The Indians knew they had something special in Jeanmar Gomez when they promoted him to AA-Akron after just one month at A-Kingston, but no one had any idea of just how perfect he could be.
Jeanmar Gomez threw a perfect game for the Aeros in Trenton on Thursday afternoon, a first for the franchise, the first solo no-hitter in franchise history, and an amazing accomplishment for a 21 year old that started the season in single-A ball.
Gomez needed just 87 pitches to retire all 27 batters in order, giving Trenton hitters a heavy dose of his fastball early in counts.
“He had very good fastball command, throwing 75 percent of his fastballs for strikes,” Aeros pitching coach Ruben Niebla said. “He threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 27 batters, so he was ahead of everyone all afternoon. Then his slider got better as the game went on, so they couldn’t just sit up there looking fastball.” (courtesy Baseball America)
Gomez struck out ten in the game, moving his total to 27 in 29 innings with Akron. He is now 4-0 with a tiny 0.31 ERA in four starts with the Aeros and has struck out 36 batters while accumulating an even smaller 0.21 ERA in his last 42 innings between A and AA.
Cleveland has seen it’s fair share of sub-par pitchng performances this season, but it appears help is on the way. If Gomez keeps up this pace he could find himself becoming one of the youngest players promoted to AAA-Columbus, and put himself in line for a mid-summer call up in 2010.
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Good column. Good to hear Cleveland may have a Star of the Future . Now all they need is a Bullpen of the Present.