CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks Game Notes

Published on May 22, 2012 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


ABOUT LAST NIGHT: All the walk-off fun over the weekend was a little too close for comfort, as the Wilmington Blue Rocks bashed and pitched their way to a 7-0 victory over the Potomac Nationals on Monday night at Frawley Stadium.

SEVENTH HEAVEN: With some pitching and timely offense, the Rocks tied their largest margin of victory as they beat the P-Nats by seven runs. Previously, the Rocks romped the Carolina Mudcats by a 9-2 score on April 16 at Frawley.

RARE AIR: Juan Graterol's sixth-inning solo shot last night was his second career homer. The dinger came in his 247th game and 800th career at-bat. His only other homer came with the Blue Rocks last year on June 2 in a game at Kinston.

SHUTOUT SUCCESS: The Blue Rocks picked up their second shutout of the season on Monday. Greg Billo fired seven scoreless and Leondy Perez notched two clean innings. The only other Blue Rocks shutout this season came back on April 20 at Winston-Salem. Billo also started that ball game as he went five innings, with Thomas Melgarejo and Nick Rogers tossing a pair each.

TWO FEW: The two hits allowed by Blue Rocks pitching on Monday set a season best for fewest hits by an opponent. The prior season best was four hits, which happened twice, most recently on Sunday when Sugar Ray Marimon allowed one base hit while Santiago Garrido yielded a trio of Pelican knocks.

GIVE ME LIBERTO: On Monday, infielder Michael Liberto was activated off the disabled list. On the DL since the beginning of the season, Liberto was inserted into the open spot that was left by the departure of Melgarejo. Liberto split last year between Wilmington, Kane County and Idaho Falls. In 13 career games as a Blue Rock he has gone 7-for-30 (.233) with two doubles and five RBIs.

BEST WEEK EVER: On Monday the Carolina League announced catcher Kevin David as its Player of the Week for May 14-20. The Rocks' backstop had quite the week at the plate, going 8-for-14 (.571) with a double, a home run, six RBIs, two runs scored, a walk, and a stolen base. His week was highlighted by a two-run walk-off home run with two outs in the ninth inning against Myrtle Beach on Friday night. He is the first Blue Rock this season to receive a CL weekly honor.

MR. JONES: The Royals have released catcher Travis Jones. In four games with this year's squad, the 50th-round pick from 2008 went 1-for-9 (.111) with a homer and two RBIs. The team was 2-1 with Jones as the starting catcher including a 1.44 ERA in those games. His spot has been filled by Wilmington's primary catcher from last season as Jose Bonilla has joined the team from extended spring training. Bonilla, 23, was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic on Sept. 5, 2006. In 76 games with last year's Rocks he hit .210 with three homers and 29 RBIs before a lower body injury cut his season short in mid-August. He cut down a modest 25% (25 of 114) of would-be base stealers during his stay.

INDIVISIBLE: With wins in five of their last six games, the Blue Rocks stand 4.0 games back of first-place Lynchburg in the Northern Division. Just 1.0 game back of the Blue Crew stands tonight's foe, Potomac. This marks the penultimate series against divisional competition for the Blue Crew. Once Wednesdays' game concludes, 22 of Wilmington's 25 remaining games this half will pit it against Southern Division squads. Entering today, the North has a composite record of 75-90 (.455) while the South stands at 90-75 (.545). Three of the four teams in the North have a losing record compared all winning records in the South.

HEY, I KNOW YOU: For the 14th time this season, Jansen Visconti and Rich Gonzalez combined to umpire a game involving the Rocks. They have arbitrated 33% of Wilmington's games on the year.

DID YOU KNOW?: With a win today, the Blue Rocks would have their first three-game home winning streak of the season.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from May 22, 2012


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