Crawford’s Two RBIs Help Threshers Cruise to Victory

WP: Estibenzon Jiménez (2-3, 3.99)

LP: Eliander Alcalde (2-4, 5.73

SV: Wen-Hui Pan (3)

BOX SCORE:

DUNEDIN, FL – Justin Crawford’s go-ahead sacrifice fly in the second and his 20th multi-hit game of the season helped the Clearwater Threshers (46-21, 2-0) secure their second victory of the second half with a 5-2 win over the Dunedin Blue Jays (32-36, 0-2) on Saturday night at TD Ballpark. The Threshers finish the series in Dunedin at noon on Sunday.

Tucker Toman led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run to put the Blue Jays on top early 1-0. With one out in the top of the second, Blue Jays starter Eliander Alcalde walked Jordan Dissin, Jordan Viars, and Cole Moore to load the bases. Emaarion Boyd tied the game with a single up the middle that scored Dissin from third. Two pitches later, Justin Crawford hit a sacrifice fly to right-center to score Viars and give the Threshers a 2-1 lead.

Otto Kemp led off the third with a double and came home on an RBI single to right by Dissin off of Blue Jays reliever Harry Rutkowski to extend the Threshers’ advantage to 3-1. Dunedin added a run on a base hit in the fourth to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Viars led off the eighth with a single and was replaced by pinch-runner Cade Fergus after a walk to Cole Moore. Boyd reached on a fielder’s choice to third which moved Fergus over to third. Crawford beat out an infield hit to make it 4-2, and an errant throw by Abiezel Ramirez moved him to second and Boyd to third. With Kemp at the plate, Blue Jays reliever Davis Feldman threw a wild pitch that allowed Boyd to score and bring the Threshers' lead to 5-2.

The Threshers’ bullpen retired all but one batter after the seventh, with four-straight strikeouts from Wen-Hui Pan to seal the victory at 5-2.

Alex McFarlane went 2.0 innings, allowing one run on one hit with three walks and two strikeouts in a no-decision. Estibenzon Jiménez (2-3) allowed one run on six hits in 4.0 innings with one walk and three strikeouts to earn the win. Daniel Harper tossed 1.0 scoreless and hitless frame. Pan tossed the final 2.0 innings with one hit allowed and five strikeouts for the save.

Pan’s five strikeouts were a career-high...Crawford extended his hit streak to 13 games...He now leads the Threshers in RBIs with 32...Dissin has five hits and four RBIs in his last two games...Viars has now reached base in 11-straight games...Clearwater’s bats recorded at least one hit in all but two innings...Both of Jiménez’s wins this season were recorded in his two relief appearances...He became the fourth Threshers reliever to throw 4.0 innings out of the bullpen in 2023...The Threshers conclude their final road series of the season against the Dunedin Blue Jays on Sunday, June 25th...First pitch is at 12:00 pm EST... You can purchase tickets for Threshers games at ThreshersBaseball.com/tickets or by calling 727-467-4457.