Sod Poodles' Morejon bounces back with gem

Adrian Morejon had one objective going into his third start of the season: avoid the big inning.
Mission accomplished.
The seventh-ranked Padres prospect worked around two hits and three walks to strike out seven over 5 2/3 scoreless frames for Double-A Amarillo on Tuesday, but did not factor into the decision as the Sod Poodles were upended by the RockHounds, 6-2, at Security Bank Ballpark.

Morejon began the day with a 10.13 ERA after allowing 10 runs on eight hits and seven walks through his first two starts (covering eight innings) this season. However, all 10 of those runs were a product of giving up "the big inning" in each of those outings. The 20-year-old rolled through four scoreless frames in his debut against Corpus Christi on April 4 before surrendering five runs on three hits without recording an out in the fifth. Morejon then faced this Midland lineup for the first time last week and took the loss after yielding five runs -- all in the third -- on five walks and four hits.
"I think he had good outings the first two times, but he got killed by the big innings," Sod Poodles pitching coach Jimmy Jones said. "It seemed like he would be doing well and then lose it for a hitter of two, and the inning would get away. So we talked about control -- controlling emotions and focus. And that's difficult for a young pitcher, but he had it today. He built off what he did the last two starts, his command was better, and he avoided that big inning."
MLB.com's No. 47 overall prospect started his outing with a four-pitch punchout out of No. 30 A's prospectDairon Blanco. After getting Brallan Perez to ground out to short, Morejon worked around a two-out triple from 13th-ranked Luis Barrera by inducing an infield groundout to second from Mikey White to end the frame.
Morejon retired the next five batters he faced -- four via strikeout -- before issuing an eight-pitch walk to Blanco, who was promptly picked off first by the southpaw.
Gameday box score
"I really like his stuff. He's one of my favorite pitchers that I've seen throw in this organization," Jones said.
The only blemish for Morejon in the fourth was a one-out, six-pitch walk by Barrera. Otherwise, the native of Cuba needed just 11 pitches to get through the frame unscathed. In the fifth, Morejon erased a leadoff single from Luke Persico when Nate Mondou lined into 5-3 double play, and he set down the next three hitters he faced -- whiffing a pair -- before issuing a four-pitch walk to Perez. He was removed at that point with a 2-0 lead. He threw 83 pitches, 47 for strikes, and lowered his ERA to 5.93.
"In that last game he pitched against them [Midland], one pitch resulted in four runs, and he's very competitive so I'm sure he had that on his mind," Jones said. "So I know there were a couple of times in the game today he was making sure that that big inning wasn't going to happen again, and he took care of business. He's very aggressive and very competitive, so he knew what he wanted to do and ended up throwing the ball very well.
"If you take away two innings right now, he hasn't given up a run. So one of the things he's working on going forward is keeping his emotions in check. Staying competitive but not letting it take control over him. So today was good to see because he faced a team that beat him last time and he didn't try to do too much. He just went out and pitched his game and was very successful."

No. 15 Padres prospect Hudson Potts broke a scoreless tie with his first dinger of the year -- a solo shot to left-center in the sixth off Oakland's 18th-ranked prospect Parker Dunshee.
Edwin Diaz crushed a go-ahead grand slam for the RockHounds in the seventh that proved to be the difference.