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Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks Eliminated from Wild Card Race After 4-1 Loss to Salem

August 31, 2014 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - The Blue Rocks were eliminated from postseason contention after falling to Salem, 4-1, on Sunday afternoon at Frawley Stadium. With the loss, Wilmington dropped to 31-37 in the second half and to a season-low eight games below the .500 mark overall at 64-72.

Brett Eibner's RBI single to right-center in the fourth drove home Bubba Starling with the first run of the ballgame, giving the Blue Rocks a short-lived 1-0 advantage.

Salem answered immediately in the fifth inning and plated two to take a 2-1 lead. Kendrick Perkins singled with one out and then scored on a double to left by Jake Romanski. Dreily Guerrero's base hit sent Perkins to third and Miguel Almonte's error on a pickoff attempt at first scored him.

In the seventh inning, Romanski's second RBI double of the afternoon extended the Red Sox's lead to 3-1.

Back-to-back triples from Reed Gragnani and Mario Martinez in the top of the ninth pushed Salem's advantage to 4-1. Sandwiched in between them was a 45-minute rain delay. The skies opened up rapidly, forcing the umpires to halt play with less than an inning to play.

Simon Mercedes (5-10, 4.76) was the winning pitcher Salem and worked seven solid innings. He yielded just one run on four hits and two walks while punching out nine.

Despite taking a tough-luck loss, Miguel Almonte (6-8, 4.49) turned in a solid start on Sunday. He worked five innings for the first time since July 19 and gave up just two runs (one earned) on five hits. The hard-throwing righty struck out five and walked only one.

The Rocks return to action on Monday afternoon against Salem for the 2014 season finale. Wilmington will send right-hander Brooks Pounders (0-1, 3.09) to the mound while the Red Sox will counter with fellow righty Heri Quevedo (1-1, 3.38). First pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m. and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Miguel Almonte made his fourth start on Sunday since missing two weeks with minor discomfort in his elbow. The righty was tremendous and turned in his longest outing since July 19. Almonte hurled five innings and yielded just two runs (one earned) on five hits. He walked only one and struck out five. In his most recent start, on August 26 against Potomac at Frawley Stadium, Almonte threw, perhaps, his best four-innings of the year. He hurled four shutout innings while yielding just one hit. He walked one and struck out seven. Prior to his August 15 start against Winston-Salem, Almonte had not pitched since July 31 in Lynchburg, when he was lifted in the third inning with minor elbow discomfort. Overall this season, Almonte is 6-8 with a 4.49 ERA in 23 appearances (22 starts). He has 101 punchouts and 32 walks in 110.1 innings pitched. The righty has also yielded 107 hits and 60 runs (55 earned) in 2014. Opposing batters are hitting .259 against Almonte. Lefties are batting .290 against him while righties are hitting just .236.

Brett Eibner put together a 1-for-4 performance on Sunday, giving him hits in four of his last five games. In his last five games with the Blue Crew, Eibner has gone a combined 7-for-15 with two runs, a double, a homer, three RBIs and three walks. In his first eight games with the club, Eibner went just 2-for-26, good for a .077 batting average. Eibner's hot stretch has raised his average 143 points to .220 with Wilmington. His on-base percentage is even higher at .373. That's because of 10 walks in 13 games with the club. On August 23 in Salem, he drew four walks, tying a franchise record and setting a new individual Blue Rocks season-high. He was the first Blue Rock to walk four times in a game since Jeff Corsaletti drew four free passes on July 4, 2006. Eibner began the year with Triple-A Omaha, was placed on the Storm Chasers' Disabled List on June 27 with a right-abdominal strain. He rejoined the Blue Rocks this month for the first time since 2012 to work his way back from the injury. In his first stint with Wilmington, Eibner batted .196 with 15 homers in 120 games.

Wilmington has struggled mightily with Salem this year. Saturday's twin-bill sweep at the hands of the Red Sox dropped the Rocks to 5-14 overall against Salem. The Blue Crew is 3-6 this year against the Red Sox at Frawley Stadium while Wilmington finished the campaign just 2-8 at Salem Memorial Ballpark. Three of the defeats in Salem came in walk-off fashion. Blue Rocks hitters are batting a combined .197 against the Red Sox this year, while Salem hitters are batting a collective .270 against Wilmington in 2014. The Red Sox have outscored the Blue Rocks in this year's head-to-head matchups, 69-47, while Wilmington has out-homered them, 7-5. Salem's pitching staff has a 1.92 ERA against the Blue Rocks while Wilmington's pitching staff has amassed a 3.19 ERA against the Red Sox.

With Sunday's 4-1 loss to Salem, the Blue Rocks were officially eliminated from Postseason contention. Wilmington held a half-game lead on Lynchburg in the Wild Card race as recently as August 24. However, the Rocks slumped down the stretch to a 3-9 record in their last 12 games. Only once in its last eight games has the Blue Crew plated more than one run - that was during an 8-0 win over Potomac on Thursday. Blue Crew last made the playoffs in 2012, when the Lynchburg Hillcats downed them by taking 2-of-3.

THE SAID IT:

Blue Rocks Bench Coach Justin Gemoll:

"It had a little bit of everything in it. I thought we did a good job coming out [of the gate], Bubba [Starling] getting on base early and stealing second to get into scoring position. Then [Brett] Eibner gets a big hit to give us the lead, put us in front. Unfortunately we couldn't hold it like that. They ended up getting a couple of runs in the top of the next inning."

"I thought [Miguel] Almonte threw the ball well today even though they did get a couple of runs on him. I thought he threw his fastball for strikes and mixed in the slider and the changeup. I thought he competed well out there. That's baseball, you're not going to throw a shutout every time you go out there, but I thought he competed well and did a good job."

"We were talking about that, the only day you're going to feel great is the day before spring training starts. Otherwise, as the season goes on it wears on your body. That's where the mental toughness comes in, just knowing that this is your job. You come out everyday and give it what you've got. Some days you feel better than others. It's a long season. They've been doing a good job of going out everyday and working to improve their skills and then competing as hard as they can on the field, that's all I can ask."

"I think baseball in general, as far as winning ballgames, it's about how you hit with runners in scoring position. A lot of [struggling with runners in scoring position], with the young kids is that they get really anxious and they end up swinging at pitches that aren't there. So if they can work on their patience [they'll be fine]. It's a tough thing, you see it in the Majors Leagues too, guys chase pitches with runners in scoring position. It's a common thing. If the young hitters just learn how to compete, get a good pitch to hit; staying within themselves is a big thing."

"Our relievers have been good all year. They got a couple of guys on base and [our pitchers] left some pitches up in the zone and they put some good swings on them. One of them was a line drive to left center and Bubba [Starling] just slipped in the rain and fell and it went for a triple. Things like that happen. They did a great job for us all year so it's hard to fault those guys."

"This ballparks is the same as it was when I played here. It's definitely big and it's not a home run ballpark by any means unless you catch it on a day where the wind is howling out, which doesn't happen too often. On the other side of that, it teaches hitters how to hit line drives and keep the ball out of the air. You'll see that in the minor leagues at various ballparks; some are easier to hit at, some are not. That's part of the game and learning how to compete in different elements."

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