Hill's three-hitter leads Chiefs past Mud Hens

The Syracuse Chiefs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, beat the Toledo Mud Hens, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon at NBT Bank Stadium. Chiefs right-hander Taylor Hill threw a complete-game shutout, retiring 17 batters in a row and striking out five.  

Syracuse (14-15) scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when catcher Jhonatan Solano took the second pitch from left-hander Mike Belfiore over the fence in right field to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead. The home run was Solano's team-leading fourth of the year.

The 1-0 lead would be all that the Chiefs would need as Hill was dominant, throwing only 102 pitches to get 27 outs. Hill retired 17 straight Toledo (11-19) batters between the third and ninth innings, but ran into trouble in the ninth. An error by shortstop Emmanuel Burriss and a walk to first baseman Jordan Lennerton put two runners on for designated hitter Mike Hessman, who had hit a home run in back-to-back games. Hill threw a fastball past Hessman for his fifth strikeout of the game, which gave him his first career-nine-inning shutout.

The Chiefs host the Durham Bulls for a four-game series starting Monday night at 7:00. Right-hander Josh Roenicke will start for Syracuse against Durham right-hander Matt Andriese.