'Hounds' Mateo caps big night with walk-off hit
When the A's acquired Jorge Mateo, they knew they were getting a game-changer. He gave them another taste on Tuesday night.The A's fourth-ranked prospect smacked a walk-off single in the 11th inning to cap a big night and give Double-A Midland a 4-3 victory over Northwest Arkansas at Security Bank
When the A's acquired Jorge Mateo, they knew they were getting a game-changer. He gave them another taste on Tuesday night.
The A's fourth-ranked prospect smacked a walk-off single in the 11th inning to cap a big night and give Double-A Midland a 4-3 victory over Northwest Arkansas at Security Bank Ballpark. He went 2-for-4 with two walks, three stolen bases and a run scored.
"He just did a great job in all aspects of the game," RockHounds manager Fran Riordan said. "You knew it was going to be a good night when his first at-bat he just absolutely smoked a ball to center field. After that, his at-bats were pretty clean."
Gameday box score
Mateo delivered the game-winning hit off left-hander Richard Lovelady (3-2) with two outs and runners on first and second. The 22-year-old fell behind, 1-2, but got enough of the next pitch to roll it into center field and score A's No. 14 prospect Sheldon Neuse from second base.
"He stayed on the baseball," Riordan said. "He shortened up and he didn't try to do too much. That's the right approach in that situation and it paid dividends for him in that spot."
Mateo reached base four times as he also singled up the middle in the seventh after walking in the third and fifth. He followed all three occasions by stealing second. The native of the Dominican Republic was retired on fly balls in the first and ninth.
The 2012 international free agent turned in his fifth multi-hit performance in 13 games since coming over from the Yankees in the Trade Deadline deal for right-hander Sonny Gray. Although Mateo is hitting .237 with Midland -- including an 0-for-15 stretch coming into Tuesday's contest -- Riordan said the shortstop's struggles can be attributed to growing pains.
"He probably hasn't seen any of these pitchers," the skipper said. "You don't have that familiarity and you have to learn all your teammates' names and try to get accustomed to a new league and a new city. Sure, there's going to be growing pains. It doesn't matter who you are. But he's done a really good job of making that learning curve as short as possible."
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Despite Mateo's slow start in the Texas League, his raw talent has shown through. The 190-pound infielder has legged out three triples, stolen nine bases in nine tries and made a number of impressive defensive plays.
"The things that he's capable of are really game-changing," Riordan said. "You see that come out in spurts. I think Jorge, just like anybody coming to a new situation via the trade, the first thing you want to do is show everyone, 'This is why you guys traded for me.' I think he was pressing a little bit and I think that caused him to chase a little bit off the plate. You can see how that's improving simply from his walk numbers in the last three or four games.
"The overall skill set that he showed offensively, defensively and on the bases was pretty special for us tonight."
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Reliever Carlos Navas (3-4) allowed a hit and struck out two in two scoreless frames to grab the win.
Royals No. 12 prospect Nicky Lopez collected four hits out of the leadoff spot for Northwest Arkansas, while No. 14 prospect Samir Duenez chipped in three.
Alex Kraft is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow and chat with him on Twitter @Alex_Kraft21.