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Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Rock Sox, Drive in Four in Seventh for Comeback 5-3 Win

June 10, 2016 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (20-38) could not muster any offense against the Salem Red Sox (39-22) for the first six innings of the game and found themselves down 2-0. That all changed with a four run seventh inning, which was highlighted by Brandon Downes' two-run blast to left, turning a 2-2 ballgame into a 4-2 Blue Rocks lead. The Sox tried to rally late, but Derek Gordon got the final three outs to preserve the 5-4 win.

Blue Crew starter Zach Lovvorn traded zeroes with Sox starter Daniel McGrath through the first two frames before the visitors opened the scoring in the third. Three straight singles and an error by Lovvorn allowed two runs to cross the plate as the Sox took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the third inning. They would hold that lead until the faithful seventh.

McGrath had mowed down the Rocks through the first six inning while throwing just 76 pitches, but Humberto Arteaga led off the inning with a single to break him out of his rhythm. Alfredo Escalera followed with a broken bat double down the right field line to put men at second and third with nobody out. Wander Franco came to the dish next and hit a liner to left to cut the deficit to 2-1 while putting runners at the corners. Elier Hernandez followed with a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game and the throw got far enough away from the catcher to allow Arteaga to move up to second. Downes came to the plate next and the right-handed bat, who had struck out twice on the night, took the first pitch and launched it clear over the wall in left for a two run dinger and putting the Rocks up 4-2.

Salem scored a run in the eighth inning off of Kyle Kubat to bring the game to a 4-3 score before the boys from Frawley added an insurance run in the eighth. Joshua Banuelos walked to begin the inning and Cody Jones did the same before Arteaga got hit by a pitch. Escalera hit a soft liner over the leap of Yoan Moncada at second to plate the fifth run of the game for the Blue Crew, which turned out to be a pivotal insurance run as the home squad could not score any more runs in the frame. Derek Gordon came on to pitch the ninth and allowed a run, but with the insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, the Rocks came away with the 5-4 victory.

Kubat gets the win for his two innings of relief work and improves to 2-0 on the season while McGrath drops to 1-2 on the season. Despite having some issues in the ninth inning, Gordon stays perfect on the season in save situation while picking up his third of the year. After splitting the first two games of the series, the Rocks and Sox will play again on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. That game will feature RHP Corey Ray (1-2, 5.40) for the Blue Crew against LHP Jalen Beeks (4-3, 3.34) for the Sox. For tickets call the Blue Rocks ticket office at 302-888-BLUE or get tickets online at BlueRocks.com. Fans interested in listening to the game can tune in to WGLS-FM 89.7 or go to BlueRocks.com for all the game action.

Pebbles of Knowledge

Everything was quiet through the first six innings for the Wilmington Blue Rocks, but they found their stroke in the seventh inning. They quickly scored two runs off of starter Daniel McGrath to tie the game at 2-2. Brandon Downes came to the plate with a runner at second base and was looking to break the tie. He did so in a big way, rocking a two-run home run over the left field wall to give the Blue Crew a 4-2 lead. They would go on to win 5-4, marking just their fifth victory in 35 games when their opponent scores first.

Humberto Arteaga is as hot as any Blue Rock at the moment and the Carolina League has noticed. He was named to the Carolina League All-Star team on Tuesday and he has collected hits in each of the two games since the announcement. The shortstop went 1-for-3 on Friday and scored the first run of the game for the Rocks. The second-year player is 15-for-35 in his last eight games and has scored six runs while driving in three. He leads every day players on the Blue Crew in batting average and sits at .283 on the season thanks to a torrid pace as of late. He has been blistering hot with hits in 22 of his last 25 games. Over that stretch he is batting .390 (39-for-100) with six extra base hits, 12 RBI and 13 runs scored.

