CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Britton's Breakout Game Takes Down Rocks

Published on April 25, 2012 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Salem, VA - It is amazing the difference a year can make. Salem Red Sox (8-9) southpaw Drake Britton entered 2011 as Boston's third-best prospect according to Baseball America, blessed with the farm's "Best Fastball" and "Best Curveball". He went 1-13, led the league in losses, and would have had the highest ERA in A-ball at 6.91 if he had enough innings to qualify. In his first outing against the Wilmington Blue Rocks (9-9) this year, he looked like a whole new man.

Britton (1-2) used a dominant mid-90s fastball, knee-buckling curve and superb change to strike out seven men over five scoreless innings of one-hit ball en route to his second win in 30 career Carolina League outings.

The Blue Rocks' four-game winning streak came to a halt as starter Greg Billo (1-3) took his third loss. Billo, whose third loss last season did not come until August 17, gave up three runs on eight hits over 4.1 innings. He cruised through the first three frames until a leadoff four-pitch walk to Michael Almanzar in the fourth. Christian Vazquez followed with a single and Shannon Wilkerson attempted to bunt the pair up. Instead, he reached on a bunt base hit that coincided with an errantly tall throw to first by Billo. In foul ground, Whit Merrifield retrieved the ball and threw wide of second for another miscue as both runners scored to make it 2-0.

Later in the inning, Billo's second walk, a two-out free pass to Jackie Bradley, Jr., loaded the bases. But the right-hander struck out Sean Coyle looking to end the inning.

In the fourth, Billo departed with men at the corners and one out. Reliever Cole White then got a grounder to Cheslor Cuthbert at third from Wilkerson. However, while Cuthbert cut down Vazquez at second, Merrifield's relay arrived a tad tardy at first as Travis Shaw scored to make it 3-1. In the sixth, back-to-back two-out hits from Bradley, Jr. and Coyle, his first in 13 at-bats on the series, combined to push Salem ahead, 4-1.

The Rocks' lone run came in the top of the sixth. Merrifield notched a leadoff single against Andrew Jones, took second when Alex McClure walked, tagged up on Cuthbert's fly-out to right and scored on Brian Fletcher's sac fly to center.

Ruben Flores allowed just one baserunner over the final two innings to log his first save. After Brett Eibner began the ninth with a single, Flores struck out Roman Hernandez, Geulin Beltre and Kenny Swab in succession.

The four-game set concludes on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. Right-hander Leondy Perez (2-0, 1.54) gets the nod against righty Miguel Celestino (1-1, 3.60). Broadcast coverage begins at 6:35 p.m. as studio host Rob Cunningham brings fans the Rocks Report Pre-game Show, presented by Wawa, on 89.7 WGLS-FM and online at wgls.rowan.edu.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Cole White set a new career-high with six strikeouts over his 2.2 innings. That included two different strings of three in a row, highlighted by a 1-2-3 seventh, all by way of the K.

The Blue Rocks stranded seven men on base by going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

Wilmington put the leadoff man on base five times. Salem pitching also fired three perfect innings.

In his prior three career starts against the Blue Rocks, Drake Britton was 0-1 with a 7.15 ERA.

Kenny Swab went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. The bottom third of the order, Geulin Beltre, Swab and Jake Kuebler, went a collective 1-for-10 with eight strikeouts.

Check out the Wilmington Blue Rocks Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from April 25, 2012


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