TRENTON- Dante Bichette Jr. is off to a hot start for the Trenton Thunder. The 23-year old third baseman, who had hit .227 in 85 games over parts of two seasons in 2014-2015, has commenced the 2016 season in sparkling fashion. Coming into Wednesday night's rubber game with the Portland Sea Dogs (3-4), Bichette Jr. was hitting .400. But his...
TRENTON- Dante Bichette Jr. is off to a hot start for the Trenton Thunder.
The 23-year old third baseman, who had hit .227 in 85 games over parts of two seasons in 2014-2015, has commenced the 2016 season in sparkling fashion.
Coming into Wednesday night's rubber game with the Portland Sea Dogs (3-4), Bichette Jr. was hitting .400. But his power numbers are what jump off the page early in the campaign. Bichette Jr. already has two home runs, including a monster blast to dead center field in Friday night's 7-4 win over Erie, and six RBI, to lead the Thunder through their first home stand.
Bichette Jr. had a two-run opposite field blast Tuesday night, to tie it up at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh. Although the Thunder (4-2) eventually lost in extra innings, it was the second time this year that he had come up in big when Trenton needed a spark.
He already is two thirds of the way towards equaling his total home run output over his first 85 games, in just six games of the 2016 season.
Wednesday night, Bichette was 0-for-3 with a walk, in the Trenton 1-0 win. Lane Adams was the lone offense for either side, as his eighth inning solo home run was enough to give the Thunder a series win over the Sea Dogs.
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Bullpen ready to be a rock for the Thunder
The bullpen is one of the Thunder's strengths. Once again, with the pitch counts of the starters early in the season, the relievers got a chance to showcase their goods during the Portland series.
Giovanny Gallegos, the 24-year old righty from Sonora, Mexico, has been stellar in his limited innings. He has six strikeouts, and has allowed just two hits, in 3.1 frames.
"He pitched really well last night, and in fact he got stronger as the innings went along," Thunder manager Bobby Mitchell said. "He got more and more comfortable. I was really pleased. We didn't want to lose him for three days, so we went with him for the two innings."
The Thunder bullpen was called on after 6.2 innings of shutout baseball from Brady Lail Wednesday night. Evan Rutckyj came in and threw two thirds of an inning, before leaving with runners on first and second. Matt Tracy came into the contest, and got Aneury Tavarez to ground out to second, and Jantzen Witte to fly out to centerfield.
Tracy then shut down Portland in the ninth inning, to earn his first win of the season.
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With the speed at the top of the lineup, Mitchell will have his base runners in motion a lot more than in the past.
The change in philosophy throughout the Yankees system should be a boon for Trenton, as the top three players in the lineup all have considerable speed. Tyler Wade, Dustin Fowler and Lane Adams all run the bases well, and will be put in motion as much as possible.
The thing that may be a little different for fans of the game is the count on which the players will run.
"With a three and one count, I don't run with everybody, but with those guys at the top, I will run," Mitchell said. "Because for one, it is not only the guy running, it is the guy at bat."
"They put the ball in play, and are not going to swing through it," Mitchell said. "We are going to roll the dice, and see what happens. It is a luxury for me as a manager, to be able to do that. Because when we put them in motion, someone has to cover second. So it opens up some holes."
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean