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CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Odorizzi Dominates Again As Rocks Blank Dash

April 29, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - Ranked as the No. 1 overall prospect for the Milwaukee Brewers by Baseball America, Jake Odorizzi was rather highly-regarded when the Kansas City Royals acquired him in an off-season package for former Blue Rock and Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke. Odorizzi has lived up to the billing. For the second time in as many starts, the hard-throwing right-hander struck out a career-high-tying 10. For the first time in his career, Odorizzi (1-0) logged an Advanced-A win as the Wilmington Blue Rocks (13-7) blanked the Winston-Salem Dash (8-13) at Frawley Stadium on a windy and chilly Friday night, 4-0.

Home runs played a pivotal role in the Rocks' run scoring. John Whittleman's team-leading fifth dinger, a line drive to right, began the bottom of the second and gave the Blue Rocks all the scoring they would need. Jose Bonilla sent the first pitch he saw from Joe Serafin (0-1) in the fourth out of the yard to right-center field for his second home run, a two-run shot for a 3-0 lead. A Ferguson double and two wild pitches by reliever Orlando Santos in the sixth inning accounted for the fourth score.

During that time, Odorizzi dominated. The 21-year-old retired 18 of the first 19 he faced, including 15 in a row from the second through the sixth. He fielded his position nimbly, registering assists on a trio of weak tappers, and received the benefit of some solid defense including a head-first diving catch of a Jared Mitchell fly ball by center fielder Tim Ferguson in the first frame. Odorizzi allowed just three hits and no walks over his seven scoreless innings.

Winston-Salem's lone threat against Odorizzi came in the seventh. Jose Martinez started the frame with a single to right-center. Mitchell and the powerful Ian Gac followed with swinging strikeouts, but Andy Wilkins doubled to left-center to put two in scoring position. The recently-demoted Kyle Shelton then fell down 0-2 in the count before looking at a called strike three as Odorizzi struck out the side.

Reliever Brendan Lafferty tossed a scoreless eighth before Martinez and Mitchell sparked a ninth-inning rally with singles. Manager Brian Rupp made the move to left-hander closer Kevin Chapman, who made quick work of the Dash. Gac popped out to third in foul ground, Wilkins struck out swinging and Shelton suffered the same fate as Chapman logged his league-leading fifth save in as many tries.

The teams meet again on Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. Wilmington southpaw Noel Arguelles (0-0, 1.46) faces Winston-Salem's Opening Day starter, Terry Doyle (0-2, 5.14). Broadcast coverage begins at 6:35 p.m. as fill-in 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.

The first 1,000 fans through the gates on Saturday will receive a Blue Rocks long sleeve t-shirt courtesy of Mid Atlantic Spine. The Blue Rocks invite you to come out to an exclusive VIP meet and greet with Edyta Sliwinska of Dancing with the Stars for only $10 per person. There are only 25 spots left as of this article's publishing. The meet and greet begins at 5 p.m. and tickets can be purchased by calling Greg Mathews at (302) 472-5712. Photographs and autographs are included.

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