Travis Sykora delivers the pitch. Sykora threw six shutout innings against Hudson Valley. - Photo via Ryan Griffith
Despite temperatures soaring into triple digits, the weather isn’t the hottest thing in Wilmington right now. That title belongs to Travis Sykora.
The Nationals prized prospect threw six scoreless innings while the Blue Rocks received just enough offense in a Gavin Dugas solo shot to pull out a 1-0 victory over the Hudson Valley Renegades at Frawley Stadium on Tuesday, June 24.
Sykora had allowed just four runs in 23 ⅔ innings pitched since arriving to High-A and continued his dominant streak in this outing, striking out eight batters to just two walks while also scattering only two hits. Yet despite the gaudy numbers, Sykora felt like he wasn’t at his best.
“Honestly, my stuff was not as good as it usually is. Command, feel, shape and velocity was down but as the game went on I feel like everything got better. I just had to battle,” Sykora said.
To his point, Sykora only threw strikes at a 61 percent rate and recorded 14 whiffs, down from his usual numbers. Conversely, 18 of Sykora’s strikes were looking and the Round Rock, Texas native also notched three backwards K’s. Sykora proved that he isn’t just a power thrower, he can keep batters guessing at the plate as well.
“I am a power pitcher with velocity, but I feel like for a power pitcher I worked on having finesse and having feel for all three of my pitches, sequencing and tunneling,” Sykora said. “I’ve worked hard on that and I feel like on a day when my stuff isn’t what it should be, that can help get me through.”
“He’s a special pitcher,” Dugas added. “He’s gonna move really quick in this organization, faster than most. He’s gonna be a big leaguer for a really long time.”
For a while, it seemed like Sykora’s gem would go to waste. Hudson Valley’s starter Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz is the Yankees no.6 ranked prospect and matched Sykora’s scoreless innings with zeroes of his own. It wasn’t until the fifth inning when Dugas finally caught Rodriguez-Cruz, taking a hanging breaking ball and depositing it into the ‘Rocks bullpen in left field.
“He (Rodriguez-Cruz) has got great stuff. He was really dealing tonight and living in the outer edges of the plate and competing down there in the bottom of the zone and the top. I was fortunate enough to get a good pitch tonight with two strikes and do something good with it.” Dugas said.
With just one run of breathing room to work with, Sykora and the Wilmington bullpen took care of the rest. Austin Amaral threw two scoreless frames while Miguel Gomez recorded a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth to earn the save and a Blue Rocks win.
The victory was especially important since it was Wilmington’s first victory in the second half of the season as they look to make a run for the second playoff berth available in the South Atlantic League North division. The win also got Wilmington’s series with Hudson Valley off on the right foot. After previously losing 17 of their 18 games against the Renegades, Wilmington is now 5-2 in their last seven matchups against Hudson Valley and will look to keep the momentum moving in the right direction during the rest of the series.
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