The only reason the Blue Rocks were able to mount their comeback in the seventh inning was because the game was still close. They can thank Zach Lovvorn for that. The tough-luck pitcher is still winless on the season and sits at 0-6 on the year, but produced his third consecutive quality outing. Lovvorn went the first six innings and gave up just two runs, one earned, but received his sixth no decision of the season. Lovvorn's record can be directly traced back to a lack of run support as the team has scored just 12 runs in his outings.

The Blue Crew might have had a chance for more runs, but their baserunning got the best of them. Their very first baserunner of the game, Alfredo Escalera, got on base via a single. However, he was immediately picked off by Red Sox starter Daniel McGrath. That set the tone for the rest of the evening as the Blue Rocks were picked off a total of three times. Elier Hernandez was erased from the basepaths when he was found wandering off of the bag after a leadoff single in the fifth and Cody Jones was nabbed in the sixth inning. On none of the three instances were the Rocks trying to steal and it marked the most times this season the Rocks were picked off by an opposing pitching staff.

They Said It

Blue Rocks Manager Jamie Quirk

"Well the energy was great tonight. The key was they got the lead in the third, but (Zach) Lovvorn Lovvorn kept us in the game and he gave us a chance to do some things offensively, and we just stayed in the game. Two runs isn't insurmountable, and then we had a chance in the seventh inning. We put together four hits in a row and a sac fly and then (Brandon) Downes hit the big home run, that was huge. It was great to get a big inning late in the game like that, we haven't done that in a while, but the key was it didn't get out of hand on the pitching side. We pitched very well and kept the game in hand.

"Any time you can turn double plays it's great, we haven't turned many this season, but we have been doing it a bit ore as of late. That's been nice. It's huge. Two outs in one at bat and it kind of stalled the rally. It was big. Lovey did a nice job and he was very efficient and that was the key. It keeps our offense close and gives us a chance. We're just minus two, instead of four or five."

"That's Downsey, that's his mojo. He's an exciting player when he gets in the batters box and things are gonna happen. He has the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, and he does strike out. That comes with it. But he goes up there and continues to swing and battle, you never know when he is going to connect like that. With this park, you never know if it is going to go out. Even when he hit it I wasn't sure. It's tough for right-handed hitters to get a homer, he's always a threat to step into the batter's box. The opposing pitcher knows that, that he can't make mistakes, and there he made a mistake and Downsey got him."

"It's the best move we've seen all year (from their starter Daniel McGrath). Obviously we had never seen it before, and he picks off the first guy and it alerted us. Guys were not going anywhere and he picked off three of us when we weren't even stealing. That's not paying attention. You're not going anywhere. Take a step back to the bag. We got caught flat-footed three times and it's gonna be addressed tomorrow. You're not going anywhere, he's got a nice move, don't get caught flat-footed. Take a step back, he'll go home and we'll come off. Those are things we have to learn. That's the first guy we've seen with a real move like that and he schooled us a little bit."

Blue Rocks Outfielder Brandon Downes

"I didn't miss my pitch. He threw a fastball down the middle I didn't foul it off I stayed short and put a good piece of wood on it and it ended up going out. I didn't think it was going out I definitely thought it was going over the kids head but I looked back up and it was over the fence."

"It's definitely tough but you've got a lot of time until you're next at bat. Being in the outfield you take a deep breath and just move on from there."

"I go to the outfield when I'm warming up and just be by myself and go over the at bat and try to forget about it."

"The homerun definitely pumped everyone up. I've been struggling of late. Everyone was smiling and throwing seeds at me, it definitely pumped the team up."

"This homerun was cool because the fans were screaming hit a homerun and I actually did it. This one felt bigger than the grand slam it was definitely pretty sweet."

"I could definitely hear the fans chanting as I walked into the box. I was just trying to get a good piece of wood. He threw me a fastball up and I was able to get on top of it and hit it out there."

"Dewey is my mother's dog. We got it for her two Christmas' ago. After my grand mom passed away. It's literally like my little brother now because my mom loved it so much. We all love him, but definitely you see him and he's like seven, eight pounds, definitely a good luck charm."

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Carolina League Stories from June 10, 2016


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