Alex Faedo, Beau Burrows turn in dominant outings

Erie SeaWolves

Erie turned in a 5-3 week, raising their season record to 46-50. The SeaWolves remain in fifth place in the Eastern League Western Division.

Burrows, Faedo Dominate

A pair of former first rounders posted excellent outings this week for the SeaWolves. Beau Burrows offered up his best outing in awhile. The right-hander gave up a lone run on three hits over a season-high seven innings of work. He added nine strikeouts, and issued a pair of walks.

For Burrows, this start comes on the heels of his shortest outing of 2018. In that appearance, he gave up a season-high five earned runs over three and a third innings. Even the best pitchers have their rough days, so it’s good to see Burrows bounce back. For the season, he sports a 3.63 ERA across 91.2 innings for Erie.

The following night, Alex Faedo bounced back from a rough outing of his own. On July 5, Faedo got shellacked for seven earned runs, which included a career-high five walks. Thanks in part to the Eastern League’s All-Star break, he didn’t make another start until Monday.

Like Burrows, Faedo responded extremely well, tossing one of the best starts of his season. He worked seven shutout frames, allowing three hits and striking out four. The outing lowered his ERA to 3.80 with Erie and dropped his batting average against to .181 since his promotion.

Gutierrez, Paredes Promoted

Detroit promoted Florida State League All-Star Alfred Gutierrez to Erie late last week, and he debuted on Friday. His first outing for the SeaWolves turned out to be a mixed bag. The right-hander allowed four runs on seven hits and walked three over four and two-thirds innings. He also added six strikeouts in what was his first appearance at Double-A.

Gutierrez took the ball for Erie again Thursday night. He allowed seven hits again, but gave up just one unearned run. He also issued one free pass and added four strikeouts. Not bad for a guy who began the year in a long relief role for Lakeland.

Fellow FSL All-Star Isaac Paredes joined Gutierrez and the SeaWolves on Thursday. Paredes began the year a little slowly, but has been warming up with the weather. In 15 July games with Lakeland prior to his promotion, the 19-year old slashed .310/.394/.638, with more walks than strikeouts.

Paredes continued his roll in his debut for Erie Thursday night, collecting a pair of hits, driving in three, and drawing a walk. With Lakeland, he spent most of his time at shortstop, but played roughly a quarter of his games at second base. Paredes manned second base Thursday night, forming a double play duo with Sergio Alcantara, who has been Erie’s primary shortstop this year.

Alcantara Heating Up

Speaking of Alcantara, his bat has perked up of late as well. The strong gloveman has hit safely in 20 of his last 22 games, collecting eight multi-hit efforts along the way. This 22-game run helped Alcantara raise his average 24 points, from .265 to .289. He still has yet to show much in the way of power, but a good contact hitter with above average defensive skills could make him a nice eventual replacement for trade candidate Jose Iglesias.