Faedo Stops Fightins Again

(Reading, PA) - Knowing they needed a complete performance against Alex Faedo , the Fightin Phils struck first against Erie's starter when Austin Listi broke a scoreless tie with a leadoff home run in the second inning. Yet for the second straight start, Mauricio Llovera was unable to win despite allowing just two runs over six innings. The SeaWolves scored twice in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly from Frank Schwindel and a two out-single from Kade Scivicque . That was all she wrote, and a two hour and 23 minute game ended 2-1 before a Wednesday night crowd of 5,784 at America's Classic Ballpark.
In his first start in Reading on May 29, Faedo struck out a career-high 12 over six-and-a-third innings in a 3-0 shutout. Part of the SeaWolves trio of first-round starting pitchers, Faedo surrendered a two-out double to Mickey Moniak in the first before getting Darick Hall to fly out to center field.
Listi's unbelievable run at the plate when he led off the second with his seventh home run, his second bomb in as many games. The Fightins next great opportunity to help Llovera came two batters later when Grenny Cumana launched a triple to straightaway center field, but Faedo escaped by inducing a pair of groundouts to end the inning.
Faedo struck out the side in the third and sixth, finishing with 10 punchouts over his six innings while working with the lead. After Scivicque's tiebreaking single in the third, Llovera retired seven of the next eight SeaWolves with four strikeouts sprinkled in. Scivicque's second single led off the sixth inning, but Llovera (2-3) ended his evening by getting a double play ball and his eighth strikeout to tie his season-high.
Reading only generated a single baserunner in each of Faedo's last three innings. First it was Listi, who singled into center field but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. In the fifth, Cumana led off with a base hit but was caught stealing, and Josh Stephen's one-out walk in the sixth inning was moot when Faedo (4-4) struck out the last two batters he faced.
The comeback attempt against the bullpen started promisingly when Listi made it 3-for-3 with a leadoff single in the seventh inning off righthander Will Vest . Vest then got a double play to face the minimum, then got another double play in the eighth inning to work around a one-out walk to Jose Gomez . Stephen later led off the ninth with a single up the middle to bring up the winning run, but Drew Carlton got the next three outs for his fifth save. Lefthanders Aaron Brown and Jeff Singer combined on three scoreless innings of relief for the R-Phils.
America's Classic Ballpark is proud to be a part of Pennsylvania's Americana Region. Season tickets for the 2019 season are available online at Fightins.com, by phone at 610-370-BALL, and in-person at the Weidenhammer Ticket Office at FirstEnergy Stadium. Follow the Fightin Phils on Twitter at @ReadingFightins, Instagram at @fightins, and like them on Facebook via www.facebook.com/fightins.