Hens fall victim to Tides' grand slam in loss

After just one hit through the first three innings, the Norfolk Tides exploded for a five-run fifth inning on the way to a 7-2 defeat of the Mud Hens at Fifth Third Field Thursday night.

Danny Dorn got the Hens on the board in the first inning with a two-out RBI single for an early 1-0 lead. The next inning, recently acquired catcher Ronny Paulino singled in a run in his first at-bat as a Mud Hen to extend the lead to 2-0 over Tides' starter Zach Britton.

After picking up just one hit in the first three innings, Norfolk drew even with runs in the fourth and fifth on RBI singles from Danny Valencia and Zelous Wheeler respectively. The tie was broken later in the fifth when Yamaico Navarro connected for a grand slam off Kyle Lobstein to chase the lefty from the game.

Lobstein suffered the loss after allowing six runs on five hits over 4 2/3 innings while matching a season-high with seven strikeouts. After Lobstein's exit, the Hen Pen tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief until Evan Reed allowed a run in the ninth for a 7-2 lead in favor of the Tides.

The Mud Hens will look to rebound and split the series tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. at Fifth Third Field with RHP Jair Jurrjens (6-7, 4.74 ERA) scheduled to make the start.