66ers' Barria puts up seven more zeros

Jaime Barria is the youngest member of Class A Advanced Inland Empire pitching staff, yet his performance has spoken volumes about his maturity.
The Angels' No. 10 prospect turned in his fifth straight quality start on Friday, allowing two hits and striking out four over seven innings, as the 66ers blanked Lancaster, 1-0, at San Manuel Stadium.

Barria (3-3) breezed through the first two innings on 22 pitches. He set down the first eight batters he faced before Wilson Soriano singled in the third. Inland Empire manager Chad Tracy said strong starts have become the norm for the right-hander.
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"To be honest with you, there hasn't been too many games where he has not been locked in," Tracy said. "I think his biggest strength is that he attacks the strike zone from pitch one. He's unique in that we've taken him into the seventh and one time into the eighth and I still don't know if he's thrown 90 pitches yet. He's just so efficient. Everything is within the strike zone."
Barria allowed one more hit -- a two-out single to Rockies No. 21 prospectBrian Mundell in the fourth -- but otherwise held the California League's highest-scoring team to two baserunners, neither of whom got past first base. The Panama native exited after throwing 55 of 84 pitches for strikes.

Although he registered only four strikeouts, Barria leaned on his fastball and curve to induce weak contact all night.
"It was fastball command. It's always that with him," Tracy said. "He moves the fastball in, out, up, down. With the exception of maybe one outing, he's done that every time out.
"We always preach you're looking for swings and misses, obviously, but you're also looking for weak contact. That's the way he uses the bottom of the strike zone, and he also uses the top of the strike zone to get weak popups in the infield. He'll get balls hit in the air, but the way he can command that fastball, he can get guys to swing at pitches that are borderline at the top of the zone. He was vintage Barria tonight."
Since surrendering six runs over four innings against Rancho Cucamonga on April 22, the 2013 international signee ranks fifth among all Minor Leaguers with a 0.67 WHIP and 33 innings pitched in his last five outings. During that span, he's allowed five earned runs, slashing his ERA from 3.48 to 2.18. Barria leads the league with a 0.86 WHIP, ranks second with a .197 opponents' batting average and is fifth in ERA . 

The 20-year-old's dominance comes as no surprise to his manager.
"It took one or two starts, but I'm just watching the poise on the mound," Tracy said. "Even when he gives up a hit, the poise, the body language, it never changes. He always feels like he's going to get out of an inning. He's 20 years old, but he pitches like he's 30 years old."
After Barria departed, Greyfer Eregua yielded one hit and struck out two over the final two frames to earn his third save. Kyle Survance Jr. drove in the game's only run with a triple in the fourth for the 66ers.
Colin Welmon (3-1) gave up one run on three hits and two walks while fanning a career-high nine over six innings for Lancaster.