CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks Game Notes

Published on July 3, 2007 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Kinston Indians (45-24, 7-3) Carolina League Affiliate of the Cleveland Indians vs. Wilmington Blue Rocks (30-38, 9-3) Carolina League Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals

Game No. 81 -- Away Game No. 44 -- Grainger Stadium -- Tuesday, July 3, 2007 -- 7:00 p.m.

SWEEPIN': Dan Cortes won his first game since August 3, 2006, as the Wilmington Blue Rocks completed a three-game sweep of the Salem Avalanche, 7-3, at Frawley Stadium on Monday night. Cortes (1-5) netted his first victory in 12 starts this season and snapped a personal seven-game losing streak that dated back to his stint with Low-A Burlington last year. The 20-year-old Pomona, CA native scattered eight hits and three runs (two earned) over 6.2 innings, fanning seven batters in the process. Brad McCann led the Blue Crew's offense, belting a home run and collecting three RBIs, as the Rocks finished their homestand 4-2.

FIRST TIME SINCE...: The Blue Rocks earned their first three-game sweep of the Salem Avalanche since a June 27-29, 2002 broom cleaning at Frawley.

OH, DANNY BOY!: Dan Cortes kept the Avs off the scoreboard for the first six innings, holding the struggling Salem offense to just five hits and a walk during the span. Perhaps the apex of his evening occurred in the sixth when Salem loaded the bases with none out. Cortes followed by retiring three in a row, culminating with a strikeout of Ryan Reed to extinguish the inning without a run. But, with a 4-0 lead, the right-hander encountered issues with two outs in the seventh, allowing three straight base hits to Orlando Rosales, Cesar Quintero, and Wladimir Sutil. The latter two knocks plated a run each, cutting the Wilmington lead to 4-2 and chasing Cortes from the game.

THE BULLPEN COMETH: David Humen came on and promptly gave up an RBI single to Osvaldo Fernando to make it 4-3. But, Fernando was erased on the base paths during the play when McCann cut off Brian McFall's line-drive throw from right field and got the Salem infielder into an inning-ending rundown between first and second. Humen went 1.1 innings, allowing a run on three hits and Rayner Oliveros pitched a perfect ninth, striking out the pesky Sutil to end the contest and earn his third save of the season.

ROCKS' RUNS: Wilmington opened the scoring in the bottom of the second when Brad McCann launched his third Blue Rocks home run of the season, a solo shot off Avs starter Sergio Garcia (4-6) that cleared the left-center field fence. The Blue Rocks blew the game open with a three-run third inning. Brett Bigler reached on a two-out error and moved to second on Marc Maddox's infield single to short. Mario Lisson drew a four-pitch walk to bring up McCann, who delivered a opposite-field bloop single that right fielder Ryan Reed overran. All three runners scored as the ball rolled beyond Reed. McCann ended up at second and was credited with two RBIs on the base hit, and the Rocks had a 4-0 cushion.

ANSWERING THE CALL: Up 4-3, the Rocks answered Salem's three-run top of the seventh with a three-run bottom half against the relief duo of Rory Shortell and Chris Blazek. Bigler led off the frame with a looper over shortstop for a base hit and was soon pushed to second on Maddox's perfectly executed sac bunt. After a Shortell offering plunked Lisson, a wild pitch moved runners to second and third, leading the Avs to issue McCann a free pass with first base open. McFall made Salem pay by hitting a hard grounder behind short for an RBI infield single, scoring Bigler. Miguel Vega followed with a walk to push home the inning's second run, sending Shortell to the showers. Blazek came on to face Cody Clark and uncorked a wild pitch, scoring McCann from third and putting Wilmington ahead 7-3.

LATE RUN: Salem got a run against Humen in the eighth, using a two-out Ryan Reed triple and an RBI single by Justin Tellam to do the trick. It turned out to be the final tally of the game.

Tonight's Probables

WIL: LHP Rowdy Hardy (10-1, 1.51) vs. KIN: RHP Sung-Wei Tseng (2-6, 3.84)

REDEMPTION: Wilmington's All-Star ace Rowdy Hardy looks to avenge his lone loss of the season with his first start against the Kinston Indians since dropping a 6-4 meeting at Wilmington on June 6. Hardy allowed season-high numbers of runs (5) and hits (11) over 5.2 innings, leaving a with 5-0 deficit on the scoreboard. Since that loss, Hardy has gone 4-0 with an ERA of 0.90. The southpaw is tied for the league lead in wins and stands alone with the best earned run average in both the Carolina League and the Royals organization.

Kinston counters with prospect right-hander Sung-Wei Tseng. Tseng has won two of his last three starts after failing to register a victory over his first 12 starts. Head-to-head against the Blue Rocks, the 21-year-old has gone 0-2 with an ERA of 6.19 over three starts. Tseng pitched for the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) national team. He ranks as the No. 12 overall prospect in the Cleveland organization according to Baseball America. His fastball sits between 90-93 mph, topping out at 95. This is his first year in American professional baseball.

Meet The Indians

DOMINANT LEADERS: The K-Tribe won the first half in the Southern Division by four games over the Salem Avalanche with a 45-24 record. Kinston paces the South yet again early in the second half with a 7-3 mark, including wins in six of its last seven and a threegame sweep of Winston-Salem completed just last night.

POWER BALL: The defending league champs lead the league in team batting average (.274), team ERA (3.26) an have a huge lead in home runs with 91 total over 80 games, 24 more than their closest competitor, Winston-Salem. But gone is back-up catcher/utility man Chris Gimenez, a Carolina League All-Star who won this year's home run derby and ranked third in the league with 16 home runs. The Indians promoted Gimenez to Double-A Akron (EAS) last week.

ALL-TIME SERIES: Wilmington leads the all-time series with Kinston 160-132 (.548), but trails 71-75 (.486) at Grainger Stadium. The K-Tribe has taken the last five head-to-head meetings between the teams. The Rocks nearly swept Kinston at Grainger May 28-30, with Wilmington blowing a 6-1 lead in the finale. The Blue Rocks are just 4-9 against the Indians this season, with all four wins coming at Kinston and three of the four decided by a single run.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from July 3, 2007


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