The spotlight has been turned onto Dohmann recently with his two victories this past weekend, but they weren't of the typical kind. Friday night he induced a double play in the top of the 11th and Saturday night Dohmann struck out Manny Ramirez on a high fastball to keep the deficit at 1-0 Red Sox. The Rays would of course go on to win both games, but the questions are; how good has Dohmann been and can he sustain it?
In 11.1 innings Dohmann has allowed 12 hits, 2 walks, 3 runs, and struck out 8. His BABIP is .334, but with a line drive percentage of 16.7 Dohmann is seemingly had some tough luck with the hits given up, approximately 2 added hits per 50 line drives. The key to Dohmann's success can be tied directly to his groundball percentage of 61.1, quite a jump over his 38% career norm to go with a sense of increased control.
As that goes Dohmann's season will go, nothing sticks out suspiciously fluky about it. Pitching coach Jim Hickey has seemingly preached pitching down in the strike zone to his staff, seeing substantially increased groundball rates for Dohmann, Andrew Sonnanstine, Jason Hammel, J.P. Howell, Gary Glover, and Dan Wheeler. With an improved infield defense the results have been nothing short of sparkling.