Tony Santillan got out to a bit of a rough start with the Dayton Dragons earlier this month after being promoted from Billings. In his first start he allowed seven runs in just 3.1 innings, walking five batters with just two strikeouts. That must seem like a distant memory now for the 19-year-old right hander. Last night he put together what was arguably his best start of the 2016 season.
The first inning started out well as the righty got a fly out before striking out the next two batters of the inning. He would get two more strikeouts the next inning, another in the third inning and followed up with two more in the fourth. The fifth inning saw two more strikeouts as the total climbed to nine. The sixth inning was a bit of a tough one for Tony Santillan as he walked two batters, but also got a strikeout for his last out before being replaced with two outs in the inning by Ryan Hendrix. He would get an easy groundout to end the inning, leaving the final line for Santillan at 5.2 innings, one hit, no runs, three walks and 10 total strikeouts.
Taylor Trammell has a big night for Billings
When the Cincinnati Reds selected Taylor Trammell with the 35th overall pick in the draft he was said to be a great athlete who had really taken big strides at the plate in his senior season. The 18-year-old outfielder has improved each month since he started the season for the Billings Mustangs. In 10 games in June he posted a .626 OPS. That was followed up with a .747 OPS in July. He’s been even better in August and last night may have been his best game of his young career.
The game didn’t start out great as the outfielder struck out in the first inning. In the third inning he would come back to the plate and he would double to left field on a line drive. In the fifth he would return to the dish and this time he crushed an RBI triple to center field to score Michael Beltre. In the 7th inning he would walk and steal a base, later scoring in the inning. In his final plate appearance of the game he walked for a second time and later stole second. He finished the night reaching base four times with a double, triple and two steals.
For the month of August he’s now hitting .295/.380/.432 with six walks and 11 strikeouts. He’s already notched five extra-base hits on the month, which is just one less than he had in 34 games coming into August.