Squirrels' Taylor falls two outs shy of no-no

If not for an inopportune shake-off, Cory Taylor may have made history on Saturday. However, that didn't keep him from turning in his finest outing of the season.
The Giants right-hander lost his no-hit bid with one out in the seventh and final inning, settling for a one-hit shutout, as Double-A Richmond blanked Erie, 3-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at The Diamond. He struck out five and issued one walk.

Taylor (4-8) needed just 75 pitches -- 50 strikes -- to record the second complete game and first shutout of his Minor League career. The 2015 eighth-round Draft pick leaned heavily on his sinker to goad an aggressive SeaWolves lineup into 11 ground-ball outs.
Gameday box score
"My defense was what really kept me in the game," Taylor said. "I was able to just throw it in there and let them hit it, and I wasn't really worried about my defense."
The Texas native remained perfect through five frames. He set down the first 16 hitters before Wade Hinkle drew a walk with one out in the sixth. Taylor stranded Hinkle at first base by getting A.J. Simcox to fly out and fanning Logan Watkins to move three outs from a no-hitter.

As he walked out to the mound at the start of the final inning, Taylor said he knew what was unfolding.
"I'm not going to lie, I was looking [at the scoreboard] the whole time," he said. "I mean, that's what you try to do every time you go out, dominate as best you can."
Taylor began the seventh by retiring Harold Castro on a grounder to shortstop. No. 12 Tigers prospectDawel Lugo stepped in next for the SeaWolves.
The 23-year-old started Lugo off with a slider for strike one. Flying Squirrels catcher Jeff Arnold signaled for a fastball on the next pitch, but Taylor shook him off, acting on a hunch that Lugo would be sitting on that pitch. The batterymates settled on throwing another slider.
"As I'm winding up, I was like, 'Should I throw this?'" Taylor said. "But at the end of the day, you've got to trust what you're throwing."
The move backfired as Lugo slapped the breaking pitch in the air to deep right field. The wind helped carry it beyond the glove of Hunter Cole for a triple. Though stunned initially, Taylor quickly recovered to get Tigers No. 4 prospect Christin Stewart and Steven Moya on groundouts to complete the shutout.

"At the moment, when [Lugo] hit it, I thought, '[Shoot],'" the Dallas Baptist University product said. "But at the same time, it's like, you've got to finish this game. You can't leave any doubt. I was able to get the next few guys out without him scoring, so that was big."

Saturday continued a dominant stretch for Taylor. Since his ERA reached 5.14 on July 9, the 6-foot-2, 255-pounder has yielded one run over 19 innings in his last three starts to get that number down to 4.20. He ranks 14th in the Eastern League in that category among qualifying pitchers.
"All I'd have to say is I'm trusting the stuff I've got," he said. "You've got to challenge hitters, especially in this league. You have to throw strikes and challenge guys because if you're not throwing strikes and being consistent with pitches, they've got a lot of good hitters here."
• Get tickets to a Flying Squirrels game
Cole led the Richmond offense with a solo homer and a single.
SeaWolves starter A.J. Ladwig (7-3) notched his first career complete game, allowing three runs on nine hits while walking none and fanning three.
The Flying Squirrels completed the sweep with a 2-0 win as four pitchers combined on a seven-hitter.