Homers lift Blue Wahoos to Sixth Straight Win
July 28, 2019 - Southern League (SL1)
Pensacola Blue Wahoos News Release
Pensacola Blue Wahoos pitcher Griffin Jax
(Pensacola Blue Wahoos)
A long bus ride across Interstate-10 and swirl of activity Saturday around the trade deadline didn't affect the Blue Wahoos momentum.
They won their sixth consecutive game, after four different players bashed home runs, coupled with a sterling effort from pitcher Griffin Jax, in a 7-1 victory against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.
A crowd of 7,617 at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville watched the Blue Wahoos erase Jacksonville's 1-0 lead gained in the first inning with back-to-back solo home runs from Mark Contreras and Jimmy Kerrigan, who rejoined the Blue Wahoos after being in Triple-A Rochester.
Jax (4-3), meanwhile, worked into the eighth inning for the first time in his Double- A career to pick the win. In perhaps his finest outing with the Blue Wahoos, Jax allowed just four hits, one earned run, struck out eight batters and walked only two.
Andrew Vasquez replaced Jax with one out and the bases loaded in the eighth. He earned his first save by finishing the game without allowing a run.
The Blue Wahoos (55-50 overall, 17-18 second half) did all this while saying goodbye to popular teammate and leading hitter Lewin Diaz, who was traded Saturday by the Minnesota Twins to the Miami Marlins in exchange for 36-year-old veteran MLB reliever Sergio Romo, who will join the Twins.
In addition, the Twins picked up pitcher Chris Vallimont, who was the Marlins' Low-A team, the Clinton (Iowa) Lumberkings.
Since the trade was finalized during the Blue Wahoos-Jumbo Shrimp game, it created the strange situation where Diaz, the Blue Wahoos first baseman, was pulled out of the game after the sixth inning. He had driven in a run for the Blue Wahoos on a ground out in the fifth inning to provide a 3-1 lead.
That will be Diaz's last RBI for the Blue Wahoos. The popular Diaz played 33 games for the Blue Wahoos, batting .302 with six homers and 26 RBI. He now could be playing against the Blue Wahoos on Sunday, since he switched dugouts, if he remains at the Double-A level.
In the sixth inning, the Blue Wahoos added a run when Ryan Costello singled home Ryan Jeffers, who had led off the inning with a single and advanced to second base on a balk. Both players were recently elevated from the Fort Myers Miracle in the Florida State League.
Jeffers, who went 3-for-4, blasted a one-out, solo home run in the eighth inning to give the Blue Wahoos a 5-1 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Vazquez inherited a bases-loaded jam when Santiago Chavez and Corey Bird both singled off Jax. When Anfernee Seymour followed with a walk to fill the bases, Vasquez was summoned.
He got struck out Bryson Brigman and got Riley Mahan to ground out to end the inning.
In the ninth inning, veteran infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr. hit a two-run homer for the Blue Wahoos, after Joe Cronin led off the inning with a single.
Kerrigan finished 2-for-4 as the other player with multiple hits for the Blue Wahoos. They had 10 hits in the game.
The two teams will continue their series with a 2 p.m. game Sunday. The win increased Pensacola's lead to 5.5 games in the overall standings for second place in the Southern League's South Division. If the Biloxi Shuckers should follow their first-half division win by winning the second half, the next team with the best overall record will make the playoffs.
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 Pensacola Blue Wahoos pitcher Griffin Jax |
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Southern League Stories from July 28, 2019
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- Just How They Drew It Up: Ellis' Late Homer Secures Generals' 3-1 Win - Jackson Generals
- Smokies Push Two Across in Extras for Wild 4-3 Win - Knoxville Smokies
- Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp: Game Notes, July 28 vs. Pensacola - Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp
- Pablo Lopez Joins Jumbo Shrimp on Rehab Assignment - Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp
- Generals Gameday: July 28 at Biloxi - Jackson Generals
- 2017 First Overall Pick Royce Lewis Joins Pensacola - Pensacola Blue Wahoos
- Homers lift Blue Wahoos to Sixth Straight Win - Pensacola Blue Wahoos
- Biloxi Upstages Jackson in Eventful Ninth, 3-2 - Jackson Generals
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