CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blair's Ninth-Inning Homer Sinks Blue Rocks In 2-1 Loss To Red Sox

Published on July 12, 2014 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - Carson Blair greeted reliever Blake Wood with a leadoff homer in the top of the ninth inning, helping the Salem Red Sox edge the Wilmington Blue Rocks, 2-1, Saturday night at Frawley Stadium. With the loss, the Blue Crew fell to 10-11 in the second half and 43-46 overall.

Prior to the ninth, both clubs had chances to break a 1-1 deadlock during the later innings. The Rocks left the bases loaded in the sixth inning. In the home half of the seventh, Wilmington had Terrance Gore at third base with less than two outs and still couldn't score. The Blue Crew left two more runners on base in the eighth. For the Red Sox, Johnson drew a walk off of Wood with one out in the eighth. He stole both second and third but was gunned down by Wood at the plate trying to score on a bouncer back to the mound.

Salem struck first with a run in the top of the opening frame. Matty Johnson and Mike Miller kicked off the ballgame with back-to-back singles off of Jonathan Dziedzic to put runners at the corners for Jantzen Witte. Witte lifted a sacrifice fly to Daniel Rockett in right to score Johnson and put Salem ahead, 1-0.

Dziedzic was dialed in from then on, though, and yielded just the lone tally in six solid innings. The southpaw allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out seven.

West Chester, Pennsylvania, native Joe Gunkel was equally as good on the mound for the Red Sox. He threw five scoreless innings before allowing one unearned run to the Blue Crew in the sixth. Gunkel went 5.2 frames while yielding two hits and a pair of walks. He also fanned three.

The Blue Crew tied the game, 1-1 in the top of the sixth on an RBI single from Bubba Starling. Jack Lopez reached on a fielding error by third-baseman Mario Martinez to begin the frame and then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Raul Mondesi. Lopez came plateward when Starling rolled ball through the left side of the infield.

Kyle Kraus (5-3, 4.58) picked up the win for Salem, while Wood (0-1, 2.25) suffered the loss for Wilmington. Kyle Martin earned his sixth save of the year with a scoreless ninth. Both starting pitchers took a no-decision.

The Rocks return to action Sunday afternoon for game three of four against the Red Sox. Miguel Almonte (5-4, 4.50) will take the mound for Wilmington while Salem will counter with southpaw Cody Kukuk (2-6, 7.38). First pitch is slated for 5:05 p.m. and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM. For tickets, call 302-888-BLUE or visit BlueRocks.com.

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Carolina League Stories from July 12, 2014


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