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CarL1 Salem Red Sox

Three Salem Sox Named 2011 Carolina League All-Stars

June 9, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem Red Sox News Release


Lynchburg, VA (June 9, 2011) - A talented trio of ballplayers will bring their Red Sox colors west.

Catcher Dan Butler, pitcher Chris Hernandez, and first-baseman Reynaldo Rodriguez have all been named 2011 Carolina League All-Stars and will join their fellow east coast greats against the best of the California League on Tuesday, June 21 in Modesto, California. Butler and Rodriguez were both chosen as starters, while Hernandez will throw among the staff of skilled starters. Manager Matt LeCroy of Potomac will select the game's starter as the All-Star break nears.

Butler leads the Carolina League with 46 RBI and earns his second straight All-Star honor, having participated in the 2010 South Atlantic League All-Star game with Greenville last year. Butler hit .351 in April, slumped in early May, but has rediscovered his stroke in the past couple weeks, hitting .380 since May 27. The undrafted backstop is the only Carolina Leaguer to have crushed two grand slams this season. The most recent slam came on Memorial Day, when Butler launched a towering walk-off to surge Salem back from a three-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth against Lynchburg. Butler drove in all seven runs in Salem's 7-6 win on May 30, his second seven-RBI game of the season.

Hernandez has been Salem's steadiest arm in his first full professional season, compiling the league's fifth-best ERA (2.52). The lefthander out of Miami has gone 5-3 in 10 starts, holding opponents to a .230 average in 50 innings on the mound. His reputation as a ground-ball specialist was quickly affirmed in 2011, inducing more than three ground outs for every air out recorded, far and away the top ratio among all Carolina League starters. Hernandez was drafted in the seventh round in 2010 after an All-American career at Miami. In three years in the ACC, Hernandez went 28-8 with a 3.06 ERA, with 315 strikeouts in 302.2 innings pitched.

For Rodriguez, this All-Star nod is his first in affiliated baseball. A former MVP in the Colombian Winter League and Rookie of the Year in the independent Golden League, Rodriguez has been a force in the Carolina League this season, residing near the top in almost every statistical category. Currently, he leads the league in doubles with 22, while sitting third in hitting (.314), tied for fifth in homers (9), and second only to teammate Dan Butler in RBI (42). The slugging first-baseman is also tops in the circuit in slugging percentage (.577) and runs scored (43).

The triumvirate of Salem stars will all be striving to perpetuate an impressive MVP streak. In each of the last two years, the Carolina League All-Star game MVP has come from Salem, with pitcher Ryne Miller earning the honor in 2009 and second-baseman Oscar Tejeda winning the award last season. Miller struck out five Cal Leaguers in two innings in Lake Elsinore two years ago, while Tejeda pulverized a laser-beam home run in Myrtle Beach a season ago.

The Salem Red Sox continue their marathon 19-game in 18-day road odyssey to conclude the first half on Thursday night in Lynchburg, with newly named All-Star Chris Hernandez getting the start. The Sox will return to LewisGale Field on Thursday, June 23 to open the second half of the schedule against the Kinston Indians.

All Salem games are broadcast live on AM 960 in the Roanoke Valley and on www.salemsox.com with the "Voice of the Salem Sox" Evan Lepler.

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