Another Strong Outing for Fife, but Salem Drops Fourth Straight
July 28, 2009 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem Red Sox News Release
Frederick, MD (July 28, 2009) - With two outs and the bases empty in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, bonus baseball seemed imminent. But the Keys strung together three straight singles to bring home the winning run against Dave McKae and give Frederick a 3-2 walkoff triumph over Salem. After two base hits that put runners at the corners, Tyler Henson roped a one-hopper to the backhand of Kris Negron at shortstop. The ball skipped off the glove and into left field, was ruled a hit by the official scorer, and allowed the winning run to score. The clutch sequence of offense from Brandon Waring, Caleb Joseph, and Henson earned a victory for Keys' reliever Eddie Gamboa, who tossed three and a third scoreless innings out of the pen to improve to 3-0 in the Carolina League and 9-0 on the season.
A pitchers' duel between Stephen Fife and Rick Zagone brewed for the first six innings, with each starter giving up two runs. Fife completed six full frames, yielding a solo homer to Waring in the second and an RBI single to Joseph in the fourth. Once again, Fife did not walk a single batter while compiling five strikeouts. Including his time in Greenville, Fife now has an aggregate 52 Ks and only four walks all season on the mound in the Boston organization.
Zagone secured the 2-0 lead with four scoreless innings to start, but the Red Sox broke through against the southpaw in the fifth. After Luis Segovia doubled to begin the inning, he advanced to third on Negron's groundout and scored on Che-Hsuan Lin's sacrifice fly to make it 2-1. In the sixth, Daniel Nava singled to open the frame and Mike Jones doubled to move Nava to third. After a strikeout of Anthony Rizzo, who went 0-4 to snap his five-game hitting streak, Luis Exposito was intentionally walked to load the bases. David Mailman hammered a one-hopper to first base that became a game-tying RBI ground out as Nava scampered home to even things at two. With two outs and runners still at second and third, Zagone gave way to Gamboa, who struck out Segovia to finish the inning to avert the further threat.
Over the final three innings, Salem never moved a runner beyond first base. Gamboa struck out five and preserved his 0.00 Carolina League ERA, an impressive stat compiled over more than 20 innings on the hill. Luis Exposito and Luis Segovia each finished with two hits for the Red Sox, but Salem finished 0-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base.
Henson's walkoff base knock was his third single of the game. He was joined by three Keys teammates-Pedro Florimon, Waring, and Joseph-who each had two hits off Red Sox pitching. Though Jason Rice held the Frederick lineup at bay over two scoreless innings out of the pen, the Keys were able to strike against McKae, bringing his record to 1-4.
Losers of four straight games, the Red Sox look to salvage the final game of the series and the season against the Keys. Salem, currently leading the season series 10-9, needs a win on Wednesday to garner bragging rights for the year. Seth Garrison will get the start for the Sox against Pedro Beato, with first pitch scheduled for 7:00 at Harry Grove Stadium.
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Carolina League Stories from July 28, 2009
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