The Dodgers minor league development plan has gained a bit of a reputation for moving young players along quickly and challenging them at the next level. That philosophy was on full display on Thursday evening when the Great Lakes Loons visited the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Twenty-year-old Imani Abdullah started for the Loons and was limited to three shutout innings of work in which he gave up three hits along with one walk and four strikeouts.

Following Abdullah on the hill in the fourth inning was the second youngest player to ever wear a Loons uniform. Seventeen-year-old Melvin Jimenez pitched four innings and came away with the win. The youngest player to play for the Loons is left-hander Julio Urias, who played most of the 2013 season as a 16-year-old.

Jimenez, from Santiago in the Dominican Republic, was signed as an international free agent by the Dodgers on December 23, 2015. During the 2016 season he played with the DSL Dodgers making 12 appearances, all of them starts. In six of those starts he pitched five innings and had an additional two appearances of six and four innings respectively. On the season, the right-handed Jimenez posted a 1.47 ERA along with a 0.96 WHIP while striking out 66 in 55 innings pitched and walking 18.

He began the 2017 season with the Arizona League Dodgers making five relief appearances in which he logged 11 innings while posting a 1.64 ERA and a 0.64 WHIP. He gave up but three hits limiting opposing hitters to a .083 batting average. He struck out 18 and walked four.

The 6’0”/170-pound Jimenez in his four innings on Thursday evening was a bit Julio Urias like. He gave up but one hit, no runs, walked two and struck out four. He threw 49 pitches, 35 of them for strikes.

Also making his Loons debut was right-hander Dan Jagiello who had been selected by the Dodgers in the 34th round of the 2017 First-Year Player Draft out of Long Island University Post. The 22-year-old native of Islip, New York pitched a scoreless inning while walking one and striking out one. He had earlier started his professional career with the Arizona League Dodgers posting a 2.84 ERA and a 0.63 WHIP while striking out 10 in 6.1 innings of work along with two walks.

Right-hander Angel German finished off the game in the Loons 10-0 victory by striking out two Cedar Rapids hitters in the inning he pitched.

Third baseman Oneil Cruz and center fielder Saige Jenco led the Loons 15 hit outburst with five and four hits respectively.

Loons third baseman Oneil Cruz went 5-for-5 with a home run, a double and three RBIs in Thursday night’s 10-0 pounding of the Cedar Rapids Kernels (Twins). He was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
(Photo credit – Tori Schneider)

The Loons take the field again on Friday against those same Kernels with right-hander A..J. Alexy making his 18th start of the season. Tune in to ESPN 100.9 FM and follow all the action with Loons broadcasters Chris Vosters and Brad Tunney. Game time is 7:35 PM ET.