Grange was given the role of Stopper in the Lumberjacks pen and he turned that high usage into a great opening month. He appeared 15 of Portland's games in April, logging 17.1 innings. In that span, he allowed 11 hits and walked just 1 batter. He struck out 12 while posting a 1.56 ERA. He picked up 2 wins and 5 saves in April.
Grange has come back down to earth a little since winning the award. The homerun ball has bit Grange. This was evidenced in April but didn't hurt him as much. He allowed 3 homeruns in April and allowed one already in May that resulted in a walk-off loss for Portland at the hands of Twin Cities. He's already picked up 2 losses in May and walked twice as many batters (2) than he did in all of April.
"There will be ups and downs with any rookie" said Raider speaking of Grange. "And being a reliever yields small sample size runs of bad and or poor play. But the work Grange has turned in up to this point has been a huge bonus for us and we're proud of his accomplishment for April."
At 19.1 innings through the first 5 weeks, Portland will continue to monitor and track Grange's usage. The club doesn't want to overuse the rookie who has appeared in back to back games 3 times over his last 10 trips to the mound.