Macuare and Abreu's Efforts Not Enough to Cure Road Woes

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists still have not found the winning recipe away from McCormick Field. Asheville opened up a six-game series against the Hickory Crawdads on Tuesday night, a team with not only the worst record in the High-A East League, but the worst home record in the league. Those numbers did not mean much as the Crawdads handed the Tourists a 6-3 loss; their 15th defeat in 19 games away from home.

Asheville fell behind 5-0 when their starting pitcher, Brayan de Paula, had trouble throwing strikes. De Paula threw just 32 of his 67 pitches in the strike zone and several of the pitches he did throw for strikes turned into base hits for the Crawdads. De Paula walked two and hit a batter with the bases loaded. He lasted only 2.2 innings.

Yeremi Ceballos had similar control problems. Ceballos walked just one in 1.1 innings, but threw two wild pitches and allowed a pair of runs. Asheville then turned to Angel Macuare. The right-hander was dialed in and churned out four quality innings to give the Tourists a chance.

Wilyer Abreu led off the top of the sixth with a solo Home Run to right field. The Tourists plated two more runs in the inning thanks to a Crawdads throwing error. That was the only offense Asheville mustered on the night. The team totaled four hits and went the final three innings without a base-runner.

Cody Orr stole two bases for the second game in a row. Orr is a perfect 6-for-6 in stolen bases this season. Asheville will attempt to even the series on Wednesday with game two scheduled for 7:00pm.