CarL1 Salem Red Sox

Salem Endures Eleventh Shutout of Season, Fourth at Hands of Wilmington

July 12, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem Red Sox News Release


Salem, VA (July 12, 2009) - With sensational pitching and flawless defense, the Blue Rocks blanked the Red Sox 2-0 on Sunday evening at Lewis-Gale Field. With the win, Wilmington takes the series two games to one and finishes their six game road trip through Lynchburg and Salem with four wins. The Red Sox were once again shut down by Ray Liotta and the Blue Rocks bullpen, which wasted a phenomenal seven-inning performance by Seth Garrison. Salem's righthander only surrendered a single unearned run and recorded seven strikeouts and no walks, but was handed his eighth loss of the season due to the inept offense.

Wilmington did not make a single error in the three-game series, and the Blue Rocks pitching staff only yielded two walks to Red Sox hitters during the duration of the weekend. Ray Liotta, who was making just his seventh start of the year, four of which have come against Salem, was nearly untouchable over six superb innings. Salem's only hit off Liotta was a two-out bloop single in the bottom of the second off the bat of Luis Exposito. After the base hit, Liotta retired the next 12 Red Sox. With two outs in the sixth, Che-Hsuan Lin drew the second walk of the series, but he was picked off before the next hitter, Daniel Nava, received a single pitch. Over his last three games against Salem, Liotta has fired 17 consecutive scoreless innings.

Though the Red Sox would have baserunners in each of the last three innings, they repeatedly came up empty. Nava led off the seventh with a line-drive single off Zach Peterson, but after Mike Jones popped up, Yamaico Navarro chopped into an inning-ending double play. In the eighth, Anthony Rizzo doubled to lead off the frame, becoming the first Red Sox baserunner to reach second base all game. But his stay at second was brief when he was caught in a pickle on Exposito's grounder to third. Rizzo was tagged out, Exposito reached first, but the next two Sox hitters went in order. And in the ninth, Lin's one-out single off closer Juan Abreu was the only blemish to the otherwise clean ninth inning that earned Abreu his 11th save in 11 opportunities.

Wilmington's lone run off Garrison came after Jamar Walton singled to open the top of the fifth. Before firing a pitch to the next batter, Chase Fontaine, Garrison's pickoff attempt wildly sailed past Rizzo at first. Before Nava could retrieve the errant toss, Walton had rounded second and glided into third. A couple pitches later, Fontaine chopped a routine grounder to short, but with the infield playing back, Walton scored easily to break the scoreless draw. The Blue Rocks added an insurance run in the top of the ninth off Kyle Fernandes, using two infield singles, a sacrifice bunt, and a sac fly by Walton to go up 2-0.

Moustakas and Walton each had two hits and scored one run to amount for most of Wilmington's offense that compiled six singles and one double in the ballgame. Lin, Nava, Rizzo, and Exposito each had one base hit for the Sox as the quiet Red Sox offense was shut out for the 11th time this season and for the fourth time by Wilmington.

Following an off-day on Monday, the homestand continues at Lewis-Gale Field with a three-game series against the Winston-Salem Dash. Dominican lefthander Jose Capellan will make his return to the Salem rotation on Tuesday, pitching opposite Johnnie Lowe with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05.

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