CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Another Blown Early Lead, Wilmington's Seventh Loss in Eight Games

August 6, 2010 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Salem, VA - For the seventh time in eight games, the Wilmington Blue Rocks (53-58, 21-20) have endured the bitter taste of defeat. On Friday night, the scorned lover that is the Red Sox (64-45, 22-17) bested the Blue Crew, 7-5. The farmhands of Wilmington's one-time parent club won for the 12th time in 15 head-to-head meetings with the Blue Rocks, including wins in seven of the eight clashes at Salem Memorial Stadium. Joey Lewis and Ernesto Mejia each hit solo homers for the Rocks, but the loss has them four games back of first-place Potomac in the loss column.

For the third time in four days, Wilmington grabbed an early lead only to lose. Lewis blasted his first Blue Rocks homer to center in starting the second. Later in the frame, Patrick Norris singled in a second tally for a 2-0 advantage.

In keeping with the norm of late, the Rocks' opponent responded right away. A costly throwing error by Mejia allowed Alex Hassan to score from third. Later in the inning, a Jon Hee groundout plated an equalizing run with both scores unearned on Buddy Baumann.

A half-inning later, Mejia's third homer as a Rock, a devastated shot to left, put Wilmington back on top, 3-2. That lead held up until the fifth. Jairo Cuevas (4-5) entered and the one-time starter gave up consecutive inning-opening hits to Hee and Mitch Dening. On the next pitch, Peter Hissey bunted a ball back to Cuevas who threw errantly wide to first. Hee scored to tie the game while Dening took third. Oscar Tejeda delivered a sacrifice fly to left that put Salem ahead, 4-3. The Rocks would trail the rest of the way. Hissey swiped second and third prompting the infield to come in. Will Middlebrooks then singled over short to drive home Tejeda for a 5-3 margin.

Salem starter Stolmy Pimentel (7-8) struck out the side in his first and last innings of a six-frame outing. He allowed three runs on six hits and no walks while whiffing eight.

Reliever Lance McClain gave up single scores in the seventh and eighth to draw the Blue Crew within a run. Christian Colon collected his second hit of the night with an RBI double in the seventh. In the eighth, Mejia and Nick Francis chased McClain with a single and a double respectively. With those two in scoring position and nobody out, closer Kyle Fernandes minimzed damage by retiring all three he faced including a Rey Navarro sacrifice fly.

Ivor Hodgson started the bottom of the eighth for the Blue Rocks by allowing a double to Dan Butler. Two outs later, Dening bounced a ball up the middle for a hit. Butler slid home safely just ahead of a throw from Norris in center for a big insurance run.

Norris reached on an infield hit to third igniting a would-be ninth-inning rally. Alas, on a 1-1 pitch to Adrian Ortiz, Salem backstop Tim Federowicz caught Norris leaning off first base on a pickoff to kill the Rocks' momentum. Ortiz grounded out to second on the next pitch and Colon flied out to center on a first-pitch stroke to end the game as Fernandes notched his ninth save in 10 tries.

The four-game set continues on Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. Right-hander Manauris Baez (1-4, 4.99) gets the ball for the Blue Rocks against ranked fellow righty Caleb Clay (4-10, 4.67).

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Carolina League Stories from August 6, 2010


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