Stubbs Keys Blue Crew Win Over Dash For Second Straight Night

Wilmington, DE - For the second consecutive night, Cody Stubbs played hero for the Wilmington Blue Rocks as they walked off on the Winston-Salem Dash, 6-5, on Saturday night at Frawley Stadium. Stubbs stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning with the bases loaded and one out. He greeted reliever Zach Isler with walk-off RBI single to left-center, sending Frawley Stadium into a frenzy. With the triumph, the Blue Crew moved back to .500 in the second half at 26-26 and to 59-61 overall. They also pulled to within one game of the second-place Lynchburg Hillcats for a playoff spot.

Raul Mondesi set up Stubbs' 10th-inning heroics with a one-out triple into the right-field corner. Bubba Starling and Zane Evans both drew free passes to load the bases for Stubbs.

Courtney Hawkins sent the game to extras when he tied the game for Winston-Salem in the top of the ninth inning with a two-out RBI double off of Kyle Bartsch. The slugging outfielder's two-bagger scored Keenyn Walker from third. It was only Bartsch's second blown save of the year.

Hawkins had already come through for the Dash earlier in Saturday night's game. He pulled them to within 5-4 in the seventh inning when he roped a two-out, two-RBI, double into the left-field corner, plating Adam Engel and Cleuluis Rondon.

The Blue Rocks took an early 4-0 lead with a four-run first. Wilmington's opening-frame rally was capped off by Cam Gallagher's third homer of the year, a three-run blast down the line in left. Ramon Torres led off the inning with a single and came around to score on Mondesi's RBI double off the right-field fence. Starling followed with a single, moving Mondesi to third. With two outs and runners at the corners, Gallagher stepped up to the plate and delivered the big blow.

The Dash began to chip away at Wilmington's early advantage in the third inning by scoring twice off of Jonathan Dziedzic to pull within 4-2. Rondon drove home Engel from first with a one-out triple to get the Dash on the board. Rondon scored on a sacrifice fly by Hawkins.

Despite the early struggles, Dziedzic settled in and gave the Blue Rocks six strong innings. The southpaw gave up just the two runs on eight hits while striking out five. He threw 90 pitches, 58 of them for strikes.

Michael Antonio momentarily halted the Dash's momentum when he ripped an RBI single to left in the sixth inning. The base hit drove home Stubbs, who had doubled with two outs, and extended Wilmington's lead to 5-2 at the time.

Zeb Sneed (5-2, 2.40) was victorious for the Blue Rocks. Isler (1-6, 5.97) took the loss for the Dash.

The Rocks return to action on Sunday evenin at Frawley Stadium and they will try for a three-game sweep of the Winston-Salem Dash. Right-hander Luis Santos (3-3, 5.70) will take the mound for Wilmington while the Dash will counter with righty James Dykstra (2-2, 5.82). First pitch is slated for 5:05 p.m. and fans can listen to the broadcast on 89.7 WGLS-FM. For tickets, call 302-888-BLUE.

PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:

Raul Mondesi may not have gone yard in Saturday night's walk-off win against Winston-Salem, but he did finish 2-for-5 and score the winning run. Mondesi scored two runs, doubled, tripled and drove in one. The pair of hits extended Mondesi's current hitting streak to a personal season-best eight games. During his eight-game hitting streak, Mondesi is batting a combined .375 (12-for-32) with five homers, three doubles, a triple and 11 RBIs. In the opener of Wednesday night's doubleheader against Frederick, Mondesi became the first Blue Rock since Cody Strait in 2008 to leave the yard in four consecutive contests. Strait homered in five straight games that year, from August 13-18. Current manager Darryl Kennedy was also the team's skipper at the time. Mondesi is currently batting .255 in 12 August contests. The Switch hitter has batted .237 from the right side of the plate and .218 from the left side in 2014. Six of his seven homers this year have come as a left-handed hitter. Overall this year, Mondesi has a .223 batting average, seven home runs, 49 runs, 14 doubles, 10 triples, 31 RBIs and 21 walks in 94 games.

Despite giving the Blue Rocks six solid innings on Saturday, Jonathan Dziedzic took a no-decision and remained winless since May 24. The southpaw struggled with his command, at times, yet he only gave up two runs on eight hits over his six innings of work. Dziedzic also fanned five and did not issue a free pass. Entering play on Saturday, the 6-foot hurler had not made it past the fourth inning in two of his last three starts. On July 30 in Lynchburg, he lasted just three innings and gave up one run on three hits and five walks. In his most recent start, on August 10 in Frederick, Dziedzic hurled four frames and took the loss. He gave up three runs on seven hits that night. Sandwiched in between the two rough starts, Dziedzic turned in a solid outing on August 5 at Frawley Stadium against Myrtle Beach. That night, he gave up just two runs (one earned) on five hits across six solid frames. Overall this season, Dziedzic is 5-7 with a 2.61 ERA in 22 starts. He has punched out 100 and walked 34 while giving up 109 hits over 114 innings pitched. His ERA is third among active Carolina League players.

