Game: 4/20 Myrtle Beach Pelicans and Delmarva Shorebirds

Final: Pelicans 17, Shorebirds 3

Summary: An Old Fashioned Shellacking

You read that right, 17 runs total, and they still left 27 runners on base. Except for Ethan Hearn, every Pelican had a hit. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Peter Matt, Yeison Santana, and James Triantos all had multi-hit games. PCA had a homerun and a triple, Yeison Santana had a double and three singles, and James Triantos had a double and two singles. In the game, they also executed a double steal of second and home with Yeison Santana stealing home and James Triantos stealing second base. Tyler Schlaffer threw 4 innings and gave up one run, a solo home run in the 4th inning, and struck out 6 batters. Jose Miguel Gonzalez and Adam Laskey pitched in relief. 

Player of the Game: Pete Crow-Armstrong

Soon the Cubs will be looking for a new top outfielder in the system once Brennen Davis graduates, and PCA made his case Wednesday night. PCA showed a little bit of his power during the Pelicans 10 run 6th inning with a home run down the right field line. He’s actually done a nice job putting the ball in the air and getting it off of the ground. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well PCA has hitting line drives into the gap. With his speed, almost anything in the outfield could be a potential double. And speaking of speed, PCA might be one of the funnest guys to watch once he gets on base since Javy Baez. He seems to just have the green light on the basepaths, and he is aggressive and not afraid to push the envelope when it comes to baserunning. He’s also shown he has a good foundation of the strike zone, and isn’t afraid to get deep into counts and walk. 

Who You Might Have Missed: Yeison Santana

The first week of the season couldn’t have gone any worse for Yeison Santana, but this game on April 20th couldn’t have gone much better. To start the year, Santana looked a little lost at the place like he did during his brief stint with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in 2021. He was striking out a lot (he started the year 1-7 with 6 SO) and chased lots of non-competitive pitches out of the zone. Defensively, he wasn’t much better. He missed some pretty routine plays at second base. Luckily, Santana was able to put all of that behind him, and he looked much more comfortable during this game. Perhaps what impressed me most was that three of Santana’s four hits came with two strikes. The difference between Santana on opening day to this game was night and day. Hopefully, we can continue to see the improved Yeison Santana.

What to Keep an Eye On: Pelicans Baserunning

If you turn on a Myrtle Beach Pelicans game, you are going to see some stolen base attempts. Buddy Bailey is letting his young team run. The Pelicans have a lot of speed and getting runners moving seems to be emphasized early on in the season. So far five Pelicans have multiple steals: PCA (7), Jacob Wetzel (5), Kevin Alcantara (2), James Triantos (2), and Ethan Hearn (2). During this game on April 20th, they stole home on a double steal, something they also executed against Augusta on April 17th. In total they’ve stolen home three times this year, I’ve seen them try hit and run with runners on 1st and 2nd, and they seem to succeeding early on at moving runners via the steal. It’s not something you see very often in todays game, and it’s been fun and refreshing watching the Pelicans play baseball.

Feature photo of Pete Crow-Armstrong by Stephanie Lynn (@SRL590)