Woodpeckers Fall After Ninth Inning Rally From GreenJackets
Fayetteville, NC - The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (30-34) took a 2-0 lead before allowing four unanswered runs to the Augusta GreenJackets (36-29) on Wednesday night, falling 4-2 at Segra Stadium. The headline entering the night was Forrest Whitley, who joined the Woodpeckers on rehab assignment and made his first start with
Fayetteville, NC - The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (30-34) took a 2-0 lead before allowing four unanswered runs to the Augusta GreenJackets (36-29) on Wednesday night, falling 4-2 at Segra Stadium.
The headline entering the night was Forrest Whitley, who joined the Woodpeckers on rehab assignment and made his first start with a full-season affiliate since September of 2019. The Astros former first round pick peppered the strike zone across two scoreless innings, striking out two, stranding two runners on base, and tossing 21 total strikes on 29 pitches. Whitley was replaced by Deylen Miley in the third inning.
Rainiery Rodriguez was equally efficient over three innings, allowing just one single to Freddy Guilamo and tossing scoreless baseball until Fayetteville crossed two runs in the fourth. Leosdany started the inning with a walk and came all the way around on a Joey Loperfido double. Two batters later, Tyler Whitaker lined a two-out single off the glove of second baseman Geraldo Quintero to score Loperfido for a 2-0 advantage.
Alex Santos took over on the mound in the fifth, struck out the first two hitters he faced, but then surrendered a solo home run to Kadon Morton. He rebounded with two scoreless innings before allowing a leadoff triple to Cal Conley in the eighth. With the scoring threat on, Santos recovered by striking out Quintero and Brandon Mezquita. Then with Stephen Paolini at the plate, Conley attempted to steal home plate and drew a balk out of Santos on the mound that evened the game 2-2.
Kasey Ford (L, 2-1) recorded the final out of the eighth inning with a strikeout, but was unable to preserve the deadlock in the ninth inning, allowing a two-run single to Geraldo Quintero that gave the GreenJackets at 4-2 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, Justin Williams drew a walk against Jose Montilla (W, 1-0) and Victor Mascai singled, however Fayetteville’s scoring hopes were dashed when Tyler Whitaker rolled into a game-ending double play against closer Rob Griswold.
The series continues on Thursday night with first pitch at Segra Stadium scheduled for 7:05 pm EST. Fayetteville is scheduled to start RHP Bryant Salgado (4-4, 4.89 ERA) and the GreenJackets will counter with LHP Kris Anglin (3-4, 4.28 ERA).
FULL BOX SCORE:https://www.milb.com/gameday/669749/final/box