Grimes Magnificent With Eight Scoreless In 2-0 Win

Zebulon, NC - Keys starter Matthew Grimes tossed a career-high eight scoreless innings and surrendered just two hits to lead the visitors to a 2-0 win over Carolina Sunday night at Five County Stadium. Frederick scored two runs in the second inning and gathered its fifth shutout win of the year.

Grimes (7-2) dominated from start to finish, as only three Mudcats reached, two via singles and another on an error. In the first, Ryan Gebhardt singled to start things, but Grimes struck out Jordan Edgerton with Gebhardt on second base.

The Keys scored in the second inning against Carolina starter Enderson Franco. Conor Bierfeldt began the inning with a double to left-center. Franco retired Jomar Reyes on a groundout and Jonah Heim flied out to put two outs on the board. Josh Hart followed with a chopper in front of home that catcher Joseph Odom threw wildly down the first base line to score Bierfeldt. Hart was credited with a single and got to second on the error. One batter later, Erick Salcedo followed with an RBI single to make it 2-0. The base hit by Salcedo extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games.

Joseph Daris reached on an error by Reyes in the third, but Grimes gave up just one more hit the rest of the way. Odom singled with one away in the fourth but was left on base. Entering the eighth, Grimes had just 80 pitches logged, but a 12-pitch at-bat to Daris in the frame ended up extending the right-hander to 99 pitches. Grimes set down 13 straight batters from the fourth to eighth innings.

The Keys couldn't add anything against Franco (3-3), Zack Bird, or Evan Phillips the rest of the way. Michael Zouzalik got two groundouts in the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season.

Grimes has not allowed a run since a first inning marker on May 17 at Wilmington, a stretch of 21 innings. He has also surrendered just one run over his last 28.2 innings (0.31 ERA). His seventh win leads the Carolina League. The Keys also jumped over a .500 record for the first time since April 13 when they were 4-3.

Frederick and Carolina wrap up the four-game series on Memorial Day at 12 p.m. LHP Mitch Horacek (2-4, 5.23) takes to the mound for the Keys against Mudcats RHP Raymar Navarro (2-1, 5.00). The broadcast can be heard on 1450 AM The Source and frederickkeys.com.