Cody Stubbs' two-hit night on Saturday was his third consecutive multi-hit contest after going without a hit in six of his previous seven games. His second hit of the night was the walk-off RBI single that propelled Wilmington to its sixth victory in its last eight games. Stubbs also delivered the game-winning hit on Friday night against the Dash. He went 2-for-4 in that contest and both of his hits were doubles that played a pivotal role in Wilmington's 5-3 win. In the second inning, he drove home Bubba Starling with an RBI double into the left-field corner. His second double on Friday plated the go-ahead run and an insurance run in the eighth inning. That proved to be the game-winning hit. Stubbs is batting .224 this season with 10 doubles, four triples, nine homers and 36 RBIs. He has had far more success against right-handed pitchers than against lefties. Stubbs is hitting righties to the tune of a .251 average, but is batting just .113 against southpaws.

Cody Stubbs' walk-off RBI single gave Wilmington its second such victory this week and its sixth of the season. Each of those wins has been filled with a different kind of drama. In the nightcap of Wednesday's doubleheader against the Frederick Keys, the Rocks walked off on a third-strike wild pitch. Raul Mondesi struck out on a wild pitch from Gene Escat and reached first safely, allowing Ramon Torres to sprint home from third with the winning run. The Rocks also walked off twice in one week back in May. On May 24, Kenny Diekroeger singled to left with the bases loaded to walk off on the Keys. Two days earlier, Bubba Starling launched a two-run walk-off triple into the right-center field gap to complete a doubleheader sweep over the Lynchburg Hillcats. Jack Lopez's walk-off two-run homer on May 12 gave the Blue Rocks a 4-3 victory over the Salem Red Sox. The Blue Crew's April 27 victory against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans featured another walk-off on a third-strike wild pitch. With Terrance Gore at third, Raul Mondesi struck out but reached on a wild pitch. That allowed Gore to sprint home from third and score the winning run. Catcher Jorge Alfaro attempted to tag Gore instead of throwing to first, but missed, allowing Mondesi to reach and Gore to score the winning run.

THEY SAID IT:

Manager Darryl Kennedy:

"It's a win. We weren't really in the best shape to go extra innings with our bullpen. I was glad to see Cody [Stubbs] end it right there, definitely."

"[Raul Mondesi] has been swinging the bat well and he's starting to lay off those tough pitches to get himself back into fastball counts. He put a good swing on the ball down the line and that was a huge triple. They got it right back into the cutoff man. If he overthrows the cutoff man, that's what I'm watching for but [I wasn't going to send him home]."

"Zeb [Sneed] did a good job. I think it's the first time all year he's gone back-to-back nights and it pays off, he gets two wins out of it. He did a good job. We didn't pitch that well tonight other than that. [Jonathan] Dziedzic, I thought, couldn't find his changeup for strikes and was battling and still was able to give us six innings. He made a couple of mistakes on the 0-2 breaking pitch up in the zone to let them back in the ballgame…Then the leadoff walks in the eighth and ninth inning, in a one run ballgame like that you can't have a leadoff walk. The first time we got out of it, the second time it bit us there when they tied the ballgame."

[Jonathan Dziedzic] is fine. [The liner] actually hit him right in the hip area. We were thinking [it hit his hand] but he said it got him right in the hip and he trapped it."

 "A big catch there by [Daniel] Rockett. Bubba [Starling] shows off the arm right there, gets a big throw out at the plate. [Raul] Mondesi made a couple of outstanding plays in the hole at shortstop to throw the guy out at first base, he did a nice job. Defensively, I thought we played really well."

"They've sensed [making a run] for a while. They've been talking about it amongst themselves. I don't think there's too much scoreboard watching but they know what's in store."

Left Fielder Cody Stubbs:

"The only thing you can take into consideration is that the infield is in so you want a pitch up in the zone that you can hit. He hadn't been keeping the ball down so I could just look for something up I could hit into the outfield."

"It was a fastball a little down but it was what I was looking for, in the middle of the plate. Luckily he left it [there] and I capitalized on it."

"That's one thing that stands out is how many home runs [Raul Mondesi] has hit. He almost had another one today. He's a phenomenal defender and he's just coming up in big situations, day in and day out."

"That was a changeup down and in. I spread out and was trying to battle it off but, luckily, he left a changeup up enough for me to get a piece of it and I'm glad he did."

Shortstop Raul Mondesi:

"It feels good. Every day I'm working hard in the cage with my swing."

"It was a slider a little bit inside [on the triple]. With two strikes I tried to battle. I got the slider and hit it [well]."

"It was a changeup [on the double]. I stayed closed. I thought I got it [out of the park] but I swing hard every time."

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