CarL1 Salem RidgeYaks

Salem Red Sox Game Notes

Published on June 29, 2013 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem RidgeYaks News Release


Fresh off a walk-off win on Friday night, the Salem Sox look to keep it rolling on Saturday against Carolina... First pitch at 6:05...

Welcome Walk-Off: Friday night's dramatic victory allowed Salem to celebrate its first walk-off triumph since April 25. After going 0-for-4 in the first nine innings, second-baseman Nick Natoli laced a bullet into right field for the game-winning hit, surging the Sox to a 4-3 win in 10-innings. It was Salem's first extra-inning victory of the season after losing its first five games featuring bonus baseball in 2013.

Two at a Time: With multiple hits in three straight games, Keury De La Cruz has risen his season average to .291, the highest it has been all season. He has recorded hits in 23 of his last 24 games, and he has reached base in all 24 contests he has played since June 3. He currently owns the longest active streak in the league, and tonight he could match the 25-game on-base streaks from Carolina's Francisco Lindor and Winston's Joey DeMichele from earlier this year. Lindor hit .343 during his 25-game on base streak, while DeMichele hit .330. In De La Cruz's last 24 games, he's batting .404 (38-for-94) with 24 RBI. For the full season, he also leads the league with 55 RBI.

Pitching Prowess: Baseball can be complicated, but here's a simple truth: good starting pitching makes winning a much more likely result. In Salem's five victories since the All-Star Break, the Sox starters (Mickey Pena, William Cuevas, and Henry Owens) have allowed five runs on 19 hits in 31.2 innings, giving the parenthetically included trio an ERA of 1.42. In the three losses, the starters (Kyle Stroup and Mike Augliera) have surrendered 16 earned runs on 21 hits in 10 innings. Augliera allowed three runs on five hits in his first start of the second half, but suffered the loss on Monday night in Winston-Salem.

Great Glovework: Friday's victory over Carolina also served as Salem's fourth straight game without making an error. While the Sox made three errors this past Monday in Winston, it has been 43 innings since the last miscue. With just 70 errors in 78 games, the Red Sox are #1 in the league with the fewest errors made for the season. Shortstop Deven Marrero has made only one error on the year, while catcher Blake Swihart is far and away the best backstop in the circuit in terms of throwing out opposing basestealers, having gunned down 41% (25-of-61) on the year. The average catcher in the league is throwing out only 28% of basestealers.

Wowed By William: Looking back on the William Cuevas of the first couple months, it's clear that the 22-year-old was, statistically, one of the poorer pitchers in the league. But from a guy who went 1-6 with a 7.31 ERA in his first 10 starts, a dominant pitcher has blossomed. In his last four starts, the Venezuelan righty has gone 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA, with just five runs allowed in 26 innings. On Friday night, Cuevas registered a season-high eight strikeouts, dealing 61 of his 95 pitches for strikes in another seven-inning performance. Sox starters went seven innings just five times in the 70-game first half. Since the All-Star Break, however, Sox starters have dealt seven full frames three times in eight games.

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Carolina League Stories from June 29, 2013


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