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Wilmington Blue Rocks

Frederick Offense Takes Control in the Second to Take Morning Matinee in Wilmington

July 16, 2015 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


WILMINGTON, DE - A short layoff between games proved costly for the Blue Rocks as they fell to the Frederick Keys on Thursday afternoon, 8-4. Carolina League Pitcher Of The Month in June, Alec Mills, gave up five runs in the second inning before leaving the game due to an apparent hand-injury. With the loss, Mills' record moved to an even 6-6. Meanwhile, Keys' hurler Mitch Horacek, a CL All-Star, lived up to his billing, working around three early runs to go seven strong frames for the win.

Frederick quickly erased a 1-0 deficit in the second inning when they got three men on to start the frame against Mills. All three men (Jeff Kemp, Brenden Webb, and Adrian Marin) reached on softly hit singles. Tad Gold, who hit a go-ahead two-RBI double in the 11th inning on Wednesday night, gave the Keys a lead with a two-RBI single making it 2-1, still with no outs. Jay Gonzalez would later add a two-RBI single that he squirted through the middle to make it 4-1. What was more concerning than the deficit was the fact that Mills exited the game due to injury after that hit by Gonzalez. Kevin McCarthy came out of the bullpen to replace him and a Carlos Garcia error led to a fifth run scoring.

The Rocks were down but not out. Wilmington got a run back in the second inning as Robert Pehl hit his second homerun of the season, a solo shot making it 5-2. In the third, Jack Lopez made up for a base running error in the first with a leadoff double. After a Mauricio Ramos groundout, Santiago Nessy lined a double into the left-field corner chasing Lopez home and making it 5-3. Frederick answered back by pulling away with a run in the sixth and then two more in the seventh off of Matt Alvarez to put it out of reach.

After not finding any offense in the late innings on Wednesday night, the Rocks rebounded early on Thursday morning with a run in the bottom of the first. Lopez singled with one out to become the first base runner of the game, but he was thrown out when he took a wide turn around second on a Ramos base-knock. Horacek helped Wilmington make up for the base running mistake as he proceeded to throw two wild pitches, moving Ramos all the way to third. After a Nessy walk, Elier Hernandez hit a grounder down the line to Anthony Caronia and beat the throw to first. The infield single scored Ramos to make it 1-0 Rocks in the first.

The Rocks and Keys pick-up this four-game series, after a long break, on Friday night. Wilmington will send Opening Day starter Jakob Junis to the bump. Junis is currently riding three quality starts in a row as he comes into Friday 3-6 with a 3.28 ERA. Frederick will turn to south-paw Chris Lee who is 2-4 with a 3.71 ERA since coming over to the Orioles from the Astros in mid-May. First pitch from Frawley Stadium is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Despite the loss, Jack Lopez and Robert Pehl remained hot, especially when it comes to facing the Keys. Lopez, who has been a Key-killer all season long, collected another two hits, including a double and a run scored. Lopez is now batting .333 in 22 games against Frederick this season, by far his best average against any squad in eight-team CL. The Rocks' shortstop has three doubles, three homers, 13 RBIs, and eight walks against the Keys. The sometimes strikeout-prone Lopez has also only struck out 13 times in those 22 contests. Pehl, on the other hand, is not posting numbers that jump off the page against the Keys, but all of his power has come against the CL North rivals. Pehl is batting a solid .300 in 13 games against the Keys, but both of his homeruns this season have come off of Frederick pitchers. His first was back on June 20 at Nymeo Field in Frederick, Maryland. Half of his RBIs have also come against Frederick (six of 12).

Their loss on Thursday afternoon was a rare one for Wilmington when playing out a contest in the daylight. Coming into Thursday morning, the Rocks were a staggering 11-2 when playing day games furing the day. At night, the first-half champs are two games under .500 (37-39). The loss was also a rare one against the Frederick Keys, a team the Rocks had owned coming into this four-game series. Wilmington is now 15-9 against the Keys, a record that includes a stretch of six straight wins over Frederick from April 26-June 18. Thursday was also the first time the Rocks had lost two consecutive games to Frederick since they lost the first three games of a four-game series at Nymeo Field back from April 23-25. The numbers for the Blue Crew are still solid this season when facing off against the Keys. Wilmington hitters are batting .270 against Frederick pitchers, a total well-above their season-average of .251. While the hitters haven't had much problems against the Keys, the pitching staff has had some trouble figuring out a good offense in Frederick. Wilmington pitchers are posting a combined 3.24 ERA against the Keys, in stark contrast to their 3.06 team ERA.

After a bit of a cold stretch, Santiago Nessy is starting to heat up at the plate again. The Wilmington catcher was perfect on Thursday, going 3-for-3 with a double, an RBI, and a walk. Nessy now has his average up to .266 at Advanced-A this season. In his last five contests he is 8-for-15 (.533) with a homer, seven RBIs, and two runs scored. All of this is coming after Nessy had a stretch where he went 3-for-30 (.100) in eight games between June 16 and July 5. The Venezuela-native may be relishing more playing time as Cam Gallagher spends time with Team USA at the Pan-American Games in Canada. Nessy started the season with Double-A Northwest Arkansas where he hit just .185 in 17 games before getting demoted to Wilmington.

After winning Carolina League Pitcher Of The Month in June, Alec Mills has not had a great encore performance in the month of July. Though he was injured, his 1.1 inning outing was the shortest of the season for Alec Mills. Thursday was his shortest outing since he went four innings against Potomac on April 22. After going 3-0 with a 0.99 ERA in June, Mills is 0-3 in his first three outings in July with a bloated 6.94 ERA. The righty came into Thursday just behind Mitch Horacek for the League-lead in strikeouts, but Mills could only fan one batter in his short performance. His ERA coming into July was a miniscule 2.14, a total that has risen all the way to 2.74 in three outings. Prior to July, the highest ERA Mills posted in a month was back in April when he went 0-1 with a 3.79 ERA.

THEY SAID IT:

Catcher Santiago Nessy

"(Mitch Horacek) has got pretty good stuff. He was mixing his pitches really good. It's a tough game. Last night we got home late, I know it's not an excuse, but we just try to keep (doing) everything we have (done to be successful). If we compete, we (will) win."

"Working with our hitting coach Abraham Nunez and putting good swings on good balls and swinging at strikes (has led to success at the plate). If you stay up the middle, keep working hard, and competing (the hitting success will continue)."

"It's pretty tough (playing so much baseball in a short amount of time). After last night, we got in really late. That's going to happen, there's going to be days like that, (but) we just need to compete. Mentally, we have to be prepared for that. Sometimes the body feels tired, but you have to be mentally tough to compete and bring your best to the field."

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