Wild Rocks Waste Runs, Lose 10-9 to Salem
Salem, VA- The Wilmington Blue Rocks (10-25) tendency to issue free passes turned costly on Sunday as they put ten men on base via the walk and still almost rallied back, but eventually fell 10-9 to the Salem Red Sox (26-10). Starter Josh Staumont was the biggest culprit, walking seven batters and going 1.2 innings pitched for the second time in his last three starts and digging too deep of a hole for the Blue and White.
Salem scored three quick runs in the bottom of the first inning on a single by Danny Mars and a two-run double by Mike Meyers. They chased Staumont in the second when the righty could not find the zone. He struck out the first batter of the inning before going walk, walk, walk, hit by pitch for a run, walk for another run, followed by a two-run double, a strikeout and an additional walk to end his afternoon. After the damage was done and Tim Hill replaced Staumont, the Sox had what appeared to be an insurmountable 7-0 advantage.
The almost comeback started innocently enough with a fielder's choice RBI groundout in the fourth by Brandon Downes to make it 7-1. The Rocks then came out in the fifth with a vengeance. With two outs and the bases loaded Downes again came through, this time with a double to clear the bases and two batters later Elier Hernandez doubled to drive in Downes and cut the deficit to 7-5. It could have been a one-run game, but the Sox relay from Andrew Benintendi to Mauricio Dubon to David Sopika gunned down Wander Franco at home to preserve the two run lead.
Salem pumped the lead with single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings off of the Rocks bullpen. That last run proved pivotal because for the second time in as many games, the Blue Crew refused to go quietly in the ninth. Down 10-5, the Blue and White got things going with a leadoff triple by Alfredo Escalera. A run come home in the next at bat on a throwing error by the third basemen Jordan Betts and Corey Toups worked a walk of his own to put two men on with nobody out. After a popout by Downes, Wander Franco hit the Rocks' first home run in the last ten games and pulled the boys from Frawley within a lone run. However, Hernandez struck out swinging and although Robert Pehl getting hit by a pitch put the tying run on the basepaths, the furious rally flamed out on Chad Johnson's strikeout.
Staumont has still yet to pick up a win and drops to 0-4 while the Blue Crew is 0-8 in games that he pitches. Dedgar Jimenez (5-1), the starter for Salem, received the win in five innings of work while giving up five runs, but just one of them earned. The two teams will wrap up their four game series on Monday night when RHP Ashton Goudeau (2-3, 4.85) goes toe-to-toe with LHP Trey Ball (1-0, 2.81) at 7:05 p.m. Fans interested in listening to the game can tune in to WGLS-FM 89.7 or go to BlueRocks.com.
Pebbles of Knowledge
The reason for the Wilmington Blue Rocks loss can be traced directly to their inability to keep the ball in the strike zone. It started with the man who began the game on the mound for the Rocks, Josh Staumont. Staumont went just 1.2 innings pitched while issuing seven free passes for a career high. It was the second time in the last three starts he managed to not make it out of the second inning and the fourth time in eight outings he walked at least four batters. The fire tossing righty now has 26 walks on the year, which is the most in the league and the 164 free passes allotted by the Blue Crew is also tops in the league. The ten total walks allowed by the pitching staff on Sunday was the second most on the season after walking a franchise record 16 on May 3 against Frederick.
Despite the ten walks, the Blue and White bullpen has quietly strong together some very good games against the best offense in the Carolina League. They have been excelling at stranding inherited runners, none more so than Tim Hill who came in with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning and stranded all three inherited runners. Hill has now stranded 12 of the 16 runners he has inherited this season for a 75% success rate. Hill was not the only one getting the job in that department on Sunday as Jake Newberry stranded one of the two inherited runners he had to work in his first such occurrence with Wilmington. As a whole the bullpen has limited the damage they have received from the starters and other members of the staff. They have inherited 61 runners this season and only 17 have scored, for a 77% success rate at stranding runners. This for a bullpen that has been taxed in the three games against the best offense in the Carolina League; they have had to pitch 16.2 innings while the starters have combined for just 9.2 innings in the three game set.
The end of April and the beginning of May was a fairly quiet time for Elier Hernandez, Brandon Downes and Humberto Arteaga, but the three middle of the order bats are starting to show why manager Jamie Quirk has had so much confidence in them this season. The triumvirate had a big night for the third consecutive game against the best team in the Carolina League. Downes went 1-for-4 with four RBI and a bases clearing double and has now hit safely in eight of his last ten games. Hernandez chipped in an RBI of his own while going 2-for-5 as both of his base knocks were two-baggers and his batting average has gone over the .200 mark. The 2-hole seems to be the remedy for ailing batters because Arteaga once again produced in the 2-spot. For the third game in a row Arteaga collected multiple hits and at least one extra base hit as he scored three runs and drove in a run while going 2-for-5.
Robert Pehl is the Swiss Army Knife for the Wilmington Blue Rocks and their manager Jamie Quirk. Pehl started in right field on Sunday for the first time this season and has now played a team-high six different positions: he has starts at first base, third base, left field, right field, designated hitter and even an appearance out of the bullpen. The true utility man as also hit in a team-high six different slots in the batting order: first, second, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth.
They Said It
Blue Rocks Manager Jamie Quirk
"(Josh Staumont) just had one of those days. He simply could not find his rhythm, his tempo, his arm slot, anything at all. Anything he wanted to do he couldn't find and he couldn't make any in-game adjustments either. Just one of those days for him there's no other way to describe it."
"Timmy Hill coming in and going three-plus was just so important for us. We were really strapped today and he really came through for us. If he didn't, it could've gotten really ugly for us. Then (Brennan Henry) comes back from the DL and threw well which was a good thing to see. Our bullpen has really come through when we've needed them this week and working with inherited runners has been a strength of ours all season."
"It's nice to see the bats start to come alive. That's the most welcome sign here. They're having fun swinging the bats. (Abraham Nunez) has a little contest going in BP and I think that has everybody bearing down a little better in batting practice and the work is starting to pay off and show in the games. So that part is fun."
"They could've laid down today. I mean we're playing the best team in the league and down big for the second straight night and we just kept at it. We've brought them to the brim and even won the first game. So it's good to see."
"Wander (Franco) sure looks like he's about to get hot. He's slowly but surely starting to come on. Wander's been a run-producer in this system and we know he's going to just produce more and more for us here moving forward."
"(Robert Pehl) is a huge luxury for a manager. He just gives you so many options because he can go almost anywhere in the field. In fact coming out of spring they told us this guy can play anywhere for you and we've used that all season. We talked to Robert about that and his role and he hasn't disappointed. When you have that type of guy on your team it just makes everything easier."