Brown's Strong Start Paces Threshers in Rubber-Match Victory

21-year-old earns first win, tosses first quality start since May 9

Clearwater Threshers in a game against the St.Lucie Mets at Spectrum Field in Clearwater Florida June 11 2019. (Nathan Ray)

By Thaddeus Krzus

August 7, 2019

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Andrew Brown got the call in the rubber match against the Dunedin Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon, and the 21-year-old did not disappoint with six quality innings in the 3-1 victory at Spectrum Field. The right-hander earned his first win since May 9, which also came against

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Andrew Brown got the call in the rubber match against the Dunedin Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon, and the 21-year-old did not disappoint with six quality innings in the 3-1 victory at Spectrum Field. The right-hander earned his first win since May 9, which also came against the Blue Jays at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium.

Clearwater's (58-57, 22-27) offense spotted its starter a three-run lead through the first two innings.
Simon Muzziotti started the day with a single against Simeon Woods Richardson, and stole second during Jhailyn Ortiz's strikeout. After Matt Vierling went down on strikes, Madison Stokes banged a single to right to push across the base runner for the 1-0 advantage.
Nick Matera clubbed a two-run home run to right in the second to extend the lead to 3-0. The Threshers finished the series with six long balls over the three games after not hitting one round-tripper in the previous four contests to start the month of August.
Brown (3-6) went to work for his club, as the starter gave up just one hit through his first trip through the order and faced the minimum. The only damage against the Alpine, Calif. native came in the fifth on an RBI ground out by Reggie Pruitt to cut the lead down to 3-1.
The 6-foot-1 hurler improved to 2-0 against the Blue Jays in 2019, and has earned both of his quality starts against the Toronto Blue Jays affiliate.
The trio of Tyler Carr, Zach Warren and Michael Gomez (SV, 1) locked down the Dunedin (65-47, 24-23) through the final three frames, with Gomez taking over the ninth after a one-hour, thirty-three-minute rain delay. Wednesday's closer worked a perfect final frame with two punch outs to lock down his first save as a Thresher.
Clearwater takes to the road to begin a four-game series against the Palm Beach Cardinals beginning Thursday night at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. It has yet to be announced who will start the opener for either side. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., with coverage beginning at 6:15 p.m. starting with Threshers Live! The Pregame Show on threshersbaseball.com.