Dozier Leads Blue Rocks To 6-3 Victory Over Salem With Go-Ahead Grand Slam In Ninth

Salem, VA - With the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the ninth inning, Hunter Dozier stepped to the plate and delivered the biggest hit of the season for the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a go-ahead grand slam that helped the Blue Crew to a 6-3, come-from-behind, victory over the Salem Red Sox. The win pulled Wilmington back within one game of the .500 mark and was just the team's second victory this season when behind after eight frames.

The Blue Rocks trailed, 3-2, entering the ninth inning and had been just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position on the day. Wilmington's fortunes changed quickly, though, as the first three baserunners of the frame reached ahead of Dozier. Daniel Rockett led off with a single to center field, which was followed by a bunt base hit from Raul Mondesi. A throwing error from Red Sox reliever Austin Maddox allowed Rockett to advance to third. Bubba Starling then worked the count full, fouled off a couple of close pitches and drew a walk to load the bases for Dozier. Dozier gave the Rocks a 6-3 lead by ripping the first pitch he saw from Maddox out of the ballpark to left for a go-ahead grand slam.

Salem went ahead, 3-2, in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run homer from Ryan Dent off of Blue Rocks starting pitcher Miguel Almonte. The long ball came with two outs in the frame and plated Leonel Escobar, who had led off the inning with a single, from first.

Dent's home run was the only major blemish on Almonte's record for the day, as the right-hander tossed six quality innings, yielding just three runs on four hits while punching out five.

Wilmington jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by scoring once in the first inning off of Red Sox starting pitcher Pat Light. Bubba Starling singled with one out in the frame, advanced to second on a walk by Dozier and moved to third on a throwing error by third-baseman Jonathan Roof. Johermyn Chavez plated starling by lifting a sacrifice fly to center.

Salem tied the contest, 1-1, in the third inning on an RBI groundout from Matty Johnson. The groundout plated Mario Martinez, who had led off the frame with a double.

The tie ballgame was short-lived, though, as the Blue Crew re-took the lead in the top of the fourth inning on a solo home run from Chavez.

Kyle Bartsch (2-2, 2.45), who pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless relief to close out the ballgame, picked up his second win of the season for the Blue Rocks. Maddox (1-1, 6.62) absorbed his first defeat of the campaign for the Red Sox.

Wilmington wraps up its seven-game road trip on Wednesday with the rubber match of its three-game series in Salem. The Blue Rocks will send right-hander Yender Caramo (1-2, 5.06) to the mound while righty William Cuevas (1-4, 7.84) will take the bump for the Red Sox. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM. The Blue Crew returns to Frawley Stadium on Thursday to begin a seven-game homestand. For ticket information, call 302-888-BLUE or visit BlueRocks.com.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Hunter Dozier's go-ahead blast in the top of the ninth inning Tuesday was Wilmington's first grand slam of the 2014 campaign. The Blue Rocks only had one homer with the bases loaded last season, a fifth-inning shot from Daniel Mateo on August 22 at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick. Mateo's slam led the Rocks to a 7-4 victory over the Frederick Keys. Johermyn Chavez also went deep Monday for the Blue Rocks, giving the team its second multi-homer game of the season. Wilmington's first multi-homer contest came on April 4 at Winston-Salem. Chavez and Cody Stubbs both hit long balls in that one, leading the Rocks to a 10-3 victory over the Dash. The Blue Rocks now have three players with two homers each: Dozier, Chavez and Bubba Starling. Wilmington's eight homers as a team are still a Carolina League-low.

Hunter Dozier has now reached base safely in 15 straight games and has hits in 14 of those contests. The infielder went 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and a grand slam Tuesday, extending his current hitting streak to six games. Dozier is batting .408 (20-for-49) during this torrid stretch with two homers, 11 RBIs and 13 free passes. As a result, Kansas City's 2013 first-round pick has raised his batting average by 123 points, from .157 to .280. Dozier appears to favor the road, where he is batting .351 on the season, as opposed to the .186 average he sports at home this year

Johermyn Chavez has been red-hot at the plate during the first two games of Wilmington's series in Salem. Chavez has opened up the series against the Red Sox by hitting a combined 4-for-7 with two runs, a homer and a pair of RBIs. Prior to the Blue Crew's trip to Virginia, the slugging right fielder had slumped to the tune of a .120 (3-for-25) batting average over his previous seven games. Despite a batting average that still sits at .211, Chavez now has back-to-back multi-hit games, giving him five on the season. Chavez's best contest of the campaign came on April 4 at Winston-Salem. Against the Dash, the slugging right fielder went 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs. Those four RBIs are still an individual Blue Rocks season-high.

Blue Rocks starting pitching has been downright dominant over the past five ballgames. Wilmington's starting pitcher has now gone six or more innings in three of the past four ballgames. Prior to this stretch, the Rocks had received just two such starts this season. Almonte's six-inning performance Tuesday was just the latest. Daniel Stumpf tossed 6.2 sterling frames Sunday and yielded just one run on four hits while picking up his first victory of the season. On Saturday, Christian Binford threw seven shutout innings while giving up just three hits and striking out eight. Blue Crew starting pitchers have struck out 33 and yielded a combined five runs over their past 28.1 innings pitched. That calculates out to a 1.59 ERA.

THEY SAID IT:

Manager Darryl Kennedy:

"That was definitely a big hit. We flirted in the seventh and eighth inning right there, had them on the ropes, but just couldn't get that big hit. And then [Daniel] Rockett leads off the ninth with that base hit and then [Raul] Mondesi puts down a great bunt and then the at-bat that kind of goes unnoticed was [Bubba] Starling's at-bat to load the bases with that walk. He got down in the count and then worked the count and ended up getting a walk. You know, [Hunter] Dozier…that's a big hit. That's something we've needed for a while. Hopefully that'll put some confidence in our bats and get us going."

"They showed me they had a lot of heart today. We just kept knocking on the door, knocking on the door, [and got a] bad break. [Kenny] Diekroeger hit that ball on the screws and it just goes [off the pitcher's glove]. It's like, man, we're just not living right, right now. I've got to hand it them. They kept fighting."

[Hunter Dozier] means a lot to our lineup. The one thing I've noticed about Hunter is he's stopped swinging at all of the stuff they want him to swing at and he's just putting [in] his mind, 'I'll take a walk because we've got other guys in the lineup that should be able to do something.' That's contagious. I think [Bubba] Starling is doing the same thing because he knows he's got Dozier behind him and isn't trying to carry the whole team on his back. With [Johermyn] Chavez getting hot I think that's going to roll over to [Zane] Evans. That's been the biggest thing with Hunter. He's going up there getting two or three walks a game and then getting a hit. He's rolling right now."

Third-Baseman Hunter Dozier

"It [took] good at bats by [Daniel] Rockett, Bubba [Starling] and [Raul] Mondesi to get on [ahead of me]. I went up there just looking for my pitch. I had a good feeling he wasn't going to throw me a breaking ball because I was laying off of it all day and they had nowhere to put me. I was just going up there looking for a fastball and that's what he gave me."

"I'm getting my foot down a little bit earlier, relaxing and taking pressure off [of myself]. I'm feeling better up there each and every day. That's just baseball. Sometimes you're not going to see the pitch very well and that's kind of how it was early. Lately I'm seeing it pretty well and just trying to stay relaxed."

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