Nick Senzel returned to the Louisville Bats lineup on Tuesday evening. He started the game at second base and he was hitting second in the lineup. On the field, he looked good in his return, even if the box score doesn’t show it. If you only look at the stat line, he went 0-4 with a strikeout. But if you watched the game you saw Senzel hit the ball hard three different times.
In his first trip to the plate he flew out to the center field wall, where the center fielder made a jump catch as he hit the wall to take away what was probably at least a double, if not triple (because Nick Senzel is far faster than almost anyone gives him credit for). The next time to the plate he flew out to right field on another hard hit ball. In the 5th inning he flew out to center field once again, and once again he hit the ball well, just right at someone.
In the field there wasn’t a ton of action. Nick Senzel caught a pop up, and he caught a line drive. With the assist from Blake Trahan he also turned a double play, showing off his arm in the process.
While I had planned to be in Louisville for the game if the weather cooperated, and it did, my body simply wasn’t. Being sick isn’t great on it’s own, but it also kept me at home and away from the ballpark. Jason Linden of Redleg Nation, however, was in Louisville to cover the Bats game and he spoke to Nick Senzel after the game.
When asked about the vertigo and whether or not it can, or would recur, here’s what Nick Senzel had to say:
I feel a lot better this time because we did a number of tests. I did some therapy for it. I’m still doing therapy for it every day. I feel a lot better about where I’m at than last time. I think the plan in place this time [will] help it not come back in the future… The main goal was to get a treatment plan in place and how can we help this if it does come back in the future, because there’s no guarantees. It could, it could not.
There is more at the link over to Redleg Nation with Nick Senzel from the postgame that you should go check out.
Hunter Greene continues to throw well
In the three starts since skipping a start, Hunter Greene has pitched well. He had thrown 11.2 innings in that span with just two walks and 14 strikeouts. That also came along with a 3.86 ERA. Things had been going well for the 18-year-old right hander.
Last night in Dayton he took the mound once again. And he put together his longest outing of his career, throwing 5.0 innings. He allowed just one run in the outing, a solo home run in the 4th inning. Greene would walk two batters and he struck out four, racking up seven ground outs with just one fly out along the way.
Over his last four starts now, Hunter Greene has a 3.24 ERA in 16.2 innings pitched. That’s come along with four walks and 18 strikeouts. His ground ball rate in that span has also been impressive, coming in at 56%. Last night of the 12 balls put in play against him, nine of them were on the ground. Lots of strikeouts and lots of ground balls is a deadly combination.