Not to be outdone by Cory Vaughn, who was earlier awarded with Eastern League Player of the Week honors, Savannah Sand Gnats pitcher Rainy Lara earned the Pitcher of the Week honors for the South Atlantic League. This is the second time in three weeks he has been picked for this honor.

Lara has been dominating the SAL all season, but his last start was the most dominating of his young career. Facing the Augusta GreenJackets, the 6’4″ right-hander went eight shutout innings, only allowing two hits and one walk to go with nine strikeouts. Unfortunately, the Gnats weren’t able to reward Lara with the win, as he exited the game with a no-decision. Savannah did eventually pull out a victory in extra innings, scoring six runs in the top of the 11th.

It’s been a pleasure to watch what Lara has been able to accomplish in his fist seven starts this season. He’s made the transition from the Brooklyn Cyclones to Savannah look easy. I mean, a 4-1 record and 1.17 ERA certainly makes it seem like it’s been easy. His fast start in the SAL has him on the leader board in numerous categories:

• ERA, 1.17 (2nd)
• Innings pitched, 46 (3rd)
• Strikeouts, 47 (6th)
• WHIP, 0.80 (1st)

Lara is helping grow what is starting to become a nice list of young pitchers in the Mets’ farm system that have a lot of potential moving forward. Congratulations to Rainy on being honored with this award for the second time in such a short period of time! Something tells me he has a few more to win this season.