Results tagged ‘ Rafael Dolis ’
6/1 Minor League report
Thursday’s games
Brett Jackson hit a RBI single and a sac fly in Iowa’s 4-1 win in the first game of a doubleheader against Omaha. Rafael Dolis pitched 1 1/3 innings for a save. In the second game, Mike Montgomery limited the I-Cubs to two hits in a complete game 10-1 win. Jackson hit his sixth homer of the season in the sixth for Iowa’s only run. Chris Volstad was scheduled to start Friday against Omaha in the series finale. Anthony Rizzo did not play in the twinbill; he has not played in a game since Sunday when he left with a sore right wrist.
Eric Jokisch took a no-hitter into the fifth and combined with three relievers to lead Tennessee to a 4-1 win over Huntsville. Mike Burgess homered and Junior Lake hit a RBI double.
Roni Torreyes hit a walkoff homer in the ninth to give Daytona a 7-6 win over Brevard. Torreyes entered the game batting .175. Nelson Perez gave Daytona a 5-3 lead with a grand slam in the third.
Burlington’s Sean Jamieson homered off Austin Reed in the seventh to hand Peoria a 3-2 loss. Yasiel Belaguert hit a two-run single in the sixth. Gerardo Concepcion posted a quality start.
Wednesday’s games
Junior Lake had two hits, including his third homer, and Michael Brenly hit his first homer with Tennessee in a 6-4 loss to Huntsville. Dallas Beeler took the loss, giving up four earned runs on nine hits over 4 2/3 innings.
Greg Rohan had two hits, including his 10th homer, and Micah Gibbs hit his second in Daytona’s 6-5 win over Brevard County. Tony Zych earned the win in relief.
Wes Darvill had two hits in Peoria’s 10-1 loss to Burlington. Hunter Cervenka struck out six over 2 1/3 innings in relief.
– Carrie Muskat
5/27 Dolis out as closer
Rookie Rafael Dolis is out for now as the Cubs closer and James Russell and possibly Shawn Camp will share the role, manager Dale Sveum said Sunday. Dolis, who had taken over for Carlos Marmol, hit a batter with the bases loaded in the ninth inning Sunday to force in the Pirates’ game-winning run in a 3-2 win over the Cubs.
“That’s the frustrating thing with the back end of the bullpen is giving it up because of walks and hit batters,” Sveum said Sunday. “Nobody is hitting the ball and doing things. We’re imploding by walking guys and hitting guys.”
Dolis, 22, gave up a single and walked two batters before he hit Matt Hague with a pitch.
“It’s a combination of youth and being put in a situation he probably shouldn’t be put in, for obvious reasons,” Sveum said of Dolis, who was projected to be one of the Cubs set-up pitchers this season but was switched after Marmol struggled. “It’s funny because he started out doing a nice job. Now it’s a combination of making sure you repeat the mechanics that he has in the bullpen. He’s throwing great bullpens and he gets on the mound and wants to recoil and fall off and do these things. It’s a matter of being able to get on the mound, no matter what inning it is or how many outs, and repeat your delivery and throw back to back quality pitches.”
Russell has four career saves, none this year. Camp is 10-for-23 in save opportunities in his career.
“We’ll see how it all pans out,” Sveum said. “Hopefully, [Matt] Garza throws nine innings and we won’t have to worry about it.”
Marmol, currently on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring, will make his second rehab outing Sunday for Triple-A Iowa and could join the Cubs Monday or Tuesday when they open a brief three-game homestand against the Padres.
– Carrie Muskat
5/12 About last night …
* Friday’s 13-inning game was 5 hours 4 minutes long, and strangely, followed the shortest game of the year on Wednesday, which was completed in 2:05
* The Cubs walked 14 batters, one shy of the franchise record of 15 set May 15, 1962, against the Mets, which also was a 13-inning game.
* There were 466 pitches thrown (235 by eight Cubs pitchers, 231 by eight Brewers pitchers). Rafael Dolis threw a season-high 41 pitches; his previous high was 39 in his second appearance of the season on April 10 against the Brewers. Dolis now is 3-for-5 in save opportunities this year. Kerry Wood matched his season high with 25 pitches.
