IL1 Norfolk Tides

Tides' Rally Falls Short

Published on August 7, 2018 under International League (IL1)
Norfolk Tides News Release


Norfolk belted three home runs and nearly overcame a seven-run deficit, but the Tides dropped their series opener to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 10-8 Tuesday night at Harbor Park.

Pedro Álvarez, Rubén Tejada and Breyvic Valera each homered in the setback, as the RailRiders pulled even with the Tides in the IL Wild Card standings. Scranton (59-53) and Norfolk (59-53) are now just a half-game ahead of Toledo (59-54) and Columbus (59-54) with less than a month remaining in the regular season.

The RailRiders pounded out 17 hits in the contest, and Scranton held a 10-3 lead heading to the bottom of the seventh frame before Norfolk mounted a furious comeback bid. Tejada and Valera both homered in the seventh frame, and a two-run double from Luis Sardiñas pulled the Tides within 10-8.

The Tides couldn't push across the tying runs, as George Kontos (3-0) and Cale Coshow kept Norfolk off the board for the final two innings of the contest. Kontos earned the win with 1.2 innings of shutout relief, while Coshow picked up the save with a scoreless ninth.

Álvarez finished with three RBI in the setback, giving him seven home runs and 27 RBI in 30 games since he joined the Tides from Baltimore on June 25th. His first inning homer gave him 33 career round trippers in a Norfolk uniform, surpassing Josh Bell for the second-most hit by a Tide as an Orioles affiliate. Christian Walker tops that list with 42 career home runs for the Tides.

Mike Yastrzemski finished a home run short of the cycle as he helped pace Norfolk's 10-hit attack. He's now reached safely in eight straight games, over which he's batted .360 (9-25) with a .529 on-base percentage. His bid for the cycle fell just short, as he was retired on a deep foul fly to left field to end the eighth inning. The last Norfolk player to hit for the cycle was Timo Perez, who accomplished the feat on June 9, 2000.

Norfolk starter Jimmy Yacabonis was limited to just 27 pitches in the contest, as he allowed three runs on five hits over 1.1 innings of work. He yielded a two-run, two-out double to Ronald Torreyes in the first frame, and the RailRiders pushed across another run in the second when Tyler Wade plated Gio Urshela with a fielder's choice groundout off of Luis Gonzalez (0-2).

The two clubs will continue their three-game set on Wednesday night at Harbor Park, with first pitch slated for 7:05. Josh Rogers (7-9, 3.75) will get the start for Norfolk against his former club and will be opposed by right-hander Erik Swanson (1-2, 5.14).

Notes: Prior to Tuesday's game, LHP D.J Snelten was reinstated from Norfolk's disabled list... Norfolk used seven different pitchers in the contest, setting a season-high...Tim Melville worked a scoreless ninth, giving him seven straight appearances without allowing an earned run...Despite Tuesday's game being Norfolk's 112th game of the season, it was the first game with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Tides and RailRiders will meet six more times over the next 12 games.

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