CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Blue Rocks Set for Sunday Versus Lynchburg

Published on August 29, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


EXTRA, EXTRA!: Four extra-base hits directly led to all three Lynchburg runs as the Hillcats beat the Wilmington Blue Rocks at City Stadium on Saturday night, 3-1. The loss proved costly as the Potomac Nationals staged a ninth-inning rally to top Frederick, 6-4, putting the Blue Crew 1.5 games back of the P-Nats for first place and a playoff spot with a shade over a week to go on the regular season.

FELINE FRIENDLY: Six of the seven homers hit by Salvador Perez this season have come against the Lynchburg Hillcats. He had just three homers over his first three seasons of professional baseball entering the 2010 campaign. Over his last three games against the 'Cats, Perez has gone 8-for-12 (.667) with four homers, 10 RBIs and four runs scored. He assembled the only multi-hit night for the Blue Rocks on Saturday. On the month of August, Perez has hit .386 with 16 RBIs in raising his batting average by 31 points to .280, his best contact clip since June 10.

WIDE SPLITS: Of the Blue Rocks' 68 homers this season, 46 (68%) of them have been hit on the road. They often come with the bases empty, as 40 (59%) of them have been solo shots.

COUSIN CHUCK WOULD BE PROUD: Patrick Norris' swipe of third in the eighth raised his season total to 30, tops on the club. He doubled on a 1-for-3 night.

Since returning to switch-hitting at the start of the month, Norris has hit .311 with 12 runs scored over a 21-game span.

GETTING EVEN: The Blue Rocks fell short in their attempt to climb back to .500 overall. The team has not seen a sea-level record since it was 52-52.

RUBBER OR GLUE?: Wilmington and Lynchburg play a rubber match today.

The Blue Rocks are 6-4 in such games this season, but have won just one series of three games or more in their last seven tries.

THE LOWS OF JAIRO: Jairo Cuevas has suffered four straight losing decisions over his last five appearances. On the month of August, the former Braves farmhand has gone 0-4 with a 5.82 ERA and .314 batting average against over six outings. The team has gone 1-5 in those games.

BLUE ROCKS BASHER: No Carolina Leaguer has hit more home runs against the Blue Rocks than Cody Puckett. In 19 games against the Rocks, he has hit .274 with 10 of his 20 hits going for extra bases, including six homers. He has 14 RBIs against the Rocks and a .950 OPS.

DOUBLE TROUBLE: The Blue Rocks turned their 100th double play of the season in the defeat. They are the last team in the league to reach the century mark in twin-killings. Part of the reason for that - Wilmington's pitching staff leads the league with 1,069 strikeouts.

THIS DATE IN TRANSACTION HISTORY: Before the game, right-hander James Thompson returned to the disabled list as fellow reliever Eric Basurto returned to active duty from the DL.

SCOREBOARD WATCHIN': Potomac trailed Frederick 4-3 entering the ninth on Saturday night. After MVP candidate Tyler Moore tied the game with a double, it was the former Wilmington Blue Rock Jamar Walton (2009-10) that delivered the game-winning blow with a triple. He scored on a groundout for insurance.

Tonight's Probables

WIL: LHP Will Smith (3-1, 2.95)

vs.

LYN: RHP Chase Ware (1-3, 3.83)

FRESH PRINCE: Will Smith, recently acquired in the Alberto Callaspo trade, took a tough-luck loss in his Royals system debut on Jul. 29 versus KIN (7.0 IP, 7H, 1R, 2BB, 4K, 1HR). The lefty has hurled at three levels this year (Adv.-A, AA, AAA), making at least four starts at each stop. Ranked by Baseball America as the 15th-best prospect for the Halos entering the season, Smith made just 19 starts last season due to a hamstring pull and a lower-back injury. He comes off a dominant win at POT on Tue. (8.0 IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 12K) when lost a perfect game with two outs in the sixth.

Chase Ware has started eight times among his 51 prior career outings.

That includes six straight nods with LYN from July 10-Aug. 7. as the former Arkansas State star went 1-3 with a 5.13 ERA and nearly as many walks (14) as strikeouts (16). He proposed to his girlfriend Maria on the field while with Low-A Dayton on June 2. She said yes.

Ware, who signed with Ole Miss before hurling for NW Miss. CC, was a 50th-round pick by the Giants in 2008, but did not sign. He dominated as the Dragons' closer - 21G, 3-1, 7/9 SV, 1.84, 49K:9BB.

RADIO: 1290 AM The Ticket and 1410 AM WDOV

WEBCAST: www.1290theticket.com or bluerocks.com

Wilmington Blue Rocks Game Notes

Mon:

vs. Myrtle Beach 6:35 p.m.

Tue:

vs. Myrtle Beach 6:35 p.m.

Wed:

vs. Myrtle Beach 6:35 p.m.

Thu:

vs. Myrtle Beach 6:35 p.m.

Wil: RHP Tim Melville

(2-11, 5.04)

Wil: RHP Bryan Paukovits

(3-5, 5.40)

Wil: RHP Aaron Crow

(1-2, 5.79)

Wil: LHP Buddy Baumann

(4-2, 2.27)

MB: LHP Brett Oberholtzer

(4-6, 4.80)

MB: RHP Cory Rasmus

(0-2, 2.90)

MB: LHP Matt Crim

(7-10, 4.88)

MB: RHP Zeke Spruill

(3-5, 5.64)

Wilmington Blue Rocks (64-66, 32-28) Carolina League Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals

vs.

Lynchburg Hillcats (58-72, 29-31) Carolina League Affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds

Game No. 131 -- Road Game No. 70 -- City Stadium -- Sunday, August 29, 2010 -- 6:05 p.m.

BLUE ROCKS BREAKDOWN

HOME: 32-29 AWAY: 32-37

STREAK: L 1

LAST 5: 3-2

LAST 10: 5-5

NKOTB

DOWN THE STRETCH: The Hillcats and Blue Rocks, both Northern Division teams, have a gap of 3.0 games between them.

With Frederick already playoff bound by virtue of its first-half title, these two teams stride against each other and Potomac for a playoff spot. Should a one-game playoff prove necessary to determine the second-half champion, home field for such a game would tier based upon the August 26 standings (Potomac, Wilmington, Lynchburg).

NINTH LIFE: Since getting swept versus Potomac in a three-game set to start the month, Lynchburg has won 15 of its last 22 to stay in the second-half title chase. Pitching has been a big reason for the comeback 'Cats. Ten of those 15 wins have seen Lynchburg's foe held to a single run or less for a cumulative scoring margin of 100- 80 over the 22-game stretch. The team has gone 4-0-2 over six series in that time, but has lost three of its last five games and four of seven.

PAINT THE TOWN RED: For the first time since the then- Potomac Cannons called themselves a Reds affiliate from 2003-04, the CL has a Cincy satellite in Lynchburg. This ends a lengthy previous partnership with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1995-2009). It also will bring about some rematches of battles from the Midwest League where the Reds play in Dayton and the Royals in Burlington.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from August 29, 2010


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