It seems a light bulb went off in Edlando Seco’s head.
The Everett AquaSox starting pitcher has seen a dramatic change in his fortunes, and now he’s the most effective member of Everett’s rotation.
Seco, a 22-year-old left-hander from Venezuela, was a mess at the start of the season. In his first three starts he had all kinds of trouble throwing strikes, walking 12 in 121/3 innings. Those control issues prevented him from lasting more than 42/3 innings in any of those starts.
But something changed on July 8. That day, a home game against Spokane, Seco held the opposition to one hit in six innings. He kept the walks down to a manageable three and allowed just one run.
Since then Seco has been lights out. In his past four starts he’s given up a paltry six hits in 21 innings, walking 11 and striking out 26. In those four starts he allowed just five runs, only three of which were earned. It culminated with Saturday’s start, where he relied on an effective fastball-changeup combination to toss five scoreless innings while allowing just a lone single.
“He was aggressive, he established his fastball and threw a lot of inside pitches to keep the hitters off balance, and he used his changeup,” Everett manager Jose Moreno said. “He needs to work more on his breaking pitch in order to reach the highest level.”
Moreno said he thinks it was a matter of Seco getting comfortable with his new environment, as well as feeling secure about his position with the team.
“Maybe he was a little bit nervous because this is his first time out of his country, his first year in the States,” Moreno said. “When we started the season he was supposed to stay in Arizona. He came with us to see how he did in two or three starts. Maybe he had that in his mind, that he had to perform. We talked to him, told him he was on the roster no matter what and he just needed to try and do his thing. It looks like he started to understand.”
Short hops
Sox infielder Terry Serrano has had his way with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes this season. Going into Sunday Serrano was batting .500 (15-for-30) against the Volcanoes. He was hitting just .200 (13-for-65) against the rest of the league. … Everett catcher Steven Baron has become one of the toughest catchers to run against in the Northwest League. After throwing out five of the six baserunners attempting to steal against him in Everett’s recent three-game series at Salem-Keizer, Baron raised his caught stealing percentage to 45 percent (20-for-44). That ranked second in the league to Yakima’s Kawika Emsley-Pai, who was at 64 percent (14-for-22). … Former Everett coach Darrin Garner is currently with the team. Garner, who is now the Seattle Mariners’ infield and baserunning coordinator, has spent the past five days working with the Sox.
Nick Patterson, Herald writer
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