Senzatela sharp for Nuts as he nails down first Cal League victory

Antonio Senzatela had one of the best seasons for a pitcher in Colorado minor league history in 2014, and did it at far less than 100 percent.

The Venezuelan righty, who turned 20 in late January, went 15-2 with a 3.11 ERA, despite nursing a torn fingernail on the middle finger of his pitching hand that spawned a chronic blister problem.

His solution in the offseason was to swap his curveball for a slider - a pitch that comes off a different grip and reduces pressure on the troubled spot.

His middle finger remains scarred, but his pitching has been nearly blemish-free, and he picked up his first victory of the season Sunday afternoon as the Modesto Nuts doubled Inland Empire 6-3 before 3,570 sunbathed fans at John Thurman Field.

“My finger is good now and got better this year,” Senzatela said. “I changed my curveball to a slider and I feel better with it. I felt really good today.”

He needed only 67 pitches to breeze through six shutout innings, allowing only a solid single to center in the second and an infield single in the sixth. He didn’t walk anybody while striking out one.

The lack of the strikeout pitch shows up as a knock on Senzatela in many scouting reports. In one season plus three starts with full-season teams he’s whiffed only 96 batters in 158 innings. But then, he’s walked only 38.

“That was the typical Senzatela today,” said Nuts manager Fred Ocasio. “He went after the hitters with the fastball and mixed in the slider and changeup. His slider is already a good one.”

Senzatela, now 1-2 with a 0.66 ERA, was locked in a duel with 66ers starter Chris Ellis (0-2) through three innings. Ellis, a third-round pick of the Angels last year out of the University of Mississippi, did not allow a hit until Michael Benjamin Jr. led off the fourth with a single off Ellis’ ankle.

Ryan McMahon followed with a triple to the scoreboard in left-center and Correlle Prime singles to left for a 2-0 lead. By the time the inning was over, Dillon Thomas had added an RBI single and Zach Osborne a two-run double for a 5-0 Modesto lead.

The Nuts added a run in the sixth when Jordan Patterson doubled and scored on a single by Rosell Herrera.

Inland Empire got to reliever Trent Daniel for three runs (two earned) in the eighth, but Carlos Estevez worked a perfect ninth for his first save, nailing-down Senzatela’s first California League win.

Venezuela has produced several excellent pitchers in recent years, most notably 2010 American League Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez, who hails from Senzatela’s hometown of Valencia.

But since Hernandez is more of a strikeout pitcher, while fellow Venezuelan (and former Nut) Jhoulys Chacin is more of a groundball pitcher, like Senzatela, the current Modesto pitcher was asked which of the two he follows more closely.

“Felix,” he said with a quick smile. “He’s aggressive and he pitches to contact. I do like to strikeout batters, too, but I know I have to pitch to contact. I love groundballs.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2015 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Senzatela sharp for Nuts as he nails down first Cal League victory."