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Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Suffer Second Straight Wire-To-Wire Setback

July 15, 2016 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Salem, VA -- For the second consecutive night the Salem Red Sox scored two runs in the first inning and the Blue Rocks could never catch up. Wilmington got solo home runs from Samir Duanez, and Elier Hernandez but it was not enough to avoid a 10-5 setback on Friday at LewisGale Field. Corey Ray was chased after just two frames allowing four runs (although only two of the scores were earned) on three hits and three walks. The Blue Crew dropped two of three in Salem and have lost eight of their last 10 games overall.

For the second straight night Salem got a lead-off double from Josef Monge, which led to a two-spot in the opening inning. This time the Red Sox needed a little help from Wilmington. Shortstop Brian Bien's two-out error allowed Monge to score and eventually led to another tally on Danny Mars' RBI double.

Salem added two more scores against Ray (5-3) in the second inning. Daynur Lopez doubled and went to third on a passed ball. After Bryan Hudson walked, Lopez scored on a wild pitch by Ray. Another wild pitch moved Hudson to third, which allowed him to come home on Reed Gragnani's sacrifice fly to center.

Jake Kalish entered in the third frame for the Rocks and did a solid job of eating innings and allowing the Blue Crew to hang around. In a season-high four frames, Kalish allowed two scores on seven knocks, while fanning four and walking only one. Jake Newberry followed Kalish and yielded four runs in two innings.

On offense Duanez got the Rocks on the board with a solo shot in the fourth. The Venezuelan native sent one soaring past the right-field fence for a no-doubter. Down five runs in the top of the seventh, Wilmington strung together its most significant rally of the night. Wander Franco and Chad Johnson each singled to start the frame. Franco then came home on Hernandez's double off the wall in left and Johnson scored on a double-play grounder from Colton Frabasilio.

The Rocks would not go down without a fight in the final frame. Hernandez homered to start the ninth and then Anderson Miller drove in his second Advanced-A run with a two-out single to right.

Wilmington returns home to open a four-game series against the Carolina League North first-half champion Lynchburg Hillcats on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. A pair of lefties will square off as Matt Tenuta (3-6, 5.40) gets the ball for Wilmington against Lynchburg's Sean Brady (8-3, 4.55). The Rocks will celebrate Seinfeld Night presented by Shop Rite with tickets available online at BlueRocks.com.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Wander Franco had three more hits on Friday. The Wilmington third baseman now has knocks in 12 of his last 14 games, raising his average by 21 points over that stretch. It comes after Franco endured a 3-for-42 slump that saw his average drop by 35 points to as low as .204. Franco also had two hits in each of the first two games at Salem and drove in another run with his sixth-inning double on Wednesday, increasing his team-leading total to 46 RBI on the season. He tied the franchise record last week when he drove in seven during a lopsided win at Potomac. That night he also hit Wilmington's second grand slam of the season.

The Rocks are swinging the big sticks since the All-Star break. After hitting just 25 home runs in 69 games in the first half of the season, the Rocks have smacked 14 long balls through the first 22 games of the second half. They hit three homers last Saturday, which tied for the most in any game by Wilmington. Brandon Downes is tied for the overall team lead in dingers with Ryan O'Hearn. Downes leads the club in traditional home runs, however, because two of O'Hearn's early-season homers were of the inside-the-park variety. Samir Duanez has also been a big part of the recent jump in pop. The first baseman already has five homers in just 22 games since being promoted from Low-A. Duanez only hit six long balls in 68 games with the Lexington Legends. Despite the power surge, Wilmington still has the second-fewest total homers in 2016 with 39.

Elier Hernandez also went deep on Friday. It was the outfielder's first home run since April 14 at Potomac, snapping a string of 80 straight games without a long ball. Hernandez also doubled in a run, going 2-for-4 with two extra-base hits and two RBI on the evening. The second-year Rock and top-30 prospect in the Royals organization, according to Baseball America, continues to enjoy much more success on the road. Hernandez has hit both of his homers on the road and is batting 80 points higher away from the friendly confines of Frawley Stadium.

The Blue Rocks have struggled to win series of late. Wilmington has dropped five of its six sets since the All-Star break, splitting the lone outlier against Winston-Salem. The last time the Rocks captured a series was June 16-19 in Carolina when the Blue Crew took four out of six from the Mudcats. On the season Wilmington has played 27 series, dropping 18, splitting a pair and winning just seven. The Rocks have also lost five of their six rubber matches on the campaign.

THEY SAID IT, MANAGER JAMIE QUIRK:

"Wander (Franco) and Nuney (Rocks hitting Coach Abraham O. Nunez), have been working together a lot and it's showing off. But some of it is confidence and some of it is better luck. He continues to work on his game and he is starting to get some better results. We like results, but he probably hit into more bad luck than anybody on the team in the entire first half. He's streaky and had a good series picking up multiple hits in all three games. Hopefully we go home and we're facing four left-handers and he swings the bat well against lefties so hopefully he can continue this roll."

"With the score the way it got we couldn't give away any more runs so I had the infield in and it was a nice play by Austin (Bailey) up the middle on a hard ground ball and then Wander had another nice play. You hope that happens. Defense is a very important part of our game. We work at it just as much as our hitting, every single day so it's nice to see results. We work on infield in and it was great to save those two runs there."

"We preach not to give up at bats in the Royals organization. Just keep playing nine innings and take your chances. We've had success later in the game and we have to start scoring earlier. We end up playing catchup most of the time. Usually it is not enough. I love this group of guys. They play nine innings every night and they play hard. Sometimes we're outmanned and some days we win the game. Playing nine innings is the Royal way and that is what we do."

"I don't know if it is something mechanical with (Corey Ray). This is two games in a row now. Last time he went three innings, this time he went two. He threw 65 pitches so we had to take him out. That got him. We have to go sit down and look at the tape and figure some things out because that is back-to-back starts now and he was on a nice five game roll before that. We'll see what he is doing wrong and figure it out before his next start."

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