FREDERICK, MD - Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Wilmington Blue Rocks (53-45/14-14) fell to the Frederick Keys (43-52/12-14) 5-3 Friday night at Nymeo Field. Wander Franco homered for the Blue Crew while him and Nick Heath paced the offense with a pair of hits. With the loss,
FREDERICK, MD - Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Wilmington Blue Rocks (53-45/14-14) fell to the Frederick Keys (43-52/12-14) 5-3 Friday night at Nymeo Field. Wander Franco homered for the Blue Crew while him and Nick Heath paced the offense with a pair of hits. With the loss, the Rocks have dropped three straight and have now lost five of their last six games to the Keys in the second half, all played at Nymeo Field.
Franco got the Rocks on the board in the opening inning when he launched a two-out, solo home run to put the Rocks up 1-0. It was Franco's fourth homer of the season. However, the Keys struck for four runs in their half of the second inning, highlighted by Drew Turbin's grand slam with two outs to put the Rocks behind, 4-1. Wilmington was unable to catch Frederick from that point forward.
In the fourth inning, Wilmington got another run on the board when Chris DeVito bounced into a double play that allowed Franco to score to cut the deficit in half, 4-2. Frederick responded in the bottom of the inning when Wilmington starter Cristian Castillo uncorked a wild pitch to allow Chris Clare to score making it a 5-2 ballgame. The Blue Rocks threatened in the sixth inning but stranded the bases loaded.
The Rocks tried to rally once more in the eighth inning. Wilmington loaded the bases with a Franco leadoff walk, a one-out single from DeVito and walk from Chase Vallot. Jonathan McCray entered as a pinch-hitter and lofted a sacrifice fly to drive in Franco to pull the Rocks within a pair of runs, 5-3. However, the Rocks were unable to complete the comeback and ultimately fell short.
Offensively, Franco drove in a run and scored all three runs for the Blue Crew in the defeat. Castilo suffered the loss for the Rocks and allowed five earned runs on five hits in 5.2 innings of work. Grant Gavin tossed 2.1 scoreless innings of relief.
Wilmington looks to rebound in the third game of the series on Saturday, July 22 against Frederick. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. with RHP A.J. Puckett (8-7, 4.02 ERA) making the start for the Blue Rocks while LHP Brian Gonzalez (3-7, 5.56 ERA) starts for the Keys. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus has the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
Wander Franco was the key cog in the Blue Rocks' offense in Friday's loss. The third baseman smacked his fourth homer of the season, walked and scored all three runs for Wilmington. With the multi-hit effort, Franco paces the team with 28 multi-hit games, seven more than any other Blue Rock this season. Franco had 23 multi-hit contests all of last year. The second-year Blue Rock is showing signs of returning to his June form, where he hit an impressive .314 during the month.
After a 6-for-39 slide from July 7 to July 17, Chris DeVito has seemed to have found his swing again at the plate. On Wednesday, he got half of the evening off and was the designated hitter in the series finale against Potomac. The slugging first baseman collected three hits in four at-bats. On Thursday, he added a single and RBI in the opening game of the series against Frederick. Friday, he picked up another base knock and is now 5-for-his-last-11. The first baseman leads the Rocks with 40 RBI despite playing in just 66 games.
The Blue Rocks have launched homers in four straight contests, tying their season-high this year. Both Franco and Jonathan McCray are responsible for the long balls. Franco smashed his third homer of the season on Monday at home against Potomac before adding his fourth on Friday night. McCray clubbed homers in his first two games back with Wilmington on Tuesday and Thursday.
The Rocks have not enjoyed much success against the Keys at Nymeo Field. With the loss on Friday, the Blue Crew fell to 4-6 on the season on Frederick's home field, opposed to 3-0 at Frawley Stadium. That losing record for the Blue Rocks at Nymeo Field marks the second-worst road record against a Northern Division foe for the Blue Rocks this season. Wilmington is 1-6 at Salem when they visit the Red Sox.
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