RHP Sem Robberse had a reasonably good debut for New Hampshire tonight at Hartford’s wonderful Dunkin’ Donuts Park.
If you take away a 3-run 2nd inning for the Yard Goats, highlighted by a bomb on a curveball Sem hung out over the plate, Robberse was pretty much in command for much of his 5 innings of work.
Robberse needed only 8 pitches to get through the 1st, inducing a trio of groundouts.
The 2nd was a different story. Robberse walked the lead off hitter, then gave up a single. Hartford LF Daniel Montano then smacked Robberse’s 2-1 pitch into Dunkin’s short RF porch.
Robberse gave up a one out double, which prompted C Phil Clarke to pay him a visit to slow an adrenaline-filled Robberse down, and the move paid off, as Sem got the next two hitters out.
Robberse retired the side in order in the 3rd, including Rockies top prospect Zac Veen for the second time. He wanted nothing to do with Montano with one out in the 4th and put him aboard with a walk. Three pitches later, SS Addison Barger started a tidy 6-4-3 double play to retire the side.
Robberse’s final frame of work, the 5th, saw another 1-2-3 inning. He did not strike out a batter, but was sitting 92-93 with his fastball. Understandably, his ability to hit his spots was a bit off. 7 outs were recorded by the ground ball.
While I would have liked to have seen a few missed bats, with the exception of Montano’s blast, Robberse mostly dodged barrels on the night.
