Tony Dibrell/Photo by Ed Delany
In Thursday’s game, MLB Pipeline‘s 19th best Royals prospect Daniel Tillo immediately threw down the gauntlet by striking out the Columbia Fireflies through their first turn through the lineup. He no-hit Columbia through the first 6.1 innings. For Columbia to even have a chance to remote this game, they were going to need their starting pitcher to match Tillo pitch for pitch.
Tony Dibrell did just that matching Tillo zero for zero for most of the game.
In Dibrell’s six innings of work, he would not permit an earned run. In fact, Dibrell no-hit Lexington for the first 5.1 innings. If not for his throwing error on a pickoff attempt in the sixth, Dibrell probably comes out of this game completely unscathed.
His final line of the night was 6.0 inning pitched allowing just one hits and no earned runs (one unearned), four walks, and six strike outs.
This is exactly how you are supposed to pitch when the opposing pitcher is completely dominant. At a time when Columbia needed Dibrell to come up big, he was tremendous. The Mets fourth round draft pick last year looked like the type of pitcher who can pitch with anybody. He looked like that because that is exactly what he did yesterday.
Unfortunately, he did not get the win. Still, he was able to help keep the game close allowing Columbia to comeback to take a lead not once but twice and won in 10 innings on a walk-off hit from Raphael Gladu. If not for his dominant effort, it’s entirely possible Columbia comes out of this game with a loss.
Instead, the story is how resilient their entire team, and yes, how brilliant Dibrell was. With that great start under his belt, Dibrell is now second in the South Atlantic League in strikeouts with 37. Overall, he has allowed three earned or less in four his his five starts.
The lone issue for Dibrell has been walks this season with 15 in only 25.2 innings. He has a 4.91 ERA and 1.44 WHIP through five starts for Columbia.
With that in mind, all eyes should be focused on Dibrell’s next start to see what he can accomplish next.
