CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Rocks Still Unable to Crack Potomac Nationals at Home, Fall 5-2

April 22, 2016 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (6-10) appear unable to figure out the Potomac Nationals (9-7) when the two play at Frawley Stadium. The two teams have battled six times on the riverfront in the early portion of the 2016 season, but the Blue Crew has dropped all six of the contests after dropping Friday night's game 5-2.

The P-Nats quickly jumped out in front in the top of the first inning and never looked back. Andrew Stevenson doubled to begin the festivities on Friday night and moved to third on a double to right-center by Osvaldo Abreu. Stevenson had to wait to see if right-fielder Roman Collins was going to make the catch and therefore could only move up the 90 feet to third. Rocks starter Colin Rodgers (1-1) got Jose Marmolejos to pop out to short for the first out of the inning, but threw a wild pitch immediately after to plate the first run of the game for Potomac. He escaped further damage by inducing two more innings to get out of the inning.

The Rocks offense stalled in the first couple of frames against starter Luis Reyes and the P-Nats made it count in the top of the third. Rodgers appeared headed towards an easy frame when he got the first batter to fly out to center, but Stevenson singled to put a man on first with one out. Abreau followed with his own single and Marmolejos once again popped out for the second out of the third inning. However, Raudy Read jumped over the first pitch of the at bat and doubled into the right-center field gap to push the P-Nats ahead 3-0. They continued their two out hitting when Drew Ward singled to right-center on a 3-2 count for the Nationals four run lead.

Reyes continued to keep the Rocks off of the board through the first five innings before the big bat of Ryan O'Hearn once again provided the offense. Reyes retired the first two batters of the sixth, but Humberto Areaga stopped that streak with a hot to short that bounced off of the glove of Abreu and allowed the inning to continue. O'Hearn stepped into the left handed batters box and pulverized the first pitch of the at bat 40 feet over the right-field wall to cut the deficit down to 4-2. Austin Bailey doubled in the next at bat, but the rally ended when Alfredo Escalera flew out to right.

Derek Gordon replaced Rodgers in the seventh inning and got the final two out soft the frame to strand an inherited runner. However, Gordon went back out in the eighth inning and got out number one with a groundout to third. He struck out the next batter, but the pitch got away from Chad Johnson and runners ended up on the corners with one out when Bryan Mejia singled to right. With the runners at the corners, P-Nats manager Tripp Keister called for Dale Carey to lay down a safety squeeze and he pushed a bunt perfectly down the first base line to provide another insurance run and make the score 5-2. The Rocks were unable to muster any more offense the rest of the way, ceding game three of the series 5-2.

Rodgers allowed four runs through the first three innings, and although he settled down to go 6.1 for the longest outing of any Blue Rocks starter this season, he took the loss to fall to 1-1. Reyes was awarded the win for six innings of two run baseball and Koda Glover pitched the ninth for his second save of the year. The teams are back at it Saturday night at 7:05 when the Blue Rocks will send Zach Lovvorn (0-3, 5.54) against Phillips Valdez (2-1, 7.36).

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Carolina League Stories from April 22, 2016


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