Rocks Can't Lock Out the Keys in Fifth Straight Loss

Frederick, MD - A back-and-forth game eventually got away from the Wilmington Blue Rocks (40-37/1-6) in a 10-4 loss to the Frederick Keys (34-42/3-4) Wednesday night at Nymeo Field. The Rocks tied the game up at 3-3 in the sixth before the Keys broke the game open with a five-run eighth inning. New-comer Jose Sanchez paced the offense with three hits, including an RBI double in his first start as a Blue Rock. Although the Blue Crew pounded out 12 hits, they were just 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. With the loss, Wilmington has now dropped five straight and are one loss away from tying its season-long losing streak at six games.

Wilmington jumped to an early 1-0 lead on a run-scoring groundout from Chris DeVito . However, Frederick scored three unanswered runs with RBI hits from Randolph Gassaway and Shane Hoelscher to put the Keys up 3-1 after three innings. The Blue Rocks rallied in the sixth inning and tied the game up with a Travis Maezes RBI single and Sanchez run-scoring double to knot the game at three runs apiece.
The Blue Rocks were unable to keep the Keys off the board as Frederick's offense answered with two runs of their own in their half of the sixth inning to make it a 5-3 deficit for the Rocks. In the eighth, Devito scored on a wild pitch to pull the Rocks within a run. Again, the Keys found a way to score in the same inning and used the long ball to break away from the Rocks. Armado Araiza smacked a solo homer to make it 6-4 before Gassaway hit a grand slam to make the deficit too large to overcome for the Rocks at 10-4.
RHP Jared Ruxer suffered the loss and lasted five innings, allowed four runs, two of them earned, and scattered eight hits. Lefty Luis Rico suffered a tough return to Wilmington and allowed six earned runs in 2.2 innings of work.
Wilmington looks to salvage the four-game series with Frederick on Thursday, June 29 with first pitch slated for 7:00 p.m. at Nymeo Field.   LHP Cristian Castillo (4-3, 2.93 ERA) makes the start for the Blue Rocks while LHP Brian Gonzalez (2-6, 5.67 ERA) climbs the hill for the Keys. Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
PEBBLES OF KNOWLEDGE:
Jose Sanchez made his first start as a Blue Rock and turned in his best game of his 2017 campaign. He finished 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. It was his first three-hit game of the season and the three hits were just one shy of his overall hit total on the season after starting the year 4-for-29 with Double-A Northwest Arkansas. Carlos Diaz made his second start of the year with Wilmington and picked up his first hit as a 2017 Blue Rock. The shortstop went 1-for-4 and is off to a 1-for-7 start at the plate. Sanchez and Diaz will be expected to help fill the void left by All-Stars Nicky Lopez and Anderson Miller who were both promoted to Double-A earlier this week.
Jared Ruxer has a solid rebound start after lasting just three innings in his previous start at Salem on June 23. The losing effort on Wednesday marked the first time the righty has tasted defeat since joining the starting rotation. In his five starts this season, he has worked five innings three times and has allowed two earned runs or less in four of those starts.
The pitching staff for the Rocks have ran into trouble keeping opponents of the base paths to start the second half. Through the first seven games of the second half, the Rocks have allowed double-digit hits in every game so far, yielding 78 total hits in that span. This comes after the Blue Rocks pitching staff ended the first half in dominant fashion which included three consecutive shutouts and a stretch of 35 scoreless innings.
The five-game skid for the Rocks is the longest for the Blue Crew since April 26-29 which was the backend of their season-worst six-game losing skid. After that six-game slide, the Rock went 39 games before losing three games or more in a row, dropping three consecutive on June 11-13 against Buies Creek and Lynchburg. During the five-game slide, the Rocks have been outscored 38-16.
They Said It, Jamie Quirk
"Sooner the better. (On team getting out of the funk they're in) We are in a funk in all phases of the game. The box score shows 12 hits, but we were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. The pitching hasn't been good, just the whole package coming out of the break. I really believe it happens, you can't get out of it and then tomorrow something can happen and we'll be fine. I know one thing and it always starts with our starting pitching like we talk about all the time. He's our biggest momentum going into the game, give us some zeroes and see what we can do offensively. There's a little sense of urgency because of the way we've started and hopefully we can get it going tomorrow.
"They did. (Moving Jones and Collins up in the lineup) Just trying to find a little sequence here and see what works with the new lineup. We're moving Wander (Franco) around a little bit. He's been hot and trying to get him involved. We're still trying to mix-and-match a little bit, but hopefully we can get some consistency here.
"Jose (Sanchez) had four quality at-bats. We only saw him a hair in Spring Training, a little bit here and there. He looks really comfortable and hopefully he can help us."
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