“Woody did a great job,” Dale Sveum said. “Hopefully that builds his confidence up.”
* Bryan LaHair was 0-for-6, and his batting average dropped from .384 to .359. His streak of reaching base safely ended at 27 games. Starlin Castro did extend his hitting streak to 10 games.
* After combing for one run over the first six innings, the Cubs and Brewers then totaled 14 in the final seven.
– Carrie Muskat
5/11 Dolis the designated closer
This weekend, Rafael Dolis is the designated closer. Dale Sveum will try to give Dolis or James Russell a heads up during batting practice as to who will handle the ninth. Sveum has shown a lot of faith in the youngsters who have taken over for Carlos Marmol.
“You’re open minded to everything for the most part but the bottom line is performance,” Sveum said. “We talked about it in Spring Training — was Dolis going to be able to handle the seventh, eighth, ninth inning with the lead, and he has. He’s thrown strikes and been able to get back in counts with strikes after he’s thrown a couple balls. He’s proven he can do it. When guys prove they can do it, you have to use them and give them that confidence, too.”
He said it’s difficult to determine if a player has the right mentality for the job until their in those situations.
– Carrie Muskat
5/9 WHIP numbers
A key statistic to gauge how pitchers are doing is WHIP, or walks plus hits per innings pitched. The lower the number the better. Here are the Cubs bullpen numbers:
Rafael Dolis 1.09
Shawn Camp 1.19
James Russell 1.32
Carlos Marmol 2.16
Kerry Wood 2.77
The Marlins Heath Bell has the highest WHIP in the Major Leagues at 2.88.
Among the Cubs starters, Ryan Dempster ranks fifth in the Major Leagues with an 0.85 WHIP and Matt Garza is eighth at 0.89.
– Carrie Muskat
5/9 Movie star Dolis
Rookie Rafael Dolis has teammate Starlin Castro’s support to handle the Cubs’ closer duties.
“He’s an amazing guy,” Castro said of Dolis, who is sharing the job with James Russell for now. “He’s working hard, too. Every day. He watches a lot of movies every day but he works hard.”
Movies? Dolis is trying to improve his English by watching English-language movies. On Tuesday, it was “Contraband.” That’s how Castro improved his English. OK, back to baseball. What can Dolis do?
“He’s got a hard sinker, 96 [mph], and you don’t need more than that,” Castro said. “Sometimes he has a pretty good slider. He doesn’t need to throw that because he has an amazing sinker. He’ll be pretty good. He still has to work pretty hard. One day, he’ll be good.”
– Carrie Muskat
5/9 Sveum: “We’re not perfect”
Dale Sveum didn’t see Kerry Wood throw his glove and cap into the stands after Tuesday’s game but he understood why Wood did it.
“Do I care? Of course, I care,” Sveum said. “I don’t condone it or wish it to happen all the time. We all know in this game that there’s frustration that happens and sometimes we regret things we do. We’re not perfect human beings. I missed the whole thing, so I didn’t see any of that.”
The game was tied at 1 in the eighth when Wood took over and he walked two batters and gave up two hits, including a game-winning two-run single by the Braves’ Dan Uggla. Has managing the bullpen been a challenge for Sveum?
“I guess you could say that,” Sveum said. “We’re always trying to be optimistic about the team. On the other hand, we’ve had some guys step up and do a great job.”
He complimented James Russell and Shawn Camp and said rookie Rafael Dolis has done well in clutch situations.
“We’ve had a lot of bright spots, too,” Sveum said. “A month in, you’re dealing with situations and how to handle them and what roles. It’s not that cut and dry, seventh, eighth and ninth guys, that’s for sure.”
Wood was making his second appearance since coming off the disabled list with right shoulder fatigue. He’s now given up seven runs on six hits and six walks over 4 1/3 innings in six games this season.
