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Wilmington Blue Rocks

Potomac Scores Nine Runs in Third Inning to Put Game Away Early

July 5, 2016 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Woodbridge, VA- For the second time in two nights at Pfitzner Stadium the outcome between the Wilmington Blue Rocks (32-50/5-8) and Potomac Nationals (42-37/8-3) was decided early, but it was the P-Nats enjoying the result this time, taking a 14-1 victory over the Rocks. Wander Franco singled and scored Wilmington's only run while Matt Tenuta returned from injury and retired nine of the final ten batters he faced.

Colin Rodgers began the game on the mound for the Rocks and immediately got into trouble by allowing a pair of runs. He came back out in the second inning and gave up another run, this time on a single by David Masters. The lefty returned in the third inning, but was unable to record a single out. The P-Nats went walk, stolen base and single to jump ahead 4-0 before another walk and an additional single extended the lead to 5-0 and chased Rodgers from the game.

Reliever Jacob Bodner came in and also has trouble, allowing both inherited runners to score as Rodgers wound up getting charged for seven runs in two innings. The P-Nats though did not let up, scoring five more runs in the frame with Jose Marmolejos lining one out to right for a three run shot and capping the third inning for Potomac with a 12-0 lead. Bodner was replaced by Matt Tenuta in the fourth inning and allowed a single to Alec Keller before Dale Carey hit a long fly to left center to extend the advantage to 14-0. The Rocks lone run in the game came in the top of the fifth when Wander Franco started the frame with a single and after a groundout moved him to second, the third basemen came home on a Chad Johnson single up the middle, but that is where the scoring ended as the Blue Crew crumbled 14-1.

Rodgers drops to 2-5 on the season while Potomac Nationals starter Whit Mayberry improves to 1-0 to pick up his first Advanced-A win on the season. Despite the lopsided loss, Justin Thomas pitched the final three innings for his second save of the year. After back-to-back blowouts in the first two games of the series, game three will be at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday with the Rocks tossing RHP Josh Staumont (2-9, 5.20) against the P-Nats RHP Austen Williams (0-4, 4.50). Fans interested in listening to the game can catch all the action on 89.7 WGLS-FM or BlueRocks.com as well as the TuneIn Radio App.

Pebbles of Knowledge

Although the first two innings did not go the way the Rocks wanted, it was the third frame where Potomac broke open the game. The Potomac Nationals scored nine runs in the third, which is the most runs allowed by the Rocks pitching staff all season long. The most runs allowed prior to Tuesday night by the Blue Crew pitching staff was six runs, which had occurred three separate times with the most recent instance happening on July 1 in the Rocks 18-5 loss. With the 18-5 loss on July 1 and the 14-1 defeat on Tuesday, the two biggest losses on the season have come in the last five days.

The seven runs allowed by Colin Rodgers on Tuesday came in just two innings of work. He came back out in the third frame, but did not record a single out. The two innings tied him for his shortest start of the year, which occurred back on May 11, but in that start Rodgers had to leave the game due to injury and the lefty wound up on the Disabled List. There were no such injury concerns on Tuesday and his ERA rose almost a full run after the short appearance. Rodgers entered the game with an ERA of 4.08 and after the seven runs in two innings of work, his ERA is now at 5.07 on the season.

It was understandable that Matt Tenuta had some trouble with his first couple of batters. Tenuta went on the Disabled List on June 26 after experiencing some shoulder discomfort during his start on June 25. In that outing he had to leave the game after 1.2 Innings pitched. In his return on Tuesday night, Tenuta allowed a leadoff single before watching Dale Carey blast a two-run shot to start his outing. After the unfortunate beginning to the relief appearance, Tenuta did indeed shake off the rust and proceeded to retire nine of the next ten batters he faced. In total the lefty went three innings on relief work with just the two runs allowed while striking out a pair and not issuing a single free pass.

Despite the loss, Wander Franco continues to produce for the Blue Rocks. One night after driving in seven runs to tie a franchise high in RBI, Franco was the lone member of the Blue Crew to drive in a run on Wednesday. The third basemen went 1-for-4 on Tuesday night and has now hit safely in four of five to continue a steady climb for his batting average. Back on June 12 Franco's average was sitting at .239, but from June 13 to June 29 he picked up just five hits to drop his average all the way down to .204. His last five games though it appears that he has turned things around with two separate two-hit games including Monday night when he drove in seven.

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