CarL1 Wilmington Blue Rocks

Wilmington Wins Behind Johnson Again

Published on August 22, 2007 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Wilmington Blue Rocks News Release


Wilmington, DE - The Wilmington Blue Rocks continued their bulletproof ways when Blake Johnson toes the rubber, defeating the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, 5-2, at Frawley Stadium on Wednesday night. Johnson pitched a perfect game into the fifth inning, but prematurely departed in the sixth with back spasms to partially temper the excitement for Wilmington. Brian McFall sparked the Rocks offense with a 2-for-3 night, including his club-leading 13th home run of the season. The victory shaves the Blue Rocks' magic number to clinch the second-half crown of the Carolina League's Northern Division to just eight games.

With the Rocks having notched victories in each of his last nine outings, Johnson (8-6) mowed through the Pelicans lineup at a staggering pace on Wednesday. The right-handed prospect retired the first 14 men he faced, recording four strikeouts in the process. Chase Fontaine broke up the bid for a perfect game in the fifth with a two-out double to right that sailed over the head of Brian McFall. The Wilmington right fielder misjudged the ball, at first breaking in before leaping up in a last-minute attempt to snare the sharp liner. Undeterred, Johnson induced an inning-ending ground ball off the bat of Larry Williams on the next pitch.

In the sixth, Johnson yielded a pair of walks and a base hit, loading the bases with two outs. After the second of the two free passes loaded the bags, manager John Mizerock and athletic trainer Mark Stubblefield approached the mound to inspect the Baton Rouge, LA native. The duo deemed Johnson unfit to continue and removed the 22-year-old. He will be re-evaluated on Thursday morning.

Patrick Green came in from the bullpen and took on the bases-loaded burden, getting the dangerous Quentin Davis to line out sharply to center field to end the threat.

McFall's blast led off the second inning and gave the Rocks the early 1-0 lead. The team-leader in homers, RBIs, and extra-base hits entering play, McFall attacked the first pitch from Myrtle Beach starter Ryan Drese (0-1), launching a skyscraping shot down the left field line that easily cleared the fence.

After Green's escape act in the top of the sixth, the Rocks put the game out of reach in the bottom half with a four-run rally against reliever Jeff Lyman. Brad McCann split the gap in right-center field for a one-out double and subsequently charged home on McFall's RBI triple to deep left-center, putting the Blue Rocks up 2-0. Miguel Vega plated McFall in the next at-bat, doubling into the left field alley, and eventually crossed home on a Brett Bigler ground ball that was errantly thrown by shortstop Michael Fisher. Josh Johnson put a cap on the rally with an opposite field RBI single to left that scored Bigler from second, pushing the Rocks ahead 5-0.

The Pelicans made a comfortable game a bit itchy with single runs in the eighth and ninth. In the ninth, with Arthur Santos on the mound for his second inning of work, Myrtle Beach scratched out an unearned run and eventually loaded the bases thanks to consecutive two-out hits. But Santos fanned Derrick Arnold to strand the runners and end the game.

The Blue Rocks and Pelicans play the rubber game of their three-game set Thursday night at 7:05 p.m., as Wilmington sends 20-year-old right-hander Dan Cortes (5-8, 3.63) against Myrtle Beach righty Dustin Evans (2-8, 4.75).

GAME NOTES: Over his last 10 outings (eight starts), Blake Johnson is 5-0 with a 0.95 ERA. In addition, the righty has allowed just one earned run (two total) in 25.0 innings since returning from a three-week stint on the disabled list. With Wednesday's effort, Johnson lowered his season ERA to 3.30, moving him into third on the Carolina League's ERA leader board, trailing only teammates Rowdy Hardy and Julio Pimentel.

Mario Lisson went 2-for-4 to extend his team season-long hitting streak to 17 games. The All-Star third bagger is hitting .380 (27-for-71) with nine multi-hit games over the hot stretch.

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Carolina League Stories from August 22, 2007


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