Wilmington, DE - Nick Pratto's RBI-single in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Wilmington Blue Rocks a 2-1 victory over the Winston-Salem Dash on Tuesday at Frawley Stadium. It was Wilmington's first walk-off win since May 28, 2018 and extended the team's season-high winning streak to four.
Wilmington, DE - Nick Pratto's RBI-single in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Wilmington Blue Rocks a 2-1 victory over the Winston-Salem Dash on Tuesday at Frawley Stadium. It was Wilmington's first walk-off win since May 28, 2018 and extended the team's season-high winning streak to four.
Wilmington reliever Holden Capps (1-0) worked his way out of a first-and-third jam with no outs, courtesy of three straight punchouts.
Winston-Salem took an early lead thanks to an unearned run in the top of the fourth. Craig Dedelow got the frame started with a seeing-eye single to right. Yeyson Yrizarri then reached on a fielder's choice and Dedelow went to third on a throwing-error by third baseman Angelo Castellano . Yrizarri then stole second and catcher Sebastian Rivero's throwing error allowed Dedelow to come home.
Wilmington wasted little time pulling even. Kyle Isbel opened the bottom of the fourth with a double to left. MJ Melendez advanced him to third with a right-side grounder and Seuly Matias tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center.
Both starters took no-decisions. Nolan Watson did not allow an earned run in 4.1 frames for the Rocks, while former Blue Crewer Cristian Castillo yielded just a single score in five innings for Winston-Salem. The bullpens kept both teams at bay until the 10th.
Wilmington wraps up its three-game series with the Dash at Frawley Stadium on Wednesday. Southpaw Daniel Lynch (0-1, 12.00) gets the ball for the Blue Crew, while the Dash counters with right-hander Zach Lewis (1-0, 0.00). First pitch is slated for 10:35 a.m. and tickets are available at BlueRocks.com.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
The Blue Rocks continue to struggle to both catch and hit the ball. Wilmington committed three errors on Tuesday. It marked the second time the Blue Crew had three defensive miscues in a contest. Wilmington has now committed an error in all but one game this year and leads the Carolina League with 11 total defensive miscues in 2019. Meanwhile, on offense the Rocks managed just one hit over the game's first nine innings. They are last in the 10-team loop with a team batting average of just .142 after six games. Nevertheless, Wilmington has won four straight games for the first time since last July, when the club took six straight from July 23-28.
In a sport where there is a game virtually every single night, it is not often something occurs that hadn't in almost 17 years, but that's exactly what happened in the bottom of the second inning on Tuesday. Sebastian Rivero came to the plate with two on and nobody out, but a potential rally ended promptly when the Wilmington catcher grounded into an around-the-horn triple play. The Rocks had not hit into a triple play since September 4, 2002 in Game One of the Carolina League Northern Division Championship Series. To put it into perspective how odd that is, the Blue Crew turned three triple plays in the 2015 season alone, with the last coming on August 4 at Myrtle Beach. That season Wilmington also turned three at Winston-Salem, which marked the second straight year the Rocks authored a triple play against the Dash.
For the first time this decade Wilmington faced two former Blue Rock pitchers on consecutive days. Cristian Castillo yielded just one run and one hit in five innings of a no-decision on Tuesday. Meanwhile, on Monday Kyle Kubat had also allowed just one run through five frames until he ran out of gas in the bottom of the sixth when the lefty surrendered two tallies in the frame and took a no-decision in an eventual Winston-Salem setback. Kubat called Frawley Stadium home in 2016, going 4-1 with a 4.28 ERA in 25 total games and two starts. Castillo spent two seasons as a Blue Rock. He went 7-12 with a 4.13 ERA in 26 starts in 2017. Last year Castillo was the Blue Rocks' Opening Night starter, but injuries plagued his season as he finished 4-5 with a 5.16 ERA in 17 games and nine starts.
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