestic on the mound, throwing straight over the top like a windmill. Both pitchers worked at a quick pace.

Detwiler also threw a loopy curveball about 15 times. In general, it wasn’t very effective, and he missed the strike zone with it often, but he did get twos strikeouts with it, against Tolleson and Jose Morales. Mostly, though, he stuck with inside fastballs, and he hit his spots extremely well.

After the starters exited, Syracuse tacked on two more runs and withstood a series of Rochester rallies, winning 4-3. Matt Tolbert had three hits; the Wings left 10 men on base. Pino dropped to 1-2 in Triple-A.

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Topics: Daryle Ward, Jose Morales, Matt Tolbert, Minnesota Twins, Rochester Red Wings, Ross Detwiler, Steve Tolleson, Yohan Pino