By: Joe Krasnowski
EUGENE, OR – Dylan Cumming continues to give the Emeralds that feeling.
The feeling that every time he takes the ball, the team will get a quality start. That whenever he ascends the mound, a string of zeros will follow. That, most importantly, on days he pitches, the Emeralds should be positioned to win.
“You start to have that feeling like, ‘It’s Cumming’s day,’” PA announcer Jill Cole said with a laugh pregame. “It’s gonna be a win.”
Wednesday was indeed another of those days, with Cumming dazzling in a five-inning, one-run start to guide the Emeralds past the Spokane Indians 8-3 at PK Park.
The reason for Cumming’s success wasn’t hard to determine. His slider was dizzying, downright disgusting and effective all night — he ended the first, third and fifth innings with strikeouts on the pitch.
Following up on his prior success — he entered with a team-best 1.88 ERA — Cumming dotted his breaking ball with will en route to nine strikeouts on the day. Cumming has now allowed runs in only four of nine outings of the year, his lone run allowed today was the first at home all year.
Staked to a big early lead — via an Alexander Suarez three-run homer, the Venezuelan-born slugger’s eighth RBI in two games — Cumming went on the attack against the Indians (21-16), throwing 51 of his 78 pitches for strikes.
Other than two first-inning singles, he didn’t let multiple batters reach base at any other point in the Ems victory (23-17 ). The only real bullet he had to dodge was a bloop single turned inside-the-park homerun where Suarez’s diving catch attempt came up empty.
He generated 20 whiffs on the slider which jumped out of his hand, wobbled a bit and took a sharp nose-dive out of the zone.
The dominance was welcomed, especially with Cumming’s “worst” outing of the year coming in a three-run two-inning showing last time out. He bounced back terrifically, dominating on all but the smallest of margins.
Though he gave up the second-inning inside-the-parker to Jake Snyder, Cumming stayed calm and as intimidating as ever. He executed pitches brilliantly and mixed in his fastball to limit Vancouver’s seemingly innocuous lineup to just four hits and the lone run on the day.
His outing, coupled by three solid innings of relief from Nick Morreale and Hunter Dula were enough for a victory on a night where the Emeralds’ offense squandered a few threats but ultimately was clutch when it needed to be.
Suarez’s swing, a two-run bomb from Rodolfo Nolasco, a two-run blast from Garrett Frechette and a Diego Velasquez RBI single would be all the Ems would need on a second-straight night where Vancouver had few legitimate threats.
However, Cumming’s continued process was the biggest takeaway from Wednesday, with his pinpoint command providing a possible blueprint for future big-league success.
And, more importantly, another solid outing makes Cumming look more like the elite pitcher the Emeralds — and the Giants — hope he can be going forward.
Short hops
Spokane starter Nick Bush is amid a rehab outing, his 3.1-inning outing was done using MLB balls which were changed out in between innings for MiLB balls.
The Eugene Emeralds are the High-A affiliate of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants. The Eugene Emeralds are dedicated to providing the best in family entertainment and creating a fun, safe environment for everyone to enjoy watching a baseball game. For more information, please visit our website at www.EmeraldsBaseball.com or call the Emeralds front office at 541-342-5367. • Emeraldsbaseball.com • Facebook.com/EugeneEmeraldsfanpage • Twitter.com/EugeneEmeralds
#RootedHere
