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Peanuts drum Music in 3-0 shutout win

• With major-league scouts in attendance, Jerome Gamble pitches five no-hit innings as the Peanuts blank the Music.

Paul Dehner Jr.

ALBANY — If Thursday night was any indication as to how Jerome Gamble responds to pressure, his time with the South Georgia Peanuts won’t last much longer.

With radar guns rising above the heads of a crowded contingent of attentive major-league scouts with every passing 93 mph fastball and snapping breaking ball, Gamble put on a show for his special guests.

Gamble tossed five innings of no-hit baseball, surrendering two walks and set the tone for what became a three-hit shutout of the Macon Music for a 3-0 Peanuts win at Paul Eames Park. Surrounded by 1,203 fans, representatives from at least five Major League Baseball franchises (Cubs, Rockies, Mets, Braves and Reds all confirmed) filled the club seats behind home plate, calculating valuable information on the former top prospect of the Boston Red Sox.

“I’ve been in those situations a lot,” said Gamble, who recorded three strikeouts while only allowing one runner to second base. “I’m just trying to show them that I still got it.”

He clearly had it — or at least enough of it to dominate the Music.

Still, Gamble admitted to not throwing as well as he would have liked. He complained about lacking command of his breaking ball, which sunk shoulders to knees around 78 mph.

But there was no arguing with the no-hit results.

“(Those mistakes) didn’t hurt me,” Gamble said.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound right-hander made his first start in a little less than two years, last week. Gamble was rising in the Boston organization in Double-A, but couldn’t overcome a long line of injuries. He has had two shoulder surgeries — including Tommy John in 2001 — and a scope. Finally healthy again, he is working with the Peanuts so teams can witness for themselves he is not only healthy, but as talented as ever.

“This is basically spring training for him,” said manager Wally Backman, who pulled Gamble after 80 pitches. “He’s close, he’s real close. He’s got to be able to step in at any Double-A level and have some success. He should be on a fast-track. His arm is fine. His health is fine. He can locate to both sides of the plate. He should be on a quick pace to get out of here. I could definitely see him in the big leagues in September.”

As good as Gamble was, so were the trio of pitchers which followed him.

Jake Upwood, Austin Weilep and Drew Shetrone gave up just three hits and a run in four innings of relief to deliver a win to the night’s main attraction.

The evaluators’ eyes also were focused on the Peanuts’ crouching catcher Nick Prosise. Not only did he masterfully handle the combination of pitchers for a shutout, but went 3-for-3 at the plate with a run scored.

And he was well aware of the possible implications.

“I’d like to say it wasn’t in the back of my head,” Prosise said. “You definitely always want to play hard with scouts in or not, but when you know somebody is watching, it makes a difference.”

South Georgia only needed one inning to provide enough offense for its pitchers. A leadoff double by Gamble and Jasha Balcom single in the third inning set up an RBI dart to center field by Joey Hooft for a 1-0 lead.

Macon starter Ross Stout — who entered the game with the best ERA in the league at 2.01 —  then walked the bases loaded for hot-hitting Doc Brooks.

Brooks hit into a controversial double play in which third baseman Ismael Castro appeared to miss touching the base on a ground ball by about a foot then threw home where Balcom also appeared to sneak under the tag of catcher Kyle Donovan. But that wouldn’t matter thanks to a two-RBI slicing double by Curtis Goodwin Sr. to complete the scoring.

South Georgia (36-11 overall, 3-0 second half) tallied eight hits on the game, but left nine runners on base.

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