Almonte Sparkles As Rocks Take Opener
Winston-Salem, NC - Incredible pitching coupled with timely two-out hitting helped carry the Wilmington Blue Rocks to a 3-1 Opening Night win over the Winston-Salem Dash at BB&T Ballpark on Thursday. On the eve of his 21st birthday, Miguel Almonte celebrated in style, tossing 5.2 scoreless innings on the way to a win. Meanwhile, the Blue Crew tallied all of their runs courtesy of two-out RBI knocks.
Almonte (1-0) did not allow a hit until there were two down in the fifth frame. The fifth-ranked prospect in the Kansas City system, according to Baseball America, had his no-no bid broken up on a groundball-single up the middle off the bat of Martin Medina. Almonte finished his night with three strikeouts, only two walks and just one hit yielded before reaching his pitch count with two away in the sixth.
The right-hander departed with a lead thanks in large part to the efforts of his third baseman. Hunter Dozier drove in two of Wilmington's three runs, and his two knocks accounted for half of Wilmington's hit total. His first RBI came with two away in the third. Raul Mondesi reached on a bunt and advanced to second on a throwing-error by pitcher J.B. Wendelken. After Bubba Starling lined out to left, Dozier sent a liner the opposite way to plate Mondesi and give Wilmington a 1-0 edge.
Dozier extended the Rocks' lead two innings later. Daniel Rockett opened the top of the fifth with a walk, but was still at first two outs later. Dozier made the free pass pay off, however, when he sent a moon shot one-hopping off the center-field fence for an RBI double. Dozier would then come home when Zane Evans roped a liner into the left-field corner for a second straight run-scoring double.
All of the offense came against Wendelken (0-1), who was not helped by four Winston-Salem errors. The Rocks defense was flawless, turning a pair of double plays, including one that ended the Dash's best chance to tie the game. Winston-Salem had runners at first and third with no outs in the seventh against reliever Matt Murray, but Murray induced a 6-4-3 double play that ended Wilmington's shutout bid, yet also took the wind out of Winston-Salem's sails.
Mark Peterson came on in the ninth, and saw the tying-run come to the plate thanks to a two-out walk. Again the defense came through, as Mondesi made a leaping grab at short to end the game and nail down Peterson's first career Advanced-A save.
The Rocks continue their season-opening four-game set in Winston-Salem on Friday as southpaw Jonathan Dziedzic gets the start for Wilmington against right-hander Brad Goldberg for the Dash. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m., and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM. The Blue Rocks return to the Riverfront on Tuesday when the Myrtle Beach Pelicans come to town for the home opener. For ticket information call 302-888-BLUE or visit BlueRocks.com
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The Blue Rocks improved to 12-10 all time in season-openers with the win. The victory also moved Wilmington's all-time mark to 6-8 when opening a campaign away from the friendly confines of Frawley Stadium. The team's first ever season-opener came in Winston-Salem on April 8, 1993. The Rocks fell to the Winston-Salem Warthogs 6-3. Last season, Wilmington's scheduled opener on April 4 in Myrtle Beach was rained out. The Rocks dropped their rescheduled opener the next night, 7-6 in 11 innings. Tonight the weather could not have been better with a first-pitch temperature of 75 degrees.
Wilmington will take any win it can get at Winston-Salem. The victory was just the Rocks' 11th in their last 31 tries against the Dash. Wilmington sported a 5-15 mark in both 2012 and 2013 versus Winston-Salem. A season ago the Blue Crew dropped five of its six series against its rivals from the Tar Heel state, posting a 3.92 ERA and a scant .224 batting average versus the Dash. Conversely, Wilmington allowed Winston-Salem to hit a robust .287 and the Dash pitchers posted an impressive 2.43 earned run average in the 20 matchups. Things were even worse on the road where the Rocks were 2-8 at BB&T Ballpark, averaging just 2.7 runs per game in those contests.
THEY SAID IT
Manager Daryl Kennedy:
"Almonte commanded the strike zone tonight from the first pitch on. I thought he did an outstanding jump of changing speeds and keeping the ball down. Anytime you can go out there and go almost five innings of no-hit ball you're doing an awful lot right. He was the key tonight."
"Dozier played a very good game not only offensively but defensively in how he approached the game. He made some great decisions on some really tough ground balls. He played a very good ball game tonight."
"I thought all along that we were going to be pretty strong defensively, especially in the infield, and they proved it tonight. The defense got us out of a couple jams there with big double plays. The one in the seventh especially, that really killed their momentum and was big for us."
Infielder Hunter Dozier
"It's always important to get two-out hits in any game and we had quite a few of them tonight. Coming through in those spots helped us win this game."
"Almonte pitched a heck of a game. As an offense we know we only need a couple most night. Our pitching staff is good enough that a couple runs is going to be enough to get wins on most nights."
"It always feels good to win the first game and get that first win out of the way, but this is baseball. Tomorrow we have to come out and do that same thing. Today is behind us and tomorrow we have to come back out and get another win."
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