Mitchell Stone Nearly Un-hittable in 5-0 Shutout Win
The Ogden Raptors started their 2nd home series off with a bang in a 5-0 shutout victory over the visiting Idaho Falls Chukars. Propelled by a stellar performance on the mound by Mitchell Stone, there was simply no answer for the Chukars to combat the dominance of the Raptor's pitching staff in this one. Stone’s showing on the bump will likely land him as an early favorite candidate for the start of the year; He posted an uncanny 14 strikeouts, on 7 IPs, only surrendering 1 hit in the process. A very invigorating sign as this appearance came just 2 days after Pablo Arevlo’s 9-inning complete game 4 hitter. The Raptors pitching staff has posted 17 straight scoreless innings and over the last 18 innings they’ve only given up an absurd 1 run on 5 hits getting 16 total innings of work out of their starters in that timeframe. It’s been utter domination of late for this Raptors rotation, and if they can consistently eat up innings and post scoreless frames as they have been, then don’t expect the winning to stop here.
As if the pitching prowess wasn’t enough, the lineup backed up Stone with 5 runs of support on 12 hits. 3 of their top 4 hitters recorded multi-hit games, and the lineup only left 6 runners on base. It’s a beautiful mesh of pop at the plate and speed on the base paths for this Raptors batting order, and if they can keep taking advantage of the opportunities handed to them, and back up their guys on the mound with insurance runs, they will have the storybook 1st half of the season that they’re looking for.
I’m sure they would love to duplicate their Game 1 results with the lineup and rotation working in tandem. While the nastiness we’ve seen in recent games for Raptors pitchers on the rubber would alone, win most ballgames, when they pile in double digits hits and 4+ runs of support I firmly believe that this lineup is unbeatable. Game 2 of the series kicks off tonight at 6:30 as the Raptors look to extend the winning streak, playing host to the Idaho Falls Chukars.