“It’s just a matter of getting comfortable and in a rhythm and bottom line, throwing strikes and being able to use your fastball and getting back in counts,” Sveum said. “He still has to be able to use that breaking ball. There’s a lot of things to work on. Sometimes it just takes a few times on the mound.”
– Carrie Muskat
5/8 Dolis, Russell could share closer role
Dale Sveum doesn’t have a specific check list of things he wants Carlos Marmol to do to return to his role as the closer. In fact, rookie Rafael Dolis and lefty James Russell could take over for the rest of the season. What Sveum wants to see is not just a confident pitcher but also Marmol throwing something other than his slider.
“[He threw a] 3-2 slider to a guy who can’t hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Sveum said of Marmol’s outing Monday. “Those are the kind of things I want to start seeing before I put him back in the closer’s role, to be able to throw a 3-2 fastball and see how far it can get hit.”
Dolis has a win and a save in his last two outings.
“I’m not going to make change to make change,” Sveum said. “If Dolis is doing well and [James] Russell is doing well in that role, I won’t make change to make change.”
Theo Epstein said he liked how Marmol said he responded to the fans’ booing Monday night by turning it into something positive and motivating him.
“I think everyone has to recognize he wants to succeed as much as anyone else,” Epstein said. “No one wants to go out there and fail, especially in a role where you let your teammates down. He’s paid a lot of money to do a job and he’s got a lot of support around him, so it’s up to him to put the work in and fix himself. I haven’t seen any signs of him backing down so as long as he gives the effort and faces his challenges head on, we’re going to support him and get him where he needs to be to help us.”
– Carrie Muskat
5/4 Marmol out as closer
When your closer leads the team in walks, that’s not a good sign. Dale Sveum had seen enough, and called Carlos Marmol into his office on Friday to tell the right-hander that for now, he was no longer the Cubs closer.
“I just told Marmol be ready to pitch at any time,” Sveum said Friday. “It just got to that point to where we have to get him productive in some role. He was fine with it and understood. Hopefully, we can get him going and give him another chance.”
Part of the problem is that Marmol keeps throwing the slider and on Thursday in Cincinnati, might have escaped the mess in the ninth with a well located fastball. Bottom line, he has to throw strikes. Against the Reds, Marmol blew a 3-0 lead and gave up three runs, and the Cubs eventually lost, 4-3, in 10 innings. He has now walked 12 over 8 2/3 innings.
James Russell and rookie Rafael Dolis will share the duties, depending on matchups.
“You always hope somebody steps up and takes control of any situation and any role you give somebody,” Sveum said. “It’s not the easiest thing to do in the world, to get the last three outs in the game. We’re going to play it by ear and whatever matchups come up in the ninth inning, that’s who we’ll use.”
Using Russell in that role will severely limit the Cubs. He’s the only left-hander. Sveum is stuck because the Cubs want to keep Rule 5 pick Lendy Castillo, who is trying to make the jump from Class A to the big leagues, and neither Michael Bowden nor Shawn Camp have options left.
Will Marmol ever get his job back?
“He knows he has to get better and find it,” Sveum said. “I left that window open for him. If he starts pitching well and getting command back and stuff like that, there’s no reason I wouldn’t put him back in the closing role if he finds it again.”
Sveum continued his conversation with Marmol in left field during batting practice, and then Kerry Wood talked to Marmol on the field as well Friday.
– Carrie Muskat
4/28 Extra bases
* Rafael Dolis picked up his first save with two scoreless innings Friday against the Phillies. Dolis got his first win last week as well. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first Cubs pitcher to record both a win and a save in his first 10 career games since Todd Wellemeyer did in 2003.
* Starlin Castro has eight stolen bases and Tony Campana has five, and they are the first Cubs duo with five apiece in the first month since 2006. Juan Pierre and Derrek Lee did so that April. So far, the Cubs have 15 stolen bases. They did not swipe their 15th last year until May 30, Game No. 52.
* Pitching matchups vs. the Phillies:
Saturday: Randy Wells vs. Joe Blanton
Sunday: Matt Garza vs. Kyle Kendrick
Monday: Chris Volstad vs. Vance Worley
– Carrie Muskat
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